LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

anti-aging

Can Vibration Plate Exercises Keep You Strong In Later Years?

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vibration plate exercises in seniors
Vibration plate reviews on Amazon.com

As a disclaimer, I need to tell you I’m a little biased.  I have recommended vibration plate exercises in my office for about 7 years now.

For starters, there are some things that whole body vibration is not effective for.  Ironically, when searching for a whole body vibration unit to purchase online, these “benefits” seem to be what is highlighted.  Instead of starting a list, I think I can sum it up in one concept.  The less you exercise, the more benefits you will get from vibration plate exercises.  Pretty simple.

That means that hopping on the fitness vibration machine at your local gym in between workouts is probably a pretty big waste of your time.  Which seems kind of funny since there was a large push to get whole body vibration units into gyms a few years back.  There were also entire clinics devoted to vibration machine weight loss programs.  Seemed like bad business decisions to me.

On the flip side, for those unable to exercise for whatever reason, vibration plate exercises can have dramatic results.  Post stroke.  Parkinson’s disease.  Alzheimer’s dementia.  Multiple sclerosis.  Knee arthritis.  Deconditioning due to age or a sedentary lifestyle.  You get the idea.

There are a few exceptions to the above rule.  The benefits of vibration can also include:

  1. Do vibration plates work for bone health?  There is some pretty positive research on bone health and osteoporosis.  This research is actually what prompted me to buy my unit in the first place.
  2. Vibration plate exercises will also increase blood flow to the brain, so those suffering with Parkinson’s disease, cognitive decline, migraines and dementia can see benefits.
  3. Post injury or post-surgical rehab when stability is a concern, such as ACL-repair or a severe ankle sprain.
  4. Increased blood flow into the legs during vibration exercises has been shown to help with diabetic neuropathy.

Getting back to the benefits of vibration plate exercises in those who are less able to exercise.  In particular, the senior population.  Granted, many are very active and would find little benefit to a fitness vibration machine.  However, if a senior falls into the sedentary category, this particular study shines some light on the benefits.

Researchers looked at the use of whole body vibration plate exercises 3 times / week for 1 year in comparison to a resistance and aerobic fitness training regimen at the same frequency in seniors aged 60-80.  Now, if any of you have been on a whole body vibration unit before you understand that it takes very little actual effort on your part.  In this study, participants did do some leg exercises like squats while on the vibration plate.

Overall, the two therapies were equally as effective at maintaining muscle mass.  Not too shabby considering that whole body vibration plate exercises can be done by those seniors who are no longer able to exercise as fully as some of their peers.

 

Chronobiology–Reducing Time – (07-23-01)

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Chronobiology–Reducing Time

There are many theories as to how we age: antioxidant damage, glycosylation of proteins (sugar molecules irreversibly damaging protein in our cells) and telomere shortening among many others.

This article is in line with the antioxidant theory, suggesting that a balance between oxidized and reduced NAD in the cell controls production of two proteins that control the age of the cell. The bottom line? Nothing’s changed. Anti-aging still consists of moderation and avoidance of damaging factors such as refined carbs, saturated fats and hydrogenated oils. High intakes of fruits and veggies will give the body what it needs to maintain a happy balance of NAD forms.

Science — Schibler et al. 293 (5529): 437

Read entire article here

Age-related changes of sex hormones, IGF-1 levels in men – (01-25-01)

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Age-related changes of sex hormones, IGF-1 levels in men

This study identifies a decrease in levels of circulating IGF-1 levels in men as they age. Many in the anti-aging camp would jump on this as support for the use of growth hormone (which stimulates release of IGF-1) as a fountain of youth. Too many times in the past we have jumped on just such a bandwagon; DHEA, colostrum and many others. Many times, what we find when we dig deeper is that these hormonal levels have dropped because of some shift in metabolism; either as a result of deficiencies in some nutrient or as a protective factor. I always hesitate to mess with Mother Nature. Lets work on quality of life, not quantity.

Synergy Abstract

Read entire article here

Androgen deficiency and replacement on prostate zonal volumes – (05-17-01)

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Androgen deficiency and replacement on prostate zonal volumes

This is an interesting article that should make many of those in the “if hormonal levels are lower as we get older, we must replace them to youthful levels for anti-aging” group think twice.

In this study, androgen levels (i.e. testosterone) had no effect on the size of the prostate as patients got older. Thus, using testosterone replacement therapy to maintain a healthy prostate may not be backed by the research.

Synergy : Clinical Endocrinology 54 (4), 437-445

Read entire article here

How Much Would You Pay for 2.2 More Years of Life?

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Interesting question and would likely generate a wide range of answers depending upon where in the life cycle you are. But an even more important question would be, what would you be willing to DO for 2.2 more years of life?

This answer requires action and not wealth.  Quitting smoking (or never starting).  Exercising.  Eating a diet without processed foods.  Cutting back on stress.  All changes that you can (and should) make that have a solid foundation of research for increasing longevity.

But many times it is not merely about quantity of life.  Quality becomes a much more important factor when it comes to life.  Who wants to live to 90 but spend 5 years infirm in a bed on oxygen, your life little more than existing?

No one would opt for this end to his or her life, although I could argue that lifestyle is a conscious choice done during life that will lead to this end of life, essentially meaning that you DID choose this course.  But what if the choice was much easier than actually exercising?

Before we get into the longevity-inducing intervention highlighted here, I need to make something clear.

Pharmaceutical interventions are typically one-cause / one cure approaches.  That means that we use a statin to lower your risk of having a heart attack and hope for the best (which, as you are all aware of by now, this “best” is a 1% lower risk of having a heart attack with statin use).  And you can’t pile up 20 drugs to give you a 20% lower risk of having a heart attack.  Drugs just aren’t cumulative like that.

Lifestyle, on the other hand, IS cumulative.  Exercise CAN work with eating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables to dramatically lower your risk of a heart attack or death.  This is where the power of lifestyle comes in.

So, with this in mind, this particular study looked at how much of a difference healthy fats in the blood made on longevity in this large group of study participants.

To raise your blood levels of the healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, you can eat raw nuts, wild caught fish, use olive oil and more seeds.  Supplementation with fish oils is a good idea to augment what you get from your diet.

Here’s what the researchers found:

  1. Higher omega 3-PUFA led to a 27% lower risk of death from all causes.
  2. Specifically, EPA was 17% lower, 20% lower for DHA.
  3. The greatest protection was on heart deaths.
  4. Overall, those with the highest levels lived an average of 2.22 more years after age 65 years.

Given that good quality fish oils in our office run about $15 / month, 2.2 years would cost you $390.  Pretty economical, if you ask me…

So, would you pay $390 for 2.2 more years of life?

The Baby Boomers–Are They As Healthy As They Think They Are?

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The Baby Boomer generation changed everything and demanded everything.  Now, as they age, this group would seem determined to live life to its fullest and maintain their health.  They’re buying more supplements than any generation before them.  They are exercising more.  They stay consistent with their routine medical screenings.

Because of all of this, everyone has the impression that they are healthier.  But are they?

With this generation beginning to enter the Medicare system, this question is of critical importance.

Certainly the Baby Boomer generation has seen some amazing advances in medicine.  There are more powerful diagnostic tools available to find what ails them.  There are more medications available now than ever before.  This generation, however, also seems to adopt “preventative” medications as a birthright.  If a Baby Boomer’s primary care doctor finds high cholesterol and Lipitor is going to save them, he or she is going to take it.

But it’s not working.

This particular study looks at the rates of chronic disease in the Baby Boomer generation and compared it to the previous generation.  High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and rates of obesity are all higher.

Given the focus of this blog, you would, of course, expect me to say that it is because of the dietary choices this generation is making.  And you’d be right.

It’s because of the dietary choices this generation is making.

Artificial sweetener use is rampant.  Excessive portion sizes are the norm.  The type of exercise they are doing is not consistent with our hunter gatherer genetics.  And they are exposing themselves to more environmental chemicals than ever before.

Did I already mention that this group is now hitting Medicare?  If you think Medicare has problems NOW, just wait and see as this generation goes onto Medicare over the next 2 generations or so.  Combine this with Obamacare and the problem will fix itself once the country implodes financially and medicine as we know it goes away.

If you are a Baby Boomer, do you disagree with the findings of this study?  If so, based on what?

Calorie restriction without nutrient restriction benefits our health – (05-13-04)

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Long-term calorie restriction is highly effective in reducing the risk for atherosclerosis in humans

For all of you out there looking for THE anti-aging program, this is it. Time and again, calorie restriction without nutrient restriction shows much benefit to our markers of health. Of course, true to form, researchers are trying to find out if there is a compound or pathway stimulated by calorie restriction that can be mimic artificially which all the mess of changing your lifestyle.

PNAS — Abstracts: Fontana et al. 101 (17): 6659 –

Read entire article here

 

Anger Makes Your Cells Age Faster

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Anger is clearly one of the most misused emotions.  Certainly it plays a role in good emotional health when properly directed and channeled.  But how many of us are successful at managing our anger this way?  I see some many patients who lives are ruled by anger–most often directed at people who could care less and are probably not even aware of anger being directed at them.  Certainly this application of anger is pathological in our relationships, but what about our health?  You bet!

I have discussed telomeres at length in prior posts.  Suffice it to say that they are the wicks of our lives…the shorter they are, the less time you have to live.  Protect them at all costs.

So what does this have to do with anger?  You guessed it–anger shortens telomeres.

In this particular article, researchers looked at cynically hostile people.  Cynical hostility is defined as a personality trait characterised by general cynicism and mistrust in interpersonal relationships.  Those expressing cynical hostility had shorted telomeres and higher levels of the enzyme telomerase that shortens telomere length.

For those of you who would brush off the results of this study (mainly because you know it describes you perfectly), understand that this is far from the only study linking anger and hostility to health problems.  The connection is clear and real.

With this in mind, the question you HAVE to ask yourself….Is this reason I’m angry worth dying over????