We all know that exercise impacts our general health positively, but this "general health" has far reaching effects on a wide array of conditions.
I have written before how the "vibration" of exercise and its contractile effects on muscles, send a stimulatory signal to the brain, preventing its atrophy and helping to improve memory. Well, the same has been shown to occur in the microbiome.
The vibration of exercise impacts the layers of the microbiome, rearranging them. This prevents any one type of bacteria from gaining an unfair advantage over others and allows for them all to have a chance to thrive. It's sort of like not allowing for water to become stagnant through moving it, leveling the playing field for all microbes.
This is most likely why exercise has been shown to reduce the risk and improve the remission rates of colon cancer.
Allergy Relief
If you suffer from allergies and take medication, you might have noticed that they usually fall into two categories - glucocorticoids and antihistamines.
Where does exercise fall into this? Well, exercise is a natural dose of glucocorticoid. Cortisol, a glucocorticoid that mitigates the body's inflammatory response, naturally rises during exercise. Exercise also helps regulate the immune response, through the stimulation of the lymphatic system, which helps clear histamines. The extra blood flow, caused by movement, also helps reduce inflammation and deliver more oxygen to the affected areas, promoting healing.
Ever since I have been going through hormonal changes, I have been suffering from allergic rhinitis. I have never had allergies before, but estrogen can amplify histamine signaling and when my estrogen goes up, from erratic hormonal ups and down, my rhinitis flares up. Going for a walk, clears it right up and the results last for days.
Being outside, in nature, also helps with seasonal allergies by giving you a hormetic stress to the allergen. Controlled, low dose exposures are good for the immune system, making it stronger and healthier. Sitting by a HEPA filter might reduce your symptoms, in the short term, but can eventually increase the severity of your response, to the allergen, in the long term.
Vascular Health
Nitric oxide (NO) is produced in virtually every cell of your body and is the most important molecule for blood vessel health. It allows the inner muscles of your blood vessels to relax and widen. This increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure.
Exercise upregulates NO expression, increasing blood flow and energy efficiency. This is particularly useful for obese and metabolically dysfunctional people, as exercise increases the skeletal muscle availability of NO. People with metabolic syndrome exhibit lower blood levels of NO and have increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production compared to healthy people. But, after a three month exercise training program, these metabolically dysfunction people increased their plasma levels of NO and decreased their ROS. They also decreased production of naturally occurring NO inhibitors in their blood.
Connective Tissue Health
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and it's the building block of our connective tissues. Connective tissues are the second largest organ of our body. They are the major part of muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones, which are all composed of mostly collagen.
Ideally, we would get our collagen from eating animals, nose to tail, for their collagen rich organs, skin and bones, but our modern food supply is lacking in these items and most of us do not have a taste for them. This makes it very difficult to obtain enough collagen from our diets alone. For this reason, it's best to supplement.
Protein synthesis decreases during exercise, then immediately increases after exercise, for long periods of time. Consuming protein, after exercise, enables the replacement and restoring of protein, in muscles, by increasing muscle anabolism. The high amino acid content of collagen protein, makes collagen ideal for muscle repair and recovery. This can help prevent injuries, improve performance and alleviate pain.
Delivery of collagen into tendons and other connective tissue is dependent on movement, so you can divide your collagen supplement, into two doses, by taking half 30 minutes before your workout and the other half post-workout.
So, get out there and move if you want to keep healthy connective tissues.
Heart Health
Wouldn't it be great if we were able to regenerate an injured or missing body part? Think of the implications that would have for people who have damaged spinal cords or have had an amputation. It seems like the body should have evolved this useful mechanism, which exists in other species to varying degrees. But, alas, humans cannot do this in any meaningful way. The liver is known to be the only organ that has some capacity for regeneration, but it sure would be nice if that capacity existed for other organs that are much more commonly diseased. After all, its not everyday that you sustain a liver injury.
What about something we are all at risk for, like heart disease? Being able to grow a second heart, when the first one malfunctions, would be amazing! But wait, the heart does have the capacity to do something sort of like that.
In people with heart disease, it is not uncommon for new blood vessels to grow, around blocked arteries, in order to keep blood coursing through the body. These new, regenerated vessels are known as 'coronary collaterals'. They are a way for the body to create an alternative source of blood supply when there is an injury to an artery. In comparison with other species, the human coronary collateral circulation is very well developed. Coronary collateral arteries, in patients with heart disease, mitigate heart attacks and improve survival rates.
This is precisely what occurred to one of my neighbors. When he went for a routine medical exam, they decided to perform several cardiovascular screenings, due to his age. He was not expecting any issues, since he felt great and had no symptoms of disease. But, what they found left him in shock. A main artery to his heart was 90% blocked, but he had developed an entire compensatory vessel system, around the blockage, which basically bypassed it. Neither his heart, nor any other part of his body, was deprived of oxygenated blood. His heart was perfectly fine. This compensatory system had prevented him from having a heart attack or the usual heart disease symptoms. The doctor told him that these coronary collateral arteries basically saved his life.
Wow, a completely natural bypass surgery without the risks or side effects! How is this possible and why doesn’t it happen to everyone?
Exercise. Nothing else stimulates this regeneration of blood vessels like exercise does. Patients who develop this compensatory vessel system, exercised regularly. They primarily did low intensity, frequent exercise of long duration. It just so happens that my neighbor walks, very long distances, daily. He always has.
It appears that this type of exercise is extremely beneficial, before and during the onset of atherosclerosis pathology. It might explain why hunter/gatherers do not appear to have the symptoms of pathological atherosclerotic disease, even when they have the presence of its advanced development.
This makes sense, since atherosclerosis is not really a disease at all, but the natural repair system of the body. Arteries are under constant strain and subjected to damage. The body has the ability to repair this damage, quite effectively. It would be counterproductive for an ancient repair system, that has been evolving for so long, to be the cause of disease or death and it doesn't seem to be, except in modern times. Aside from a longer lifespan and genetics, something else occurs in modernity that causes a perfectly normal repair system to become pathological. Chronic sedentary behavior appears to be a root cause. If the body has no need to supply large amounts of oxygen to the body, because it's not moving, then it won't find a way to do so, as it has other things to take up its time, like the building of more fat mass instead.
So, get out and walk more. Use the anabolic states of your body wisely, like for building new blood vessels, around damaged areas, rather than building new plaque or more padding for your behind.
Heart Rate Variability
Heart rate variability (HRV), the variation in the time between heart beats, is a marker of autonomic nervous system and vagus nerve function. Having a high HRV means your heart is able to respond adequately to demands, giving you a survival advantage. HRV decreases with age and is associated with poor cardiovascular health.
You can help maintain and/or improve your HRV through exercise. Athletes display a significantly elevated HRV compared to sedentary individuals, but you don't have to be an athlete to get these benefits. All you have to do is not be sedentary.
Inflammation Mitigation
We hear the word inflammation being tossed around, in the health sphere, all of the time. It is used to explain everything from heart attacks to cavities. But, it's best to stay away from blanket terminology and the people who use them.
Inflammation is just another one of those vague umbrella terms that are used, in the world of quackery, to explain something they simply don't have a clear answer for. Hair falling out? Inflammation. Nightmares? Inflammation. Inflammatory conditions, foods and chemicals are mentioned everywhere.
Today, let's discuss inflammation without the BS. Inflammation of what exactly and by what? The natural inflammatory process in the body is extremely important and part of our immune system. We need inflammation to occur, in a regulated and purposeful way. It's only when this system derails that problems begin to occur.
Cortisol is one of the hormones that reduces inflammation but when it is chronically elevated, it loses its ability to mitigate inflammation properly. When inflammation is no longer mediated properly, healthy, necessary inflammation, becomes chronic, unnecessary inflammation, which leads to disease processes. Many reasons cause chronically elevated cortisol, but the most common ones are metabolic syndrome and certain medications.
One of the ways metabolic syndrome causes chronic inflammation is through the upregulation of the adrenal response to dropping blood glucose levels. Stress hormones, released by the adrenals, continuously release blood glucose to counteract the effects of high insulin levels. One of these hormones is cortisol.
Certain disease states also cause chronic systemic inflammation like autoimmune disorders. Other diseases cause localized chronic inflammation like arthritis or gallbladder disease. What does this have to do with exercise?
Exercise is one of the main regulators of cortisol. It causes a healthy inflammatory response. Cortisol goes up during exercise, to prevent blood glucose from dropping too low. The body also retains fluids to prevent dehydration and the immune system is activated to begin the repair process. This is why appropriate rest, after exercise, is just as important as exercise itself, because it allows for this repair process to occur. You are rebuilding yourself stronger and better after each workout.
You do not want to be in a chronically stressed state, as can occur when you over-exercise. But, this is not a common occurrence for people with metabolic dysfunction, as their main problem is being too sedentary, not over-exercising. But, it can occur to athletes and people who are exercising for weight loss. Pushing your body more, does not mean faster results. It's actually counterproductive to the hormetic response.
You can see a cycle of inflammation in my photos below. The photo of me holding a butterfly, shows a puffy hand from walking for about 1 1/2 hours. The next photo was taken hours later, back home, with inflammation completely gone. This inflammation is mostly seen on the hands and not as much in the lower extremities. It's mostly noticeable when you are usually in a constant state of very low inflammation. My high sensitivity CRP has always been >0.01, basically too low to measure. When I broke my ankle, it never went above 0.4.
The body does everything in pulses. There is a time for inflammation and a time for none. So, just because there is inflammation, doesn't mean that it's bad. You just have to find out what is causing it and if its chronic or not.
Preserving Mobility
If you want to continue moving, then start moving.
Loss of independence is the main culprit that hampers the quality of life, for older people, and it's completely preventable through exercise and proper protein intake. Both practices prevent the loss of muscle mass that occurs with age.
Don't think this is something that is only relevant for 90 year old's. When I say older, I mean people that are still in their 40's. Muscle loss has even been seen as early as people in their 30's. So, the time to preserve muscle mass is now, because it's never too early to start.
Most people who end up in a nursing home are not there because of a catastrophic disease like dementia or stroke, but rather because of a gradual loss of independence, like the inability to rise from a chair, get out of bed, do laundry or use the bathroom, without assistance. Once these folks enter a nursing home, their further decline is immediate and rapid.
Loss of independence also affects a person's social life, which ultimately leads to emotional problems, like depression and anxiety, both of which cause even more sedentary behavior. Inability to get out of the house, drive, travel or partake in social events causes isolation. Loss of contact with family, due to feelings of "being a burden", robs the person of interaction with loved ones and the ability of being present during special occasions. Lengthy hospital and rehabilitation center stays, caused by injuries sustained and/or surgeries required due to issues with mobility, further alienates the person from loved ones.
The main culprit of this loss of mobility and independence is muscle loss. As you get older you start experiencing impaired muscle protein synthesis. Because of this, you need more dietary protein and more exercise. Unfortunately, circumstances that oppose both of these beneficial habits become common as the person ages. Below is a list of some of these hindrances, in no particular order.
Many people are not aware at how non-strenuous their exercise routine can be, to preserve lean muscle mass. Simple, low impact exercises like walking, stretching (Yoga) and body weight resistance can be done at home and during leisure times. Instead of laying or sitting down, to watch your favorite TV show, place a mat in front of the television and walk in place, stretch or do body weight exercises.
Google 'Leslie Sansone's walking in place' videos. They are a great start to exercising at home and at your pace. It might sound trivial, but you will be surprised at what a work out it can be.
Remember it’s not quantity of life that matters, but quality. You need to focus on health span rather than life span.
Spine Health
Walking is vital for the spine, because it strengthens the lower back muscles to prevent injuries. It's these load bearing muscles that support the spine. The spine is naturally unstable, as it's similar to a deck of cards, rather than a joint like the knee.
When you walk, your back naturally stabilizes itself through the movement of your arms. If you were to see the spine during walking, it would look like a wave moving side to side. Many times people walk too rigidly, in the upper body, without realizing it. So, make sure that you are naturally swinging your arms, as you walk, so the spine can naturally stabilize from the bottom to the top.
Women's Health
We have all heard before that "women can tolerate pain better than men". But, is that true?
This "better pain tolerance" has been attributed to all kinds of things, including an evolutionary adaptation due to the ability to give birth. But in reality, the real cause a woman may be able to persevere better, in the face of physical discomfort, is estrogen. Estrogen is a mitigator of the stress response. It allows for the body to cope better, in the face of stressful situations, through anti-inflammatory effects and facilitation of antioxidant release like glutathione.
But, as women get older and begin approaching menopause, estrogen levels drop and this beneficial effect is reduced. Women may start to feel more aches and pains, inflammation and muscle spasms. You may think that this would be a good reason to avoid physical activity, which only elevates stress, but this reduced stress mitigation was observed to be worse in women who are sedentary. Active women have less symptoms of discomfort and better recovery from injury and/or illness. This is most likely due to improved cortisol action, achieved through exercise, even in the presence of declining estrogen.
So, get out there and move if you want to reduce the negative effects of lower estrogen.
If you suffer from allergies and take medication, you might have noticed that they usually fall into two categories - glucocorticoids and antihistamines.
Where does exercise fall into this? Well, exercise is a natural dose of glucocorticoid. Cortisol, a glucocorticoid that mitigates the body's inflammatory response, naturally rises during exercise. Exercise also helps regulate the immune response, through the stimulation of the lymphatic system, which helps clear histamines. The extra blood flow, caused by movement, also helps reduce inflammation and deliver more oxygen to the affected areas, promoting healing.
Ever since I have been going through hormonal changes, I have been suffering from allergic rhinitis. I have never had allergies before, but estrogen can amplify histamine signaling and when my estrogen goes up, from erratic hormonal ups and down, my rhinitis flares up. Going for a walk, clears it right up and the results last for days.
Being outside, in nature, also helps with seasonal allergies by giving you a hormetic stress to the allergen. Controlled, low dose exposures are good for the immune system, making it stronger and healthier. Sitting by a HEPA filter might reduce your symptoms, in the short term, but can eventually increase the severity of your response, to the allergen, in the long term.
Vascular Health
Nitric oxide (NO) is produced in virtually every cell of your body and is the most important molecule for blood vessel health. It allows the inner muscles of your blood vessels to relax and widen. This increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure.
Exercise upregulates NO expression, increasing blood flow and energy efficiency. This is particularly useful for obese and metabolically dysfunctional people, as exercise increases the skeletal muscle availability of NO. People with metabolic syndrome exhibit lower blood levels of NO and have increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production compared to healthy people. But, after a three month exercise training program, these metabolically dysfunction people increased their plasma levels of NO and decreased their ROS. They also decreased production of naturally occurring NO inhibitors in their blood.
Connective Tissue Health
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and it's the building block of our connective tissues. Connective tissues are the second largest organ of our body. They are the major part of muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones, which are all composed of mostly collagen.
Ideally, we would get our collagen from eating animals, nose to tail, for their collagen rich organs, skin and bones, but our modern food supply is lacking in these items and most of us do not have a taste for them. This makes it very difficult to obtain enough collagen from our diets alone. For this reason, it's best to supplement.
Protein synthesis decreases during exercise, then immediately increases after exercise, for long periods of time. Consuming protein, after exercise, enables the replacement and restoring of protein, in muscles, by increasing muscle anabolism. The high amino acid content of collagen protein, makes collagen ideal for muscle repair and recovery. This can help prevent injuries, improve performance and alleviate pain.
Delivery of collagen into tendons and other connective tissue is dependent on movement, so you can divide your collagen supplement, into two doses, by taking half 30 minutes before your workout and the other half post-workout.
So, get out there and move if you want to keep healthy connective tissues.
Heart Health
Wouldn't it be great if we were able to regenerate an injured or missing body part? Think of the implications that would have for people who have damaged spinal cords or have had an amputation. It seems like the body should have evolved this useful mechanism, which exists in other species to varying degrees. But, alas, humans cannot do this in any meaningful way. The liver is known to be the only organ that has some capacity for regeneration, but it sure would be nice if that capacity existed for other organs that are much more commonly diseased. After all, its not everyday that you sustain a liver injury.
What about something we are all at risk for, like heart disease? Being able to grow a second heart, when the first one malfunctions, would be amazing! But wait, the heart does have the capacity to do something sort of like that.
In people with heart disease, it is not uncommon for new blood vessels to grow, around blocked arteries, in order to keep blood coursing through the body. These new, regenerated vessels are known as 'coronary collaterals'. They are a way for the body to create an alternative source of blood supply when there is an injury to an artery. In comparison with other species, the human coronary collateral circulation is very well developed. Coronary collateral arteries, in patients with heart disease, mitigate heart attacks and improve survival rates.
This is precisely what occurred to one of my neighbors. When he went for a routine medical exam, they decided to perform several cardiovascular screenings, due to his age. He was not expecting any issues, since he felt great and had no symptoms of disease. But, what they found left him in shock. A main artery to his heart was 90% blocked, but he had developed an entire compensatory vessel system, around the blockage, which basically bypassed it. Neither his heart, nor any other part of his body, was deprived of oxygenated blood. His heart was perfectly fine. This compensatory system had prevented him from having a heart attack or the usual heart disease symptoms. The doctor told him that these coronary collateral arteries basically saved his life.
Wow, a completely natural bypass surgery without the risks or side effects! How is this possible and why doesn’t it happen to everyone?
Exercise. Nothing else stimulates this regeneration of blood vessels like exercise does. Patients who develop this compensatory vessel system, exercised regularly. They primarily did low intensity, frequent exercise of long duration. It just so happens that my neighbor walks, very long distances, daily. He always has.
It appears that this type of exercise is extremely beneficial, before and during the onset of atherosclerosis pathology. It might explain why hunter/gatherers do not appear to have the symptoms of pathological atherosclerotic disease, even when they have the presence of its advanced development.
This makes sense, since atherosclerosis is not really a disease at all, but the natural repair system of the body. Arteries are under constant strain and subjected to damage. The body has the ability to repair this damage, quite effectively. It would be counterproductive for an ancient repair system, that has been evolving for so long, to be the cause of disease or death and it doesn't seem to be, except in modern times. Aside from a longer lifespan and genetics, something else occurs in modernity that causes a perfectly normal repair system to become pathological. Chronic sedentary behavior appears to be a root cause. If the body has no need to supply large amounts of oxygen to the body, because it's not moving, then it won't find a way to do so, as it has other things to take up its time, like the building of more fat mass instead.
So, get out and walk more. Use the anabolic states of your body wisely, like for building new blood vessels, around damaged areas, rather than building new plaque or more padding for your behind.
Heart Rate Variability
Heart rate variability (HRV), the variation in the time between heart beats, is a marker of autonomic nervous system and vagus nerve function. Having a high HRV means your heart is able to respond adequately to demands, giving you a survival advantage. HRV decreases with age and is associated with poor cardiovascular health.
You can help maintain and/or improve your HRV through exercise. Athletes display a significantly elevated HRV compared to sedentary individuals, but you don't have to be an athlete to get these benefits. All you have to do is not be sedentary.
Inflammation Mitigation
We hear the word inflammation being tossed around, in the health sphere, all of the time. It is used to explain everything from heart attacks to cavities. But, it's best to stay away from blanket terminology and the people who use them.
Inflammation is just another one of those vague umbrella terms that are used, in the world of quackery, to explain something they simply don't have a clear answer for. Hair falling out? Inflammation. Nightmares? Inflammation. Inflammatory conditions, foods and chemicals are mentioned everywhere.
Today, let's discuss inflammation without the BS. Inflammation of what exactly and by what? The natural inflammatory process in the body is extremely important and part of our immune system. We need inflammation to occur, in a regulated and purposeful way. It's only when this system derails that problems begin to occur.
Cortisol is one of the hormones that reduces inflammation but when it is chronically elevated, it loses its ability to mitigate inflammation properly. When inflammation is no longer mediated properly, healthy, necessary inflammation, becomes chronic, unnecessary inflammation, which leads to disease processes. Many reasons cause chronically elevated cortisol, but the most common ones are metabolic syndrome and certain medications.
One of the ways metabolic syndrome causes chronic inflammation is through the upregulation of the adrenal response to dropping blood glucose levels. Stress hormones, released by the adrenals, continuously release blood glucose to counteract the effects of high insulin levels. One of these hormones is cortisol.
Certain disease states also cause chronic systemic inflammation like autoimmune disorders. Other diseases cause localized chronic inflammation like arthritis or gallbladder disease. What does this have to do with exercise?
Exercise is one of the main regulators of cortisol. It causes a healthy inflammatory response. Cortisol goes up during exercise, to prevent blood glucose from dropping too low. The body also retains fluids to prevent dehydration and the immune system is activated to begin the repair process. This is why appropriate rest, after exercise, is just as important as exercise itself, because it allows for this repair process to occur. You are rebuilding yourself stronger and better after each workout.
You do not want to be in a chronically stressed state, as can occur when you over-exercise. But, this is not a common occurrence for people with metabolic dysfunction, as their main problem is being too sedentary, not over-exercising. But, it can occur to athletes and people who are exercising for weight loss. Pushing your body more, does not mean faster results. It's actually counterproductive to the hormetic response.
You can see a cycle of inflammation in my photos below. The photo of me holding a butterfly, shows a puffy hand from walking for about 1 1/2 hours. The next photo was taken hours later, back home, with inflammation completely gone. This inflammation is mostly seen on the hands and not as much in the lower extremities. It's mostly noticeable when you are usually in a constant state of very low inflammation. My high sensitivity CRP has always been >0.01, basically too low to measure. When I broke my ankle, it never went above 0.4.
The body does everything in pulses. There is a time for inflammation and a time for none. So, just because there is inflammation, doesn't mean that it's bad. You just have to find out what is causing it and if its chronic or not.
Preserving Mobility
If you want to continue moving, then start moving.
Loss of independence is the main culprit that hampers the quality of life, for older people, and it's completely preventable through exercise and proper protein intake. Both practices prevent the loss of muscle mass that occurs with age.
Don't think this is something that is only relevant for 90 year old's. When I say older, I mean people that are still in their 40's. Muscle loss has even been seen as early as people in their 30's. So, the time to preserve muscle mass is now, because it's never too early to start.
Most people who end up in a nursing home are not there because of a catastrophic disease like dementia or stroke, but rather because of a gradual loss of independence, like the inability to rise from a chair, get out of bed, do laundry or use the bathroom, without assistance. Once these folks enter a nursing home, their further decline is immediate and rapid.
Loss of independence also affects a person's social life, which ultimately leads to emotional problems, like depression and anxiety, both of which cause even more sedentary behavior. Inability to get out of the house, drive, travel or partake in social events causes isolation. Loss of contact with family, due to feelings of "being a burden", robs the person of interaction with loved ones and the ability of being present during special occasions. Lengthy hospital and rehabilitation center stays, caused by injuries sustained and/or surgeries required due to issues with mobility, further alienates the person from loved ones.
The main culprit of this loss of mobility and independence is muscle loss. As you get older you start experiencing impaired muscle protein synthesis. Because of this, you need more dietary protein and more exercise. Unfortunately, circumstances that oppose both of these beneficial habits become common as the person ages. Below is a list of some of these hindrances, in no particular order.
- Aches and pains of getting older - Conditions like joint pain from arthritis, and other diseases, makes it much easier to stop activities, rather than increase them. But, it's these very activities, being avoided, which reduce the inflammation and stiffness caused by these conditions.
- If you don't use it, you lose it - As a person gets older, they begin to be seen as "frail" by their loved ones. Oftentimes, family and friends offer help, by taking on chores and tasks themselves, instead of finding ways of helping their loved ones do things on their own. The more dependent the person becomes, the more sedentary they will be and the more independence they will end up losing. Nurses that work in nursing homes, know this fact well, so they intervene in chores as little as possible. Family and friends can be of more help by accompanying loved ones to doctor visits and discussing strategies for maximizing mobility and independence, rather than enabling sedentary behaviors. This is helpful for both parties, as a doctor's visit is once every couple of months, but having to do chores, for your loved one, can be a daily occurrence. This will only make the probability of requiring a nursing home more of a reality. Help your loved ones by keeping them independent. It's the best help you can give them.
- Loss of interest in cooking - This is usually the first sign of the gradual loss of independence and can also be a sign of depression. The person has no interest or energy to prepare, cook and clean up for themselves, any longer. If you don't cook, then you turn to easy, convenient, high energy, processed foods instead of protein rich, real foods.
- Mouth discomfort - Dentures usually cause people to stay clear of protein rich foods like meat, which require chewing. This is why it's important to maintain oral health by following the proper diet, early on, and addressing any tooth problems as soon as possible. The quicker tooth issues are resolved, the less chances of needing expensive procedures, and the more likely you are of not requiring an extraction. Teeth are extremely important for overall health, but often overlooked.
- Digestive issues - Declining stomach acid makes many foods difficult for people to digest and one of them is protein. Stomach upset is one of the reasons people avoid protein. This also puts them at risk for the deficiency of Vitamin B12, which is vital for mobility. You need plenty of stomach acid for the proper digestion of protein and the stimulation of bile, to break down the fat that comes with protein foods. You must maintain stomach acid through the consumption of apple cider vinegar and/or treatment with betaine. Eating protein foods earlier in the day can also avoid digestive discomfort, which often occurs at night.
- Injury - Injuries caused by bone loss and muscle loss, from a lifelong consumption of the Standard American Diet (SAD), can cause loss of mobility and lengthy hospital/rehabilitation center stays, which further promotes sedentary behavior. The injured person becomes scared of doing activities, unassisted, but if you begin requiring assistance, you begin heading towards further loss of independence.
- Surgeries - Surgeries for shoulder, knee and hip replacements are usually seen as interventions to help prevent the loss of independence, but oftentimes, it's these very procedures that cause it. Lengthy rehabilitation and down times often cause more muscle loss and the inability to regain it. The little mobility these people had before, when they were accustomed to navigating their known aches and pains, now become a new set of problems that cause for all mobility to be lost and no new mobility to be gained. The older the person is the less probability of a full recovery, from these types of surgeries, or of any added mobility acquired from them.
- Disease - Having metabolic syndrome and its associated pathologies, including diabetes, is a recipe for the loss of independence early on. Painful neuropathy, the symptoms of "hypoglycemia", amputations, dialysis, muscle atrophy and needing constant blood glucose monitoring, all hinder mobility. Not to mention the frequent obesity that accompanies these conditions, which also causes loss of independence through restriction of mobility.
- Financial - When living on a fixed income, like many retired seniors do, more expensive food like meat are often passed up for cheaper choices, which end up being processed foods.
- False beliefs - "I'm older now, so I need less protein." False, you need more, not less. Many people believe this fallacy because they think they no longer need to build muscle mass, as their activity level declines. But, it's loss of muscle mass that is causing the decline. Many people are completely unaware that their current lean muscle mass is being broken down daily and must be rebuilt, but as you get older, it becomes more difficult for the body to do so. The primary concern shouldn't be about whether you need any more muscle mass, it should be about keeping what you currently have. This can only be done by consuming enough dietary protein.
- Loss of appetite - Older people begin to see a decline in appetite and, the less they eat, the less protein they will consume. The best way to handle this type of situation is through protein supplementation with good quality whey protein.
Many people are not aware at how non-strenuous their exercise routine can be, to preserve lean muscle mass. Simple, low impact exercises like walking, stretching (Yoga) and body weight resistance can be done at home and during leisure times. Instead of laying or sitting down, to watch your favorite TV show, place a mat in front of the television and walk in place, stretch or do body weight exercises.
Google 'Leslie Sansone's walking in place' videos. They are a great start to exercising at home and at your pace. It might sound trivial, but you will be surprised at what a work out it can be.
Remember it’s not quantity of life that matters, but quality. You need to focus on health span rather than life span.
Spine Health
Walking is vital for the spine, because it strengthens the lower back muscles to prevent injuries. It's these load bearing muscles that support the spine. The spine is naturally unstable, as it's similar to a deck of cards, rather than a joint like the knee.
When you walk, your back naturally stabilizes itself through the movement of your arms. If you were to see the spine during walking, it would look like a wave moving side to side. Many times people walk too rigidly, in the upper body, without realizing it. So, make sure that you are naturally swinging your arms, as you walk, so the spine can naturally stabilize from the bottom to the top.
Women's Health
We have all heard before that "women can tolerate pain better than men". But, is that true?
This "better pain tolerance" has been attributed to all kinds of things, including an evolutionary adaptation due to the ability to give birth. But in reality, the real cause a woman may be able to persevere better, in the face of physical discomfort, is estrogen. Estrogen is a mitigator of the stress response. It allows for the body to cope better, in the face of stressful situations, through anti-inflammatory effects and facilitation of antioxidant release like glutathione.
But, as women get older and begin approaching menopause, estrogen levels drop and this beneficial effect is reduced. Women may start to feel more aches and pains, inflammation and muscle spasms. You may think that this would be a good reason to avoid physical activity, which only elevates stress, but this reduced stress mitigation was observed to be worse in women who are sedentary. Active women have less symptoms of discomfort and better recovery from injury and/or illness. This is most likely due to improved cortisol action, achieved through exercise, even in the presence of declining estrogen.
So, get out there and move if you want to reduce the negative effects of lower estrogen.
Eye Health
Aerobic exercise like walking is great for overall health, but did you know it can also improve eye health? When we think about exercise the last thing on our minds is our eyes, but recent studies have shown that exercise has a positive impact on eye health, particularly in patients with glaucoma.
In recent studies aerobic exercise for 30 - 45 minutes, three or four times a week:
- Lowered intraocular pressure.
- Improved blood flow to the eye.
- Decreased the rate of visual field loss.
- Reduced vulnerability to optic nerve injury.
- Prevented the injury induced loss of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the retina.
Gait and Health
The best way to improve your gait is through walking. A gait is a pattern of limb movements made during locomotion.
Improving your gait helps with stability and balance which in turn helps avoid injuries due to falls or slow reaction times from tripping/slipping. Injuries and/or their treatments are adverse to health outcomes, so you want to avoid them as much as possible. Improving your gait is one way of achieving this.
Stride Length and Health
Did you know that your stride length is a main indicator of your overall health and can actually predict your future health as well?
A stride length is the distance between successive points of initial contact of the same foot. Right and left stride lengths are normally equal. Though many factors play into your stride length like height, your state of health considerably effects it. A study showed that reduced walking speed and stride length were associated with increased risk of dependency, mortality, and institutionalization.
The best way to help lengthen your stride is by walking and you don't have to do anything fancy to achieve it. In fact, you should never purposely try to lengthen your stride as this can cause injury. Instead, as walking improves your overall health, your stride will naturally lengthen. This is why you might have been able to make it to 10K steps walking around the block, when you first started walking, but after some time, you find it becomes harder and harder to achieve the same step count by walking the same distance. This is also why many people think they are doing adequate walking just because they can reach 10K steps going to Walmart. Their stride is just very short because their health is not so good.
For this reason, if you have short strides or your stride has lengthened since you first started walking, you shouldn't use step counts as a guide but use distance instead. Five miles a day is a good daily walking routine.
Immune System Health
When we think of our immune system, we usually think of rest. After all, if you are sick, getting enough rest is vital for recovery but did you know exercise is critical for keeping our immune system healthy and able to fight disease?
Research has consistently shown that exercise boosts immunity. Moderate intensity exercise for 60 minutes or less is optimal for these immune-boosting benefits. Having a daily exercise routine will continue to strengthen your immune system as it builds on previous gains.
- Moderate intensity exercise increases the circulation of immune cells in your body. This helps your body better prepare for a future infection by detecting it earlier. Aerobic exercise at a moderate to vigorous intensity for less than 60 minutes (an average of 30 - 45 minutes) increases the recruitment and circulation of the immune system’s best defensive cells.
- Exercise raises your body temperature and causes it to stay elevated for a short time after you complete a workout. It is believed this rise in body temperature, both during and after exercise, may prevent bacteria from growing and help your body better address an infection, similarly to how a fever works.
- Regular physical activity can contribute to better sleep quantity and quality. Sleep loss can negatively affect certain parts of the immune system. Some research points to a higher risk of infection and development of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders due to a reduction in antibodies and the production of inflammatory cytokines in people with a modest amount of sleep loss.
- Exercise can reduce many risk factors for conditions that make it difficult for your immune system to work properly like cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. Exercise also increases HDL cholesterol and lowers resting heart rate.
- Exercise helps decrease stress. Specifically, moderate intensity exercise can slow down the release of stress hormones while positively influencing the neurotransmitters in the brain that affect mood and behavior. According to some research, stress and depression can have a dramatic impact on the regular function of the immune system, leading to a low chronic inflammation status that favors infections, diseases, and other illnesses.
On the other hand, prolonged high intensity training - especially without appropriate rest between sessions - can suppress your immune system. Studies suggest that moderate intensity exercise reduces inflammation, while prolonged bouts of high intensity exercise can actually increase inflammation. So make sure you are getting your required amount of exercise at the right intensity.
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