Stress, Exercise, Aging and the Metabolic Syndrome

If a patient were to ask me ‘Doc give me just one thing I can do to improve my health, I would say exercise.

The word exercise brings out many negative connotations in people’s minds. Images of endless boring hours lifting metallic objects and running on treadmills flash in our minds. But that does not have to be our reality. Many of us who do not like to engage in physical activity are stuck with old negative images of what it means. When we were children and went out to play with friends or family, it never was something ‘we had to do’, it was something we wanted to do. .

Physical activity can be a fun, enriching and satisfying experience. The healing effects are more when your association to physical activity is positive. Pick an activity that that fills you with excitement and joy. For some of use that is easy and for others it needs some exploration.

Physical activity is beneficial in many ways. The most obvious reason, of course, is that it burns calories. Additionally, it increases your metabolic rate through the day, and keeps the burn on calories much after stopping the activity. Intense physical activity also releases substances called Endorphins that send a very pleasurable sensation to the brain. I suspect many of you have experienced the ‘high’ following exercise at some point in your life.

The Hormonal Response of the body to exercise is highly underappreciated but plays a key role in its benefit. Physical activity stimulates the release of Growth Hormone (GH) in the body. Levels of Growth hormone decrease with age. Injections of Growth Hormone are now being used to restore youth at a cost of about $400 a month. But do you know there are simple, powerful things you can do today to increase this important hormone of youth?

The most important ones in addition to exercise is sleep and a balanced diet with adequate, good quality protein. This is obviously something that will benefit each and every one of us, but people with Insulin Resistance are helped in one additional way: GH releases a substance called IGF-1 which is the same molecule that insulin uses to bring down blood sugar levels. So by increasing levels of GH in the body, our requirements for insulin goes down.

Stress, Exercise and the Anabolic-Catabolic Balance:

Our adrenals make hormones that are either catabolic or anabolic. Catabolic refers to the part of our metabolism where the body breaks down tissues to produce energy. It means usually a decrease in lean tissue particularly muscle. Anabolic is the opposite and refers to the processes that build up tissues and the body. Anabolic processes usually result in an increase in lean tissue.

What maintains the balance between the two is the perception of stress or that of comfort and joy. When stress hits us, our body is programmed to go into a fight or flight response. (Discussed in another blog post).

Stress hormones break down tissues in the body to release large amounts of glucose. This happens because our ancestors faced physical stress that needed an appropriate muscle response that needs higher amounts of glucose for energy. Today most of our stress is emotional not physical. There are no wild animals to fight or raging rivers to conquer. So the body is left with all this glucose in the blood and to bring that under control more insulin is released. Imagine continuous ongoing stress from work or at home. This continual release of stress hormones causes a chronic breakdown of body tissues along with release of glucose. In addition to the problem with the high insulin, it breaks down body proteins. This is a highly underappreciated factor in the development of metabolic syndrome.

This does not mean we avoid stress. It means we balance it with healing, rejuvenating activities that nourish us at every level. Stress can be an opportunity for learning and growth. But chronic negative emotions like fear, anger, resentment and dissatisfaction can translate into body lean tissue breakdown. Exercise on the other hand has an anabolic effect on the body and builds up muscles and tissues. (Please note that prolonged or extreme exercise can have an opposite effect.)

So if you are looking to enhance your health or if you have Metabolic Syndrome add some fun to your life in the form of an exercise program.

This is a modification of an article I wrote for AZ netnews and published in their August September issue.

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