Jan 5, 2020
New Research — Older Athletes Clear Muscle Inflammation And Stay Young As 25-year Olds
It’s never too late to capture the benefits of regular exercise
Chronic inflammation makes you age faster. It also increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. It also makes you frailer more quickly. In other words, it accelerates the decline in your muscle strength.
You may know from some of my other posts that muscle strength is a biomarker for mortality and cardiovascular disease. If your skeletal muscles are relatively weak than you are more likely to die earlier than those who are stronger.
Therefore, concerning our goal of “living longer better” it would be fantastic to know how to reduce chronic inflammation.
There is good news.
Recent research found an answer
A recent research study found one answer. You may not be surprised to know that researchers found that regular exercise significantly improved the response to inflammation in older people.
The “older people” studied were in their 70s and 80s, so this is talking our language.
However, there is a catch.
You would be familiar with many articles saying that you can get “most of the benefits” of exercise by doing “as little as” a tiny amount of exercise each day, e.g. 10 minutes of walking.
You can indeed get disproportionate returns as compared to doing nothing. If you start walking and you’ve only been sitting on the couch and watching TV for the last 10 years, then to begin walking is fantastic.
And if you only begin with walking 10 minutes a day that’s also fantastic — congratulations.
But you are not going to get the promised 80% of the benefits of those who exercise more regularly and more intensely. You have to put a bit more in, to get more out.
The reality is, that those public health memes about 20 minutes of walking are guided more by PR committees then what is best for you. They know that if they suggest too much then no one will do it. Therefore, to best try to influence the population as a whole they make it very palatable.
You can do much much better if you so choose, as you’ll see below.
How did the older athletes perform?
The research in question tested older athletes, against younger athletes in their 20s.
Researchers gathered — somewhat amazingly — a test group of “men and women in their 70s or 80s who had been training continuously since the running boom of the 1970s” A unique group indeed!
The question asked was whether inflammatory responses after intense exercise in older athletes different from those in younger athletes.
A little stress and inflammation are beneficial.
Some believe the inflammation response is part of how muscles learn to grow stronger. Immediately after any bodily injury or strain, which includes strenuous exercise, inflammation helps tissues to heal and strengthen.
But if inflammation lingers and becomes chronic, it can become harmful. In muscles, chronic inflammation blocks them from growing larger and stronger after exercise.
After intense exercise, the elderly athletes showed almost as good a response to the inflammation response as younger athletes. There was a flare in inflammation in their blood and muscles, and then it was quelled by anti-inflammatory responses.
The response to inflammation was strongest in the younger athletes. The older ones responded well but took a little longer to get it back under control.
On the other hand, a group of older men who did not exercise regularly had a large flare-up in inflammation, and it remained unresolved for an extended period after exercise.
This period of extended inflammation could make them vulnerable to diseases.
Researchers believe that the flare-up in the untrained men, and their inability to dissipate the inflammation, was related to underlying chronic inflammation in their bodies.
Older people who exercised regularly had trained their bodies to respond to and control inflammation responses. Untrained older people did not exhibit this same capability.
Three actions
There are three takeaways from these results:
- Older people who have not exercised regularly should start very gently and progress with caution so as to not overload inflammation. Exercise stress will cause muscles to remain inflamed, leading to smaller muscle gains — this is to be avoided.
- This is not a warning against exercising, as continuing not to exercise means that you could remain at higher risk of carrying chronic inflammation. By exercising, your body will adapt and will become more efficient at reducing general blood and muscular inflammation.
- While walking is a good start, if you have been inactive, you should consider doing exercises to strengthen your core — when you are ready. You can prepare for this by gradually adding more intense variations to your walking routine.
It’s never too late for you to capture the benefits of regular exercise. Although you may never catch up with the older athletes, you can certainly improve your chances of living better longer.
Good luck.
You might also enjoy this: How to stay in your own home for longer living independently, starting now — do this test
Do you agree with me? Great. Tell me how you either have used or are going to use my advice above. Don’t agree with me and think I’m an idiot? That’s fine — I’m open to any constructive criticism, let me know by commenting.
I’m Walter Adamson. I write about life, health, exercise, life and cognitive fitness to help men and women over 50 live longer better.
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