Powerhouses of Longevity

In a previous newsletter, we mentioned how there are three essential components to longevity:

1. Lean muscle mass
2. VO2 Max
3. Insulin resistance/metabolic flexibility

This is a long one, but stick with us! This information is valuable and we wanted to be clear and informative. 🤓

💪🏼Lean Muscle Mass & Why it matters: This is the amount of muscle tissue in your body, excluding fat. As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass—this is known as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is associated with a variety of age-related problems, including frailty, decreased mobility, increased risk of falls, and lower quality of life.

Connection to Longevity:

• Metabolism and Caloric Efficiency: Muscle is metabolically active tissue, meaning it requires more energy to maintain than fat. More muscle mass leads to a higher resting metabolic rate (RMR), which helps in managing body weight and metabolic health over time.
• Functional Independence: Strong muscles enable us to perform everyday tasks with ease—everything from walking and climbing stairs to lifting groceries. Maintaining muscle mass helps preserve functional independence.
• Improved Bone Health: Resistance training, which builds lean muscle mass, also helps strengthen bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
• Reduction in Chronic Diseases: More muscle mass and strength are associated with lower rates of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. Plus, muscles play a role in improving blood circulationand supporting the cardiovascular system.

🚴VO2 Max & Why it Matters This is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during intense exercise. It is a measure of aerobic fitness and reflects how efficiently your cardiovascular and respiratory systems work together to supply oxygen to your muscles during physical activity.

• Cardiovascular Health: VO2 max is strongly correlated with the health of the heart and lungs. Higher VO2 max levels indicate a healthier cardiovascular system, which is vital for longevity, reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and hypertension.
• Physical Endurance and Performance: Higher aerobic capacity supports better endurance, meaning you can engage in physical activities longer without feeling fatigued.
• Reduced Mortality Risk: Studies show that individuals with higher VO2 max levels tend to have lower all-cause mortality rates. In other words, the more fit you are aerobically, the longer you’re likely to live. VO2 max is often considered one of the best predictors of lifespan.
• Improved Immune Function: Aerobic exercise, which enhances VO2 max, improves immune function, reducing the risk of infections and chronic diseases.

🍰Insulin Sensitivity/ Metabolic Flexibility & Why it Matters: Insulin sensitivity refers to how effectively your body responds to the hormone insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. When your cells are insulin sensitive, they efficiently absorb glucose from the bloodstream, preventing high blood sugar and insulin spikes.

Metabolic flexibility is the body’s ability to switch between burning carbohydrates (glucose) and fats as fuel depending on availability. A metabolically flexible person can shift between these energy sources with ease, helping to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

• Prevention of Chronic Diseases: Insulin resistance is a primary factor in the development of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other metabolic disorders. Maintaining insulin sensitivity through healthy habits such as exercise, balanced diet, and weight management is crucial for preventing these diseases, all of which are linked to premature aging and death.
• Reduced Inflammation: Insulin resistance and poor metabolic flexibility are associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, which accelerates aging and contributes to the development of diseases like cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Weight Management: Metabolic flexibility helps with weight regulation because the body is more efficient at using stored fat as fuel, especially during fasting or exercise. Good metabolic flexibility helps prevent fat accumulation and the health issues associated with excess body fat, such as visceral fat around organs, which is linked to heart disease and diabetes.
• Hormonal Balance: Insulin sensitivity also impacts the balance of other hormones, including those related to appetite (like ghrelin and leptin) and stress (like cortisol). Proper hormone balance plays a key role in aging healthily.

How These Three Components Interact: (Stick with us, we are almost there!)

• Muscle Mass and Metabolism: Muscle mass directly influences metabolic flexibility. More muscle means better insulin sensitivity and greater ability to burn fat for energy. Strength training can also improve insulin sensitivity, further supporting healthy metabolic function.
• Cardiovascular Fitness and Insulin Sensitivity: Aerobic exercise (which improves VO2 max) also improves insulin sensitivity by enhancing glucose uptake by muscles. Cardiovascular fitness helps maintain a healthy weight, improve fat metabolism, and prevent metabolic syndrome.
• Muscle Mass and VO2 Max: Cardiovascular exercise improves VO2 max, while strength training helps maintain muscle mass. Both types of exercise work together to improve overall functional capacity, supporting healthy aging and reducing the risk of age-related diseases.

By maintaining muscle mass, improving VO2 max, and promoting insulin sensitivity/metabolic flexibility, you are building a robust foundation for a long, active, and healthy life. These three components work synergistically to support your body’s ability to function optimally, resist disease, and slow the aging process. So, focusing on all three can significantly enhance your chances of living a longer, healthier, and more independent life.

🌀PS: We understand there are plenty of factors that might be inhibiting/prohibiting you from meeting these three criteria. We hope we can help you start to feel your best so you can get back to working towards these three goals.