[0:00] Welcome, my name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a cardiologist, an author and a keynote speaker. I'm CEO of the Healthy Heart Network. I'm all about trying to help people [0:12] Live as well as possible, for as long as possible. [0:15] Heart disease is huge in Australia. [0:18] Every 20 minutes someone suffers a heart attack, most of these could probably have been avoided if only we knew what to do. This podcast is all about helping you understand blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, [0:32] For better health. [0:33] If you enjoy this podcast, I would be honored for a 5 star review. [0:37] You can share it with your family and friends. It may well save. [0:41] Someone you love. [0:43] Hi, have you ever heard of super movers? [0:47] Have you heard of supermovers? Well, I hadn't, but it is a term given to people who move quickly as they age and you may well have come across individuals like that. Well, [1:01] Are these people who are just in a rush or does that fact that they're moving quickly as they age, [1:09] Actually mean something. So. [1:12] My name is Dr Warrick Bishop. Welcome to my podcast and videocast station, [1:17] And just recently a paper came across my desk around super movers. And I'd like to tell you a bit about it. If you are capturing this on... [1:31] Okay. [1:32] Um. [1:34] If you're capturing this on... [1:37] The podcast, then you won't see anything. If you're capturing this on... [1:44] I. [1:45] YouTube, you will see some slides, but either way, I'll try and describe it so that if you are only audio, you won't miss anything. [1:55] It's entitled, "Supermovers: What Your Walking Pace Reveals About Your... [2:00] And this I came across from something published in July, [2:07] Just recently in neurology and it was looking at speed of gait [2:13] And the impact. [2:14] On. [2:16] Functional capacity in later life. [2:20] The absolute headline is that there was a 51% lower risk of cognitive impairment [2:29] In a group of individuals who are 80 and above, who were [2:34] I identified [2:35] As walking at a pace of someone 30 years younger. So the supermovers, the fast walkers, had significant [2:45] Lower risk of cognitive impairment. [2:49] And that's pretty interesting. [2:52] These people were about 1.5, 1.5 standard deviations above [2:58] Average for their age. [3:01] And six. These were not, they didn't pick an absolute number. [3:06] Per se, because that number would change as they're [3:09] Age change should be different for sexes as well. [3:14] But 1.5 standard deviations above average. [3:18] I. [3:19] There were three different cohorts that looked at this. There was the Retirement Study Network of almost 4000 adults. They pooled that together with another study called the Longevity Study with Brain Imaging and the Rush Memory Aging Project with Brain Autopsy Data. [3:39] And the interesting thing was that people have asked this question before, so this was built on some previous work by the same investigators who had already shown that supermovers tend to carry fewer chronic conditions and seem to have a healthier lifestyle and a younger lifestyle. [3:57] Palaadiklaid. [3:58] One of the big... [4:01] The things that was found in terms of cognitive decline is that these faster movers had a bigger hippocampus. So what does a hippocampus do? It's very important in memory. So memory, processing speed, executive functions, global cognition, [4:21] All declined more slowly in these super movers. And when they looked, [4:27] When they looked, [4:29] At imaging and sections, they found that there was a great right hippocampal volume and the hippocampus is central to memory formation. This is sort of suggesting therefore that the memory, that the supermovers showed more volume, [4:46] In the hippocampus and therefore overall, [4:49] That would be associated with improved memory. [4:54] Interestingly though, [4:56] Even though they had improved memory, they seemed to have no difference in Alzheimer's pathology. This means that amyloid plaques and tau tangles and Lewy bodies were still found in their brains. [5:10] However, these, [5:13] Changes didn't seem to impact this super mover group. [5:20] So it's obviously something that's protective for the rest of brain function and not responsive to what we [5:27] Consider the key markers of Alzheimer's disease. [5:31] These supermovers really had a broader pattern of resilience as well. [5:38] A later age of death, on average, they tended to live to 95 compared with 93. So several years difference. Not bad, but it's really the quality and that quality of life was reflected by fewer chronic conditions overall. The fast movers seem to carry a lighter burden of chronic disease along with their faster gait. And I guess that makes sense when you think about it. [6:08] The researchers were trying to tie that moving faster to some sort of marker of resilience. [6:18] I'm not quite sure how you do that, but certainly as I read this and went through it, it occurred to me that [6:25] If you're moving quickly, [6:27] You may well have good mitochondrial function. And if we do drill down to mitochondrial function, we know that's really important for a whole lot of things, as well as cognitive function, [6:41] Healthy aging. [6:42] "Speed and strength of muscles and really it will also therefore add to resilience function of the immune system and development of chronic disease." [6:56] Past moving. [6:58] Fast walking as you age, these super movers, a marker of resilience, may be tied in with mitochondria. [7:06] The investigators didn't suggest that per se. I'm just adding that in there because it's interesting. [7:13] The. [7:15] Studies or that coalescence of information still have some [7:21] The brain imaging sample is pretty small. [7:26] Um, so, [7:28] You know, there could be some uncertainty about the hippocampal finding, but there was still suggestion that there was denser cortical material. [7:37] There was some evaluation of brain function networks and genetic markers which weren't necessarily reviewed as well. [7:47] The study really was observational and retrospective, so there wasn't a randomization. And some of that may mean that there could be confounding by lifestyle. So people who go out and exercise really regularly therefore become the super movers and that may feed back into it over and above just being a super mover because we know the benefits of exercise. [8:11] And... [8:13] Correlation and causation obviously remain separate questions. So the fact that these individuals are super movers, quick movers as they age, [8:24] How does that tie in with brain function? Is it directly linked or not? And obviously they can't say that. I really like [8:31] Trying to join it up with mitochondrial function. [8:36] If you're listening to this and you're getting a little bit older, or even if you're like me, [8:40] And not quite in the 80s, but no, it's not far away. What does it mean for you? Well, start to think about walking and your walking speed. [8:50] A little bit like a vital sign. If you are able to move quickly, if you are able to mobilize well, [8:57] Things like climbing stairs as well also become really important. These are things that will [9:03] Beed into a healthier, [9:22] It's really important to understand that speed is not just endurance, speed also requires power. So trained for power. This is where Osteostrong in Hobart that I'm involved with is super important. It's also where VO2max, [9:38] Which is training up, measuring what your oxygen absorption, [9:46] It's like your oxygen utilization is like [9:48] And then training that up is really powerful and it's separate to just doing distance training. It may also be that those stronger leg muscles are [9:59] Better. At. [10:01] Providing safety from falls for those individuals and that may all tie together as well, particularly with these individuals being less likely to fall. So what is there for you to take away? Fast, confident walking in later life tracks with a slower rate of cognitive decline. I know I'm going to be [10:20] Pacing around the hospital extremely quickly carrying my, well, carrying my empty cup to the cafe and then my filled up keep cup back to my room. I'm going to be walking as quick as I can. [10:30] It does look like it's a marker of resilience. Exactly how? We don't know. But I'm really... [10:38] I'm interested in how it may tie in with mitochondria and mitochondrial function and really interesting some of the [10:45] Alzheimer's pathology didn't seem to have the same effect [10:49] In these supermovers as it did in others. So interesting fact. [10:54] Building strength and power is critical. If you've listened to any of my stuff before, you'll know I've said that previously, so do work on that because you can build those reserves, you can recondition. And if you enjoyed this, please share it with someone who you think might enjoy it as well. And... [11:14] Stay tuned, sign up, subscribe if you wouldn't mind, because I'm going to talk about coffee and the gut. If not in the next one, sometime very soon. So... [11:24] Yeah, if you like it, please check it out, stay tuned and um, [11:30] For now, I am going to wish you the very best. I hope you live as well as possible. [11:35] For as long as possible. [11:38] Till next time, take care and goodbye. 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