Mark’s Daily Apple

The Role of Lean Muscle Mass and Organ Reserve in Aging17

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*There is no correlation between talons and organ reserve.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the question of longevity. This past week an article discussed the role of exercise in “biological aging,” the relative age of a person based on biomarkers (determined by telomere length in this study), rather than simple chronology.

To add to this discussion, I want to offer up a medically accepted dimension of biological aging that hasn’t gotten as much press lately. Lean muscle mass in happy tandem with organ reserve are two defining characteristics of both good health and longevity.

Have you ever heard someone say that a person died of “old age” or “natural causes”? Essentially, the person died as a result of the logical end of the aging process, the diminishment of organ reserve and corresponding muscle mass that supported his/her physical functioning.

Let’s look closer.

First, we’re talking skeletal muscle mass here, the stuff we use or lose with age. We associate muscle mass with strength and functionality, but muscle also provides metabolic reserve. Muscle produces proteins and metabolites in response to physical trauma. This response is essential to the body’s efforts to achieve recovery and resume homeostasis. With the loss of muscle mass, we lose this metabolic reservoir.

Organ reserve refers to the functional capacity of our organs to support life. When we’re young, our organs have many times the capacity that it takes to simply function. Factors that stress those organs, like illness, injury and toxicity we encounter in our environments (pesticides, etc.), test the organs, but because they have substantial reserve, don’t tax their limits. As we age, this reserve diminishes, and the organs become truly stressed by these same factors. We simply don’t bounce back the way we used to.

Now, the interesting thing is that lean muscle mass and organ reserve have a convenient correlation. Skeletal muscle mass and organ reserve, unless serious disease or trauma targets one or the other, generally tend to correspond throughout life.

The diminishment of organ reserve and lean muscle mass is somewhat genetically influenced, but as we say here at MDA time and again, the expression of your genes depends on the interaction between your genetic blueprint and your personal environment and lifestyle. This means that our efforts throughout life to build and maintain muscle mass tend to improve or retain not just muscle mass but the function of other tissue as well, including the function of vital organs like the heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. And vice-versa. It’s a widely accepted assertion that 75 percent of our health and life expectancy after age 40 is determined by environmental factors, including the impact of our daily lifestyle choices. Now there’s a reason to get off the couch.

So, what can you do to retain and even build lean muscle mass throughout your life and maintain the vitality of your organs? Let’s explore.

Prevent Inflammation
You guessed it: anti-inflammatory diet. Bad carbs! Down trans fats! Those trans fat encourage oxidative stress throughout the body. Grains and sugars not only cause inflammation, which perpetually taxes your organs, they throw off your hormone levels. And, yup, optimum hormone levels are key to 1) maintaining and building lean muscle mass and 2) supporting the functional health of the body’s organs. There’s just no getting around it. What’s healthy/unhealthy for one part of the body will be the same for the whole body. It’s the beauty of the design, I say. And it holds us accountable - without exception.

What would an MDA entry be without the requisite push for veggies, veggies, veggies. We’ll stump for fruits as well. Anti-oxidants and nutrients galore now will mean compound interest later. Every cell in your body, not to mention your older, future self, will thank you for the investment.

Get Protein!
A study at University of Texas at Galveston had us all cheering over its findings that older people have the same capacity as their younger counterparts for converting protein-rich food into muscle. Older men and women in this country, countless nutrition studies suggest, eat less protein than the average person. At the time of life when protein plays a more essential role than ever, older men and women typically reduce their protein intake. Take this as the perfect incentive to belly up to the barbeque!

Take Omega-3 Supplements (from fish oil)
While we’re on the subject of protein, omega-3s from fish oil in particular can enhance the above conversion process of food protein to muscle protein. This finding is good news for young and old alike.

Furthermore, omega-3s reduce inflammation and thin the blood, which puts less stress on the heart and other organs. The less stress we put on the organs, the longer they are able to maintain their vitality.

Limit Exposure to Toxins
You’ve heard me spout off about the importance of organic foods, and there’s good reason (and science) behind these concerns. Yet I also understand (in part through the great comments left by you, our MDA community) that organics aren’t always available and, if they are, are often cost-prohibitive. If you’re able to do organics, go for it. But rest assured that even if you can’t, a healthy produce-rich diet has plenty of protective factors of its own.

Additionally, toxins in food are only a small part of the picture. Give you liver, among other organs, a break and take the time to use protective gear when working on the house or when dealing with toxins in the workplace. Look for small ways to limit unnecessary exposure to chemicals in your day to day life (e.g. install a water filter, etc.).

Exercise-Moderately, Please!
We can’t possibly say this enough: we’re talking about lots of moderate activity coupled with short spurts of high energy output, anaerobic activity. (See my entries on sprints for some ideas.) Nothing beats weight-bearing anaerobic activity for building muscle mass.

You’ve likely heard me say it before: endless cardio isn’t your friend. Chronic, high level training raises cortisol levels, which can deplete muscle and taxes the body’s organs and immune function that support them. If you’re talking about maintaining and building lean muscle mass and supporting the vitality of your organs, rethink the cardio craze you see around you at the gym.

So, now we turn it over to our good readers. Your comments, observations, questions? Thanks for your contributions, and be well!

independentman, 416style Flickr Photos (CC)

Further Reading:

Dear Mark: Pondering Protein

Dumb Little Man: Top 5 Muscle Tips for a Buff Body

Sponsor note:
This post was brought to you by the Damage Control Master Formula, independently proven as the most comprehensive high-potency antioxidant multivitamin available anywhere. With the highest antioxidant per dollar value and a complete anti-aging, stress, and cognition profile, the Master Formula is truly the only multivitamin supplement you will ever need. Toss out the drawers full of dozens of different supplements with questionable potency and efficacy and experience the proven Damage Control difference!

Technorati Tags: protein, muscle, organ reserve, anti-aging, longevity, telomeres

Posted: Aging, Diet, Fitness, Health, How To, Nutrition, Personal Improvement, Prevention

Research Suggests Exercise Motivation Associated with Body Weight2

Don’t call me a fat rat!

New research conducted by researchers at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada suggests that thinner people are more motivated to exercise than their heavier peers.

In a study initially devised to determine how much rats are willing to pay for an opportunity to exercise, the researchers found that slimmer rats were more motivated to work out than their larger peers. In addition, the more weight the rat lost, the more motivated it was to hop on the wheel, so much so that some of the rats in the study quite literally exercised and starved themselves to death (a phenomenon that also occurs in our society in the form of activity- or exercise-anorexia).

Noting that these findings run counter to the widely-held belief that people are motivated to exercise in order to lose weight, lead researcher Terry Belke suggests that “as our body weight goes down, our motivation to run goes up and presumably the rewarding aspects of running tend to also go up.” Based on this theory, he surmises that “the strongest and most powerful determinant of our motivation to run is body weight.”

Circling back to examine the reasons why the rats were motivated to run, Belke notes that it may stem from situations in nature whereby food becomes unavailable and an individual might be forced to become active and relocate in order to increase its odds for survival. However, he notes that in today’s human society, it is “a mechanism that is backfiring” since tracking down food can be as easy as picking up a phone and ordering from a take-out menu!

Speaking to how these study findings translate to our society’s overweight population, he notes that “being socially and cognitively motivated might be enough to get you out and buy a gym membership or a piece of exercise equipment, but unless your physiology is essentially supporting and sustaining that, you may not be able to maintain the exercise.”

While we can all attest to the fact that seeing our workouts pay off - whether this is in terms of inches lost, strength gains, or simply perfecting that pull-up - is certainly motivating, it’s interesting to see just how much it has to do with our long-term commitment to exercise!

Furthermore, it’s kind of comforting to know that even members of the rat community worry about looking a little lardy on the treadmill!

What do you make of this study? Hit us up with a comment!

via The Canadian Press

Grace Fell Flickr Photo (CC)

Further Reading:

Some Extreme Fitness Motivation

Stay Active This Winter

60 in 3: Motivation is Key

Technorati Tags: exercise motivation

Posted: Fitness, Health, Worker Bees' Weekly Bites

Low Carb, High Protein Diet Reduces Seizure Rate in Epilepsy Sufferers7

A study in the February issue of Epilepsia suggests that a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet can significantly reduce the number of seizures in adult epileptics.

For almost a century, physicians have prescribed low carbohydrate diets to control epilepsy in children. Among the more popular diets is the ketogenic diet, which requires a period of initial fasting, followed by a diet that severely restricts carbohydrate intake and reduces fluid intake.

In the most recent study to test the value of similar diets on adults, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore assigned 30 epileptic adults ranging in age from 18 to 53 year to follow a “modified Atkins diet” that restricted carbohydrate intake to about 15 grams per day. In order to qualify for the program, participants had to have tried at least two anticonvulsant medications without success and have logged an average of 10 seizures per week.

After one month, half of the patients following the diet had experienced a 50 percent reduction in the frequency of their seizures, a trend that continued into the third month when one-third of patients reported similar reductions in seizure frequency. However, for some patients, the diet proved too restrictive, and by month three, one-third of participants had opted out of the program. The remaining 14 patients who followed the program for the full six-month study period, meanwhile, chose to continue, an occurrence that the study’s lead researcher says is a “testament to how effective the diet worked to treat their epilepsy.”

Speculating on the mechanism behind the success of the diet, the researchers suggest that low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets may promote the build-up of ketone compounds - a byproduct of fat metabolism - in the body, which play some part in reducing or completely eliminating seizures.

Acknowledging that the diet may not be a “good fit for all patients” in terms of its restrictive nature, the study’s lead researcher notes that “it opens up another therapeutic option for adults trying to decide between medication, surgery and electrical stimulation to treat intractable seizures.”

Epileptic or not, this study provides further reinforcement that a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet promotes optimum health. Our only point of contention with the study? The fact that the researcher thinks such a diet is restrictive! Why, with a little creativity, there’s plenty of ways to load-up on low-carbohydrate, high-protein fare - with nary a sugar substitute in sight!

via Science Daily

happy snappr Flickr Photo (CC)

Further Reading:

Mark’s Carb Pyramid

FitSugar: Epilepsy Myth

Technorati Tags: low carb, high protein, carbohydrates, Epilepsia, seizures, epilepsy, Atkins, epileptic, ketones

Posted: Carbs, Health, Prevention, Worker Bees' Weekly Bites

The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol19

That makes it easy.

With all the talk of fighting, battling, combating and beating cholesterol into submission, you’d think it had a black plastic body suit and James Earl Jones’ voice. Big Pharma has, dutifully created quite an arsenal for our supposed defense, and the medical community has been a willing faction, delivering the rhetoric that would incite us all to pick up arms. Now if only we could put down the Big Macs. And the Ding Dongs, HoHos, Twinkies and…you get the point.

But the insidious rogue, that menacing villain isn’t to be found at the helm of the Death Star. Turns out, there is an enemy within and it’s not even cholesterol. Before you fall to your knees, rip your shirt and gnash your teeth, you might want to consider news you don’t hear often enough: the much aligned compound in question is absolutely essential to your physical, psychological and cognitive functioning.

Yes, the message these days seems to be that no number is too low when it comes to cholesterol (except HDL but we’ll get to that later). I’d like to offer a deeper look into the issue, user-friendly enough but more complex and contentious than you’ll get from the commercial sound bytes telling you to talk to your doctor about blah, blah, blah. Consider it one of MDA’s definitive guides that we’re happy to serve up for our gregarious and always thoughtful community.

Excuse me, have you met cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a waxy, charming lipid gracing every cell’s membrane and our blood plasma. Its jobs, which are many, include insulating neurons, building and maintaining cellular walls, metabolizing fat soluble vitamins, producing bile, and kick-starting the body’s synthesis of many hormones, including the sex hormones. Cool stuff actually.

Given all the work cholesterol has to do, the liver is careful to ensure the body always has enough, producing some 1000-1400 milligrams of it each day. In comparison, the 300 milligram recommended limit for dietary cholesterol (your tax dollars at work in the USDA) is a drop in the bucket. And get this: our livers come with feedback mechanisms (at no additional cost) that regulate cholesterol production in response to our dietary intake. When we eat more, it makes less, and vice-versa. Imagine that!

(Interesting note: While animal products like meat, eggs and dairy, are far and away the primary source of dietary cholesterol, plants contain trace amounts of cholesterol and cholesterol-like substances called phytosterols, which may help lower blood or “serum” cholesterol. Not that that matters, as we shall soon see.

So, what’s with all the acronyms on my cholesterol profile, you ask. Let’s take a look. First, there are high density lipoproteins (HDL). (Lipoproteins are spherical fat particles with water-soluble proteins around their exterior. They transport cholesterol). HDL: everybody loves this guy. He has the popular job of transferring cholesterol from the body’s tissues back to the liver. It’s basically the end of the line with this route, and the liver then excretes it through bile. HDL is the one to naturally help get rid of excess cholesterol when the body’s done with it, hence his universal popularity. Some cholesterologists (just made that up) even refer to him as Nature’s garbage truck.

Next, there are low density lipoproteins, LDL. LDL is a lipoprotein and delivery man as well. He has the disgraced job of transporting cholesterol after production from the liver to the body’s tissues. Remember, this is an important job! That cholesterol has a honey-do list a mile long.

Ironically, it turns out that it’s not the cholesterol part of the LDL or HDL moiety that is dangerous, but the actual lipoprotein part. Unfortunately, once medicine had found a way to differentiate between the amount of HDL and LDL in a cost-effective blood test, it was the cholesterol part that got the short end of the deal.

The latest research into LDL shows that there are actually sub-categories of this cholesterol transporter and that some are more dangerous than others. The larger, more billowy LDL particles are now thought to have little or no significant role in heart disease. On the other hand, the smaller, dense LDL particles are the ones believed to be most involved in the process of inflammation that begins the atherosclerosis cascade. And wouldn’t you know it, but it’s a diet high in simple carbs that most readily promotes the formation of these small LDL particles! Unfortunately, this important distinction is probably something your doctor knows very little about, yet it’s the number of small particle LDL that might be the most important reading in any cholesterol test. So a total cholesterol of, say, 230 or even 250 might not be dangerous at all if your HDL is high and your small particle LDL is low.

Before we move on, let’s give brief mention to triglycerides. Triglycerides are essentially the form that fat takes as it travels to the body’s tissues through the bloodstream. The relationship between triglycerides and cholesterol is more of an association. A high triglyceride level, which is unequivocally fueled by a high carb diet, is very often a marker for other problems in the body, particularly insulin resistance (and accompanying risk of diabetes) as well as inflammation (with its risk of heart disease). High levels are often seen with low HDL cholesterol. Once again, the high carb diet wreaks havoc.

The Rise of Cholesterol Panic

Heart disease took off in the early part of the twentieth century, and doctors frantically searched for the cause throughout the next several decades. Tests in the fifties initially showed an association between early death by heart disease and fat deposits and lesions along artery walls. Because cholesterol was found to be present in those deposits (of course it would!) and because researchers had previously associated familial hypercholesterolaemia (hereditary high blood cholesterol) with heart disease, they concluded that cholesterol must be the culprit. In fact, what happens is that in response to an inflammatory situation, the body uses cholesterol as a “band-aid” to temporarily cover any lesions in the arterial wall. In the event the inflammation is resolved, the band-aid goes away and repair takes place. No harm, no foul. Unfortunately, in most cases, the inflammation proceeds, the cholesterol plaque is eventually acted on by macrophages and is oxidized to a point at which it takes up more space in the artery, slows arterial flow and eventually can break loose to form a clot. And all this time the cholesterol was just trying to be the good guy! Blaming cholesterol for all this is like blaming a cut finger on all the band-aids you have lying around your house.

Death from heart disease, according to the CDC, has declined over 50% since its peak in the 1950s. The success is attributed to a number of factors, including a decrease in smoking and better diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure. Included in the list of factors was the opportunity for public education regarding the scientific findings/theories related to cholesterol; however, measures (including CDC estimates) of dietary saturated fat intake show that intake has generally stayed the same or risen.

But the dietary cholesterol message stuck.

Big Pharma To The Rescue!
Early drugs that “battled” high cholesterol prevented its absorption in the digestive tract. The side effects on the digestive system were unpleasant enough and the results modest enough that the drugs never garnered much support from either side of the prescription pad. Enter statins. Statins inhibited the natural production of cholesterol. Side effects were not as immediately noticeable or uncomfortable, and the results were quite good (at least at lowering cholesterol). (The recently beleaguered Vytorin and Zetia combined statin actions with a substance that reduces absorption of dietary cholesterol, preventing your body from trying to compensate for the lower natural cholesterol production.)

But what about the body’s natural impetus to produce a given and necessary amount of cholesterol? What happens to the parts of the body that need the cholesterol? What about the liver’s regulating mechanism? What happens when you mess with evolution? Exactly. Those are the sorts of questions that get thrown aside when you’re riding Big Pharma’s cholesterol hobby horse.

What Are the Problems With This (”Lipid”) Model?

Oh, boy. There’s the million dollar question.

First off, let’s go back to the evolutionary question. As a naturally self-regulating system, the body will react if it doesn’t have enough cholesterol (yes, the body’s definition of enough and not Merck’s). If there’s not enough cholesterol, the alarm goes off, strobe lights flash and the body goes into crisis mode. Corticoid hormones coordinate a redistribution of cholesterol, a triage of sorts in which cholesterol is rationed among the many areas of the body that need it. Nonetheless, the body is now working under hardship conditions.

Adequate cholesterol isn’t available for the body’s repair system, for the uptake of serotonin, for the full initiation of Vitamin D and hormone production and their regulation of blood sugar and inflammation, etc., etc. What does your logic tell you here? Yup, nothing is running the way it should.

Let me also add that everyone’s cholesterol profile is going to be different, no matter what. And I acknowledge that a very small percentage of people out there genuinely have *true* hereditary high blood cholesterol, familial hypercholesterolemia, a metabolic condition with impaired or even lack of ability to metabolize cholesterol. This condition can have serious health consequences. By the way, this condition, in its heterozygous form affects at most 1 in 500 people. Total serum cholesterol in these folks is in the 400 mg/dl range (as opposed to the 200 recommended). The homozygous form affects about 1 in 250,000. You likely don’t know anyone in this category because their disorder almost always ends their lives at a very young age.

I mention familial hypercholesterolemia because I want to distinguish it from the claim made by Big Pharma ads that you may have higher cholesterol because people in your family did, and - can you believe it - their company is here to help. Duh! Everyone’s family influences cholesterol profiles. It’s, in small part, genetic. No big worry there. Just because you come from a family with “elevated” cholesterol doesn’t mean you have the familial hypercholesterolemia metabolic disorder. You can pretty much bet a whole lot o’ money on the likelihood that your cholesterol profile - good or bad - has more to do with learned behaviors like diet and exercise. “Elevated” cholesterol doesn’t equate with metabolic disorder.

Officer, You Got the Wrong Guy!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Sound and reliable medical research hasn’t proven that lowering (or low) cholesterol in and of itself reduces risk of death from heart disease across a population. Yes, there is always that single isolated guy who throws off the curve, but he (or she) is a statistical anomaly and doesn’t negate the legitimacy of the model. For instance, the Japanese people of Okinawa are among the healthiest in the world. Their heart disease rate is extremely low, but they tend to have “elevated” cholesterol levels.

The fact is, half of all first time heart attack sufferers have a perfectly “normal” cholesterol profile. What does this tell you? There must be some other piece here behind the “other half” and, I would solidly argue, behind the first half. Cholesterol is a red herring.

It all boils down to inflammation. Inflammation is the number one factor in heart disease. This is an accepted fact now, but it still gets little attention and no real prevention or treatment. Think about it: you have your cholesterol levels checked every five years or more if your profile is “problematic.” When do you have biomarkers for inflammation checked? Unless you’ve had a heart attack or been diagnosed with a serious medical condition, probably never.

Inflammation. What is it caused by? Not fat, but carbohydrates. Yes, sugars and processed carbs are highest on the list of perpetrators here, but grains and starches as a whole contribute to the problem. LDL rises directly not with the amount of saturated fat you eat but with rising levels of inflammation caused by carbs and trans fats.

Oxidation. Furthermore, nearly every study suggests that LDL is only a true threat when it’s oxidized. What oxidizes it? Free radicals. We’re talking trans fats primarily, that beast of an additive found in countless food products (as opposed to foods). What counteracts free radicals (because we all naturally have some in us)? Anti-oxidants: veggies and fruits, of course, as well as nuts, olive oil, etc. Consider also a broad-based multi-antioxidant supplement containing those nutrients shown to decrease oxidation.

Back to the red herring issue. Substantially “elevated” cholesterol, low HDL or high LDL might be reason to give you pause, but not for the reason you might think. The number can tell you that something is amiss, but they’re a symptom of the larger concern rather than the main issue itself. Cholesterol profile can be impacted by other conditions such as hypothyroidism, untreated diabetes or pre-diabetes, pregnancy (surprise!), lactation, stress, liver conditions, heart disease (symptom, not cause of), etc. Talk to you doctor about what your numbers mean in the grand scheme of your health. And see if you can get a read on other markers, like C-reactive protein (an inflammatory indicator) and those small particle LDL numbers.

How to Maintain True Heart Health

Now that we’ve conquered the cholesterol frenzy (because the frenzy itself is the real threat), let’s get to the genuine issue of maintaining heart health. Maintaining heart health is about keeping inflammation at bay. As we say here at MDA, that means an anti-inflammatory diet (with exercise), and primal nutrition fits the bill: copious amounts and variety of veggies, fruits, good quality meats, healthy fats and proteins.

Also, plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly fish oil, will thin the blood and help prevent clotting, which along with atherosclerosis (inflammation related), is a serious set up for heart disease and stroke. Fish oil also happens to generally lower triglycerides and increase “good” HDL.

Read up in our MDA archives for additional info on inflammation and healthy living. Thanks for tuning in.

sugar freak, mac vegetarian, Sean Munson, maxgiani, mammabrarian, aussiegall Flickr Photos (CC)

Further Reading:

The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar and Type 2 Diabetes

Vytorin: Big Blow for Big Pharma

PharmaLot: Who Needs Those Cholesterol Pills Anyway?

Sponsor note:
This post was brought to you by the Damage Control Master Formula, independently proven as the most comprehensive high-potency antioxidant multivitamin available anywhere. With the highest antioxidant per dollar value and a complete anti-aging, stress, and cognition profile, the Master Formula is truly the only multivitamin supplement you will ever need. Toss out the drawers full of dozens of different supplements with questionable potency and efficacy and experience the proven Damage Control difference!

Technorati Tags: cholesterol, HDL, LDL, inflammation, free radicals, oxidation, co Q10, fish oil, triglycerides, fat

Posted: Aging, Big Pharma, Carbs, Definitive Guides, Diet, Health, Nutrition, Prevention, Primal Health, Sisson Said What?

Healthy Tastes Great!2

This versatile veggie is great in so many ways. Grilled, boiled, baked, broiled, steamed, sauteed, pureed or, if delicate enough, simply raw - it is hard to go wrong with this delectable vegetable.

Asparagus with Smoked Salmon and Poached Egg

Fresh Asparagus Soup

Garlic and Lemon Grilled Asparagus

More Healthy Tastes Great!

Technorati Tags: asparagus, salad, soup

Posted: Diet, Healthy Tastes Great!, Nutrition, Recipes