so if exercise mitigates age-related decline

[Guest guest]

so if exercise mitigates age-related decline in NO impairment (and

concomitant endo dys) we would not be healthy if we did NOT exercise

would we??

It's interesting to imagine what would happen if we suddenly were

given a 200 year life span? Would our opinions and " facts " and CHOICES

carry us thru to 200 or thereabouts?? Or would we die of " ill-health "

@150ish?

would even the best veggie diet have closed our arteries by then?

I suggest to you that as we live longer " health' takes on new

meanings.. ;-)

heh. interesting things to muse.

FreeBird

Effects of age and physical fitness on microcirculatory function.

Franzoni F, Galetta F, Morizzo C, Lubrano V, Palombo C, Santoro G,

Ferrannini E, Quinones-Galvan A.

Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa School of

Medicine, Via Roma 67, Pisa 56100, Italy.

Sedentary aging is associated with endothelial dysfunction and nitric

oxide (NO) impairment. The aim of the present study was to assess the

effects of regular physical exercise on nitrite/nitrate (NOx)

concentrations and microcirculatory function in older men compared

with young individuals. We measured NOx plasma concentrations and

baseline and stimulated skin blood flow (SBF) by laser Doppler

flowmetry in 39 male athletes [range, 22-72 years; maximal oxygen

consumption (VO2max), 60.0 +/- 4.7 ml.min(-1).kg of body weight(-1)

(mean +/- S.D.)] and 45 age- and sex-matched sedentary controls

(VO2max, 38.0 +/- 7.1 ml.min(-1).kg of body weight(-1)). NOx

concentrations were higher in athletes than in controls (50.4 +/- 16.3

compared with 39.0 +/- 15.4 micromol/l; P<0.005), whereas baseline SBF

was comparable. Hand SBF after heating and ischaemia and foot SBF

after heating were higher in athletes (P<0.0001) than in controls. By

comparing the lowest and the highest tertile of age, sedentary young

subjects had higher NOx concentrations than sedentary older subjects

(43.3 +/- 13.4 compared with 31.8 +/- 12.2 micromol/l respectively;

P<0.05). Exercise abolished this difference (49.1 +/- 9.6 micromol/l

for young subjects and 52.1 +/- 11.5 micromol/l for older subjects;

not significant). Resting SBF was similar in all the subgroups, but

stimulated SBFs were lower in both subgroups of untrained compared

with trained subjects. NOx concentrations were positively correlated

with VO2max (r=0.46, P<0.001). Stimulated SBFs were correlated with

NOx (r>0.30, P<0.05). These findings show that chronic exercise may

improve endothelial function in older (and young) men, probably by

increasing NO availability.