In order to have the similar benefits that younger folks get through exercise, you should spend extra hours in the gym. This suggestion tides out from a new report showing that a signal that gives muscles a kind of metabolic boost in response to exercise blunts as we age.
With aging process, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) gets blunted in the skeletal muscles that finally results in blunting of a signal, which gives muscles a kind of metabolic boost in response to exercise. Perceiving the importance of this study, Gerald I. Shulman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Yale University School of Medicine said, ‘The new findings might help to explain, what happens as we age.’
As previous studies have also shown that how people in their 60s and 70s notice fat buildup in their muscle and livers and a deficiency in mitochondrial function and this new study has tried to delve into the whole concept more profoundly, which would definitely help in understanding the whole concept in a much better way.
Before concluding these findings researchers carried out some tests on lab mice and found that older rats showed a decline in AMPK activity compared to younger animals. Young rats infused with a stimulatory chemical showed an increase in muscular AMPK activity not seen in old rats. Similarly, the muscle of exercise-trained young rats showed more than a doubling in AMPK activity. In older rats, that AMPK hike with exercise was quite blunted.
Briefing the findings of this study, researchers remarked:
These results suggest that aging-associated reductions in AMPK-stimulated activity may be an important contributing factor in the reduced mitochondrial function and deregulated intracellular fat metabolism associated with aging-induced insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
It is also worth mention that as we exercise regularly, our body gets accustomed to it, resulting in lesser body response and in order to hone body’s response we must push our body to its limits. We should also not forget that exercise is a potent weapon to stave off intrusion of factors like diabetes, obesity, depression, etc. Interestingly, it helps fighting aging too.
Image credit: Baileys gym
Via: Biology News