Natural Way Health Blog

Biomarker 3 – Basal Metabolic Rate

“Metabolism” refers to the chemical processes in your body that build and destroy tissue and release energy, thereby generating heat. “Basal” means at baseline or at rest. So your basal metabolism is the rate of your body chemistry when your exertion is minimal. It’s usually measured just as you wake from sleep, which is about the same as when you’re sprawled out on, the sofa watching television.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – or caloric expenditure at rest – falls with age. Study after study has tried to quantify the extent of this BMR slowdown. Researchers always came up with widely divergent figures until they realized that a person’s lean-body mass is the key to compiling a definitive figure.

OK – great news – but how do we combat it. Sounding a  bit repetitious now? EXERCISE.

There is no substitute for exercise. If you want to stay healthy and slow down the ageing process then you have to exercise. OK there are some people who will struggle to walk and some who just can’t seem to get out of the chair. For them it may be too late but it has to be worth trying. Exercise is what gives you health and now it also seems to be a component in slowing down ageing.

By the way I’m not suggesting joining a gym or taking up running a half marathon every day. Exercise needs to be tailored to your level of health and fitness and needs to be appropriate to your age. You should seek guidance from your GP and take things slowly. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Biomarker 2 – Strength

Here’s the problem:

As we age, we lose whole motor units (a measurement of muscle). In cross-sectional studies, it’s been estimated that over the 40-year span between age 30 and 70, people experience a 20 percent decrease in the number of motor units in their thigh, for example. Similar decreases are sustained in both large and small muscle groups all over our body.

Gradual muscle loss is the catalyst for a number of other age-related changes in your body. These adverse changes are . . .

• a slowdown in your metabolism
• a steady increase in body fat
• a declining aerobic capacity
• a reduced blood-sugar tolerance
• a continuing loss in bone density

So how do we prevent or reduce the loss of muscle.

• We exercise what we have – use it or lose it
• we give the body the nutrition it deserves and requires – protein, fats and oils, carbohydrates, Vitamins and Minerals
  • we either get these elements from our diets (good quality natural food) and supplement where necessary with concentrated food source supplements
• we take regular and frequent light exercise
  • walking,
  • breathing – deep cyclical breathing is hugely important and beneficial
  • mobility – exercise the joints and muscles through their full range of movement
  • control exercises – practice manual and physical tasks that require fine muscle control – knitting,
• make exercise a priority – 10 minutes walking twice a day is enough for most people to improve their health

Muscles will only strengthen if the exercise adds:

• Resistance e.g. adding more weight
• Number of repetitions with a particular weight
• Number of sets of the exercise

Again the saying Use it or lose it is just about where it is at.