One Thing to Fight Aging

The one thing to fight aging…. It should be at the top of your priorities!!!

Functional medicine tells us that many ‘diseases of aging’ have the same root cause and addressing the root cause halts further progression and helps reverse course. Our responsibility for aging well is attending to major root causes. Not through prescriptions or ubiquitous pain relievers—these ‘fixes’ only suppress the symptoms. To reduce our risk of over 100 different age-related diseases and reduce day-to-day pain and suffering, we must work at the roots.

As Thoreau enjoined, “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Let’s simplify and look at one major area of the aging process we can engage to reduce decline and progression of the diseases of aging.   

Muscle loss is a major, age-related root cause of decline that cascades into systemic, whole-body deterioration.

The human body comprises two types of muscle. Type-1, slow-twitch muscles (type-1) are used for standing, sitting up, walking, jogging, marathons and swimming laps. They use copious oxygen and give slow, even energy for long activities. Your type-2, fast-twitch muscles (type-2) are used for power moves; sprints, squats; sudden bursts of energy that use little to no oxygen. Type-2 muscles give us strength, coordination, and stability.

The One Thing to Fight Aging

Muscle plays an underappreciated key role in human existence; from keeping our heart beating and breathing to all movement. It’s more than functional. It’s miraculous. 

One of the most striking effects of age is the involuntary loss of muscle mass and strength. Muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and the rate of decline progresses with each decade; becoming even higher after 60. This involuntary loss of muscle mass and strength, is a fundamental cause of disability in older people.

Muscle loss begins as a glacial-speed biological process out of sight at the molecular level. By the time we see it, decades later, it has progressed into a dominant, degenerative condition. It shows up in everyday life as reduced range of motion and joint stiffness, chronic pain, loss of cardiovascular fitness, weakness and weight gain. 

Many people I talk to are puzzled by their weight gain. “I have changed nothing and my weight gain is out of control.” The simple fact is, excess calories cannot be consumed by muscle that is not there. Muscle metabolizes food, breaking it down for burning or storing. With less muscle to burn the food we eat, the natural, physiological response is to store the excess as fat. This is how the amount of muscle mass and strength determines our trajectory of health and aging.

Miraculous muscle burns seven times the calories as fat. This is critically important to recognize because muscle is the master controller of metabolism, chronic inflammation, and growth.

Muscle is not only the largest organ in the body. Researchers describe it as the largest endocrine organ.

Aerobic and Resistance Training to Build The One Thing to Fight Aging.

When you exercise, muscles secrete signaling molecules (myokines), hormones (human growth hormone) and biochemicals directly into the blood. That’s why exercise is so potent. Muscle acts as a complex growth, repair, healing and anti-inflammatory regulator.

Age-related muscle loss reduces all the good things muscle does for our overall health and wellness. And a sedentary, Standard American Diet (SAD) lifestyle creates a triple whammy for the build-up of more and more fat deposits.  

Muscle is currency that can ‘buy’ you a life of vigor. When you invest in and build muscle, the effort compounds to promote whole-body health, fitness and longevity. Action or inaction it goes both ways. Just like a retirement account, the amount of investment determines the return.

Here’s How to Build That One Thing to Fight Aging

Some clarification to help you manage expectations. You can become functionally younger with exercise. Researchers have copious data to support a (significantly) lower biological age compared to chronological age for consistent exercisers. However, every human body/situation is unique and the response to exercise will differ.  

The reason I repeatedly say ‘growth is guaranteed’ is, any effort will create growth. You may not eliminate all of your symptoms, but you will grow and progress.,,,.And you will feel better!

Work with what you’ve got. You can improve even if your condition is advanced and entrenched. The idea is to change the environment in which the pain, stiffness, chronic disease lives in your body. Muscle will do this for you if you make the effort. Feed the bad with a little good and see what happens.

Download my free e-book Quick Guide to Strength, Sturdiness and Stamina.  

Categorized in: General Knowledge