Have you ever wondered why we’re always being encouraged to do more regular exercise?
Humans have been around for the last 200,000 years, but our ancestors weren’t going to the gym or going for a run around the park.
As hunter-gatherers, they were far more focused on finding food or keeping out of harm’s way from predators.
Now that we have easier ways of finding food, like driving to the supermarket or ordering UberEATS, and are at far lower risk of being chased by a Grizzly Bear or Sabre-Toothed Tiger, our need to move so much has declined. Industrialisation and the development of transport from horse-drawn buggies to cars means we don’t need to exert much effort to get from A to B.
The real reason we’re being asked to move more, is because our more convenient sedentary lives go against not just our evolutionary history but affect our health and longevity.
A great book on this topic is Death by Comfort written by my colleague Paul Taylor.
The real risk of our sedentary society.
So, how much do we need to move?
I’m glad you asked.
To put this into perspective, an existing hunter-gatherer population called the Hadza, who live in Tanzania, have been shown to walk between 10-15 kms every day.
How far do you think you walk on average each day?
But what I find even more interesting is that the daily distance walked by the Hazda, doesn’t diminish much at all with age.
Yet, our society appears to expect us to do less as we get older. We attribute our fatigue and loss of strength to our increasing years. We tell ourselves it’s normal because of our age.
But is it?
It’s easy to set up a downward spiral. We do less because we’re tired, or because it’s more convenient to drive rather than walk, and we’re short of time.
Meanwhile our ageing bodies start to show signs of chronic disease, including arthritis, heart disease and osteoporosis, adding to the disincentive to keep moving.
It’s the reduction in activity, especially over the age of forty, that contributes to the ageing process, with declining muscle mass and cardiovascular function.
What if living longer is an active, not a passive process?
Dr Walter Bortz II, former Stanford Professor, is considered by some as the grandfather of Lifestyle Medicine.
His assertion was that ageing should be regarded as a treatable condition largely caused by disuse. He advocated for a proactive approach to maintaining health and well-being through regular exercise.
In my career as a GP, I looked after many patients, and it was noticeable how the older cohort fell into two distinct groups.
The first and larger group were those who started to slow down and do less. They often worried about their age and appeared resigned to their inevitable decline.
The second group weren’t worried about their chronological age in the slightest. They were too busy getting out and about and continuing to do all those things they enjoyed.
Did the second group have a special secret advantage to keeping young?
Yes and No.
A big part to their successful ageing was their mindset.
Maybe you know of people who look and feel their age, while others are bouncing round like Tigger?
Of course, genes and illness play a significant role here. I’m not suggesting you can just think yourself young.
Or could you?
One of the earliest studies that reinforced how mindset plays a large role was conducted by wonderful Dr Eileen Langer from Harvard, known as the Counterclockwise Study.
Here is a short clip:
Or if you want to dive in for a deeper look, here is the full version of the podcast:
Dr Langer extols us to avoid being mindless and to be more mindful instead. The results of her work are astonishing.
Remember to ask yourself, “What’s possible here?”
But let’s not forget either, there are those amongst us whose biology is different from the rest of us mere mortals.
Meet the Super-Agers
A Super-Ager is someone in their eighties who has retained the mental faculties of someone who is middle-aged. It’s been shown their brains show certain characteristics.
- They retain more brain volume.
Yes, our brains shrink with age, roughly 2.24% per year, as shown on MRI scans, but super agers only lose half this amount (1.06%) - Specifically super-agers retain more volume in areas of the brain that are important for memory, most notably the hippocampus.
According to an article in the Harvard Gazette, Super-Agers show stronger connections in brain circuits compared to their peers when they were actually performing a memory task. They approach memory differently, using more effective strategies rather than just relying on raw memory ability. So, it’s not that they’re working harder, just smarter.
I wonder if this includes asking a friend if they can remember, or using our friend Google? - The part of the brain called the mid-cingulate cortex remains the same size as that of young adults. Why this matters is because this area supports motivation, i.e. you retain tenacity, persistence, and grit in the face of difficult tasks.
- Super-agers are more resilient against the cognitive decline that can be associated with post-anaesthesia delirium. This is important because anaesthetists are always a bit wary of giving a GA to an older person for this reason.
What does all this mean?
- There is a huge level of variability in how we age.
- But it’s also malleable.
This is where we need to go back to the question about exercise and healthy ageing (at any age).
The old notion of the brain and the body operating separately has long been debunked.
Twelve different hallmarks of ageing have now been identified, but you don’t have to try and work on each one, because everything is interconnected.
Exercise matters, along with healthy eating, getting enough restorative sleep, managing stress effectively, maintaining strong positive relationships, avoiding risky behaviours like smoking and excess alcohol, getting outside and practising a positive mindset including gratitude, kindness and optimism.
Because each works synergistically with the others.
By increasing your daily exercise, you’ll improve your sleep pattern, mood and stress resilience, especially if you’re exercising outdoors.
The guidelines haven’t changed, but we need to.
Whenever I ask, “How much exercise do we need to do each day?” the reply is 150 minutes per week.
Very good. Go to the top of the class. The message has gotten across.
It’s not that we don’t know the guidelines, it’s about ensuring that exercise becomes part of our normal daily routine, and that’s the hard part.
It’s also about recognising that while going for a run or attending a couple of gym sessions a week for strength training are all great, it’s the incidental time spent moving across our day that is equally as important.
This is where being a Fidgety Phil is an advantage.
When you have ants in your pants, you want to get up and keep moving more.
You may have a sedentary job, but there are plenty of opportunities to get up and move during the day, and you’re probably already doing lots without counting it as exercise.
Remember it all counts.
The one thing I recommend to ALL my clients, regardless, is to develop the habit of a brisk twenty-minute walk EVERY DAY.
It’s a habit, so it’s not going to be perfect when you start, but consistency of practice is what creates it, and once you start, just like Forrest Gump, you’ll just keep going as the benefits of feeling fitter, stronger, happier, mentally clearer and more creative start rolling in.
This is why Lifestyle as Medicine is so important.
It’s simple, cost-effective, (often free) and comes with its own Goodie-Bag of better health and well-being.
To ensure you keep using it so as not to lose it, even if your name is Betty White, remember, the secret is in moving, every single day.
