Father of Fitness

Cooper heard the same anti-exercise messages in medical school at the University of Oklahoma in the 1950s: Vigorous exercise, especially after age 40, could damage your heart. If a child has asthma or diabetes, they should be kept out of sports. Patients who’ve had a heart attack should avoid exercise.

Two things convinced Cooper that the conventional wisdom was wrong. One was his own work as an Air Force physician, working with astronauts to get them into top physical shape before their flight and developing a conditioning program to keep them active while in space. The other was a personal health scare when he was 29: He had gained weight and become sedentary in medical school, and while trying to water ski on a slalom course he had done many times before, he suddenly was gripped with chest pain. A workup the next day at an Air Force medical facility showed he had high blood pressure and was prediabetic. “I had deteriorated,” he says simply.

In his landmark book, “Aerobics,” he argued that consistent cardiovascular exercise — walking, running, swimming, cycling — can improve your health and add years to your life. It quickly became a bestseller, and to date, it has sold more than 30 million copies and is translated in 41 languages. The public took his advice to heart — so much so that, over the next 20 years, the nation was “swept by a fitness and exercise boom that has taken on almost religious fervor,” according to a 1987 article in The New York Times. “Joggers, swimmers, cyclists, skiers are everywhere, spreading the word.”

“If this movement has a high priest,” the Times added, “it is Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper.”

The medical community, meanwhile, greeted Cooper’s efforts with skepticism. He was warned that soon “the streets would be littered with dead joggers,” he says. Shortly after opening his clinic in Dallas, he was called before the Dallas Board of Censures to defend his use of treadmill stress tests on patients with heart disease, a practice considered dangerous at the time. Board members considered revoking his medical license, but changed their minds after Cooper showed them his data.

Cooper Clinic grew from two small offices in north Dallas to today’s sprawling, 30-acre campus, which includes a clinic, fitness center, spa and hotel and conference center. There’s even a line of vitamins and supplements called Cooper Complete. Overall, Cooper Aerobics employs 550 people, including 31 physicians.

From the start, Cooper kept detailed data on his patients — blood pressure, percent body fat, pulmonary function, fitness levels, lifestyle habits like smoking and alcohol consumption and more. Originally kept on index cards in a shoebox, that data formed the basis of the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, the largest and longest-running study in the world on measured fitness, with more than 300,000 patient records. Cooper and his colleagues have published more than 700 scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals, showing the health benefits of even moderate amounts of exercise. Clinic regulars had an average life expectancy of 88.6 years — more than 10 years longer than the national average. Studies by The Cooper Institute found that being fit led to a 36% decrease in Alzheimer’s risk, 40% lower risk of chronic kidney disease, a 25% decrease in all types of cancer and 25% lower risk of congestive heart failure. It also showed a 40% reduction in the cost of Medicare from 65 to 75 years of age.

That research will continue under the auspices of TTUHSC, and Texas Tech University System Chancellor Emeritus Tedd L. Mitchell, MD, could not be happier. “The potential for it is fantastic.”

Mitchell adds TTUHSC was chosen over a number of other universities as the institute’s home because it graduates more health care professionals annually than any other in the state and has a varied range of programs, including pharmacy, nursing and public health. The institute will be housed in Dallas, where the university already has a strong presence, and Laura DeFina, MD, remains the executive director, a role she’s held since 2014.

Mitchell has known Cooper for more than three decades: Mitchell did part of his medical residency at Cooper Clinic and eventually became president and CEO. (When he left in 2010 to become president of TTUHSC, he remained on The Cooper Institute board.)

While he stayed out of the discussions about the institute joining TTUHSC, he’s “ecstatic” that it has come to fruition. Several of the institute’s faculty also have joint appointments in the Julia Jones Matthews School of Population and Public Health, and the institute’s vast database will provide a wealth of research opportunities, not just for TTUHSC faculty, but for learners, too. Mitchell would love to see every TTUHSC learner participate in research as part of their education: “It’s very important for all of them,” he says. “It helps them think scientifically; it helps them think clinically.”

Today, Cooper no longer runs — he gave that up 20 years ago after a skiing injury, but not before logging more than 38,000 miles of running over the course of four decades. Instead, at least five times a week he does 30 minutes on a recumbent bike and 10 minutes on a weight-training circuit. In fact, the importance of exercise even late in life — especially late in life — is the theme of his newest book, “Grow Healthier as You Grow Older.” Published by Post Hill Press in June, Cooper’s 20^th book offers “eight steps to Get Cooperized,” such as getting 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, collective or sustained, most days of the week, managing stress and prioritizing sleep, limiting alcohol intake and getting an annual physical exam that includes a C-reactive protein test. “Most physicians know nothing about this,” he says, but C-reactive protein is an important measure of chronic inflammation in the body.

Perhaps most importantly for older adults, he stresses that it’s never too late to start.

“Who determines how long you live?” Cooper asks. “It’s not the government. It’s not the insurance company. It’s not your physician. Your health is your responsibility and no one else’s. No drug can replicate the benefits of an active lifestyle.”