Exercise and Aging
Mon, December 14, 2020 
Exercise is good for you…. Right? Everyone knows that. But is there such a thing as too much exercise, especially as we age?
The more I read on the subject, coupled with actual changes I am experiencing, the more I am convinced that you can “Over” exercise.
Especially when you really start getting up there in years. In less than two months I will be 85. I am both physically and mentally fit. For the last five years I have maintained my weight at 150 lb. (68 kg.) (My racing weight as a teenager.)
The only medication I take is a low dose for my Parkinson's, but I do take a lot of supplements. I still hold on to my mistrust of Doctors, Big Pharma, the Food Industry, and Government of course, only because they allow the aforementioned to operate with impunity.
I like and respect my own doctor, but trust him? Hell no. I go in for an annual physical, when he does blood and urine tests. But if he prescribes any medication, I research it thoroughly, and invariably find the side effects of said medication is far worse that the condition it is treating.
One has to be their own health advocate. It is my body, so only I get to say what goes in it, and what I do to it. The great thing today is all the information I need is right there on-line. Yes, there is a lot of miss-information too, but one must be selective in what one reads. But on reading several articles saying the same thing, one has to accept there is some truth to it.
In recent years, one of the things I have learned about is Free Radicals, and in particular Oxygen Free Radicals. With my limited high school science knowledge, I will try to explain in simple terms. Atoms are made up of a Nucleus of Protons and Neutrons, and electrons orbit around the Nucleus.
An Oxygen atom has two electrons orbiting the nucleus, and six more electrons orbiting outside that. A Free Radical atom has one or more of these electrons missing. It then “Steals” an electron from the atom next to it, which in turn steals one from its neighbor, setting off a chain-reaction of wholesale electron thievery that can actually cause cell damage.
Free radicals are a natural occurrence, and the body has a defense mechanism in the form of antitoxins that repair the damage done by free radicals. Our bodies produce these antitoxins using nutrients from the food we eat.
The problem is as we age, we stop producing these antitoxins and the free radicals are left to ravage our bodies and our brains. It is the reason we become old, get dementia or become more susceptible to cancer and other diseases.
Glutathione is an antitoxin the body makes naturally and is known as “The mother of all antitoxins.” This is where the supplements come in, and it is here I wish it were it that simple. Glutathione taken orally, rarely makes it past the digestive system. However, the body makes glutathione from amino acids, Cysteine, Glutamine, and Glycine. By taking these supplements, the goal is to help my body produce its own Glutathione.
When we exercise to extremes, especially endurance exercise, which cycling can be if you ride far enough and hard enough, we actually produce free radicals. This is not surprising when you consider intense exercise means we are taking in 10 to 20 times more oxygen than we would while resting.
Our bodies are processing all that extra oxygen as it goes from our lungs to our blood-stream, to our muscles. I ask myself, is it any wonder a few little electrons get lost along the way? A young fit athlete can handle this, even a fit fifty- or sixty-year-old might be okay. But when we get to our seventies and eighties, time starts to catch up fast. I for one have come to respect my limitations.
I ride a moderate pace around 15 mph. pedal a low gear at around 72 rpm, and never ride to the point of exhaustion, or even to the point of being out of breath. Apparently, the worst thing an aging athlete can do is to exercise infrequently, then exercise hard. Weekend Warriors beware. Slow down, if you are like me, you have nothing to prove to yourself, or anyone else.
If you Google “Exercise and Free Radicals,” or click here there is much info on this subject.
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Reader Comments (5)
Those who distrust the medical profession often fail to admit that overall, our life expectancy has increased measurably despite all the doom and gloom
Statements like "...invariably find the side effects of said medication is far worse that the condition it is treating." are irresponsible IMO. Invariably? Sure, some doctors over-prescribe. But I have a friend kept alive for many years now by a medication that keeps her leukemia (which killed my father) in check. Should I advise her to stop? No - because I'm not a doctor
We are each but a sample of one, and what works for one may not work for others. And many of those who had their own "I know better than the doctors" approach (Steve Jobs) are no longer here to explain their mistake. It's called survivor bias. It's a bit like saying "Those old houses/cars were better built than modern ones" which is demonstrably untrue, and the few "survivors" just happen to have not succumbed to fire, rot or have spent their lives sheltered in a barn
One concern not mentioned is the effect of "over exercise" on the aging heart muscles. Lennard Zinn found out about this too late to his detriment
https://www.velonews.com/cycling-to-extremes-heart-health-and-endurance-sports/
You don't even need to think in terms of 'free radicals, just in the sense of the waste products from muscles working and the resulting strain and inflammation. It takes time for these effects to clear and repair, and that time gets longer as we age.
There are risks in 'over doing it' in both the short term and long term, as you age the body simply cannot recover as quickly. I used to ride sprint intervals, 3min on x 1min recovery. Now in my mid 60's 2x2 works. Likewise if I ride a hard day (often inadvertently getting carried away) I find that it will take 2 or 3 days of very light exercise before I can push again. I even see this same effect when I am walking hard.
I am one of those that takes lots of meds with serious side effects, trying to keep the tumors at bay. Oral chemo drugs suck, and everything else that I take is either because of the missing kidney or to counter side effects.
Older people need to realize that the challenge is to maintain weight and muscle. I am still a bit above 'fighting weight' so I am allowing it to drift down and not actively trying to loose weight. You do need some reserve, just not too much.
Guess that is weekend warriiors instead of worriers, Dave?
kamoteQ,
I did that just to see who was paying attention :) Actually, it should be weekend warriors worrying about their heart health.
(Typo corrected, thanks.)
Dave
I am glad you are doing well, but I have to agree with Steve P about meds. If you simply read the list of side effects, you will never want to take anything. But one has to consider how frequent, reversible, or serious those are in order to make an intelligent decision about whether the risks actually exceed the benefits. That is what your doctor is supposed to do; some docs are better at this than others (I wish we were all better). If you don't want to take the doctor's meds, it's best to raise your concerns than just ignore his or her advice without discussion. If the doctor does not want to address those concerns - get a doctor with a better attitude.
It's also worth mentioning that supplements are regulated far less than pharmaceuticals - they don't have to prove safety or effectiveness, nor that the pills contain what's on the label (and sometimes they don't). The lack of side effects may be real, or simply a lack of information.
I also disagree with "But on reading several articles saying the same thing, one has to accept there is some truth to it." There is a massive amount of information out there, and much of it is wrong (think about how much nonsense you've read about bicycles). The wrong stuff is repeated just as often as the true stuff. So making a decision based on something appearing repeatedly on the internet is not really a good idea. Better to focus on getting information from reliable sources. And there's the rub - what's reliable? I have only a partial answer, and it's too long for this forum, but it's wise to be a skeptic about what you see online, just as you are about the other sources you mentioned.