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VOLUME 1, ISSUE 6 | October 1 -31 2005
Fit Over 50 Six Experts Show and Tell All
By Judith Stiles
 JUDITH TRIPP
Long Distance Runner
Drinking and smoking and maybe having too much fun are what catapulted Judith Tripp into becoming a serious long-distance runner more than 15 years ago. Ms. Tripp had always been a sporty lass, beginning at an all girls’ high school in Surrey, England, in the early 1950s where she played lacrosse and field hockey. A diagnosis of breast cancer in 1990 snuffed out cigarettes forever, and Judith coped with the crisis by starting to run. Now, as she describes the joy that running has brought into her life, it is with an intensity that animates her entire body and reminds me of a racehorse at the gate.
She ran her first marathon three short years after the breast cancer diagnosis. Since then she has finished five Ironman events in which she swims 2.4 miles, bikes 112 miles, and runs 26.2 miles – consecutively. A member of the New York Flyers Runners Club, she’ll be participating in her sixth Ironman in Florida next month. Judith tells me this nonchalantly, noting that she should probably make swimming a more prominent part of her workouts. “I do not bother with complicated supplements or vitamins to improve my performance,” she says, glancing down at the sneakers she wears with a business suit on her way to work. “Yet I’m faster than I have ever been in my life!”
Judith Tripp’s Secret Fitness Tips:
• Rotate your shoes.
(This is a big one.) If you take up running, start out slowly; don’t run too much, too fast, too soon. I see a lot of injuries because people did too much running in the beginning, before their bodies were ready.
• Run on softer surfaces like a bridle path, not pavement.
• Eat hot oatmeal and plain yogurt for breakfast. A little coffee is okay. Broccoli, they say, is an antidote to many illnesses.
Contact: JTRIPP@KramerLevin.com
 MANNY D’ALMEIDA
Soccer Guru
I find Manny on a field of green grass with 11 lovely ladies. He’s teaching them a Brazilian dance step. They follow him in a line, imitating his moves. But this is not a dance class – it is a women’s soccer team, and its members are learning from this expert coach how the fancy footwork of the game is similar to the samba. Some are learning to play soccer for the first time, and several are over 50. But they never grumble about being too old for this contact sport because their oldest team members are at least a decade younger than Manny.
At 65-plus, Coach D’Almeida is a living legend in New York City. Known as the soccer guy who beats the foxiest opponent to the ball, dribbles like a speedster, and plays as smart as the best Brazilians, he refuses to “believe in the adage that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.“ To the contrary, “I instruct people of all ages how to play and enjoy soccer, and also progress to an advanced level.”
On Saturdays, Manny can be found on soccer fields here or therethroughout the city. Sometimes he functions as a referee at Pier 40; other times he coaches teenage girls in Brooklyn; occasionally he works in Van Cortlandt Park with women of the Bronx Irish League. Watching Coach D’Almeida, I am flabbergasted at how lithe and quick he is when scrimmaging with youngsters. But even while emphasizing the importance of developing ball skills and speed, Manny’s deeper interest lies in nurturing the inner self.
Manny D’Almeida’s Secret Fitness Tips:
• The spirit, mind, and body must be in synch. First let me say that it is very important to eat well. However, if life becomes too stressful, good nutrition is not sufficient.
• Avoid foods with preservatives (sodium nitrates); also avoid caffeine.
• Be sure to eat complete proteins. Incomplete proteins can sustain life for a long time, but they lack certain amino acids, a lack which becomes visible later in life, often in the form of bags under the eyes, premature wrinkling, excess water stored in the body, and illness.
Contact: DalmeidaM@aol.com
 DR. HUAN HUANG
Inner Fitness Expert
I count 144 drawers up and down the wall – boxes filled with imported Chinese herbs, sticks, roots, berries – twigs. Reading the labels as I sit in Dr. Huan Huang’s Chinatown office, I spot only two English words: herbal and tea. Turning back to Huang, I notice that he is fit as a fiddle. He tells me that while physical exercise is a part of his daily routine, attentiveness to inner fitness and maintaining wellness is his primary focus.
The examining room is a small space in a back room where I ask a smiling Dr. Huang how I should treat my lingering cough. Remarkably, he remembers that he saw me for the same thing about seven years ago. With zestful curiosity, he asks me a series of questions about my symptoms, medical history, lifestyle, and exercise. He spends more than a minute looking at my tongue, and taps his fingers on my wrist before taking my pulse. A quizzical look passes over his face as he jots some notes in Chinese. He prescribes a special brew of tea for five days. The visit and the tea cost $40.
Dr. Huan Huang is a certified M.D. in the United States. He was also trained in traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology in an eight-year program at Guangzhou University. Now he does scientific research in Pathogenesis (mechanisms of diseases) and cell biology at Albert Einstein Medical College. To his neighbors on Pike Street, Dr. Huang is usually the first stop for treatment, whereas patients from the rest of the city often appear on his doorstep as a last resort. Before I leave he remarks: “The body is like a mysterious black box.” But that doesn’t slow his ongoing searches for the right tea blends to buoy inner fitness and balance.
Dr. Huang’s Secret Fitness Tips:
• I go for a long walk every evening, at least 40 minutes.
• Avoid over eating.
• Reduce stress in your life.
• Quit all habits that are detrimental to health (drugs, cigarettes, etc.)
Contact: HUANGH@aecom.yu.edu
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