To age well and create a better life
By Teri Clayton
Skeletal Muscle – An underappreciated organ?
We all know the importance of wellbeing essentials like fresh air, sunlight, spending time in nature, exercise, diet and finding balance but let’s take a moment to explore something most of us overlook……maintaining skeletal muscle mass.
When it comes to our bodies, there is so much we take for granted and never is this more true than the (arguably) hardest working endocrine organ of the body….muscle.
Few people that muscle is an endocrine organ that releases hormones when it contracts, but as we’ll discover it has a far more diverse, complex and important role than simply lugging our bodies around.
After listening to a podcast by Dr Gabrielle Lyons – I was literally blown away by the way our key organ of ‘will’ interacts with the rest of our body, to improve our wellbeing. From releasing an anti-inflammatory version of IL-6 to counter the inflammatory version produced by the immune system, through to the generation of energy via mitochondria and the release of stress busting neurotransmitters, it’s incredible. Dr Lyon has released a book entitled ‘Forever Strong’ that I now consider a ‘must-read’ for anyone interested in health and wellbeing. Her work is sure to shape the future of medicine and she has now founded the centre of muscle-centric medicine.
Stumbling upon this Drs work triggered a cascade of insights within my understanding of human health. Something that has not occurred in such a powerful way since I learned about the importance of the human microbiome.
Dr Lyon explains that when it comes to human health and wellbeing, we are not suffering from an obesity epidemic, but a crisis of muscle loss. Decades before any signs of metabolic derangement occur, it is apparently possible to identify pathologies in skeletal muscle. Muscle not only acts as a physical store/sink for glucose – thus helping us regulate blood sugar, it also carries to capacity to burn it off. This means that any drop in muscle tissue can easily spell the onset of reduced sugar tolerance and reduced insulin sensitivity.
Gabrielle shares one powerful finding after another in her book, as she goes on to explain that aging is not linear and our bodies can enter periods of accelerated decline when we lose muscle mass. Events like illness, forced bed rest or other restriction of movement can trigger a loss of muscle that catalyses the loss of many positive operations within the body.
To ensure muscle is kept in tip top health, Dr Lyon, in her book ‘Forever Strong’ offers her advice about exercises to build muscle. Ultimately Dr Lyon says that the key to long term muscle health and the health and longevity this confers is discipline.
It’s all well and good knowing that we need to eat good quality proteins, healthy fats, plenty of microbiome boosting phytonutrients, alongside getting plenty of exercise for optimal wellbeing. But what defines the capacity to put this knowledge into action and experience the benefits – is the proactive direction of the will.
Dr Lyon shares that ‘It’s so much better to be prepared for challenges and seek them out, than to allow challenges to meet us unprepared, triggering physical decay.
Listen to this fascinating podcast with Dr Gabrielle Lyon:
Read more: Forever Strong; A New, Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well. Dr Gabrielle Lyon
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