Pill Replicates Exercise

A drug has been identified by researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) that replicates the benefits of exercise on mice’s bones and muscles.

You can look and feel better by keeping up a regular exercise schedule, but did you know that exercise also supports bone and muscle health? Locomotor fragility, which affects people who are unable to exercise, causes the muscles and bones to deteriorate. Recently, Japanese researchers discovered a new drug that, by producing effects comparable to those of exercise, may help treat locomotor frailty.

Physical inactivity can result in a weakening of the muscles (known as sarcopenia) and bones (known as osteoporosis). Exercise dispels this frailty by boosting muscular strength and suppressing bone resorption while simultaneously promoting bone formation. 

Exercise therapy, however, cannot be used in every clinical situation. When patients have dementia, cerebrovascular disease, or are already bedridden, drug therapy may be very helpful for treating sarcopenia and osteoporosis. However, there is no one drug that targets both tissues at the same time.  READ MORE...

Exercising

We know that spending hour after hour sitting down isn't good for us, but just how much exercise is needed to counteract the negative health impact of a day at a desk? A 2020 study suggests about 30-40 minutes per day of building up a sweat should do it.

Up to 40 minutes of "moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity" every day is about the right amount to balance out 10 hours of sitting still, the research says – although any amount of exercise or even just standing up helps to some extent.

That's based on a meta-analysis across nine previous studies, involving a total of 44,370 people in four different countries who were wearing some form of fitness tracker.

The analysis found the risk of death among those with a more sedentary lifestyle went up as time spent engaging in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity went down.

"In active individuals doing about 30-40 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, the association between high sedentary time and risk of death is not significantly different from those with low amounts of sedentary time," the researchers wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) in 2020.

In other words, putting in some reasonably intensive activities – cycling, brisk walking, gardening – can lower your risk of an earlier death right back down to what it would be if you weren't doing all that sitting around, to the extent that this link can be seen in the amassed data of many thousands of people.  READ MORE

For Healthy-Minded Folks...

Several months ago, I decided that I would count my daily intake of calories in the hopes that I could shed/lose a dozen pounds or so that I had previously gained because of taking steroids with my chemo for over ten years (actually, it was 30 pounds).  My research revealed that if a person, my gender, age, and weight consumed over 2500 calories each day, I would gain weight and if I consumed 2000 to 2500 calories I would maintain my weight, but if I consumed 1500 to 2000 calories I would lose weight.  My initial goal was to see if I could limit my intake of calories from 1500 to 2500...

Over the course of the first month, it was discovered that consuming between 2000 to 2500 was relatively easy...  so, reducing that by up to 500 did not seem like it would be that difficult.  To help me with this process, I created a calorie counter (see below) thinking that if I recorded each day I would be more motivated to continue...



During the April, I decided to add an exercise routine to my calorie counting and started peddling on a stationary bike for 20 minutes each day.  After a week, I increased it to 30 minutes and then after another week, I increased it to 40 minutes.  After another week had passed on my 40 minute bike routine, I would peddle for 20 minutes, walk a 1/4 mile and then peddle for another 20 minutes.  A week later, it was peddle for 20, walk for 1/2 mile, and peddle for 20 again.  Then, a week after that it was peddle for 20, walk for 1/2 mile, peddle for 20, walk for 1/2 mile.

I have reached my limits so I am not going to increase anything for several weeks remaining at 40 minutes peddling at a moderate speed and walking 1 mile at a speed of 3.0...  what is interesting here, at least to me, is the fact that because of my weight, my treadmill does not operate very well at speeds lower than 3.0...  so, I have been at that speed from the getgo.  3.0 is a 20 minute mile.  BTW, my little exercise routine burns 350 calories (40 minutes peddling - 1 mile walking at 3.0)

Exercising

Did You Know???

...that the fatter you are, the more calories you burn...  of course this sounds logical after I have shared it with you...  but, one would think that the more you walk on a treadmill the more calories you burn and while that is true also...  weight also seems to be an important factor in burning calories...  however, this is not to suggest that you should bulk up now so you can burn more calories when you finally start exercising...

I have always been one for exercising or working outside at something so that I SWEAT a lot such as splitting wood with a sledge hammer and wedges or using a push mower to mow an acre lot or moving 7 rooms of furniture with just a hand truck, a sturdy rug, and a 1/2 inch nylon rope.  If that was not good enough for me, I usually would fast walk for 90 minutes around the community which included hills, some of which were fairly steep....  since a mile is covered in about 15-20 minutes, I figured I walked 4-6 miles each time...  and, I would typically walk everyday unless it was raining or snowing.

BUT, exercising is not enough to STAY HEALTHY...

If you really want to stay healthy, you must:

1. Quit smoking cigarettes, cigars, and/or marijuana
2. Quit or  substantially reduce your intact of alcohol & red meat
3. Quit eating all friend foods
4. Quit eating sweets
5. Eat more fish and chicken, turkey
6. Eat more vegetables, fruits, and nuts
7. Manage stress with exercise and/or meditation
8. Get the required hours of sleep for you age
9. See your family doctor & eye doctor annually
10. See a dentist twice a year

OR, you can just get lazy, fat, and old and die earlier than expected...