NMU 167 – Modest Amount of Exercise Stimulates Replacement of Old Worn Out Muscle Tissue with New Youthful Muscle Tissue: A Key Factor in Anti-Aging and Maintaining a Functional Body

Nutrition / Natural Medicine Update No 167 (June 10, 2020)

with Dr. James Meschino

Topic: Modest Amount of Exercise Stimulates Replacement of Old Worn Out Muscle Tissue with New Youthful Muscle Tissue: A Key Factor in Anti-Aging and Maintaining a Functional Body

Source: The FASEB Journal – Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (March 2020)

Exercise can not only increase the amount muscle or lean mass you have on your body and support your bone density, but researchers have recently learned that even a modest amount of exercise (10 minutes per day) helps the body tag old worn-out muscle tissue and replace it with new, youthful muscle tissue. This is another important way that regular exercise reverses the aging process and keeps our bodies more functional as the years go by. This new research indicates that a person who exercises not only is likely to maintain their lean or muscle mass as the years go by, but also that the muscle tissue they have on their body is much younger than that of a sedentary person who may have the same amount of muscle tissue. And younger muscle tissue will always perform better than older muscle tissue; it’s less prone to tears and injuries, it heals better if an injury occurs and it adapts better to unexpected exertional challenges.

This important discovery, published in March of 2020, stems from research performed at the University of Copenhagen, and in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sydney Australia, where muscle biopsy and blood samples were examined before and after human subjects performed a 10-minute ride on a stationary bike at an intense pace. The researchers showed that an exercise session as short as 10-minutes can stimulate the action of an enzyme called ubiquitin, which attaches itself or tags worn out muscle tissue. This tagging process sets into motion the process of breaking down old worn-out muscle tissue (protein) and stimulates the body to produce new, more youthful, and highly functional muscle tissue to replace it. This is yet another way that a modest amount of regular exercise can slow and/or reverse certain aspects of the aging process and keep us more vital and functional. If you exercise regularly, the muscle tissue you have on your body is chronologically younger than a person with the same amount of muscle mass, who is sedentary.

I’ve included the references for this information in the text below.

References:

1. Benjamin L. Parker, Bente Kiens, Jørgen F. P. Wojtaszewski, Erik A. Richter, David E. James. Quantification of exercise–regulated ubiquitin signaling in human skeletal muscle identifies protein modification cross-talk via NEDDylation. The FASEB Journal, 2020; 34 (4): 59 https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fj.202000075R

2. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200528082552.htm

Eat Smart, Live Well, Look Great,

Dr. Meschino