July 17, 2005
How Lack of Exercise Shortens Lives
Many recent studies show that people die from inactivity,
not just from aging. We know that as people age, they lose
muscle, their immunities weaken and because of their weakened
immunity, they are more likely to die of cancer and infectious
diseases. As you age, you lose your ability to kill germs because
of lack of muscle. When germs get into your body, you must
make white blood cells and proteins called antibodies to kill them.
Antibodies and cells are made from protein and the only place that
you can store extra protein is in your muscles. When you have
large muscles, you have a ready source of protein to make
antibodies and cells. When you have small muscles, you have a
very limited source of amino acids to make protein, so your
immunity may be inadequate to kill germs.
You need antibodies to control cancer cells also. Each
day, every healthy body makes millions of cancer cells. Your
white blood cells and protein antibodies are necessary to ferret
out and kill these cancer cells. You develop cancer when these
cancer cells survive and start growing. Having large muscles
gives you the source of protein to make antibodies that kill cancer
cells as well as germs. Furthermore, when your skeletal muscles
are small, so is your heart muscle. A strong heart can withstand
arteriosclerosis and infections that can kill a weak heart.
Lack of exercise causes muscles to get smaller. With
aging, it takes increasingly longer to recover from exercise. When
older people get injured or get tired too soon or feel sore too early,
they do less and less or they stop exercising altogether. Instead,
they should be exercising more intelligently so they can retain
their muscles.
A major advantage of competing in sports at any age is
that you can learn good training techniques and how to avoid
injuries. If you can exercise into your nineties and beyond without
quitting or getting injured, you can retain muscle mass, keep up
your immunity and live longer and healthier.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why do some people develop allergies while
others don't?
Allergies may be caused by lack of work for your immune
system. One report from Austria showed that children who are
exposed to farm animals before they were one year old had a
much lower incidence of asthma and hay fever. When a germ
gets into your blood stream, you make proteins called antibodies
that attach to and kill that germ. If you have few infections early in
life, your antibodies look for something to attack, even if it is not
an invading germ. It may attack dust mites or cat dander or
ragweed pollen. However, before you expose your young child to
lots of dirt and sources of infection, realize that this is just a
theory, has not been proved yet, and may be wrong.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: I’ve heard that cooking destroys nutrients. Would
it be better to eat only raw foods?
Many people believe that fresh fruits and vegetables
always contain more nutrients than cooked ones, but cooked
carrots have higher levels of antioxidants than fresh carrots.
Cooking carrots in the presence of a small amount of oil or butter
increases the amount of two antioxidants called beta carotene and
phenolic acid. Cooking also increases the amount of lycopene you
get from tomatoes. Cooking breaks the plant cells open to
increase the absorption of these antioxidants and other beneficial
plant chemicals. Adding a little oil or butter increases absorption
of fat soluble chemicals.
Some vitamins are affected by cooking, but you'll still get
plenty. The enzymes in food that are destroyed by heat are of no
use to you; your body makes the enzymes you need to digest
your food. Most of the nutrients in food (minerals, proteins, fats,
carbohydrates) are not destroyed by heat, and many common
foods are unpalatable or unsafe if they are not cooked. I
recommend eating the widest possible variety of fruits and
vegetables, raw or cooked, and fresh, frozen, canned or dried.
For more on food enzymes see report #1451
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Recipe of the Week
One of my favorite whole-meal salads:
Salade Nicoise
Recipe List
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