ALAMOSA — The Adams State University Department of Human Performance and Physical Education recently hosted a free lecture, “Exercise is Medicine: Lessons we have learned from exercise physiology that are applicable to chronic diseases” with Iñigo San Millán, Ph.D. While many in exercise physiology fields understand how critical exercise is for overall health, wellbeing, and fighting chronic diseases, San Millán gave a great presentation open to the San Luis Valley community with amazing examples of how truly impactful exercise can be. 

Pro athletes are viewed as “perfect machines” according to San Millán and are often the optimal comparison for the average person. Pro athletes are a population who lives free of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Elite athletes’ exercise intensity is specific to each individual, allowing for each to gain the greatest benefits of exercise. Specific intensities allow the athlete to reach their target metabolism, highlighting the importance of individualizing exercise intensities. 

Lactate is often the most popular metabolic variable used to determine a person’s physical fitness health; high levels of lactate lead to impaired mitochondrial function. San Millán has research and knowledge to discuss the importance of mitochondrial function for the average person in order to fight obesity. The mitochondria are responsible for producing energy in the cell as well as regulating metabolism. Both of these functions are crucial for every day functioning, staying healthy, and especially crucial during exercise. Aerobic exercise trains the mitochondria to be more efficient. San Millán commented that after eight weeks of no training, mitochondria function decreases by almost 40 percent which can be detrimental to metabolism.  

Today, sugar is an easy blame for obesity rates being so high. Americans with diabetes and prediabetes has reached an overwhelmingly high amount in the recent years — 52 percent.   However, research shows endurance runners consume similar amounts of sugar compared to the average person and they are not obese. San Millán elaborated on how important mitochondrial function is for fighting obesity and flushing glucose from the cells rather than allowing it to build up. Exercise improves mitochondrial function greatly, allowing for proper clearing of glucose from the cells, which decreases the risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes. Through lab research, there is an efficient indirect measure for mitochondria function, lactate clearance and the ability to burn fat during aerobic exercise. Efficient mitochondria function can be seen as low lactate accumulation for a longer as exercise duration increases, showing that the body (mitochondria) are able to clear the lactate which can hinder performance. San Millán’s lab research with lactate concludes that exercise prescriptions should be individualized based on lactate clearance as a better indicator of efficiency compared to VO2 max values. 

San Millán concluded his presentation with some information about cancer and exercise. The Warburg Effect was first understood in the 1920’s and involves the idea that cancer cells differ from healthy cells in the body by favoring aerobic glycolysis for metabolism vs. oxidative phosphorylation. This means that cancer cells produce more lactate than healthy cells making it harder to clear all of this extra lactate during exercise and hinder the body in an exercise state. 

However, exercise is medicine! San Millán shared two case studies from his work at the University of Colorado with cancer patients. The two patients had bad, life ending diagnoses but decided to give exercise a shot with San Millán and his team of exercise physiologists. Exercise prescriptions were created and individualized to each person based on their diagnoses of cancer.  After just three months of doing this prescribed exercise protocol on a bike, the cancer in these individuals was gone. The lab tests showed that three months of a personalized bike protocol lead to a healthy rate of fat burning, lactate accumulation decreased by half, as well as overall increased mitochondria function.     

San Millán gave great insight into how exactly exercise is beneficial for every person including those living with chronic diseases. It is no secret that exercise has multiple benefits to health and seeing direct links to reversing cancer and killing off cancer cells is a new level on how important exercise is. 

In conjunction with this presentation, the Adams State University’s Department of Human Performance and Physical Education and San Luis Valley Health are proud to be running a research study on cancer survivors or those currently diagnosed and the impact of exercise. This study is a 10-week individualized intervention program, three days a week of various exercises including cardio, strength training, group activities, and balance work. Participants can expect to gain knowledge of exercise training, improve strength and cardio, build impactful relationships, improve quality of life, and gain an understanding of just how exercise is medicine throughout the ten weeks. Please contact the Adams State HPPE department or Tracey Robinson ([email protected]) if you are interested in participating in this study; our next intervention program starts in January.