Exercise: The Modern-Day Fountain of Youth Part 2

Here are my 3 kiddos in case you haven't met them. Logan (left), Charli (center), Blakely (right)

​In the words of my 9-year-old son, Sup Ladies?

Okay he doesn’t say that - YET! ( Fingers crossed he becomes a ladies man) He does say, what’s up guys. and I'll continue off that.

I hope you have had a great week. Truly I want to thank all you that read last week’s blog, it gives me a reason to continue nerding out and using this brain of mine that up to last week was just collecting dust and cobwebs. 
 
This past week was a good one for the family, we spent some time with friends, we FINALLY finished our X- Men marathon – I didn’t realize there were so many of them. Lastly, we ended the week with the OG of all superhero movies, Iron Man. We hope to continue this Marvel marathon this weekend, it will surely take us a year to finish them all. I hope all of you had similar relaxing weekends. If your kid is in the middle of sports, I just want to say, you’ll get through this- I’m praying for you.
 
Last week we covered exercise and its effects on our skin. This week we are looking internal. As you know by now, our bodies are amazing! The way it adjusts, evolves, and changes during our lifetime. From Birth to adolescent growth, to puberty, to adulthood, my gosh our bodies are truly amazing *snorts in geek, pushes up glasses* - I can go on and on. One thing our body does is create senescent cells in response to cellular stress. These are cells that remain alive but no longer divide. The reason the body does this- again amazing- is to protect us from cells with DNA damage that can cause potentially harmful mutations. In short, this process protects us from “bad cells” dividing and spreading disease.
 
While this is great for us in our youth, unfortunately as we get older these senescent cells do more harm than good. When they accumulate in excess these cells release inflammatory molecules that damage the tissues around it. This contributes to many of the age-related complications we develop in our old age. Conditions like Arthritis, Cardiovascular disease, and the worst neurodegenerative disorders (Alzimers, Parkinsons, MS, ALS).
It's scary right? How something the body does to protect us will harm us in the long run. 
 
Okay stop being depressed, this is where I – rather I’ll let Blake (my middle daughter) sing you her favorite song.
“Hey dear, don’t you fear, remember that your friends are near” – or whatever that dumb Super Kitties song says.
 
Your friend Exercise is the friend that is near in that stupid song. This study is very new it’s not even a year old, but it’s exciting research for trainers such as myself. *Geeks out again* This study involved almost 1400 men and women; it measured the harmful toxins released by the senescent cells in each person. These are the same toxins that contribute to age related complications. 
 
Okay, this is the good stuff, after 12 months they found a significant reduction in these “toxin levels” at 24 months the reduction of these same toxins was drastic. Drastic to a level that we can say with certainty that exercise will combat the effects of these senescent cells. 
 
Research has also shown exercise will lead to a decrease in the need for the body to produce these cells. If that isn’t reason enough to add exercise as a daily routine, here’s this- exercise in fact can eliminate and get rid of senescent cells through a process called senolysis.
 
Guys, I don’t know about you, but I know I’m gonna stay pretty- my mommy told me so- the things I worry about most is developing an age-related condition. Knowing exercise will reduce the amount of cells that lead to this, reduce the toxins already in my body from the past and completely eliminate them from my body makes me want to exercise 7 days a week. I hope you feel the same, share this someone you care about and encourage them to begin exercising. We all want our loved ones to grow old with us and stay free from complications.
 
I love you guys, thanks for reading.