Stuart Phillips, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health at McMaster University, is working to highlight the benefits of physical resistance exercise training as a method to help combat the loss of muscle that inevitably comes with aging.
As people continue aging past their forties and into their fifties they will usually start to see a gradual decline in their muscle mass. While this is a natural part of aging can have an effect on daily activities such as walking, getting up and down, performance in the workplace and work out routines. Through years of research at McMaster University, Phillips has found that resistance exercising and a healthy intake of protein which he says should be higher than the recommended dietary allowance will slow down the loss of muscle.
The act of resistance exercise, which involves putting added weight to the body, can significantly decrease the risk of disease later in life and research has shown that being unable to complete at least ten push ups can result in serious illness and premature death when people reach an elderly age. Phillips also highlights the importance of having a healthy and nutritious diet because it enables the preservation of muscle mass through resistance exercise the ability to thrive.
The research that Phillips and his colleagues have conducted at McMaster University has shown that there is no relation between kidney disease and dietary proteins, although there is often a misconception that a high intake of protein is bad for the overall health. He says that even the World Health Organization in the United States and Canadian Institutes of Medicine agree that there's no relationship between dietary protein and causative issues in kidney health.
“When I talk about dietary protein one of the biggest misconceptions that people have is that it precipitates kidney disease and we have a systematic review and meta analysis of all the literature out there and there is no evidence that supports that,” says Phillips. “The same is true of bone. We used to think for a long time that protein caused acidification of the blood and that sort of acid environment would leach calcium out of the bone, and that's not true, either. In fact, if you've got adequate calcium and adequate vitamin d then protein is actually in combination with those two and is supportive of bone health, not antagonistic.”
Additional research that Phllips has been a part of has shown that the benefits of consuming protein from meat and plant based foods are not as different than they are currently perceived as being. According to Phillips, these two sources of protein are very similar in supporting muscle mass and general health with no real differences between aerobic exercise and resistance exercise in terms of most chronic disease risks.
Currently, Phillips manages the Physical Activity Center of Excellence (PACE) at McMaster University, which has 500 community members who go to the center on a regular basis. One of the focuses for Phillips’ work at PACE is helping with older persons who go with the average age being around 73-years-old. He helps them with physical resistance training and encourages them to socialize with each other as it is an integral factor to help combat the negative effects of old age. Phillips and the volunteers at PACE also help cardiac rehab patients as well as people who have spinal cord injuries.
“Changing behaviors and incorporating healthy exercises and diets can be very challenging for a lot of people, but my hope is that if people are able to make the change and see the benefits that it will reinforce the activity and the behavior itself,” says Phillips. “So, even if you have MS, a spinal cord injury or difficulty with daily physical activities, you can make improvements and that has been our experience and mission at PACE.”
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Name: Staurt Phillips
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