Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into an intersection of a couple
Speaker 1: of themes that I've covered before, and those themes are
Speaker 1: inflammation and exercise, and we're going to be looking at
Speaker 1: some really interesting new research around resistance training. If you've
Speaker 1: been following Wisdom Wednesdays, you'll know that I spent twelve
Speaker 1: weeks exploring the hallmarks of aging. So this is a
Speaker 1: framework used by scientists the different biological processes that underlie
Speaker 1: aging and age related diseases. And if you listen to it,
Speaker 1: you remember that one of the key hallmarks is inflammation,
Speaker 1: which is often called inflammating or metaflammation because it's basically
Speaker 1: at of your metabolism and it causes aging. So metaflammation, inflammaging,
Speaker 1: what if you want to call it, But it's basically chronic,
Speaker 1: low grade inflammation that tends to increase as we get older.
Speaker 1: And we know that when you look at pretty much
Speaker 1: all term diseases, chronic diseases, inflammation is involved in them.
Speaker 1: So I also mentioned some research a couple of months
Speaker 1: ago that showed that humans don't age linearly. There seems
Speaker 1: to be a couple of ages where aging is actually accelerated,
Speaker 1: and the first one early forties and lots of people
Speaker 1: will be familiar with that. And then again at around
Speaker 1: sixty And I was actually talking to somebody recently, a
Speaker 1: friend of mind, Jeff. He said that he just turned
Speaker 1: sixty and everything SEMs to be falling off a cliff. Well, actually, Jeff,
Speaker 1: that is backed up by science. Now, these are periods
Speaker 1: changes can accelerate, and one of the best tools that
Speaker 1: we have to offset these is exercise. And both aerobic
Speaker 1: or cardiovascar exercise and resistance training have got independent and
Speaker 1: synergistic effects. And I've talked many times before about how
Speaker 1: it's your cardio respiratory fitness is one of the biggest
Speaker 1: predictors of how long you're going to live. But another
Speaker 1: big predictor of how long you're going to live is
Speaker 1: your muscle strength, particularly in middle age. And this is
Speaker 1: where today's episode comes in so as a brand new
Speaker 1: systematic review and meta analysis. So this is where they
Speaker 1: look at a whole heap of studies, all their data,
Speaker 1: and they pulled it together and in this one they
Speaker 1: looked at the impact of resistance training on inflammation as
Speaker 1: well as body composition and functional capacity in healthy adults
Speaker 1: who were over the years of sixty, and the findings
Speaker 1: are pretty compelling for those who have still jump to
Speaker 1: lift heavy shit. What they did was they analyzed nineteen
Speaker 1: randomized control trials and together they had seven hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty eight participants all over the yege of sixty. And
Speaker 1: what they found was that resistance training significantly reduced levels
Speaker 1: of C or CRP. You may have seen this on
Speaker 1: blood tests that you get from the doctor. It is
Speaker 1: a well known marker of systemic inflammation. And actually you
Speaker 1: may have heard me talked about when I have my
Speaker 1: open heart surgery, my sea reactive protein was through the roof,
Speaker 1: absolutely through the roof, came down quite quickly and not reflected. Actually,
Speaker 1: how that I felt. Now, reducing sea reactive protein is
Speaker 1: a big, big win now. They also measured a couple
Speaker 1: of other inflammatory markers, TNF alpha and interlooking six and
Speaker 1: the results there were a bit more nuanced significant changes overall,
Speaker 1: but there were some sex specific differences with reductions noted
Speaker 1: particularly in females, and interlogun six is an interesting one.
Speaker 1: T and f Offha is an inflammatory molecule, but interlog
Speaker 1: in six can be pro inflammatory, but if it's produced
Speaker 1: from biokine, that's anti inflammatory. So that may be why
Speaker 1: that was a bit more nuanced, because some of that
Speaker 1: interlog in six could be the anti inflammatory stuff that's
Speaker 1: produced from contracting muscle. But anyway, let's get back to this.
Speaker 1: This is where it gets more interesting. The benefits weren't
Speaker 1: just limited inflammation, and doing resistance training also led to
Speaker 1: significant provements in both leg strength and functional capacity, which
Speaker 1: is really important as we get older because when you
Speaker 1: start to lose functional capacity, it really then starts to
Speaker 1: impact upon life. And this is really critical because maintaining
Speaker 1: that muscle strength and function is one of the best
Speaker 1: ways to preserve independence and quality of life as we age.
Speaker 1: And this is not about thinking, hey, I'm too busy
Speaker 1: because I'm at work and I've got a really busy job.
Speaker 1: I'll sort this ship retire, as I have heard people say,
Speaker 1: it becomes a lot harder if you start later. Right now,
Speaker 1: let's tie all of this in to something that you've
Speaker 1: heard me go on and on and on about, and
Speaker 1: that's about mile kinds. These signaling molecules that are released
Speaker 1: by it during an after exercise, and we know that
Speaker 1: they have a powerful anti inflammatory effect. Interloking six is
Speaker 1: one of the anti inflammatory male kinds. But myra kinds
Speaker 1: overall play a key role in regulating metabolism, and they
Speaker 1: signal pretty much all of your organs to perform better
Speaker 1: or to behave better. And when you lift weights, are
Speaker 1: you doing any type of resistance training and cardiovascular stuff
Speaker 1: as well. But your muscle is basically acting like an
Speaker 1: endocrine organ. It's a signaling organ that sends out these
Speaker 1: mild kinds and they help our systemic inflammation. They also
Speaker 1: support fat metabolism, and they improve the health of your
Speaker 1: immune system, your cardio your cardiovascular system. They improve your
Speaker 1: insulin sensitivity, your bone and blood vessels, and even get
Speaker 1: into the brain and improve brain function. So instant training
Speaker 1: is not just about getting big muscles. It's actually about
Speaker 1: creating a biological environment that helps us to age better.
Speaker 1: And if you're somebody who doesn't do a lot of
Speaker 1: this stuff or doesn't do and doesn't know where to start,
Speaker 1: actually starting with anything. You can use bands, you can
Speaker 1: use wait stuff, you can use freeways, you can use machines.
Speaker 1: You don't need to be deadlifting one hundred kilos, but
Speaker 1: you certainly want to start working towards that and consistency
Speaker 1: and progression progressive overload, that's really what you're looking at
Speaker 1: doing here. Worth noting if we go back to this
Speaker 1: study that the improvements in seriactive protein, that key inflammatory marker,
Speaker 1: were most pronounced in women, and this suggests that resistance
Speaker 1: training could be particularly beneficial for postmenopausal women. And if
Speaker 1: you haven't listened with doctor Stacy Simms, who is the
Speaker 1: world leader in and particularly around perry and postmenopausal women,
Speaker 1: she is very very forthright that all postmenopausal women should
Speaker 1: be lifting heavy shit. And here's another good reason why.
Speaker 1: It really does seem to have even bigger effects on
Speaker 1: inflammation and therefore not going to affect to inflammation related
Speaker 1: diseases for postmenopausal women. So the key takeaway here is
Speaker 1: that exercise and particularly from this perspective, resus is going
Speaker 1: to help you not only add years to your life,
Speaker 1: but add life to your years, right, so that quality
Speaker 1: of life really is very very key. So go lift
Speaker 1: some heavy shit. Catch you next time,