Regular Exercise Found to Reverse Decline in Strength and Cardiovascular Capability Among the Aged

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Most people accept the decline in functional capability and exertion as they age as a natural product of aging. However, a recent study finds more of a correlation to inactivity than biological age itself. The term "use it or lose it" takes on new meaning if you want more zest in your later years.

In a study published this month conducted at the University of Washington comparing sedentary adults in their 60s and 70s with those in their 20s and 30s, researchers found that older men and women had to use much more oxygen to walk at the same speed as their younger counterparts.

"Perhaps more important, these impressive physiological improvements resulted in greater functional capacity for the activities of daily living, thereby enhancing the patients quality of life…"

-- Dr. Wayne Westcott

Decline in exercise capacity is more attributable to decline in activity than necessarily to biological years. Regular exercise can reverse declines in both strength and cardiovascular capacity as we age.

But that was before they went through a six-month exercise program. After taking up walking or jogging, biking and stretching, the senior study participants reversed their loss of exercise "efficiency."

Exercise efficiency refers to how much energy the body expends to perform a given activity. At the start of this study, older men and women used 20% more oxygen to walk at the same speed as a younger person, said Dr. Wayne C. Levy, the study's senior author.

But six months of regular exercise -- 90 minutes, three days per week -- improved older participants' exercise efficiency by 30%, versus only 2% among their younger counterparts.

Also Never Too Old for Strength Training

Past studies into strength training for the aged were conducted by Dr. Wayne Westcott Ph.D. , a noted researcher in exercise, and colleagues in late 1998 at the John Knox Village Nursing Home in Orange City, Florida. The patients' average age was 88.5, and most were confined to wheelchairs at the start of the study.

After 14 weeks of training, the elderly patients added about 4 pounds of muscle and lost about 3 pounds of fat, for a 7-pound improvement in their body composition. They increased their lower body strength by over 80% and their upper body strength by almost 40%. In addition, they improved their hip flexibility by 50% and their shoulder flexibility by 10%. But these statistics don't tell the real story of how their everyday lives were improved. According to Westcott, "Perhaps more important, these impressive physiological improvements resulted in greater functional capacity for the activities of daily living, thereby enhancing the patients quality of life. "

Decline in Exercise Efficiency is Attributed to Exercise Inactivity

According to this most recent University of Washington study, it's well known that as people age, there is a decline in exercise capacity -- how much work a person can do before becoming exhausted. But the new findings suggest this is not just a product of the aging cardiovascular system being less able to send oxygen to working muscles. The older body also needs more oxygen to perform the same work as a younger one -- that is, exercise efficiency declines.

But this decline appears to arise largely from inactivity, and may well be reversible.

The idea that exercise efficiency dips with age is a "relatively new concept," Levy told Reuters Health. And though younger people in his study were still better at pumping blood and oxygen to their muscles after exercise training, it was only the older exercisers who showed significant gains in exercise efficiency.

Their "disproportionately" greater improvement in this area, Levy and his colleagues write, is "new and unexpected."

It's not clear yet how intensely people need to exercise to hang on to their efficiency as they age, according to Levy. But he said he suspects that any activity done regularly, including walking, would have benefits.

Watch Dr. Wayne Westcott explain how people can remain extremely fit in their seventies.

Posted: 03/18/2006

Source: Amy Norton Reuters Health; Journal of the American College of Cardiology, March 7, 2006.

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