As a nurse I have never seen an older person with lung disease from aerobic activity, that makes no sense. The few athlete deaths that you see are due to unfortunate underlying heart problems that became obvious under stress. That information is clearly flawed. I would love to see the data to support this author's opinion..........
I did a little research and found this study which responds to those claims:
Here is an excerpt of the conclusions:
"In the area of aging, exercise, and cardiovascular function, the concept has been established and widely promoted that the rate of decline in maximal aerobic capacity with age is markedly attenuated in adults who perform regular aerobic exercise. In contrast, our present findings indicate that both absolute and relative rates of decline in maximal aerobic capacity were not different in endurance-trained, active, and sedentary healthy men. There are at least three independent lines of evidence to support our finding. First, as early as 1977, Hodgson and Buskirk (9) reported dissertation data showing no association between endurance training status and an age-associated rate of decline in O2 max. Second, in a review paper, Saltin (22) presented unpublished data demonstrating that the average rate of decline in O2 max with age was essentially the same in endurance-trained orienteers and in healthy controls. Third, recent longitudinal studies in endurance-trained men reported similar rates of decline in O2 max to those previously reported in sedentary men (7, 18, 25). Taken together, these results suggest that the age-related rate of decline in O2 max is not associated with habitual exercise status in healthy men.
We want to emphasize that, although the rate of decline in O2 max with age was similar among the three groups, the endurance-trained men possess higher absolute levels of physiological functional capacity than do sedentary men at any age. Thus men who regularly engage in aerobic exercise are capable of performing physical tasks that cannot be performed by their sedentary peers (27). Additionally, based on epidemiological data (1, 2, 10), physically active men are at lower risk of premature mortality and functional disability."
Here is the article link for people like me who have to read it all:
Meta-analysis of the age-associated decline in maximal aerobic capacity in men: relation to training status -- Wilson and Tanaka 278 (3): H829 -- AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology
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