Data on Exercise as a Treatment for Age-Related Arterial Stiffness

In addition to its effect on muscle growth, exercise upregulates a range of maintenance processes, such as autophagy, that improve tissue function when maintained over the long term. Lack of exercise in later life accelerates the decline in muscle mass and strength, an issue that appears reversible to a degree that might surprise most people. A similar situation occurs with respect to stiffening of blood vessels, in that while much of this depends on mechanisms such as cross-linking and presence of senescent cells, some of the decline is a matter of being sedentary. The interesting finding in the open access study noted here is that while long term physical exercise is associated with lower blood pressure and lesser degrees of arterial stiffness, having sedentary people undertake short term exercise programs doesn't help in this matter. This can be compared with other studies in which exercise very rapidly improves matters, such as in the case of memory function. We can speculate as to what this tells us about the importance of various different causes of arterial stiffness, and the authors of the paper do just that. For our part, we might also think of this in the context of data that shows interventions such as nicotinamide riboside and MitoQ, approaches that improve smooth muscle cell function, act to reduce arterial stiffness somewhat. Smooth muscle is the tissue responsible for contraction and dilation of blood vessels, and some fraction of stiffness arises...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs