How to Get Younger Muscles
Categories : Regenerative Rehabilitation
Answer: Exercise (surprise!)
We all know that exercise is important and has become a mantra of sorts that is uttered at the conclusion of nearly every doctor’s appointment just before saying “see you next time.”
Exercise has a profound impact on our overall health: improving cardiovascular endurance, activity tolerance, preventing deconditioning, preventing many diseases (from cancer to Alzheimer’s to osteoporosis), improving mood and decreasing stress, to name a few…
However, did you know that a daily running routine at a comfortable intensity can not only preserve muscle mass/strength and mobility but revitalize your muscle stem cells to behave like youthful and robust cells?
Researchers from Stanford University recently discovered that aged muscle stem cells in old mice undergo rejuvenation with a nightly exercise routine after only 3 weeks.
What are muscle stem cells?
Muscle stem cells are precursor cells that line muscle fibers in “standby mode” until and unless they are stimulated to regenerate and replace worn out muscle tissue. However, the function and regenerative capacity of muscle stem cells lessen as we age.
STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
- The researchers compared aged mice (the equivalent of 60 to 70-years-old in humans) with younger counterparts (the equivalent of 20 to 30-years-old in humans) in a daily exercise routine involving running at their comfort level. Each group was also compared with a non-exercise control group of similar age.
- After three weeks of nightly exercise, the researchers found that the aged mice who exercised regularly were significantly better at repairing muscle damage than were their counterparts that did not exercise.
But that’s not all…
- When the muscle stem cells from the older, exercising mice were transplanted into the younger non-exercising mice, they became much more active in repairing muscle tissue.
- Even injecting blood from the exercising aged mice improved the muscle stem cell function of the sedentary mice.
Clinical Relevance:
This corroborates with our understanding of the concept of REGENERATIVE REHABILITATION. Just placing growth factors or stem cells near injured tissues is not always enough. We can often obtain a much more robust healing response by including the right kind of exercise following the procedure. This is because “setting the mood” of the injured tissue helps to optimize the tissue microenvironment to promote the response we desire: restoring healthy function.
Reference:
Brett JO, Arjona M, Ikeda M, et al. Exercise rejuvenates quiescent skeletal muscle stem cells in old mice through restoration of Cyclin Dl . Nature Metabolism 2020;2(4):307—17.
