One of the favorite health expressions that get tossed about a lot is the ever-popular use-it-or-lose it. Generally, this trope is used in reference to your muscles where reality is easily observable. It is easy to see on yourself when you slack off on your exercise regime and your muscle tone goes to crap. Throw in a holiday or two with associated good eats and your muscles seem to disappear altogether. Use-it-or-lose-it becomes a motivational tool designed to convince you that the only reason you lost it is because of a lack of use. In all honesty, this is probably at least partially true.
The reason this time-honored bit of wisdom caught my attention is because of some different situations in the body where this same truth also applies — situations most people are unaware of. These situations are more relevant to your health than the loss of the cut physique that modern media seems to promote as the ideal of health. Well, let’s dive down into the real essence of health — energy. There is a good reason that the number one reason patients seek medical help and the number one complaint patients have is a lack of energy. Energy is the essence of life. The more you have, the more alive you feel. The less you have, well you get the picture.
So, where does energy come from? I am not talking about energy to power your phone or your electric car. I am talking about the energy to run your body and make you feel alive. Ultimately it comes from sunlight captured by plants and used to make carbohydrates and fats which either we eat or other critters eat and we eat them. I am asking about the fundamental energy source used by our bodies to run and do everything. The name of that energy source is ATP. ATP is a tiny chemical that carries an electrochemical pop of energy — just one little zap or spark. Everything that happens in our body and brain is fueled by billions of tiny little sparks every moment firing off and making things jump in response. What charges up these little spark molecules are the energy powerhouses in every cell called mitochondria. Each cell may have anywhere from 2 to 2500 mitochondria in it charging up these tiny ATP molecules to power the chemical reactions in that cell. Super busy cells like liver cells or muscle cells have a lot of mitochondria while quiet lazy cells like white fat cells have few mitochondria.
It was the example provided by white fat cells that stimulated this article. There is growing evidence that the ever-increasing obesity epidemic in this country is because the fat in our bodies is converting from brown fat into white fat. Brown fat is rich in mitochondria while white fat has lost most of its mitochondria. Both types of fat exist to store excess energy in the body as triglycerides which the body can use to carry to cells for mitochondria to turn into ATP energy. The difference is brown fat also exists to burn fat (triglycerides) to generate heat when we are cold. Additionally, brown fat is metabolically active as it moves fat in and out to meet energy needs – in after a feast and out when there is no food for a day or more. This was a constant need, both the need for heat and the need for energy movement, back when we were hunter gatherers. But as we became more civilized things changed. We created agriculture and animal husbandry to provide us with food every day. We created better clothing and shelter to protect us from the elements. Over the last 50 years, this has gotten really overdone as we now have an overload of food always available and we have heating and air conditioners to make sure our body never needs to use any of its’ energy to keep us warm. We don’t need brown fat anymore, and guess what – if we don’t use it we lose it. Unfortunately, without it the evidence is suggesting that this triggers the inflammation behind metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes.
The science behind this is very complex, so I am vastly oversimplifying this subject. But the core concept is there. We are not using our bodies in the way they were designed. Many years ago I made the statement that our pursuit of comfort is killing us. This is one of those ways this is happening. Food over abundance in perpetually comfortable thermal environments is not what our body was designed to deal with. I know this sounds crazy, but to be healthy we need various kinds of stress. These are called hormetic stressors. The reaction the body makes to these stressors is what makes us strong and healthy in every way including biochemically, hormonally, and neurologically. Any weight lifter or runner understands this on a muscular level. You have to stress the muscles to both make them strong and to keep them strong. Nothing stays strong without constant re-stressing. This happens on every level in our body. Use-it-or-lose-it.
One article I was reading was extolling the virtues of ice plunges and cold showers to convince our body that we need brown fat again. When you challenge the body it tries to meet the need in the moment. Another metabolic stressor to our fat cells is regular fasting to get those cells active at moving fat back out to be used to make energy, instead of just storing it passively for years and years. Moving fat out of fat cells requires energy, which requires more mitochondria being formed. New mitochondria are being built every second all over the body. Charging up those ATP is a dirty job and mitochondria get damaged constantly. This damage is called oxidative stress. Trying to slow this down is why we take antioxidants and why eating fruits and vegetables is supposed to be good for us. It’s all about the antioxidants. Mitochondrial damage is much less when we burn fats for energy. That is the main benefit of living a low carb lifestyle – less oxidative stress meaning less mitochondrial damage meaning more energy production. Carbs “burn” hotter and faster giving the illusion that they provide more energy, but they burn out the ATP factories much faster so that in the end they actually produce less energy due to fewer factories.
What else can we point to as an illustration of the use-it-or-lose-it principle in action? How about the brain? Right now, today, 10% of the US population has dementia and 25% have cognitive decline. That means 1 out of 3 people have brains that are not working well. I think most of them also drive around the streets around here. One big social dilemma right now is homelessness. I would argue that the stats I just quoted are the underlying cause of most of this. No society has ever been able to handle that much of its population being dysfunctional. The biggest cause and likewise the biggest solution to mental decline is use. Study after study has shown that challenging mental engagement is the key to preventing mental decline. It is that use-it-or-lose-it principle again. We as a society have replaced thinking with infotainment sound bites, problem solving with YouTube, and creativity with watching social influencers and cat videos on a cell phone.
Where else can we see this principle in action? How about balance? I teach this in the office all the time. How long can you stand on one foot with your eyes closed? A healthy response would be 10 to 15 seconds. An adequate response would be 5 to 10 seconds. Two seconds or less and you are at serious risk of falling. At only 2 seconds you don’t have the automatic reflexes to catch yourself and prevent a fall if your foot catches on something or you step on something unsteady. Simply practicing this balance in a safe manner (your hands near a counter or doorway) for 3 minutes a day will rebuild your balance reflexes.
Back in my 20’s and 30’s I remember I always had to wear sunglasses whenever I went outside. Everything was too bright for me. Then one day I decided this was dumb so I stopped wearing those sunglasses. Initially, I squinted a lot, but gradually my eyes adapted to the light levels. Our bodies are amazing at what they can adapt to. Initially, stressors are unpleasant, but we adapt by getting stronger. We can even do this with poisons. Many kings and emperors through the ages have regularly taken tiny doses of various poisons to develop resistance to the poisons. Gradually the liver builds up the enzymes necessary to deal with the poison insult. Since poison was a favorite way to get rid of a ruler, this adaption worked well for them.
The key is our bodies need variety to survive. The comfort of sameness simply speeds up the process of ill health and gradual death.
Take care,
David