Can exercise be bad?
“Wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
So men against their will
Learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon
MORE EXERCISE IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER FOR HEALTH. Yes, physical activity is central to your health.
Guidelines offer that to optimize the health benefits of physical activity, adults should perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic movement. For me, this often means brisk walking.
In addition, we should incorporate muscle-strengthening moves. Consider lifting weights or doing body-weight exercises at least two times each week.
But, when is exercise bad for you? That is our question for today.
Exercise and health — mitochondria
A growing body of research suggests that more is not necessarily better for health when it comes to exercise. There appears to be an upper limit beyond which exercise becomes harmful.
Before you put in those three hours in the gym today, you might want to learn about a new study demonstrating an upper boundary to benefits from intense exercise.
We affect our metabolic health by increasing the function of our cells’ powerhouses, the mitochondria. These cell structures help turn the energy from our food into energy our cells can use.
Mitochondria are vital to our survival. They make most of our adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a cell’s energy currency. In addition, mitochondria are charged with signaling between cells and apoptosis (programmed cell death).
Exercise and health — When is it bad?
We all have heard of the benefits of exercise. But is there an upper limit to the amount of physical activity associated with beneficial effects? Researchers recently used a training model with a progressively increasing exercise load to answer that question.
Healthy subjects completed four weeks of progressively increasing training loads. The researchers followed changes in glucose (sugar) tolerance, mitochondrial function and dynamics, exercise capacity, and whole-body metabolism.
Following the week with the highest exercise burden, the investigators discovered this:
The investigators also examined continuous blood glucose profiles in world-class endurance athletes.
They also assessed continuous blood glucose profiles in world-class endurance athletes. The researchers found that the athletes had impaired glucose control beyond a certain point of intense exercise compared with a matched control group.
Listen to a study author speaking with the folks at mdlinx.com:
“From a health perspective, we do not [emphasis added] advise against intensive exercise training, as former elite athletes have lower mortality rates and seem to live longer compared with the general population.”
The authors add this warning: “Both athletes and those looking to improve their health through exercise should carefully monitor the response to training, as too much exercise might have negative effects.”
Exercise and health — my take
This study is a reminder that over-exercising may be harmful. We know that too much exercise can put your cardiovascular system in peril. In a Mayo Clinic study, researchers followed nearly 3,200 young adults, all of whom were exercisers, for 25 years.
They divided the subjects into three groups:
- Those exercising less than recommended guidelines (57 percent)
- Those meeting the guideline recommendations (34 percent)
- Those exceeding the guidelines by at least a factor of three (eight percent)
Here are the concerning findings: Those exercising the highest amount had a nearly 1.3-times (27 percent) higher chance of developing heart vessel disease — subclinical coronary atherosclerosis — by middle age than those who exercised less than the guidelines suggested.
In that study, race mattered: White over-exercisers appeared 1.8-times more likely to develop this type of heart disease than Black subjects.
Folks living in Blue Zones (for longevity) don’t go to the gym. They walk or often have a garden, building movement into their everyday lives. There is much we can learn from populations in northern Okinawa, the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, and the mountains of Sardinia.
Can exercise be bad? Moderation may be best, after all. Thank you for joining me today. Would you consider signing up to follow this blog? Thanks.
The information I provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider if you seek medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. I am not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information in this blog.
