Since my college days I've made it a point to wrangle exercise into my normal daily schedule. Since each week usually throws a few abnormal days at me, I at least get 3 or 4 good sessions of exercise each week. Now that I am married, have four children, and am still in school trying to become a professor (though I'm finally at the last stage before being a professor: the postdoc.-- as in postdoctoral! Hurray!), I sympathize with everyone who is having a hard time getting exercise because of the many daily demands they face. As we moved to the small university town where I do postdoctoral research related to diabetes and obesity, I made a choice to sell my car and bike to work. This has been a 100% effective approach at getting 5-6 good 20 minute or more workouts into my schedule. Fortunately, I have a loving wife and good friends who help me out when it rains. Here are the reasons why it's been so effective. I'm too proud to bum rides off of friends all the time (but not so proud that I won't bum 2 or maybe 3 rides a week). Next, I love my wife too much to inconvenience her frequently by requesting to be picked up or driving our only vehicle to work. Last, I absolutely love the feel of the wind on a cool morning as I zip effortlessly down a hill. Since the closest bust stop in the town is 3-4 miles away, I have to put in some miles on my bike even if I use the bus.
Before I explain how my muscles are my best friends you need to keep in mind one important fact: Extra sugar is converted by the body into fat. Consequently, high levels of fat in your blood generally signal the body to stop taking up sugar.
My best health friends...
As I've carried on this exercise routine and dug into diabetes/obesity research, I've come to think of my muscles as my best health friends. They burn up calories even when I'm resting. More importantly they absorb and store almost all the simple carbohydrates I eat. Then when needed those calories are readily available. Furthermore, my muscles will --thanks to the endurance training from my zero-emission form of commuting-- continue to take up glucose for storage even in the presence of excess fat in the blood stream. Recently, Phielix et al. showed that trained muscles only decrease glucose uptake by 29% in the presence of free fatty acids in the blood stream versus a 63% decrease in glucose uptake for individuals with untrained muscles. The current explanation for the decreased uptake even for trained muscles is that the excess fat results in a switch from using glucose for energy to using fat for energy, but these trained muscles still continue taking up glucose for storage even though the individuals hadn't done any exercise in the past 2 days.
What you should be concerned about...
This decrease in glucose uptake (63% for untrained muscles, 29% for trained muscles) in the face of i.v. insulin stimulation is a measure of insulin resistance which is a huge problem in our society. Insulin resistance is at the heart of diabetes and obesity because it makes it hard for your body to maintain low blood sugar when consuming simple carbohydrates such as sweets, breads, potatoes, rice and so on. High blood sugar levels cause serious damage to other organs such as the eyes, body over time, not to mention providing a ready source of energy for bacteria and yeast. By getting out of the sedentary lifestyle and using your muscles regularly in endurance-type activity, you can relax and feel only half as concerned about indulging in the many treats so readily available in our society. Let your muscles be your best health friends. Use them or eliminate all but an occosional simple carbohydrate from your daily diet, but this topic will have to wait for another day.
Your friend,
Will
Phielix E, Meex R, Ouwens DM, Sparks L, Hoeks J, Schaart G, et al High Oxidative Capacity Due to Chronic Exercise Training Attenuates Lipid-Induced Insulin Resistance. Diabetes [Internet]. 2012 Sep. 20;61(10):2472-2478. Available from: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.2337/db11-1832
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