Muscle:The Best Medicine A Top Priority for Women's Health that No One is Talking About!
Cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic disease, and hormonal health are prevalent and outspoken topics when it comes to the discussion on women’s health – and for good reason! These things have affected us all, witnessing our loved ones and community members afflicted with such ailments is heartbreaking and we often feel powerless.
As a Naturopathic Physician and female myself, I frequently contemplate how to best treat these concerns for women… or a rather more pressing question - how do we prevent or delay these things from ever arising? I want to present to you what I believe is the most foundational aspect of our health that the healthcare system is completely overlooking, and what I believe is the key to not only prevent disease, but to attain true longevity and prolonged health-span – the muscular system!
The Organ of Longevity – Our Muscles
The muscular system is often pushed aside as a thing of vanity, something only your fitness instructor and teenage boys spend much time thinking about. But this organ system has profound implications in overall health. Your physician should be talking to you about how to optimize it as a primary tactic to prevent cardiovascular disease, hormonal dysregulation, and osteoporosis, to name a few. On the topic of obesity and metabolic disease, we have hyper-focused on losing weight (fat), when we really should be prioritizing building muscle. Healthy muscle is a primary driver to fix our metabolism, reverse insulin sensitivity and other risk factors for chronic disease. It also keeps our bones healthy to prevent osteoporosis and age-related muscle loss called sarcopenia, which significantly reduces the risk of falls that happen with age. Muscle is the organ of longevity and must be prioritized as such when the goal is to prevent disease and live a long, healthy life.
Addressing the Root Cause
The most obvious way to optimize your muscular health is through exercise. However, the blanket recommendation of 150 minutes per week is missing the mark and failing women (and men!) in a significant and damaging way. Although aerobic exercise is important for many reasons, including increasing your VO2 Max (a strong predictor of longevity, you should know and monitor yours!), strength training helps to build muscle and keep it functioning optimally. But how do we assess the health status of our muscular system and how do we optimize its function as an organ of longevity? My role as a physician to is make my #1 prescription a personalized strength training and exercise program to address the root cause of the most common pitfalls in women’s health.
Diet, supplements, and medications have their place, but only when the core of the issue is also being addressed.
A Case for Strength Training Prescriptions
We all know the leading cause of death for women in the United States is cardiovascular disease, something that encompasses inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, obesity, high blood pressure, etc.1 Guess what has been studied as a non-drug treatment intervention that promotes a significant decrease in all these risk markers? Strength training.2 What prevents osteoporosis? Strength training. What reverses insulin resistance and cures metabolic dysfunction? Strength training. The list could go on.
Women, get Strong!
I have seen the most incredible reversal of disease and improved quality of life for female patients who take my exercise prescription seriously. It’s important to remember that “bulking” up from strength training is a myth; it’s something that only occurs with an incredibly high stimulus, a specific dietary protocol and a long-term commitment to build muscle mass.
Here are my top three recommendations for women wanting to get strong, healthy, and resilient muscle that will protect them from disease:*
•Exercise Prescription - from a physician who assesses your current fitness, strength, and movement patterns and utilizes the science of exercise physiology to tailor a personalized program for you.
•Protein - 30-40 grams of protein at breakfast and dinner. This is a non-negotiable for your health. You must provide your body with the building blocks to create healthy, strong muscle.
• Creatine – a misunderstood supplement that is extremely safe and incredibly important for women’s muscle, bone, and brain health, let alone the positive effects it has on muscle.3 Dose at 3-5 grams/day for optimal results.
The muscular system is incredible in its breadth of effects on our overall health. This is a call to all women who want to truly prevent disease and become their most confident, resilient selves at any stage in life. We have a medical system with specialty physicians focusing on the heart, bones, hormones, and cancer, but we do not have a mainstream medical specialist who focuses on the health of our muscle and understands exercise physiology to be applied in a primary care setting. At Physician Coach, our goal is to safely and effectively guide our patients to optimal health, with discussion regarding the organ of longevity, the muscle, as our best medicine and ally in prevention of disease.
Prioritize your health and wellbeing now and reap the benefits at every stage of life!
Dr. Ayla Hopkins, ND is the co-founder of Physician Coach, a local, Tacoma clinic specializing in functional medicine and true optimization of health using both natural interventions and cutting-edge sports medicine treatments. For more information, please visit yourphysiciancoach.com.
*Remember to speak with your healthcare practitioner before starting anything new.
1 https://www.womenshealth.gov/node/13741
2 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.5840602
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7998865/3
