July 2, 2022

There is a wide-spread assumption that stressful exercise improves health. It doesn't. It stresses physiology, which is not an improvement in health. Certainly, muscles can be built up by stressing them; but that isn't an improvement in health.

Improvement of health requires optimization of physiology; so all cells can function in an optimum way. Immune cells in particular must be optimized for improvements in health. Even under normal conditions, immune cells have a lot of work to do in cleaning house. The regulatory chemicals have to be removed as fast as they are used, such as pain chemicals. If those chemicals are not removed by white blood cells, the pain increases and spreads outward from the source unnecessarily and disrupts normal physiology.

Therefore, optimization of health means optimization of physiology, which requires all cells to be functioning well, not just the muscle cells. When stress is placed on muscle cells, the rest of the cells get deprived of nutrients and overwhelmed by toxic substances.

That means a little bit of exercise is beneficial in promoting circulation, while minimal activity allows maximum physiological complexity by distributing nutrients and control chemicals in a uniform manner.

Animals have a skewed physiology oriented toward a lot of ATP production for motion. A lot of nutrients are borrowed from plants; so animals don't have to synthesize them. That includes vitamins and some amino acids. It shows the shift in animal physiology toward ATP production. And it shows how the rest of physiology is sacrificed for ATP production.

By contrast, plants have complex manufacturing processes for unusual molecules, because they don't need a lot of ATP for motion. Absence of motion allows them to produce more complex molecules. It shows that a lot of motion is disruptive of physiology; and therefore, humans are sacrificing optimum physiology when maximizing motion.

A lot of experts are starting to realize that fat doesn't burn away. Certainly, a shortage of energy will cause some fat to disappear; but fat goes right back into place when the stress is discontinued; and then more fat than ever is produced due to the increased demands.

Regulatory molecules are that way. They cause more of something to be produced when it disappears. For that reason, exercise causes fat to increase, not decrease. This effect is visible to workers. When their activity increases, fat production increases. Regulatory molecules produce that result out of necessity.

That means the infantile equation which says fat equals calories consumed minus calories burned up is idiotic. It doesn't say what the regulatory physiology is doing.

The best way to decrease fat production is to pick the types of foods that don't produce much fat. That means non-fatty foods and moderate carbohydrates.

Raw food is designed to reduce fat production, because it shifts physiology to ancestral patterns in addition to the fact that there is less fat and carbohydrate in raw food.

Yoga-type procedures can have a benefit in stretching muscles and loosening joints. Muscles are de-stressed and circulation is improved by yoga.

Opposing View

A New York Times article (linked below) appears to contradict the above claims reporting on "strength training" as improving longevity. There are many fallacies in such statistical studies that need to be addressed.

First, correlation is not causation, a common rule of science. For that reason and many others, statistical studies are not real or valid science. Statistical procedures are so wishy-washy (subjective) that they tend to show whatever anyone wants.

An example is the primary method of study for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is modeling. Modeling is the use of statistical studies to answer questions about global warming. The result of modeling always show that humans are destroying the planet by putting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But basic science clearly shows, in many ways, that there is no such thing as a greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. So how does modeling show otherwise? By getting whatever results the persons want to get.

Getting back to stress exercise, persons who do muscle-building exercise start out with much better health than average persons and would have longer life without the extreme, muscle-building stressful exercise. Not the least reason is because stress exercise requires good nutrition. Good nutrition alone would show much improvement in longevity.

For the same reason that global warming must be based on basic science rather than correlation studies, health must be based on basic science rather than correlation studies. The basic science shows that optimum health requires moderate exercise and good nutrition.