Why do old people get tired so easily?

 

Why do old people get tired so easily?

So many but not all elderly people tire easily. There is a lot of confusion among the public about the cause(s). However, I worked for 40 years as a medical doctor and much is related to a person’s cellular mitochondria levels.

What is that you might say? Inside all human living cells, these tiny organelles called mitochondria convert our energy sources like blood glucose into electrical and chemical energy to ‘power up’ every living cell in our body.

Now, Why do elderly folks have fewer of these than children, adolescents, or young adults? The answer is genetically our bodies are ‘programmed’ to behave ‘economically’. What is that you may ask? Once the human body has finished puberty and we reach our early adult years genetic switching swings into action automatically and reduces the number of mitochondria to match the lower level of ‘energy’ all cells need for growing. The DNA coding kind of says, by some logic; ‘hey let’s not waste the effort to produce and refresh mitochondria the body may be able to get by with fewer’, so it resorbs and replaces some of them in every cell across time.

So, how do some older folks trick the body to register that each cell needs to keep up the number of mitochondria? The answer is cardiovascular-level activity. That’s why older folks who regularly do activities that increase their heart rate have much more energy: going to a gym, joining a dance class 3 nights a week, going for runs three times a week, using a stationary exercise bike while using a heart rate watch measuring their heart rate three times per week, work at a part-time job that is vigorous enough to raise their heart rate enough more than twice a week. (Remember those accounts you heard of very active people in their 90’s).

Why three times a week and how much to raise your heart rate you might say? Well, Google “age-adjusted” ‘heart rate zone training’ to find out it is much less difficult than you think for almost everyone. Why three times per week? Sufficient regular activity is needed to ‘trigger’ your metabolism to recognize it needs to make more mitochondria inside the cells. (There is a huge amount of research/university-published peer-reviewed journal articles still relevant. Much of the research is from the studies of ‘what is fitness” from the 1960’s. Plus, our bodies haven’t changed: after all elderly people have been feeling tired since the dawn of time; with examples of those elderly who kept active).

However, you should always consult your medical doctor(s) who will tell you if you have any heart/ lung conditions or medications you need to take, which means you are one of the few people who should not incorporate regular cardiovascular exercise into your routine.

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