The ability of mitochondria to produce energy (called respiration) decreases as people age. However, you can have healthier mitochondria at any age. A recent small study looked at young (20-32 years old) and older men (62-73 years old) that were either untrained, moderately trained, or highly trained. In well-trained older men, mitochondria in the fat cells produced twice as much energy as the fat cells in untrained older men (Gudiksen et al. 2022). That means more energy to go about your daily life!
Exercise also increases the number of mitochondria in your fat cells. This is called browning or beiging since an increase in dark colored mitochondria make the fat cell appear brown or beige. (Stanford et al. 2015). Mitochondria are brown due to their high iron content.
★ Whole body inflammation
★ Brain inflammation
★ Metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, asthma, fatty liver
★ Premature death, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes
★ Brain shrinkage
★Dementia and memory loss
★ Poor mental health (Chekroud et al. 2018)
★ Fatty buildup in heart and arteries
Exercising for 6 weeks reduced levels of pain and lowered inflammatory cytokines in women and men with arthritis (Vijay et al. 2021). Cytokines are small proteins secreted by the immune system that control the activity and growth of immune and blood cells.
In the same study, the bacteria in the gut that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) increased while bacteria that produced inflammation decreased. SCFAs have anti-inflammatory properties and could be used to treat inflammatory diseases, including metabolic disorders, asthma and Long COVID. The main SCFAs are acetate (C2), propionate (C3) and butyrate (C4). SCFAs modify how immune cells behave and can control production and release of cytokines (there is a good discussion of their role in Vinolo et al. 2011).
Exercise also increased endocannabinoid circulating levels which reduces overall inflammation. These lipid based chemicals are part of the endocannabinoid system, which is present nearly everywhere in the body. Endocannabinoids play a role in anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-metastatic effects throughout the body (Maida and Daeninck 2016). More specifically, endocannabinoids reduce and suppress the perception of pain.
Twenty minutes of exercise reduced inflammation by modulating cytokines (Dimitrov et al. 2017). People who exercised had lower production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). TNF is a cytokine made by white blood cells that promotes inflammation.
1) It decreases lipopolysaccharide (LPS) which elevates epinephrine levels. High epinephrine inhibits TNF.
2) Exercise suppresses TNF production via β2-adrenergic receptors. The β2-adrenergic receptors increase catecholamines (such as dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline). Catecholamines act as neurotransmitters and hormones and inhibit TNF.
Need even more reasons? Click our how to motivate yourself to exercise page.
Even if you are sick or have Long COVID, it is important to try to move your body as best as you can.
★ Exercise increases blood flow to the brain so it is vital for a healthy active brain. Studies in rodents suggest that exercise promotes new brain cells (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus. The hippocampus deals with learning and memory.
★ Exercise improves spacial navigation. This is the ability to remember things like where you put your glasses or parked your car.
★ People who exercise have better episodic memory. Episodic memory is the ability to recall everyday events from your past. It includes your unique recollection or take of experiences, events, and situations (Eisenstein et al. 2021).
★ Older people who are physically active do better on cognitive tasks such as reasoning, vocabulary, memory and reaction time than older people who are inactive (Kumar et al. 2022).
★ Movement improves cognitive regulation in children, which is the ability to ignore distractions and multi-task (Bucklet et al. 2014). This is something a lot of us could use help with!
★ High intensity exercise improves memory (Loprinzi et al. 2021).
★ Exercise decreases stress and anxiety.
★ Exercise decreases depression (review of research in Miller et al. 2021)
Long COVID (LC) with exercise intolerance can be brutal. It strips away your exercise gains and leaves you weak. A meta-study found that exercise capacity was reduced more than 3 months after the SARS-CoV-2 infection in people with LC compared with people without LC (Durstenfeld et al. 2022).
For more on how to recognize and fight exercise intolerance see our page on Exercise Intolerance.
The endocannabinoid system is a very complicated cell-signaling network system. It helps maintain homeostasis in the body by acting as a master regulator. This system includes endocannabinoid signaling molecules, G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors, and enzymes that are involved in ligand biosynthesis and inactivation. A few of its many duties include regulating the central and peripheral mechanisms of food intake; lipid synthesis and turnover in the liver and adipose tissue; and glucose metabolism in muscle cells.
Why do you want more brown or beige fat cells? Brown and beige fat (adipose) cells use extra energy to make heat while white fat cells use extra energy to store fat or make ATP. Creating heat from energy is called thermogenesis. In other words, brown fat burns energy instead of storing it as fat!
What is the difference between brown and beige fat cells? Brown cells always contain large numbers of mitochondria while beige cells develop mitochondria after activation. Both brown and beige fat contain numerous small lipid droplets. White adipose cells store their fat in one giant lipid droplet.
Brown and beige adipose cells have a higher production of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). UCP1 is a small protein channel embedded in the mitochondrial cell wall. These channels produce heat by allowing energy, in the form of hydrogen ions (protons), to escape from the mitochondria. Since the body does not use this stored energy for work, it is released as heat.
In white fat cells, any hydrogen ions released from the mitochondria are used to turn the ATPase pump like a microscopic water wheel. As the ATPase turns it squeezes ADP and elemental phosphate together to make ATP (the body's main energy molecular). In this case, the body uses the stored energy found in the protons for work.
Some triggers:
1) Exercise or being in a cold environment triggers brown and beige fat formation.
2) Food compounds can directly activate the gene, SIRT1, responsible for making UPC1. These foods include:
☆ Curcumin (from tumeric)
☆Resveratrol (from grapes and blueberries)
☆ Capsaicin/capsinoids (from hot peppers)
☆ Isoflavones (genistein from soy)
☆ Berberin (an alkaloid found in many plants including barberry and oregon grape)
☆ Omega-3 fatty acids
☆ Menthol, quercetin (from berries, apples, grapes, onions and other vegetables), capsaicin/capsinoids, green tea and omega-3 fatty acids indirectly increase the SIRT1 gene via several different mechanisms.
For more details see El Hadi et al. 2019 and Armani et al. 2022.
Exercise slows cognitive aging, reduces neurodegeneration and maintains white matter integrity in the brain (Prakash et al. 2014, de Lange 2016, Tarumi et al. 2020). This is due to increased brain plasticity and reduced inflammation within the hippocampus (Gleeson et al. 2011). White matter integrity is important since white matter helps you focus and problem solve. White matter is found in the deeper tissues of the brain and contains nerve fibers. Disruption in white matter integrity was associated with poor performance on mental tasks such as executive function, processing speed, and episodic memory (Fjell et al. 2017).
Recent research shows that exercise in mice produces clusterin which binds to endothelial cells in the brain and reduces neuroinflammatory gene expression. In other words, clusterin reduces brain inflammation. People who exercised for 6 months had higher levels of clusterin (De Miguel et al. 2021).
Exercise may inhibit immune cells in the brain called microglia. Microglia are necessary, they watch for infection and damage in the brain and remove dying cells and debris. They also activate new neurons in neurogenesis which is correlated with learning and memory. However, microglia can be activated inappropriately which causes them to produce inflammatory chemicals like cytokines. This can lead to brain inflammation and cognitive impairment (Casaletto et al. 2022).
*Names and some minor identifying details in all stories in this website are changed to protect people's privacy
I'm not your doctor so this is not medical information. I'm just a person who would like to see you happy and healthy. If you have any questions or concerns about starting an exercise regiment, diet program, or supplements please consult a professional.
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