Effects of Menopause Exercise on 12 Hallmarks of Aging

Hey, welcome back to those of you who are OGs here. Thanks so much for joining me, and we so appreciate your loyalty and listenership. And I have a favor to ask right away, just 10 seconds in. Please share this with somebody that you know who also wants to age what I call gracefully, not so much gracefully, but actually getting to the end, skidding to a halt, saying, wow, what a ride. That's my kind of people. So if you would please share it, it's how we all grow old with people that we have far more fun with, who challenge us to do things that maybe we wouldn't do alone. And if you are new here, welcome. In this episode of Flipping 50, I am Debra Atkinson, by the way. And after 41 years full-time in the fitness industry in a variety of roles, I love this job best, really taking what's going on with us, right now, today, no matter if you are in perimenopause, right in that menopause transition area, and post-menopause, so that we can decrease, take care of symptoms that you may have now, but also take care of you and the 85-year-old self that you will be who will say thank you for doing that. So here we go. This is literally about aging. So in this episode, I'm going to break down the 12 hallmarks of aging that can get a little science geeky if we let it, and about how exercise and also other lifestyle habits, but primarily I want to tap into what you're going to hear about exercise in each and every one of them that can help you optimize these hallmarks of aging. There are 12 things that are happening physiologically to us as we age, and yet we have the ability to either put the brakes on or maybe put it in reverse. So here we go. This is your episode. Watching a movie recently, I watched Blake Lively's character stay 29 physically and age out all of her friends, but also her loves, even her daughter, who was then gray-haired and moving into a retirement community while Blake's character remained 29 eternally. So talk about good something. It's what we all want, or what we say we want, without ever thinking about the devastating side effects of freezing ourselves at a moment in time to avoid aging. Aging has been so widely studied in the science of gerontology and applied by physicians, exercise physiologists, economists, psychologists, and others that you might imagine, including marketers, manufacturers, and influencers. The Hallmarks of Aging theory was born to create a framework and provide unified ways to understand what it is that's happening. So originally published in 2013, not that long ago, it became a topic for those in the rejuvenation world and is frequently cited in research papers. So originally there were 9 categories. Today there's a baker's dozen. Some evidence that we're rapidly explaining our knowledge, we're expanding our knowledge and understanding the mechanisms of aging. So what I'd really love for you to know here is that at any point that you're at, whether you're starting, you're exercising and not getting results, or you're exercising and you really are getting good results but you want to know that you're optimizing it for the future, there, there are ways that you can look at Okay, well, here's where I am now and here's where I may want to go. Just opening up and expanding your horizons. And one of those is something we call the fitness scorecard. So it's the Flipping 50s fitness scorecard for longevity. So I have ways that you can do field tests, what we call field tests in exercise physiology, meaning we don't have to have you go into a lab and do uncomfortable, awkward testing requiring machines that may cost thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to do it. But you can do some of these things at home, and these field tests have all been designed to correlate with what happens. So we know that a grip test or hanging, a dead hang, which is really a terrible thing when you're talking about hallmarks of aging, what a name, but you're actually hanging from a bar to see how long you can do it. And then looking at where do I fall in norms. Norms, by the way, are not the goal. But if you want to get your hands on that, you can go to flipping50.com/fitness-scorecard. We'll put that link in the show notes. But that's one way to just put yourself to the test and give yourself an idea of the measure. You're going to learn a lot by simply doing the test about you, where you are now compared to you later. That's really what matters most. So These originally 12 hallmarks of aging, originally 9, were determined— feels like a little awkward awards ceremony if I'm about to roll this out. I'm about to reveal the nominees and letting you know the criteria for this nomination is each of them, these hallmarks of aging, fit into 3 categories. Number 1, the process must be observed during normal aging. If we just didn't do anything else, these things would happen to the human body. It also has to say, if the process is worsened, it accelerates aging. And if it is abolished by therapeutic interventions, it reverses some aspects of normal aging. I wanna say that that is where the hope in this episode lies. And you have a lot of power, my friend, just to give you a little preview of what's coming. Full stop before we go on. Earlier this year, I was on a plane back to Phoenix from Florida, and the passengers were a little more unified. You know the feeling, there's 89 of us waiting, you know, once on the plane for them to fuel it and then get the ground crew. We were all bonding because we were all in this miserable situation of we cannot wait to get wherever we're going, whether it's home or travel, and there we were stuck. So we're eye rolling at each other, and we finally— you end up getting to talk to strangers. A young man and his mom were sitting next to me as I sat in the aisle seat, and they hadn't just been in Florida for the beach or meeting as I had been. No, no, no, he just participated in his first 100-mile ultra run. Yeah, all at once, by the way. So okay, then they had my attention. I'm like, this was meant to be, like of all seats you could sat in, or me. Here we are. So as we discussed what I did, of course, Flipping 50 and fitness for over 41 years, but now flipping it for women in menopause. Of course, she was just right next to my left elbow, but he was on the other side. And he is the one I really felt the most akin to because as a recovering endurance athlete, I'm like, oh God, I've always wanted to do that. And although I don't, I know my knees don't want to, even if the rest of me might. So yeah, that was kind of a big deal. So they were on their way back to Phoenix because he is a marketing student at ASU, going to be a great one as far as I could tell. He asked great questions about what I did. Can you imagine? He's just finished this 100 miler and I want to ask him a ton of questions. So we shared the endurance bug and I could tell that mom in the middle all of us was very wise. She was clearly very supportive, had accompanied him on this endeavor, and, you know, she knew— she stayed awake all night to sherpa the event, by the way. It's, it's no easy task for somebody who's support crew. But she said just one thing about how hard it was on his body, even though as a mom you probably know and you're a little worried You know, he declined and let that wash right off of him responding at first, yes, but then you're actually more resilient. You know, I caught the moment of recognition that now wasn't the time to share wisdom of, you know, 2 or 3 more decades. She didn't say more, she just nodded. And I was very impressed. So I wanna point that out to you. And I have gone through phases in our lives, I think we all have, when we chose to believe that long endurance exercise was better for shorter— then shorter— for longevity and health, or that eating vegan and low protein was or is, and that coasting on coffee till noon or fasting long hours consistently was or is to be admired. Until we have evidence it isn't working, you or me, we're the N of 1, doing our own lab work daily, collecting our own data, whether we choose to use it or we ignore it. You know, we're literally in on the smart scale, in our energy, digestive habits, the ability to sleep well. We collect it, we're collecting data. I also wanna remind you that the power of placebo, your thoughts about your health also play such an important role in healing that they may also be a part of your longevity beyond this statistic. Here's this, a positive belief about aging increases lifespan by 7 to 10 years. That's scientifically proven, by the way. That doesn't appear in any category below. So maybe there are 13 hallmarks of aging. We just haven't added that one yet. You may be feeling even the slightest of incongruence or internal conflict, not even know why. And I've been around and listening to conversations with women over 40 essentially my whole life, serving them specifically for the last decade, but broader than that, they have been the predominant people who come for support over 4 decades. We each seem to have a line, and it may move, but we have this line of acceptance and desire to accept and use some new regenerative supplement, or often called biohacking tool, and then also a place where we have hit our limit, or we choose to believe the side of a still not resolved conversation so that it serves our best interests or our best desires. So are we playing God by using these regenerative tools? Do you ever wonder that? I'd love to know, literally. So wherever you might hear this, whether it's on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, or you're listening or coming to the website, I'd love to hear from you. Where's the biggest return on the smallest of investment? Especially, where are the free items accessible to all? We're going to explore that in upcoming Flipping 50 episodes, but this one we really stop and drop at the surface. So I'm going to mention the hallmarks of aging, and I'm going to talk very briefly, and I want to explain what it is and explain how important exercise is to it. And I'm going to do this in pretty rapid fire. So buckle your seatbelt. The 12 hallmarks of aging are biochemical changes that occur in all organisms as they age, leading to a loss of physiological integrity. So number 1, genomic instability— that is basically your DNA breakdown. So over time, when you're older, your DNA will break down. Number 2 is telomere attrition. So just what it sounds like, telomeres are like the plastic part covering the end of a shoelace, and those are on the end of your, basically your DNA. They're, they're on the end of your chromosomes and they protect you. The longer they are, the more lifespan you have. The shorter they get, the shorter the lifespan. But they are a true benchmark of longevity. And by the way, you can do things to accelerate the shortening of them or lengthen them, no matter what. They're not like locked in, now you've lost it. Epigenetic alterations— that means, by the way, the 90% of your habits, your daily habits that influence your mortality or longevity. There will be influences. Lifestyle pulls the trigger. The loss of proteostasis— that is basically muscle protein synthesis, the build-up of our bodies versus the breakdown. We lose that proactive piece. Deregulated nutrient sensitivity. As a woman in midlife, you probably experienced this. Hunger and fullness signals get messed up, right? I have a lot of women who— they're the opposite of what people think, meaning we're snacking too often, we're eating more calories. Actually, many of my clients are eating too little because they don't have an appetite. If that's you, number one, I want to cautious you on something, and that is, you know, GLP-1 seem to to be the solution or the quick fix for people who want to lose weight, but they're going to decline your appetite. And if you're already not eating enough and don't have an appetite, I would say that's the opposite of desired effect. We want you to be a healthy woman with a healthy appetite, not cravings, healthy, ready for meals, because you've got to be fueling an active body that will thrive. Mitochondrial dysfunction. So energy production at your very cell, not just how much energy do you have today? Do you feel good? It, it's beyond that. It's at the cellular level, not just what you need for exercise. So take the big picture there, and that is definitely declining if we let it, right? Cellular senescence is the next thing. I've been talking a lot about that. You've heard me talk most about this recently with OneSkin, the face products that I'm using because of a need to pay attention to my SPF for a little mole that I had to have removed. It was precancerous, but waiting for the results on that was a little bit scary. It was a reality check. And for years, decades, I've heard people say, you're really brown, you know. And I do, I tan really easily, and I'm fortunate that it's— I don't know where I got it, but think the genes that it's usually a beautiful tan, which is maybe that's more addictive. So I like the sun a lot, but it caught up with me. And so I am much more careful. But you've heard about cellular senescence is basically the death of cells, and then they're still there circulating. These zombie cells are in your body and they are almost what we'd call contagious. So they're taking up space, number one, that healthy cells could be taking up, but we don't have room for more healthy cells because these dead zombie cells are in there. But then they're also contagious. They do damage essentially to the healthy ones that are there. So we've gotta figure out, number one, how do we prevent that? How do we get rid of it? The OneSkin that I'm sharing and most recently have been talking about, I not only started using the SPF, but that was so great. I'm like, okay, gimme the eye cream, gimme the face, gimme the body for those little crepey areas underneath the skin and around the knees. Yes. Yes, please, I'll take that too. All of it I've been loving, but it's got a peptide in it, OS-1, that actually is the only thing shown to biologically reverse the age of the skin, not just make it temporarily look better because we've moisturized it. We all know moisturizers, you put them on and, you know, they, they rub lotion on you if you get a manicure, you know, I can walk out 10 minutes later and I need lotion again because it's not the right stuff. So important to know cellular senescence can happen in your skin. It can happen anywhere in your body. As a midlife woman who was exposed to mold, the air I breathe is really important. Americans spend an average of 90% of our time indoors, but did you know indoor air can be 100 times more polluted than outdoor air? Breathe easy with Air Doctor, the award-winning air purifier that eliminates 99.99% of dangerous contaminants like allergens, viruses, smoke, gases, mold spores, and more. Air Doctor was voted Best Air Purifier by Newsweek, so it's no surprise that 98% of Air Doctor customers agree their home's air feels cleaner, safer, and healthier. Unlike other air purifiers, Doc— Air Doctor captures invisible particles 100 times smaller than standard HEPA filters. Head to airdoctorpro.com and use code FLIPPING50 to get up to $300 off today. Air Doctor comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee plus a 3-year warranty. An $84 value free Get this exclusive podcast-only offer now at airdoctorpro.com. That's airdoctorpro.com using promo code FLIPPING50. Real quick before we go any further, this Menopause Awareness Month, I want to ask you something. Have you ever approached your physician or your healthcare provider and said, you know, I've got concerns about my menopause symptoms, maybe about longevity, and been met with, well, this is just what happens. Welcome to menopause. If so, you're not alone. The irony of this, that every single woman goes through menopause, and yet 30% or less of OB-GYNs who we lean into for our support have any education on menopause care. That means too many of us go without real answers. But now Well, we can get the answers we need with HERS. I'm so excited that HERS now offers access to so many of you who've expressed a frustration with being able to find real care. It's headed by HERS Chief Medical Officer and leading women's hormone health expert, Dr. Jessica Shepherd. The program expands HERS' trusted online health and wellness platform already used by hundreds and thousands of women to deliver more accessible, personalized personalized care for weight loss, hair loss, regrowth, mental health, and so much more. The process is really simple. You complete a medical intake form online, and if eligible, a licensed provider creates your personalized treatment plan. No long waits, no standing in line at the pharmacy while you're battling hot flashes. If you're prescribed, you'll unlock access to a wide variety of FDA-approved treatments that use naturally available hormones in your body like progesterone and estradiol, all of which are available in a pill, patch, or cream, and all that are tailored to your unique needs. These treatments are clinically proven to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal thinning, drying, sleep quality, and more. And through the HERS app— this is gold— you have access to unlimited messaging with a healthcare provider to make sure that your plan is working for you. Look, as women, it should be simpler to access healthcare built around you and your unique needs. Whether you want to get ahead of menopause symptoms or you're concerned about longevity, weight loss, you want to grow thicker, fuller hair— yes, please— then HERS has you covered. Visit forHERS, F-O-R-H-E-R-S, hers.com/flipping to get a personalized treatment plan that's just right for you. That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S forward slash flipping. It's not available in all 50 states. Perimenopause and menopause by HERS includes hormone health support, educational resources, digital tools, and prescription options if appropriate. See website for full details, important safety information, and restriction. Stem cell exhaustion. So again, not to make this about me, me, me, but your regeneration and building blocks have toppled over. Essentially, the Legos in your body are all over the floor, so don't step on those and stub your toe. But I recently had stem cell treatment on a knee, both knees, but I only had a problem with one because I decided I want to be proactive. I mean, I wasn't limited in movement, but it wasn't feeling great, and I knew it wasn't gonna get better by not changing anything. So that stem cell exhaustion, you need that regeneration, and you can inject your own stem cells. And guess what the good part is? They can come from your fat. I was like, how much can you take? How much can you take? Right? But that's not all that comfortable, so I don't I don't necessarily recommend that route. Altered intercellular communication. So basically, like the game of telephone, you sit in a circle, somebody starts the message, it goes around the circle, it gets to the other side, and like, what? That was not the message, right? So your cells inside communicate less effectively to each other, so that leads to impaired tissue repair. It's like that is the whole DOT, Department of Transportation, internally is not getting the message that this road is supposed to be closed. You're supposed to let the, the drivers through on this side of the road now and stop them from the other side. There's no communication going on, so it's kind of utter chaos. It's not going as well as it should. 3 more, hang in there. Chronic inflammation. This is also known as inflammaging, and putting together the word inflammation and aging, obviously it's persistent low-level inflammation. People are talking about it. I'm talking about it. And even Often though, you may get your labs back and say, but my A1C is okay, it's fine, but this is okay. And yet you still may have that. And I find that a lot of women who are unable to lose weight and belly fat and then try because they can't do the obvious solution to us, which is exercise more longer and harder and eat less, we start causing more inflammation because exercise actually does cause inflammation. It's the benefit of it is then there is a rapid inflammatory response, kind of like a fever is. You're— is supposed to happen when we get sick because that means the army's in there navigating and fighting the fight. And that's what happens after exercise. But let's say you already have chronic low-grade inflammation, then we exercise on top of that, we're actually making things worse, not better. So it's why sometimes Cutting back. We want you to move, but we don't necessarily want you to move a lot or harder or faster if we have a lot of low-grade inflammation. We want to get rid of that first. Really important, and it is counterintuitive to what you've always been taught. Two more: disabled macroautophagy. And you may hear autophagy, it may be said different ways depending on who's saying it and how their pronunciation skills are, so whatever is comfortable for you. But really realize that autophagy, we're not doing that well anymore. When do you hear that word most often anymore? In regard to intermittent fasting, right? And the last one is dysbiosis. You hear that most in regard to gut health. We have more dysbiosis as we age. Do you know any older adult who hasn't had digestive or elimination issues? They have constipation or diarrhea. They go back and forth between constipation and diarrhea. They're not that hungry. They're maybe snacking and eating foods that are not great. They kind of don't care anymore. They don't want anybody telling them they shouldn't be drinking a pot of coffee anymore. They just— they're like, you know, it's just— I'm just do what I need to do. So realize that we want to look at all of these things. If we have that dysbiosis, doing what you can to help get over it is important. So rapid-fire, are you ready? Let me help you. So what are these things and what do they really mean and what can you do about them? Genomic instability, that DNA damage. There are things that you can do. Science is looking at things like the use of krill oil or omega-3. If you're not already doing omega-3 to protect against this damage, you might want to look at that and look at other things like your diet is rich in foods that supply vitamin B, all the vitamin B suite, vitamin C, E, magnesium, and zinc to help prevent oxidative damage. So you can also change the expression of 179 genes associated with aging by exercising twice weekly resistance training for 6 months. It's all it takes. That's a really good use of time. That's about about 90 minutes or less total a week. There's also supplements like something like Mitopure, which is urithelin A. It's a metabolite that supports mitochondrial health, and it's produced when gut bacteria break down. And it's found in pomegranates, but it's— you got to eat a truckload, right? So taking the supplement is a much faster way to get there. And I've mentioned OneSkin's products as Telomeres, let's talk about that. So I want to point out to you something is going to be a common denominator. Chronic stress is going to be mentioned here. Chronic stress will shorten your telomeres, right? Learning how to handle stress better, yours are going to stay longer. And sedentary lifestyle also shortens your telomeres. We need an active lifestyle. The epigenetic changes. So you know about this one. Genetics, of course, 10%, maybe, maybe even less of what happens to you. But if you are— lifestyle habits are good, your diet, your activity, and we're not talking perfection, stress reduction, right? And that means not over-exercise, but active aging. So you are active every day, you're exercising with resistance training, just good high-quality exercise, not necessarily more. You're going to do yourself much better good. Put. The proteostasis breakdown— remember, that's muscle protein breakdown— is faster than muscle protein synthesis or buildup. So you also want to support yourself not just by eating more protein, doing resistance training, but you may also need digestive enzymes to help you break down the protein you're consuming. And a lot of older adults, women over 40 who go through menopause, the hormones change, the gut microbiome changes. It's a boom. That never bothered me before, and now it does. A lot of women in midlife no longer tolerate dairy, but they're trying to eat it because it's a great protein source, but it's making them bloated, constipated, diarrhea, you name it, gas, bloating. So you've got to look at that. It may also change your skin, breakouts, or aches and pains of joints. So it Those things can happen also because of hormonal changes, but then we look at how can we change the diet in order to improve that. So look at that. I'll share what I'm using for digestive enzymes right now, and I am loving it. It's been a game changer. Deregulated, regulated nutrient sensing. If you don't have an appetite, let's fix that right now. You're a woman who makes a lot of decisions. You probably don't sit still. You're often active, and certainly your brain is. You should have an appetite. You deserve to have an appetite, to get hungry for breakfast and lunch and dinner. We're built to do that, not to have cravings, but to actually feed ourselves really well. So if you're not experiencing that, or you get early satiety— very limited number of my clients have had that in the past too— that we need to solve for. Mitochondria. All right, so this— they, they get dysregulated. They're those tiny, tiny little powerhouse plants inside of your cells that generate energy, and they do get old and tired, not making as much energy, but they make harmful waste instead, make your cells sluggish, less efficient. Regular exercise— it's been proven that a 70-year-old can have the mitochondria of a 20-year-old if they're exercising appropriately. We can get it back. We used to thought that production slowed down. You get old, you slow down. But no, it's because we slowed down that we got old. In this case, cellular senescence— remember, this is where I mentioned zombie cells— that happens because of your skin, and then it's in your systemic system, but it can happen in all cells. They're like old cars, they stop working properly, but they don't die. They're still out there on the interstate slowing everybody down. Healthy diet, regular exercise can help slow down that, but you can also get some support getting rid of those old old cells and preventing that from happening in the first place. Stem cell exhaustion, I mentioned you can go through stem cell treatment, but taking care of these master builders of your body. I'm going to mention this again, managing stress is a big one. So as I prepared for stem cell treatment and then in the post-treatment phase, it was very specific that eat certain fruits and vegetables, avoid other things like away from gluten, wheat, dairy, and again post-treatment, because they're inflammatory. So my doc was very specific about that. Eat things that are rich in omega-3s. Supplementing with omega-3s could also be helpful, and yet we didn't want to overdo that because we want the body's own system to kick in. So you want to know the right timing to do that, that altered cell or intracellular communication. You know, imagine people in a town, a small town specifically, who talk a lot. I can't tell you how I know that, but they communicate with each other to coordinate things. Your body's intracellular system is not communicating as well. So there's more downtime, more road construction, tissue repair and inflammation is not, tissue repair not happening, inflammation then stays more prevalent. Regular physical activity, but in your sweet spot, not too much, can improve that communication between your cells. Chronic inflammation is another sign of aging, and that's like that low-grade fire in your body. It damages tissues. Get ready for it— managing stress is key. So this is where exercising regularly, but again, not too much, because we can increase oxidative stress if you're not exercising just in the sweet spot. You're overdoing it and you get that oxidative stress over and over and over. We don't want to accelerate aging We just want to maintain it. Then last but not least, or two more, sorry, disabled macroautophagy. So one of the things that can help too, fasting or intermittent fasting is really what we're looking at, can help stimulate that. So don't overdo that, but at least 12 hours overnight. You can do 14 to 16, gradually stretching it out. Find what works for you, because if it turns into a stressor, it's probably also— you've got to weigh pros and cons of that for you. Last but not least is dysbiosis, your gut health. So if you're ignoring the fact that you have gas or bloating, constipation or diarrhea— and constipation is anything that you're not pooping at least once a day, that is a problem. So we want to look at eating a diverse, rich diet, very foods you're eating, and fiber, probiotics. But also look at getting a stool test and looking at what do I need to take. Don't just go blindly probiotic off the shelf because it needs to first be live. And you wanna make sure that you're feeding the ones that need to be fed and not feeding the ones that don't need to be fed. So there you have it. That was a lot. That was a kind of science lesson in a nutshell. I would love to hear your questions and we'll dive into each of these just a little bit more. And we'll also link to prior episodes with, for instance, OneSkin, where we talked about cellular senescence. A little bit more. Mitopure— we've had guests on who were instrumental behind the scenes of creating that product. Urethelin A, what it actually is and what it does. We'll link to those episodes if you want to learn a little bit more about it, but you may want to listen to this one again. These are the 12 hallmarks of aging, but if I could give you one quick synopsis, the Reader's Digest condensed version, or the Cliff Notes Decrease your stress level. Deal with stress. And that doesn't mean it's gonna go away, because if you have people and things and purpose in your life you love, you're gonna have stress till death do you part. Let's just acknowledge that right now. But maybe it's that you get outdoors in nature and you walk every day. Maybe it's music. Maybe it's— maybe it is a trashy television show that lets you go mindless that you enjoy joy. It's— there's no judgment. Find the things that work for you. Find a friend you can laugh with. I hope that's been helpful. I'll see you on the flip side.