Hardened arteries are an underlying cause of several heart problems. One of those problems, high blood pressure, afflicts up to 70 percent of older Americans. Also with aging, muscles and bones weaken, increasing chances of falling and breaking a bone. About 17 percent of post-menopausal women have osteoporosis and up to 30 percent older than 65 have it. Weight training is recommended to maintain muscle mass and bone density. Tanaka says previous weight-training studies have focused on the “Arnold Schwarzenegger-type physiques” and muscle development, but not on the impact on the cardiovascular system. “When you think about the effect of weight training on the function of the arteries and the heart,” he says, “we really don’t know much about it.” He’s recruiting 60-100 Central Texans between ages 40 and 75 to participate in a six-month exercise program. They’ll be put in three groups: One will do weight training only, the second will do weight training and aerobic training, and the third, the control group, will do stretching exercises. “The idea is that if you perform regular weight training, could you reverse or prevent those age-related hardening of arteries,” he says. The weight training won’t be too demanding, Tanaka says. “More like 8-12 repetitions max so it’s not hard, strenuous weight training,” he says. “It’s typical weight training that is usually prescribed if you hire a personal trainer. The project will also include gene profiling of the participants, which will help determine if a particular exercise program is better for them before they start training. The project continues Tanaka’s interest in aging and the cardiovascular system. “In the past 10 years the most profound changes in association with aging that has been identified has been hardening of the arteries because that causes an increase in blood pressure as you get old,” he says. “It also causes heart attacks and sudden deaths. So clinically it’s a very important function.” Tanaka, a native of Japan, is an exerciser. He lifts weights three times a week, runs twice a week, plays soccer in a city league on weekends and coaches youth soccer. “I try to practice what I preach,” he said. The Costill influence
Tanaka’s interest in exercise physiology began when he was an undergraduate in Japan. He was determined to study under the top person in the field, David Costill, who headed the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University for many years. “I was really interested in endurance exercise performance and every time I read an interesting paper, David Costill’s name is on the paper,” Tanaka says. “I thought, ‘This guy is a god. I’ve got to study under this guy.’” Tanaka did study with Costill, and earned his master’s degree at Ball State. Tanaka worked construction for six months to earn the money to come to the United States. Tanaka has a personal connection with cardiovascular problems. His father had an aortic dissection, a tear in an artery that can result in death if not found quickly. It’s what killed actor John Ritter. Tanaka’s father recovered. “That made me think that we should focus on the prevention of cardiovascular disease and that’s how I got into this field,” he said. In other research, Tanaka found counter-intuitive results in the aerobic capacity of endurance-trained athletes as they age. The aerobic capacity—the ability to convert oxygen to energy—falls off more dramatically for trained men in middle and older age than in their sedentary peers who haven’t been active. But the active men still had higher aerobic capacity than the couch potatoes. Inspiration from MellencampIn a study that’s nearing completion, Tanaka and a Japanese colleague are studying physically active people who smoke. The idea is to see if exercise can prevent a smoking-induced decrease in cardiovascular function and reduce the risk factors. He got the idea for the study while watching a television show about singer John Mellencamp, who had a heart attack in 1994. Mellencamp couldn’t give up smoking so he started exercising. Tanaka became involved with the Japanese researcher on the project because he had trouble finding Americans who exercise and smoke. That’s more common in Japan—even Tanaka smoked when he played soccer in college. The results of that research should be out soon. Tim
Green Related SitesDr. Hirofumi Tanaka
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education |
