Take 2 Aspirins & Exercise

This is not the story we wanted to write. If it says that exercise is good for you and you need to exercise then who really needs to read that again and again. Besides the information isn't recent its kind of old. It's being repeated by the Caregiver's Home Companion and called to our attention. We don't care to know what we already know. The good news is it doesn't take much exercise and there is a way to super-size the effects of the exercise. We just don't like the way to make the exercise more effective.

"Elderly Restore Muscle with Painkillers while Exercising - Elderly men and women who lift weights for exercise experience a substantial increase in their muscle mass when they take the daily recommended dose of ibuprofen or acetaminophen, according to Ball State University researchers." - Caregiver's Home Companion (June 2008)

We went to the source to verify the information and we include the report and the research directly from Ball State University (BSU) website after we found the information presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego. The techno babble is what we look for before we find the plain English. There the researchers said:

"This study examined the influence of chronic consumption of ibuprofen or acetaminophen during 12 weeks of knee-extensor resistance training in the elderly. Thirty-six (36) individuals were randomly assigned to one of three groups and consumed the drugs in double-blind placebo-controlled fashion... These results suggest that chronic consumption of ibuprofen or acetaminophen during resistance training induces intramuscular changes that enhance the metabolic response to resistance exercise, which promotes additional muscle hypertrophy and strength gains during resistance training in the elderly." - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2008) 

At the BSU website we found what it all meant. Our concern was what was meant by the term chronic consumption. We take the occasional low dose of aspirin for daily health the same as we go for the dark chocolate each evening as a health regiment. We recommend that all the time. Science says its good for you so that's good enough for us. We find all we can that says we can do something other than sweat and grunt.

 "Combining pain relievers with weight training may increase muscle strength, mass - Thirty-six men and women, between age 60 and 78 years, were randomly assigned to daily dosages of either brand versions of ibuprofen, acetaminophen or a placebo. The dosages were identical to those recommended by the manufacturers and were selected to most closely mimic what chronic users of these medicines were likely to be taking. Subjects participated in three months of weight training that included 15- to 20-minute sessions three (3) times a week in the Human Performance Laboratory." - Ball State University NewsCenter (April 2008)

 If you're going to exercise you can increase the benefits of your workout but taking either aspirin or acetaminophen. That's the good news. We're including the story because we were told to and because we discovered that tumeric is considered "Asian aspirin." Which makes us speculate that adding the spice to your daily diet prior to exercising with offer the same or comparable results as well. We admit that this is speculation based on the results. We also can't ignore the size of the study it's not a large group studied.

"Exercise but not Diet Induced Weight Loss Decreases Skeletal Muscle Inflammatory Gene Expression in Frail Obese Elderly - Many obese elderly persons have impaired physical function due to increased body fat relative to strength. We evaluated 12 weeks of exercise (aerobic and resistance, E) or 12 weeks of weight loss (WL) on skeletal muscle... ...exercise in frail obese elderly individuals had a beneficial effect on markers of muscle anabolism and inflammation while weight loss had no effect." - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2008) 

The above information from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO is included simply because it was found at the same FASEB conference attended and presented by Ball State University. Did you know that David Letterman graduated from BSU? We don't know Mr. Letterman beyond viewing him on his late night program but we thought about that bit of trivia when we started doing this story.

Exercise works better than anything else including eating the right among of food. You have to do what works and doing the most effective way to exercise. It's not quite an exercise pill but it's a way of doing less and getting more from what you do.