Chemistry, physics and health
Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor July 2022
The human body can adjust to a new environment quickly.
Recently I was reading the Hemispheres magazine that United Airlines provides on flights. There was an article on Liam Neeson in the May 2022 issue. He is an actor that I like very much—the type of person you wish would never age. In fact, it looks like he doesn’t and is doing very well for his age. In the article, he said he is 70 and has just finished a new thriller movie.
What was most interesting to me was what he said when asked how he kept in shape. He was a boxer in his early years and kept up with exercising throughout his life. Now he does something every day, but mostly a brisk walk for 30 minutes. He said, “Do that every day, and you will be fit for life.”
I sincerely believe in this, and I believe that the body is a very adaptive organism. As long as we use it, it regenerates to perform and satisfy its needs. But if it is not used, the body starts to eliminate muscles and bones and probably alters our chemistry.
I once attended a seminar given by an astronaut that had served in the space station in the early 1990s. He said before his flight, there were no labs on the spacecrafts. They would take blood samples before astronauts left and more samples after they came back. It was known that calcium levels would be very high on return, indicating that the body started dissolving bones in the absence of gravity. His flight was the first to have a laboratory on board the spaceship. He said they were amazed when they found out the blood calcium levels skyrocketed the very first day in outer space. This shows how adaptive the body can be and how fast it adjusts.
As everything in our body is controlled and regulated with chemical reactions, there is a strong possibility that chemical reactions can be affected with lack of movement. I had read another article some time ago that supported this. This was about a couple that was close to retirement age. The husband had lost his job, his wife was not working, and they lost their health care. They decided the only thing they could do was to try to maintain their health and started walking for an hour every day. They kept this habit after they retired and did have health care. What they found out was that a lot of their friends were on multiple medications for various ailments, but neither the husband nor wife needed any medication. They had no chemistry-related issues. I know several people that are contractors, and they are still working in physically demanding jobs in their 70s. One of my friends who is 70 said he does not take any medication. He does go to checkups and gets blood tests, and all his results are fine.
I knew two people who were avid gardeners—one died when he was 87 and the other died when she was 92. They were both very physically active until the very end. If you don’t like gardening or have a garden, why not try dancing? I was taking ballroom dancing classes at one time, and I would go to monthly balls. There was a 90-year-old gentleman that would nonstop dance for an hour, which included swing songs! It fortunately looks like if one does moderate gentle exercise, and does it every day, the body and all functions seem to continue working fine.
There was recently a very interesting finding about telomers. DNA strands are capped with molecules called telomers, which prevent the DNAs from unravelling before division. It protects the ends like the plastic ends of shoelaces that protect the shoelace from fraying. It was known that with every division, telomers would get shorter, and when they were gone, the DNA would unravel and the cell would die. What they recently found out was that regular exercise was beneficial to telomer length! So it looks like we can somehow control a very, very complex series of reactions, our chemistry and biology by physical movements—to keep us on our toes, literally.
Dr. Selim Erhan is director of business development for Process Oils Inc. in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at serhan@processoilsinc.com.