Anti aging center:Metabolic Equivalents (MET) for Anti-Aging Beauty by Lorne Caplan
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In order to measure our anti-aging beauty successes and failures, the medical and wellness communities are always coming up with new and revised ways to evaluate how well we’re doing in our quest for eternal youth, or at least health.
I’ve addressed a number of these measurement techniques in the past and made it quite clear how short many of them fall, such as the Body Mass Index, which hangs proudly on the wall of many internists and primary care physicians as if laughing at the ridiculousness of the scales.
The measure of Metabolic Equivalents (MET) is less individual specific, oriented instead at measuring how much activity we really get involved with on a daily basis and how beneficial that activity is. In essence, MET measures the total energy expenditure created by a variety of activities. Being active contributes to a variety of healthy outcomes for our cardiovascular system, our mind, our eyes (reducing the likelihood of macular degeneration), reducing inflammation, reduced weight and control of diabetes, improved resistance and stamina (with the obvious romantic benefits). Essentially, maximizing your anti-aging beauty efforts with one effort.
MET is calculated to scientifically quantify the dose of activity. The base value is considered to be one MET which is a person’s energy output while in a state of relaxation. Similar to studies where we calculate our energy requirements in the Optimal Metabolism Program, an example would be walking 3 miles per hour on a flat surface which expends around 3.3 MET’s which is considered moderate activity. Whereas, jogging on the same surface at 5 miles per hour would reach 8 MET’s and is considered vigorous activity. Similar to the VO2 measurement, that looks at the amount of oxygen our bodies can process during exercise, the MET analysis incorporates both activity and caloric burn and the more vigorous the better for the anti-aging benefits that I listed above.
While I’m not one to tout the recommended levels of activity as supported by the ACSM/AHA, the MET takes into consideration the age and health of the individual. For example, an older person who is not in good health is recommended to maximize their activity at a moderate level as opposed to the AMA which suggests a heart rate of 145-180, which in older people can be fatal if there is CVD. Instead, older folks are recommended to exercise between 50-80% oxygen uptake reserve (VO2R).This range is considered vigorous for older adults, despite the risk of embolism, infarction or other cardiovascular event.
Some research has suggested that the benefits of MET analysis and respective activity at a moderate to vigorous level is beneficial, but limited when considering systolic blood pressure, lipid profile and body fat loss. These categories tend to be affected more directly by the intake of specific foods, when they are eaten and the nutrients that are ingested (radical oxygen species and the antioxidants that combat them).
A recent study by Swain and Franklin suggests that only vigorous activity will show benefits, but beyond the Federal guideline disagreements, and I can’t believe that I would agree with the Federal guidelines, but a mix of the moderate and vigorous is the ideal way to go, especially when considering unique physical attributes, lifestyle and other unique physical and mental attributes.
One of the most important categories to consider would be muscle tone and endurance, which differentiates between pure cardio and pure resistance training. I’ve already pounded the desk on how much more beneficial weight training is for longevity and anti-aging beauty, but it appears that when measuring MET, we must also calculate the greater energy expenditure that we garner form resistance training. Each individual will achieve the additional benefits of increased mobility, bone density, reduced complete blood pressure which contributes to the more metabolically active rebuilding of soft tissue (to avoid sarcopenia).
So, with MET, we are able to more specifically define our performance benefits and achieve a healthy balance of activities. needless to say, we can’t rely on simply one measurement, but because achieving anti-aging beauty is far more complex than simply jogging a mile each day, we must consider the complete efforts that will be undertaken and know that there are many measurement techniques, some more relevant than others, but all useful if considered within their framework.
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