This post is an attempt to do my part in helping to eliminate some plastic from the environment. And the plastic that I’m referring to is the plastic used to manufacture the bottles that contains some of those pills in our over-drugged society. I am asking you to help me to rid the planet of the dreaded pill bottle!
Now, I’m not suggesting you just stop taking your meds! I’m going to keep popping my BP pills until I get my pressure where it belongs! It’s been a challenging year, but I haven’t given up. Even with several factors like stress and menopause working against me, I believe wholeheartedly that it is possible and a goal that I WILL achieve.
What I am suggesting is that you get off your ass and go exercise. (Weight bearing is best! Even if it’s just your own body weight!) Why? Because newsflash!!!! MUSCLES ARE THE BEST MEDICINE! Much better than anything big pharma is peddling and best of all, IT’S FREE!!!!!! No insurance claims needed. No visit to CVS. Just get up from wherever you are sitting. (When you finish reading!)
Newsflash #2. EXERCISE IS NOT OPTIONAL. (AT ANY AGE, BUT EXPECIALLY AS WE AGE.) You don’t exercise just to lose weight! You exercise to lose disease and increase health span.
Newsflash #3. WE ARE ALL AGING! There ain’t s*#t, we can do about that, but die. BUT we can change the way we age. We have the power to slow down the effects of aging.
If you’ve been around for a while, you know this isn’t my first post on the importance of maintaining muscle mass. BUT I’M BACK……….
Let’s start with the bad news and get it out of the way. Here’s what happens to your muscles when you don’t use them. YOU LOSE THEM! They atrophy. Just like you, they shrivel up and eventually die. They break down and as a result, decrease in size and strength. Not only is it not a good look, lack of muscles and strength can eventually result in injury, or worse. Death!
Those muscles you aren’t using just happen to support and protect your organs. They provide support for your joints, ligaments, and tendons. They help to prevent injury by decreasing the likelihood of falling! (You’ve fallen and you could have gotten the hell up had you done some strength training!)
You don’t want to know the mortality stats after a fall! Let’s just put it this way, a whole lotta folks are gone within five years of a fall depending upon their age and health.
Maintaining muscle mass as we age has so many health benefits. So, let me start with a few of them that you might be familiar with! In addition to benefits to brain function and cognition, how about a reduction in anxiety, depression, fatigue, inflammation (the cause of most disease!) and my personal favorite, stress!!! Active muscle helps support immune function.
I recently attended an online University of Penn Medicine workshop and want to share a few things that I learned. Exercise can lower mortality by 30%. Diet 30%. Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of women in the US. It kills more women than all cancers combined. 80% of it is preventable by lifestyle prevention such as diet & EXCERISE.
And here are a few that might hit home with my peeps as we enter the both the holiday, flu, and for some, the blues season! (And no, not referring to the genre of music! Depression!) Oh, and let us not forget about that whole Covid thing.
Diabetes. (Step away from the pie!)
Heard of it? How about insulin sensitivity? Insulin sensitivity = your body’s response to insulin. Increased insulin sensitivity = lower blood sugar. Here’s why that’s a good thing!
Because diabetes, also known as high blood sugar, can lead to decreased immune function, blindness, ED (Erectile dysfunction) as well as cardiovascular/heart disease, and death.
But did you know you can decrease your blood sugar levels with exercise and through building muscle? Exercising increases your body’s glucose consumption. (Less of it floating around in your bloodstream is a good thing!)
Immune Function
It has been shown that building and maintaining lean muscle helps to maintain immune function. Muscle contractions move lymph throughout the body, collecting and cleaning out waste products that result from the biochemical reactions that take place in your tissues 24/7. When you’re sick, lymph collects the garbage and takes it to the curb! (Flushes it out)
Bone Health
Our muscles’ main job is to move our skeleton around. That skeleton supports the structure of our bodies. The skeleton bears the weight of our entire body. Increased muscle mass will also result in an increase in our bone density. As a result of putting weight on a bone, (Even body weight!) it will build and rebuild to support that weight. More density = more strength.
Weight training (and again, even body weight) is the ultimate load-bearing exercise as it will not only build muscle, but will increase bone density. This is especially important to my menopausal sisters! And you don’t have to run to the gym and start powerlifting. You can also build bone from activities such as walking, running, or jumping rope. Hell, just by standing!
Cell Health
Does anyone remember mitochondria from school many moons ago? Me either. (Science, biology?) It’s all a blur for me. But here’s a recap for those of us that can’t remember anything we learned in school 1000 years ago.
“Mitochondria are membrane-bound cell organelles (mitochondrion, singular) that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. Chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).”
What’s that got to do with exercise, you ask? Okay, you didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you. Evidence exists that exercise rejuvenates mitochondrial function. “This illustrates the power of exercise to act as mitochondrial medicine in muscle.”
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. Most of the cell’s energy gets produced there. As we age, mitochondria can lose the ability to create energy or become less efficient in this process. Our cells replicate rapidly when we are young. But, as we age, certain cells lose the ability to divide. Unfortunately, they don’t just die. They hang out and wreak havoc.
“Maintaining skeletal muscle mitochondrial content and function is important for sustained health throughout the lifespan. Exercise stimulates important key stress signals that control skeletal mitochondrial biogenesis and function.”
Yeah, what he said.
Exercise Is Muscle Mitochondrial Medicine.Exercise not only positively impacts younger and healthier folks, but it can also benefit the elderly and diseased by affecting the severity of disease.
And finally, here are a few more functions of muscle that might be of interest to you.
You know that heart beating in there. Well, it just happens to be the muscular organ pumping blood through your body. This blood sends oxygen and distributing nutrients to the organs and tissues throughout your body. (Among other things.) And then there’s that whole expanding and contracting of organs also known as BREATHING that requires some muscle.
I hope after reading this you at least stand up!
And then how about us older folk do our part to eliminate some plastic? PILL BOTTLES. (And some of my younger readers can do what they can now, to eliminate the need for pill bottles in the future!)
Win. Win. We can save the planet and our lives.
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33720909/
- https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/heart-and-blood-vessels/about-the-heart/understanding-how-your-heart-functions
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24291686/