Exercise and longevity are inseparable
Aerobic exercise is must have for longevity
Nick shares a personal story from his Health Nucleus journey in 2018
“Before I came into work to meet you here today, I got in a 40 minute run along the oceanfront”, Dr. Sanders said “I have made it a priority to get in at least four workouts per week, aiming for five or more.”
I sat and listened attentively, as she reviewed my intake questionnaire - noticing my history of high-ish blood pressures and LDL cholesterol values. Dr. Sanders was in her 40s, blonde and super fit - totally unlike any other doctor I’d met along my health journey. Simply put - she clearly walked the talk.
“I recommend you aim for 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity a few times a week. There is hardly a better preventative medicine in our toolbox than that.” she explained. “It can be hard to make a change, but trust me, it will help you with your blood pressure, blood lipids and insulin sensitivity.”
As I took this instruction in, sitting the Health Nucleus guest room (in my awesome socks), I realized I had a bit of reckoning coming my way - I’d come all this way for the latest in all things ‘proactive healthcare’ (full body MRI, genomic sequencing, full blood tests) only to be told, once again, I needed to get more ‘cardio’ exercise. Ugh.
Gasping, sweating, tiring - I’d never really ‘connected’ with the practice of this genre of fitness. I’d had a long-time love for weightlifting, and had dabbled in amateur sports such as flag football and softball.
I’d even enjoyed the occasional cardio-class after an arm-twist from a friend. But that’s not what she was suggesting - this was an overhaul of my life.
To be honest - it didn’t feel immediately doable.
Want longevity? Exercise delivers
As I hopped on my plane flight back to Australia from that amazing visit to San Diego, Dr. Sanders’ instruction really stuck with me.
I’d travelled half-way across the world, driven by my ever-growing interest in the fast moving world of longevity and healthspan, enthusiastic about gathering data and personalised guidance for living my best life.
And while many exciting longevity boosting technologies are indeed on their way quite soon (senolytics, gene therapy, stem cell treatments and more!), Dr. Sanders has made it very clear - you can’t avoid nailing the BASICS, which are tried and true, available here and now.
Exercise and a healthy diet form the foundation of wellness, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
All of my research into the topic of longevity, continued to demonstrate this.
There are many different ‘types’ of exercise out there, many wide-reaching definitions and specific examples. But two aspects of it emerged as particularly important for longevity and healthspan during my research on the topic:
1) Resistance exercise (strength training) to build and maintain lean muscle mass; this fights ‘sarcopenia’, which is the loss of muscle mass with age
and
2) Aerobic (i.e. ‘Cardio’) exercise (i.e. training for your cardiovascular system), to strengthen the heart, lungs and circulatory system; this is unequivocally shown to prevent/delay the onset of cardiovascular disease, as well as activate a wide spectrum of protective benefits
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Starting a regular exercise habit for longevity’s sake!
There are certainly many details that I could share from the past 18 months of my creating a new and enduring habit of regular cardio exercise, and I do hope to share that with you in the future. But I’d like to jump straight to the finish line, literally. Here is a post on my Instagram from last week, after winning a 5k race in Sydney:
I ran that 5K in 20:58! If I had even tried to run 5K back in May 2018, I wouldn’t have been able to complete the race.
So, how did I manage that? What did I do to get in shape?
I’m going to say that’s out of scope for this post, and may decide to share that information with you in the future. That’s not really the point here.
Your healthspan is YOUR responsibility
What is the point is this - one of the major themes of this blog is the power of proactive healthcare.
I’ve provided a bit of a definition on this concept in my opening post, but we’ll need to keep discussing the concept to make it clear what we mean by that term.
Let’s continue that process of elaboration! Proactive healthcare has two major components.
The first and most important part of proactive healthcare is intentionally owning the responsibility we have to our health. Simply put - it is your responsibility to stay healthy.
“The first and most important part of ‘proactive healthcare’ is intentionally owning the responsibility we have to our health. It is our (YOUR) responsibility to stay healthy”
This is an important difference from what has been engendered in our society - that this responsibility is that of your doctor.
Play that game if you want, but it will not necessarily lead you to the long and healthy life you deserve.
Don’t get me wrong - your doctor may be a fundamental part of the journey, but it starts with YOU.
So let me also ‘walk the talk’, as Dr. Sanders does. One of the key outcomes of my visit to the Health Nucleus was this realisation.
That living a long, healthy and happy life is MY responsibility - no one is going to do it for me!
And exercise (Strength and aerobic training) is inseparable from any longevity strategy. We’ll write more on this topic in the future.
Exercise comes first, sexy longevity technologies second
It’s only after we’ve begun to take the first part of the proactive healthcare concept seriously, that the second aspect truly becomes powerful.
This second aspect of proactive healthcare is demanding access to the best longevity technologies available.
If you want to be healthy and stay that way for as long as possible, visiting a preventative healthcare facility like the Health Nucleus is a great part of the overall strategy.
But if you decide to join me in this journey of biohacking our way through a long and healthy life, you will not escape making lifestyle changes.
How do I know? Because I had to drag my ‘cardio hating’ lazy ass out of bed and whip my butt into shape like my longevity depends on it! Because it does.
I took ownerships and established a ‘cardio’ routine
”That’s absolutely wonderful!” Dr. Sanders said, beaming. “I am just so impressed you were able to make that positive change so quickly and with such determination!”, she remarked.
5K races are my new jam
Staying motivated, staying healthy, staying young!
I’d just dropped the info that I’d actually taken my doctors advice.
We were on a ‘comprehensive return of results’ web video call, after our first ‘preliminary return of results call about 6 weeks earlier.
After the preliminary results call, my Health Nucleus blood results indicated that I was likely a good candidate for improving my results through - you guessed it, cardio exercise.
So, in the spirit of intentionally taking ownership of my health, I said to Dr. Sanders at the end of that first call, “Hey, I’m going to ask you to do something for me.”
“Sure” she volunteered willingly, “What might that be?”
“Please check in on how much cardio exercise I did between now and then!” I asked.
Well, she’d agreed, so I knew my ass was on the line!
That’s just one of the ‘mental hacks’ I used to get myself there. But it is a powerful one.
Is there someone in your life who can provide you with that accountability? If you know you need to ‘get fitter’, then I suggest you start that conversation.
Editorial Note: We have purposefully changed the name of the Health Nucleus Doctor in this story :)
