Captain America Serum Isn’t Here Yet. But Magic Muscle Protein Is

Photo: Rommel Azucena, Unsplash

What If I Told You The “Steroids” Of The Future Have No Down-Side?:

Once upon a time, there was this comedian who made some dumb jokes about taking everything at face-value.

One of the things he said was, “Why would you eat vegetables? Do you really need that much chlorophyll?”

It may turn out that a lot of our assumptions, even the ones SCIENCE! makes, could be just as silly.

For example, recently, researchers have figured out that cardio helps clear Alzheimer’s junk out of your brain,

And also grow new brain-cells RIGHT in the memory-center!

A South Korean team might have the same kind of news for people who lift weights!…

The Short Answer:

• There is a lot to be said for going beyond just the surface in any pursuit.
• This is surprisingly-true when it comes to things like exercise and aging.
• Especially since it gets much tougher to hit strength and fitness goals with time.
• So a team from South Korea tried to crack this problem.
• So they ran 6 small trials with 10-27 young and old subjects.
• Younger subjects secreted more of a type of protein after exercise than the older ones.
• The protein they found turns out to be a “magic messenger” with tons of benefits.
• These include 1) Anti-aging effects, 2) Cellular-metabolism improvements, 3) Increased muscle growth, 4) Increased bone-density, and 5) Increased energy.
• Young subjects make this earlier and in higher-quantities than older subjects.
• It took the latter-group 12 weeks of exercise to raise their levels.
• This is not the first biochemistry benefit of resistance training that’s been found.
• Others include 1) Lower inflammation, 2) Zombie-cell cleanup, 3) Cognitive improvements and more.
• The South Korean team was also able to supplement older mice with the protein to get the same benefits as youthful mice.
• They also found that the only activity to cause its production was resistance training and nothing else.
• This might be a good time to dedicate yourself to some kind of that exercise; forever.
• -Until the day we all get cocktails of these things at the doctor’s office to prevent and repair all kinds of issues.
• If they can supplement test-animals with it today, a Captain America Super-Soldier Serum is probably out there in the future somewhere!

Read on to find out the details…

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So the sad thing about achieving strength & fitness goals is that they’re hard, take time, and can really get harder with age.

There are a fair number of people who even go on HRT early(!) just to avoid these problems.

-Even Chris Williamson from Modern Wisdom is on some kind of boosters and he’s not yet a geezer!

So wouldn’t it be great if, just like an improved Captain America, there were some mix of less synthetic, less side-effect-prone boosters you could go on over time?

You know, other than just good ole-fashioned, “Blast some ‘roids, Bro!”

We might just have the first version here.

So researchers from South Korea’s KRIBB decided they were going to see what could be discovered about age-related muscle atrophy.

In a series of small trials that ranged from 10-27 young (26) or old (73) subjects, over as much as 16 weeks, they studied the effects of exercise on helpful biochemicals.

What they found was a special type of (messenger) protein that’s involved in several kinds of exercise benefits.

Now there is some good news, and some predictable but disappointing news as well.

So first the good: It turns out this “magic protein” does the following:

1) Has anti-aging effects
2) Makes your cellular-metabolism run better
3) Increases bone-density
4) Makes your muscles grow
5) Gives you more energy

But then there’s the bad news:

Younger people make more of it than older people.

-That’s right, the ones who have osteoporosis, muscle-atrophy and actually need it get less!

Younger people also make more of it earlier in an exercise practice as well.

It’s so bad in-fact that it took a 12-week resistance-training program from the researchers to get older subjects to start making it again.

But I guess the good part of the bad news is that at-least the older subjects Could raise their levels at all.

-Which means there is hope.

Now this isn’t the first time we’ve found out the old, simplistic, “burn calories, build muscle”, view of exercise was wrongheaded.

For example, other benefits of resistance-training exercise include the following:

1) It releases powerful anti-inflammtories
2) It speeds-up a type of zombie-cell cleanup
3) It rewires body fat to burn more calories
4) It can also clean Alzheimer’s junk out of your brain
5) Reduces Dementia rates in people do weights as well as cardio
5a) This is especially true for people who retain higher muscle mass as they age
6) Extends lifespan even further for people who do both weights and cardio vs either separately
7) Protects your brain and makes it work better, possibly through reduced inflammation
7a) These benefits extend most notably to the memory and judgment centers

The South Korean study definitely adds a few takeaways of its own.

First, they verified the “magic protein” by blocking it, AND ALSO SUPPLEMENTING WITH IT [ahem!], to check the effects.

Just like in the other studies, it’s a chemical messenger that is the result of >weight-bearing exercise.

Not only that, but the recommendations get even stronger there,

Because this ingredient’s levels Did Not Increase as a result of cardio; it went up from doing weights only!

So the old saying of “No Pain, No Gain” might be right in this instance.

It’s certainly a good justification to start doing resistance-training/weights,

-And then don’t ever stop, no matter how old you get.

Because, what’s better than building up your body and it’s muscle-mass like a 401k designed to keep you together and aging as gracefully as possible?

There’s no word on what age the change from high-producing young person to low-producing “older” person happens in the study.

But we should probably assume that it starts somewhere between the ages of 35 and 40.

-Right around the time most people start getting A LOT more serious about their health & fitness.

So some day, starting with the results of even small trials like this,

-Who’s to say we won’t All get a set of fitness “booster shots” full of many different kinds of “magic messenger chemicals”, perhaps at any age of life?

Osteoporosis? Gone.

Muscle-atrophy? Gone.

Social calendar? Booked!

Super-Soldier Serum Indeed!

-Just without all the skin-damaging “Vita-Rays”, hopefully.

• Source: EurekAlert
• Source Study: Nature.Comm – Exercise-induced CLCF1 attenuates age-related muscle and bone decline in mice