Combat Aging: Reduce Your Body's Inflammation Naturally With Physical Activity

The buzz words these days when it comes to metabolic disease
prevention are "antioxidant status" and "inflammation." We extoll the
possible benefits of taking antioxidant supplements like vitamin E and
alpha-lipoic acid to prevent cardiovascular, eye, and other diseases.
We continually hear about how natural antioxidants found in foods and
drinks -- like resveratrol in red wine -- may slow aging and reduce
inflammation, thereby helping to prevent the development of diabetes,
heart disease, stroke, and other diseases. What we hardly ever talk or
hear about though, is the anti-inflammatory effects of physical
activity and how exercise naturally boosts antioxidant enzyme status
in our bodies.Just to give you an example of how beneficial exercise
is in this regard (albeit a bit of an extreme one), a recent research
study published in the Journal of Sports Science was conducted by
Serrano and colleagues to examine the antioxidant defenses and
inflammatory responses in professional road cyclists during a
four4-day competition. You may be wondering what professional cyclists
have in common with most people with diabetes. The connection is that
athletic competitions (and overtraining) can increase the release of
pro-inflammatory cytokines and potentially be harmful, and so can
poorly controlled blood sugar levels.Cycling competitions represent an
important physical overload even for well-trained individuals, the
consequence being that they may actually be doing themselves some harm
if the resulting inflammatory cytokines cannot be managed by the body.
In the research under discussion, six professional cyclists were
studied to determine the adaptive oxidative and anti-inflammatory
response to a four-day road cycling competition and its relationship
with melatonin, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory stress hormone.
We usually associate melatonin with sleep and may take supplements of
it to combat jet lag, but it is actually a powerful and effective
antioxidant, although its effects in that regard have not yet been
well studied in humans and particularly not in people with diabetes.
Melatonin levels are actually low in many people with type 2 diabetes,
though.For the study, the researchers collected blood and urine
samples before and after the competition, which they used to determine
lipid peroxidation, cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1-beta,
interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha), creatine kinase,
melatonin, glutathione in RBCs, and glutathione peroxidase and
reductase activity. They reported that lipid peroxidation increased
after the competition, along with interleukin-6 (by 216%) and
TNF-alpha (by 159%). Plasma melatonin levels were also enhanced by the
competition. They concluded that professional cyclists display an
adaptative response to the physical overload in competitions for which
they are trained, meaning that they are able to more efficiently
regulate intracellular oxidative stress and prevent an exaggerated
pro-inflammatory cytokines induction, with melatonin playing a
modulator role.I could give you a lot of other examples of how
exercise training improves antioxidant status and lowers systemic
inflammation, but this example is good because if any athlete could
possibly have a negative response to exercise training, circumstances
like a four-day competition could provoke it. Although the studies in
people with diabetes are lacking, I am positive that they, too, would
show that physical activity reduces inflammation in diabetes and
lowers risk for cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases
naturally.Why, then, are we so focused on trying to boost antioxidant
status with supplements, special foods (like acai berries), or
prescribed medications? Maybe it's time to change our thinking about
how we can most effectively reduce levels of systemic inflammation
without any negative side-effects and look once again at the
voluminous benefits offered in that regard by regular physical
activity.