Archive for October 2011
At the core, all people ultimately pursue three things for fulfillment in life- happiness of the mind, health of the body, and hope in the spirit.
Gary Gray
Your Body’s Blood Sugar Tolerance
“Glucose tolerance” means your body’s ability to control blood sugar (glucose). Aging takes a toll on your ability to use this sugar from your bloodstream, which can lead to hypertension. Impaired glucose tolerance displays no symptoms so most people don’t even realize they are at risk.
By age 70, approximately 30% of women and 20% of men (I’m betting these numbers are higher since this article came out!) have an abnormal glucose tolerance level, increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes. This developing blood sugar intolerance is among the most devastating changes associated with aging.
Here are three factors associated with glucose metabolism we have control over and can change:
*increased body fat
*inactivity
*a diet high in fat
Combining a healthy nutritious diet, low in fat and high in vegetables, whole grains and lean protein, with regular exercise can often transform what was previously an insufficient amount of insulin- which stimulates muscle cells to utilize glucose from the blood- into an adequate amount.
Strength training exercises are especially critical to reinvigorating your body’s glucose tolerance and lowering your diabetes risk; besides helping to lower body fat, strength training has been shown to increase your muscles’ insulin sensitivity.
reference: Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter
To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France
Your Aerobic Capacity
What is your aerobic capacity? It’s how much oxygen your body can process within a given time.
For optimal aerobic capacity you need healthy lungs, a strong heart, and an effective vascular network. This is another biomarker that naturally declines with age. By age 65, both men and women have typically 30-40% less aerobic capacity than young adults. But, older people who exercise regularly lose less.
Researchers have found that while both young and older people benefit from regular aerobic exercise, the positive changes in older people come almost entirely in the muscles ability to utilize oxygen (oxidative capacity), rather than in the heart or cardiovascular system. Here’s another reason why you need strength training, as well as aerobic activity in your exercise program.
When you build muscle, you create more muscle cells to consume oxygen. The more demand for oxygen from your muscles, the greater utilization of oxygen and your aerobic capacity.
To learn more: Biomarkers: The 10 Determinants of Aging You Can Control by William Evans, PhD, and Irwin Rosenburg, MD
It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you are not.
Denis Waitley
