Why does exercise increase health and longevity?

[Carl-Richard]

I want to hear your explanations for why you think exercise increases health and longevity. Have you actually thought about that? I'm not interested in statements like "exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by x percent". I'm interested in very foundational mechanical explanations; for example, why does exercise reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease; the mechanism behind it. And I believe there is a general explanation that applies to virtually all examples of exercise and bodily functioning, so maybe try to find that. I'd like to hear you guys' explanations first, and then I'll present my explanation 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[UnbornTao]

When you exercise, the body releases tension and stress and is able to calm down. It frees you from intellect and grounds you in your body. It increases presence. Something like that.  

[Buck Edwards]

It increases blood flow. This replenishes muscular cells. It increases elasticity of blood vessels. Increases oxygenation.

Obviously these are key to cardiivascular

[Carl-Richard]

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

When you exercise, the body releases tension and stress and is able to calm down.

How does it release tension and stress? (which physiological mechanisms are involved?)

 

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

It frees you from intellect and grounds you in your body. It increases presence. Something like that.  

Ah, mindfulness and physical activity. I wrote a bachelor thesis about that . I did find a very weak but statistically significant correlation between mindfulness and exercise frequency in a sample of 545 participants using questionnaires in a cross-sectional design, so the science could be on your side 

 

1 hour ago, Enlightement said:

It increases blood flow. This replenishes muscular cells. It increases elasticity of blood vessels. Increases oxygenation.

Obviously these are key to cardiivascular

How does it increase blood flow, elasticity of blood vessels and oxygenation?

Edited July 6, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Buck Edwards]

9 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

How does it release tension and stress? (which physiological mechanisms are involved?)

 

Exercise causes glands to generate endorphins. Endorphins cause relaxation. Such relaxation is also experienced similarly after sex(although much more potent in that case). 

9 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Ah, mindfulness and physical activity. I wrote a bachelor thesis about that . I did find a very weak but statistically significant correlation between mindfulness and exercise frequency in a sample of 545 participants using questionnaires in a cross-sectional design.

If it's statistically significant, it's not weak. 

9 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

How does it increase blood flow, elasticity of blood vessels and oxygenation?

By movement. Exercise causes heart to pump harder thus forcing the heart to pump. Every minute of exercise requires muscle movement, muscle movement needs nutrition, energy, blood, this flow is automatically started by heart once the signal is received that movement is required or initiated the same way an animal predator jumps into action to catch prey. Any movement is a reflex and motor indicator to the brain which is connected electrically to heart and other nerve endings. 

[Carl-Richard]

22 minutes ago, Enlightement said:

Exercise causes glands to generate endorphins. Endorphins cause relaxation. Such relaxation is also experienced similarly after sex(although much more potent in that case). 

If it's more potent, is sex then healthier than exercise? Certainly, there must be more to the health and longevity-inducing effects of exercise than just endorphins (I know I'm asking stupid questions, but I'm trying to prod you towards my explanation :D).

 

22 minutes ago, Enlightement said:

 If it's statistically significant, it's not weak. 

Is a standardized correlaton coefficient of 0.070 not weak? ?

 

22 minutes ago, Enlightement said:

Exercise causes heart to pump harder thus forcing the heart to pump. Every minute of exercise requires muscle movement, muscle movement needs nutrition, energy, blood,

Sure, that is certainly true during the exercise itself, but how does this translate to a general health/longevity effect?

Edited July 6, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Osaid]

Because you're putting yourself in situations that require someone who is healthy (or has good cardiovascular function, in the context of the example you gave), and so the body adapts to that. The body is constantly adapting to its environment. It's not gonna spend energy maximizing its cardiovascular function if there is no need for it, but exercise creates a need for it.

A problem appears when even the need for basic movement disappears (perhaps you sit on your couch all day and have a servant bring you all your food), so then the body adapts to that and slowly removes your efficiency in moving around, even if it is to a dysfunctional extent.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Osaid

[NoSelfSelf]

One reason is it increases metabolism so you dont get fat tissue that resaults in clogged arteries that could cause heart attack and other disieses..

Second reason: being weak,restricted makes you more prone to injuries and back pain that reduces life quality.

Third reason: it makes you look younger through releasing waste with sweating, that's why saunas are great because it could fight the waste inside that causes alot of disieses including alzhemier later in life...

Fourth example:Exercise increases blood flow that helps with overall mood and fighting stress whit more stress the more you age and potentially it could be lethal...

Fifth example:is not directly helping but it helps you survive to climb thing,push off things,run away etc. 

Sixth example: with age if you dont exercise you start to lose muscle so in old age you are more prone to bone breaks...

With exercising muscles are hitting your bones and with time makes them stronger...

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by NoSelfSelf

[Michael569]

You are after the mechanism  You don't know what you're asking. 

You could write a 1000-page paper if you wanted to describe each individual biochem pathway, all the primary, secondary and tertiary messenger molecules that are being activated, all those heat shock proteins, silencing of genes, mTor, AMPK, AKT pathways. You'd die of boredom before making it to page 2, I've tried going down that rabbit hole and it is impossible to understand without an advanced degree in cellular biology

Let me try to answer this from another perspective 

If you look at the human body from the perspective of chronic disease-related mortality, you are basically looking at a cluster of 6 health conditions. 8/10 people in the world will die as a consequence of one of these (in developed countries) 

1. Cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis of the circulatory system + diseases of the heart muscle) 
2. Cancer (any cancer that has a potential to become malignant and kill the host) 
3. Neurodegenerative disease (dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Lewy -body's dementian etc) 
4. Metabolic Disease (Type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome - closely linked to CVD ) 
5. Skeletal disease (osteoporosis and mortality related to fractures and subsequent immobiliusation)  
6. Suicide

where does exrcise come in

Exercise reduces the odds of all of these. It slows down the progression (through a gazillion of metabolic pathways), it delays first onset and it protects the body from symptoms and signs . 

1. CVD - Exercise reduces the progress of atherosclerosis, reduces deposition of ApoB containig lipoproteins in tunic intima and formaiton of deposit inside the artery. Exercise activates  acascade of processes that lead to tissue remodelling, improved vascular flow , improved NO2 production and reduced production of immuno-mediated molecules that can damage the endothelium. 
2. Cancer - exercise stimulates immune function, production of T-cells, NK cells and macrophages and so the body is more vigilant and more likely to catch cancer before it spreads. There are millions other ways exercise reduces cancer risk. I'm very uneducated in this part of the anatomy
3. Neurodegenerative disease - exercise has a massive effect on reducing neuroinflammation, it slows down formation of beta amyloid and the destruction of neuronal tissue. It stimulates microglia activation and protects the central nervous system from damage by radical oxidative species, degeneration and loss of function. The exact mechanism is probably as complicated as the body itself. 
4. Metabolic disease - exercise improves insulin sensitivity, improves blood sugar control (long term and short term) , stimulates muscle hypertrophy which is an important factor in preventing diabetes, it helps open up alternative cellular pathways for glucose absorption - look up GLUT-4 transporter for glucose entry to the cell, exercise reduces the density of intramuscular fat and helps with fat loss - diabetes, in general, is an energy status disease that starts when the body carries more fat than it can handle. Basically exercise reduces the risk and the odds and the progression of Type II diabetes, a major cause of amputations, blindness, kidney disease and infections. 
5. Skeletal disease - one of the major leaders in premature mortality is an osteoporosis-related fracture. After the age of 65, about 20% of people who break a hip due to osteoporosis, die in the hospital. And about 1/3 of the remainder die within next 12 months as a consequence of that injury. The rest will have a degree of permanent disability and are more likely to die from heart disease because they stop moving. About 2% will be able to reverse it and get their life quality back.
   1.  Exercise strenghtens bone, reverses bone loss and helps remineralise the bone by forcing deposition of calcium back inside which protects from this and as such extends lifespan. Exercise basically prolongs the lift of people diagnosed with osteoporosis. This has been shown even in postmenopausal women which is the age and gender group most likely to suffer from hip fracture and disability as a result of that. 
6. The mental health is a bit tricky but exercise has been shown to reduce the onset of depression, anxiety and has indirectly probably prevented lot of people from committing suicide who otherwise would have taken their own life. The mechanism is probably stimulation of neuroplasticity, hypertrophy of prefrontal cortex and hipocampus and slowing down hypertrophy of amygdala (common finding in people who comit suicide is an increased size of amygdala - postmortem) 

There are research papers addressing every single pathway and you would find evidence for everything I just told you. 

And that's just the biology not to mention being active increases your odds of talking to people, making friends, finding  a mate, feeling better and more hopeful about your life. Exercise is also a mindfulness activity that grounds you, helps you take your mind off things that trouble you. etc etc #

Men who exercise have higher testosterone which makes them more social, more outgoing, more adventurous, more sexual especially in older age, more confident with women, bolder when making difficult decisions in life and SIGNIFICANTLY less likely to become depressed and commit suicide. 

It strengthens discipline, resilience, and patience and teaches a person to be committed to something. For many young people who feel lost in their life, it is a gateway to discovering their purpose and mission in life. 

Hopefully that satisfies that curiosity

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Michael569

[Carl-Richard]

23 hours ago, Osaid said:

Because you're putting yourself in situations that require someone who is healthy (or has good cardiovascular function, in the context of the example you gave), and so the body adapts to that. The body is constantly adapting to its environment. It's not gonna spend energy maximizing its cardiovascular function if there is no need for it, but exercise creates a need for it.

A problem appears when even the need for basic movement disappears (perhaps you sit on your couch all day and have a servant bring you all your food), so then the body adapts to that and slowly removes your efficiency in moving around, even if it is to a dysfunctional extent.

I think you're the closest to my explanation.

 

@NoSelfSelf @Michael569

The type of rigorous empirical approach you guys are presenting is generally much more useful than whatever my explanation is (e.g. for finding specific health interventions), but I just think it's interesting and reassuring to have a highly generalized birds-eye view of it: 

Everything in life is technically a form of stress. All the processes in your body; your lungs breathing air, your heart contracting 100,000 times a day, your muscles contracting, even when doing normal things like walking, sitting, standing, even when resting; are forms of stress. It's just relatively unnoticeable, and you tend to only see the effects over long periods of time, namely through age-related damage and diseases.

So about that: how does exercise reduce age-related damage and diseases (and thus increase health and longevity)? Well, it's a bit counterintuitive at first (maybe not for you health-aware guys), but exercise is also a form of stress, just in a different way than the stress mentioned above (if you're exercising correctly, of course).

Exercise is essentially elevated stress in manageable doses over manageable spans of time, in a way that allows for rest, adaptation and growth. When your heart is pumping really fast, or you're breathing very heavily, or your muscles are under a lot of strain, this will cause these systems to adapt to this stress, for the mere reason that you evolved to adapt to changes in the environment. This means that the systems will become stronger and more able to tackle the chronic stress of everyday life: of pumping your blood, of moving your limbs, of maintaining your posture, etc.

So the reason exercise causes a reduction in age-related damage and diseases, is that you're training your body to handle the various sources of stress in everyday life that cause these things in the first place. It applies to everything: from performing daily activities, to the functioning of organs at rest, and down to the molecular level.

It can help to imagine some real-life situations to understand how everyday activities are a source of stress: imagine being in an accident where you have to sit in a wheelchair for several months before you can walk again. When you try to start walking again, what used to be seemingly effortless has suddenly become extremely hard and taxing on your body. Taking a few steps suddenly becomes incredibly stressful, and you have to keep exposing yourself to that stress before you can return to your normal state where walking is effortless again. It's of course not completely effortless, as it's still a form of stress, but it's relatively unnoticeable.

This applies to everything: when you exercise correctly, with optimal challenge and optimal rest, life becomes effortless. So it's not that all stress is bad, but it's that unmanageable and chronic stress is bad. And because everything in the body is interconnected, your whole body will benefit from one part becoming stronger, especially for very central structures like the cardiovascular system (as almost everything in our body is connected with blood vessels). But also things like strengthening your muscles will help with tackling the stress associated with things like walking, sitting and standing, which again will impact your entire body in some way.

So yeah, that's basically it: life is stressful, and exercise makes you more able to handle that stress, reducing the damage and risk for diseases that you accumulate over time as you age.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[UnbornTao]

On 7/6/2023 at 4:06 AM, Carl-Richard said:

How does it release tension and stress? (which physiological mechanisms are involved?)

Don't know, others have already provided useful answers though.

Quote

Ah, mindfulness and physical activity. I wrote a bachelor thesis about that . I did find a very weak but statistically significant correlation between mindfulness and exercise frequency in a sample of 545 participants using questionnaires in a cross-sectional design, so the science could be on your side 

Practice soccer  , you'll get into amazing flow experiences.

Edited July 12, 2023 by UnbornTao

[The0Self]

Here is the mechanism:

The more energy that flows through an organism, the more the organism adapts in its capacity for more energy to flow through it in the future 

which of course can and does directly and indirectly involve increased life-span and various other elements of health and longevity.

Simple as that.

Therefore, challenging physical activity, specifically the kind that would require significantly more energy/calories to fuel its progression, is incredibly important for a clear mind and good health. And increasing muscle mass requires far more energy flow than increasing cardiovascular conditioning, the reason for which could be described as: you’re “increasing your engine displacement” and therefore “decreasing your gas mileage” when adding muscle mass to your frame, therefore cardio without resistance training is not nearly enough to optimize health. It may seem like cardio burns more calories than resistance training, but it only does so at the time, which is a small part of the day… and it only does so marginally anyway, if at all, if the resistance training it’s compared with is circuit/multi-superset training and thus essentially void of rest periods.

Edited July 13, 2023 by The0Self