Survival of the fittest. (Editorial).

It's taken me a while to realize it, but the people I see walking around my neighborhood just about every day may be on to something.

During the week I often see this man and woman walking along our neighborhood's main street as I'm coming home from work around suppertime. Our roads don't have sidewalks, so they always move right over to the edge of the road as I approach, giving me plenty of room to get by. I think they're afraid I might hit them. But as I pass by, I watch in my mirror, and they're right back on the road. And they really seem to move along. To be honest, I don't know their names or which house they live in. But I've admired their efforts to stay active.

Then there's Bob. He walks around the neighborhood at least twice a day with his big, beautiful dog. When we first moved here, every time we'd drive by Bob, his dog would go so crazy Bob would have to hold on for dear life. We started calling his dog the "crazy dog." Well, Bob's dog is still pretty crazy when we drive by, but Bob's in better shape now, so it's easier for him to hold on.

It used to be when I thought of getting into shape, images of gyms and equipment and mirrored walls and well-toned aerobic instructors came to mind. It seemed as though there was a real financial commitment to getting into shape. But over the past few years the people in my neighborhood have been helping me come to realize that the commitments you need to make for fitness are limited to some time and a good pair of walking shoes. Just this past March the New England Journal of Medicine weighed in on the subject, and it turns out the Journal sides with my neighbor Bob.

Researchers in California had more than 6,000 middle-aged men take a treadmill test, then followed them for up to 10 years. They found that among the men studied, the least fit in the group were 4.5 times more likely to die within six years than the most fit. What was surprising was that that held true even if the men were overweight, had high cholesterol or high blood pressure, or smoked.

It also turns out that you don't need to exercise heavily to enjoy the benefits. Researchers found the largest improvement in the death rates came between the lowest 20 percent of the men studied and the next-lowest 20 percent.

The Bible writer says, "`I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the Lord" (Jer. 30:17, NIV). * The New England Journal of Medicine and the people in my neighborhood clearly show that a walk a day is one way God uses to fulfill this promise.

PS: In our March/April issue we printed a phone number you could call for recorded heart health information. The number we printed was incorrect. You can call 1-800-575-9355. Our apologies for any inconvenience we caused.

* Texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version.