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老化を防ぐ「筋肉」の効能　筋トレは何歳から始めても遅くない！

筋肉を鍛えれば筋ホルモンが万病を予防する

The benefits of "muscles" in preventing aging. It's never too late to start strength training at any age!If you train your muscles, muscle hormones will prevent all kinds of diseases

Preventing muscle deterioration is essential to maintaining legs and hips that can be used for a lifetime. In addition to supporting and moving our skeleton, muscles are known to release dozens of hormones and help prevent various diseases. Maintaining muscle mass, which decreases with age, is an essential condition not only for preventing bedriddenness in the future, but also for preventing aging and rejuvenating oneself. This thematic feature provides a compact summary of the unknown benefits of muscles and basic knowledge about muscle training.

It is no exaggeration to say that the biggest investment you can make in your health is to maintain your muscle mass.

Theme-specific feature: "The unknown benefits of "muscles" in preventing aging"

筋肉が放出するホルモン「マイオカイン」は万病を防ぐ

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老化を防ぐ「筋肉」の効能　筋トレは何歳から始めても遅くない！

In order to keep your legs and hips strong as you age, it is essential to maintain the muscles of your entire body, especially your lower body. If you do nothing, your muscles will gradually decrease with age. Muscle mass peaks in your 20s and decreases at a rate of 1% per year, and is said to decrease by 30% in your 50s and 40% in your 60s.

Some people may think, "My weight hasn't changed since I was young, so I'm fine." However, it's too early to feel relieved. Even if your weight has not changed since your youth, if you do not exercise, your body may have gained fat and lost a lot of muscle .　

"Even if your weight hasn't increased, the 'contents' (the proportion of fat and muscle) may be changing for the worse. What's important is 'how much muscle you're maintaining,' not maintaining your weight. Regardless of your weight, losing muscle is a big problem," says Professor Shinya Kuno of the Graduate School of Sports Medicine at the University of Tsukuba.

In recent years, it has become clear that muscles secrete hormones like the brain and protect the body from various illnesses . Increasing muscle mass can help lower blood sugar levels, keep blood vessels and skin young, prevent colon cancer and dementia, and more, helping to prevent a wide range of illnesses. It is no exaggeration to say that maintaining muscle mass is the greatest investment you can make in your health.

What are the unknown benefits of muscle and what kind of training is effective for increasing and maintaining muscle? Let's update you with the latest information in this article.

Myokine, a hormone released by muscles, prevents all kinds of diseases

The role of muscles is not just to move the body. As mentioned above, muscles also have the function of producing hormones. This fact was discovered in the 2000s. Organs known to secrete hormones include the pituitary gland in the brain, pancreas, thyroid gland, and adrenal glands, but muscles are actually one of them. It is now said that " muscles are the largest endocrine organ in the human body ."

Hormones secreted by muscles (muscle hormones) are collectively known as "myokines ." The word myokine is a combination of the Greek words myo (muscle) and kine (agonist), and currently, more than 30 types of myokines have been identified. Myokines are secreted from muscles when they are moved, and have various positive effects on the whole body (Figure 1).

Figure 1 An example of the function of "myokines" secreted from muscles

First, it enhances cognitive function . Irisin is a myokine that is secreted from muscles and travels through the bloodstream to the brain. It is known that this causes the production of nerve cells that are useful for transmitting information in the brain and enhances their function. In fact, it has been reported that the concentration of irisin is reduced in the hippocampus (the part of the brain that controls memory) of people with Alzheimer's disease (*1). In addition to irisin, there are other myokines that activate brain cells (such as IGF-1).

"Previously, it was believed that the brain sent commands to the muscles to move them. Now, it is believed that the muscles also send commands to the brain, and that this may play a role in preventing dementia. Because the brain and muscles interact in both directions, some people say that 'muscles have brains.' "