The secret to staying young? Get on your bike!

Want to stay younger for longer? It could be as easy as riding a bike.

For cycling really does keep the body – and the mind – young, scientists say.

A study of fit amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79 found many were physically much younger than most people their age.

A study of fit amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79 found many were physically much younger than most people their age

The 81 male and 41 female participants underwent extensive tests, including of their hearts, lungs, reflexes, muscle and bone strength and mental ability.

Despite an age range of 25 years, older members of the group had similar muscle strength, lung power and exercise capacity to the younger participants.

In a simple test to show a person's risk of falling over – which measured how long it took participants to stand from a chair, walk three metres, walk back and sit down – even those in their seventies achieved times expected of healthy young adults, the Journal of Physiology reports.

The participants were all able to cycle long distances, but you do not need to be super-fit to enjoy the benefits of activities like cycling – as it is staying active at any level that is important.

Dr Ross Pollock, who led the team of scientists from King's College London, warned that most of us are inactive, which causes 'physiological problems at any age'.

The 81 male and 41 female participants underwent extensive tests, including of their hearts, lungs, reflexes, muscle and bone strength and mental ability

Professor Norman Lazarus said that staying active can 'buy you extra years of function', adding: 'Cycling not only keeps you mentally alert, but requires the vigorous use of many of the body's key systems, such as your muscles, heart and lungs, which you need for maintaining health.'

The cyclists were recruited deliberately to exclude effects from a sedentary lifestyle that may cause changes in the body capable of being confused with those due to ageing.

Men and women had to be able to cycle 100 kilometres in under 6.5 hours, and 60 kilometres in 5.5 hours, to be included in the study. Smokers, heavy drinkers, and people with high blood pressure or other health conditions were excluded.

Oxygen consumption rate showed the closest association with birth date, according to the results published in the Journal of Physiology. But even this marker could not provide an accurate indication of the age of any given individual.

Dr Pollock added: 'The main problem facing health research is that in modern societies the majority of the population is inactive.

'A sedentary lifestyle causes physiological problems at any age. Hence the confusion as to how much the decline in bodily functions is due to the natural ageing process and how much is due to the combined effects of ageing and inactivity.

'In many models of ageing lifespan is the primary measure, but in human beings this is arguably less important than the consequences of deterioration in health.

'Healthy life expectancy - our healthspan - is not keeping pace with the average lifespan, and the years we spend with poor health and disabilities in old age are growing.'

Co-author Professor Stephen Harridge, director of the Centre of Human & Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King's College, added: 'Because most of the population is largely sedentary, the tendency is to assume that inactivity is the inevitable condition for humans.

'However, given that our genetic inheritance stems from a period when high levels of physical activity were the likely norm, being physically active should be considered to play an essential role in maintaining health and well-being throughout life.'

Cycling Cadence: What is it & How to Improve Yours

If you’ve ever watched elite cyclists pedal, you’ve likely noticed how they glide along the road. Quickly, smoothly, efficiently. Their legs move in steady loops whether they’re going up a steep hill or riding on flat terrain. And a huge part of that ease is cadence.

Cadence is the rate at which a cyclist pedals. It’s the number of pedal revolutions per minute (RPMs). If you increase and train your cadence, you’ll improve your cycling efficiency, allowing you to pedal for longer, faster.

Why?

When you pedal faster, you put less strain (i.e. force) on your muscles with each stroke. You ride in a lower gear, and as a result, use your slow-twitch muscles. These muscles burn fat for fuel, are resistant to fatigue, and recover quickly when allowed to rest. Also, studies show a higher cadence means an increase in blood flow to the muscles – which in turn, means more oxygen in the blood and a higher aerobic performance.

On the other hand, a low cadence at a high gear is more taxing on the muscles. It uses fast-twitch muscles, which burn glycogen for fuel, fatigue quickly, and takes a long time to recover before they can be used again. In other words, muscle strength doesn’t last long, so you’ll start to feel the burn faster than at a higher cadence.

While you might think that pedaling faster would be harder on your cardiovascular system, but that isn’t the truth. The cardiovascular system is a highly efficient system. Unlike the muscular system, it doesn’t take long to recover, and it is only limited by its capacity – how much air it’s getting in at any given time – not by how much work has already been done.

So what’s the ideal cadence for a cyclist?

While there’s no one magic number, aiming for 90 RPM is a good goal to avoid leg fatigue and making the most out of those slow-twitch muscles. Average cyclists have a cadence of about 60 RPM; advanced and elite cyclists pedal anywhere from 80 to 100 RPMs.

All of that said, changing your cadence isn’t something you can do overnight – it takes months. Your body has adapted to your current cadence and changing it requires work from all of your body’s systems: neural, muscular, cardiovascular, metabolic, etc.

HOW TO DETERMINE + IMPROVE CADENCE

Regardless of whether you’re a recreational rider or a serious racer, practicing to ride at a higher cadence will make your pedal stroke more efficient. By maintaining a steady cadence throughout your ride, you’ll become a better rider. But remember, this doesn’t mean you need to pedal faster in the same gear. As you climb, adjust your gear, so it’s easier and keep your RPMs consistent.

Before you can increase your cadence, however, you need to determine where you currently stand.

There are multiple ways to determine your cadence. The most basic and straightforward – though not necessarily the most accurate – is to count the number of times your right knee comes up during a ride in 30 seconds and double it.

In general, to improve your cadence, start off with shorter extreme efforts as well as longer more modest efforts. Why? According to Bike Roar, “By hitting cadence numbers beyond the norm, you’re training your brain to fire signals in the patterns required for your muscles to contract far more rapidly. Then when you hit normal numbers, it doesn’t seem as hard.”

Really, Just One Drink? But what about exercise?

Just One Drink Raises the Risk of Breast Cancer, While Vigorous Exercise Mitigates the Damage.

Researchers found a link after analyzing 119 studies;
Sumathi Reddy WSJ May 29, 2017 7:00 a.m. ET

Borrowed from WSJ 5 29 2017


One glass of wine could increase your risk of breast cancer, according to a new study by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer
By Sumathi Reddy

Bottom’s down: A new report finds that drinking even one glass of alcohol a day could increase the risk of developing breast cancer, while vigorous exercise mitigates the damage.
The type of alcohol doesn’t matter—wine, beer and hard liquor all pose the same risk.

The report, a joint effort of the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, was a review of 119 studies looking at how diet and physical activity impacts the risk of developing breast cancer in pre- and post-menopausal women. The studies included data on 12 million women and 260,000 breast cancer cases. The studies don’t show that alcohol causes breast cancer, but they do show an association or link.

A small glass of wine or beer a day—with about 10 grams of alcohol content—increases the risk of pre-menopausal women developing breast cancer by 5% and post-menopausal women by 9%, the authors concluded. A standard drink has 14 grams of alcohol.

“One thing that surprised me was that even at such a low level, drinking alcohol was statistically significant,” said Anne McTiernan, a cancer prevention researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and lead author on the report.

Experts aren’t clear on why alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer. One theory is that alcohol increases the levels of estrogen in the blood, which is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Also, alcohol can damage DNA, which is a pre-cursor to cancer.

Susan K. Boolbol, chief of breast surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, noted that pooling many studies can lead to an imperfect analysis. The studies are retrospective so they involve asking women how much they drank, which isn’t always reliable data.

She said the important message is that all types of alcohol are equally harmful. “I have this discussion with patients all the time,” she said. “They say, ‘I only drink wine, or I only drink beer, and that doesn’t count.’ This was very, very specific that it does.”

Still, she said it’s unrealistic to recommend to patients that they completely abstain from alcohol. “We have to be reality-based,” she said. “Once we start saying “don’t do this, don’t do that,’ we lose patients. They stop listening. So I think it’s about moderation.”

Other takeaways from the report: Vigorous exercise lowered the risk of developing breast cancer by 17% in pre-menopausal women and 10% in post-menopausal women compared with women who were the least active.

Even general physical activity, such as gardening, helps. Post-menopausal women who were active were linked to a 13% lower risk of developing breast cancer, whereas there was no statistically significant benefit for pre-menopausal women.

The difference between the benefits of exercise for pre and post-menopausal women surprised Therese Bevers, medical director of the cancer prevention center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “I even found myself giving a different recommendation yesterday to one of my patients who is pre-menopausal,” said Dr. Bevers. She told the patient that it’s really vigorous exercise that is linked to reducing the risk of breast cancer whereas moderate exercise may not confer the same benefit.

Being overweight or obese was associated with a greater risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to the study. Dr. McTiernan said each five unit increase in body-mass index was associated with a 12% increased risk.

Surprisingly, in pre-menopausal women, overweight and obese women had a decreased risk of developing breast cancer with each five unit increase in BMI resulting in a 18% reduced risk. But experts say that does not translate into recommending weight gain for such women, which comes with increased risks for many other health conditions.
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com