Social Media Attacks, Aging Research, and Step Count Science
August Midlife Roundup [2025]
I have mixed feelings this August.
My daughter leaves for college while my son starts a new year in high school.
I’m sad to see her go but excited for her.
I’m looking forward to throwing myself into my work and creating new things.
I’m scared I might fail…
And so it goes. But the feeling that is staying with me the most is….let’s do this thing. It’s time to begin again.
In this roundup, I’m sharing a disturbing trend on social media and some studies that caught my eye.
What women miss out on when experts fight
The social media scene for midlife women is full of different viewpoints. Whether it’s about hormone therapy, lifting weights, diet, or supplements.
What really got me thinking was an Instagram post questioning if midlife women should really lift heavy. The scientist listed studies showing women can gain strength and muscle with low-to-moderate weights.
I’m going to be posting about this in my next post in my muscle series. While the science isn’t definitive, adding heavy, low-rep lifts as you age could be beneficial.
No woman *has* to lift heavy, but saying it’s bad advice? I think that’s wrong.
But worse is it feels like a gotcha moment. One expert is just trying to prove the other wrong. Midlife women often lose out; a lot just give up, figuring, “If even the experts can’t decide, it’s not worth the effort.”
This is why I always do my research and try to understand everything first. Yes, it’s time-consuming. But I love sharing my findings with you, so we can all make good decisions together.
These public disagreements usually arise in areas where the research isn’t buttoned up. You don’t hear experts arguing about whether exercise is good for people or whether or not hormone therapy prevents bone loss.
All this is to say the next post in my muscle series will hopefully help clear up some of this confusion about which weight is best.
Another aging study
I saw headlines like this in my Google alerts, but couldn’t find the study.
It’s official—your body starts to deteriorate faster after this key age, and science finally has irrefutable proof
I really hate when articles don’t include a link to the original research. But finally, with some keyword searches, I found it. Unfortunately, only the abstract is available.
But here’s what I know.
Scientists from China looked at 516 samples from 76 donors who died from a brain injury, ranging from 14 to 68 years old.
Taking a close examination of their organs, the researchers quantified proteins and matched them to disease pathways. Like another study showed last year, the proteins linked with aging increased in bursts. In this group, the burst was right around the age of 50 (45-55).
Guess which organ started aging first? Blood vessels.
As I have found in the literature, endothelial dysfunction — those cells that line blood vessels secreting nitric oxide — is the silent initiating event of heart disease.
A healthy endothelium is defined by the ability to produce adequate levels of nitric oxide.
-Wojtacha et al, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024,
The research team developed proteomic aged clock models to show how proteins shift over time.
One thing is clear by now: midlife is the time major aging changes occur, making it the ideal time to invest in our health.
Like I mentioned in my last post about studies I’m following, hopefully we’re on our way to figuring out how much of midlife women’s health stuff is biological aging versus hormones.
For a primer on Nitric Oxide go here.
Step science: 10,000 vs 7,000?
A meta-analysis in the July edition of the Lancet looked at 31 studies and 24 cohorts examining steps walked per day and outcomes.
The study covered nine outcomes: deaths from everything (14 studies), new heart disease (6) and deaths from it (3), new cancer (2) and deaths from it (3), type 2 diabetes (4), dementia (2), depression (3), and falls (4).
The researchers used 2,000 steps as a reference and examined risk through increments of 1,000 up to 12,000.
Walking 7000 steps, instead of 2000, meant a 47% lower risk of dying from anything, 25% lower risk of heart disease, 47% lower risk of dying from heart disease, 37% lower risk of dying from cancer, and 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Even lower step counts were linked to chronic disease risk reduction, and this risk continued to decrease with every 1,000 steps added.
Researchers linked some additional benefits to higher step counts. Like 10,000 steps a day had a 10% lower chance of cancer (7000 was 6%), and 48% for dying from anything.
Walking 12,000 steps cut cancer risk by 12% and overall death risk by 55%.
Where did the original 10,000 steps a day come from?
“It actually arose from a Japanese brand of pedometers many years ago,” said Melody Ding, PhD, professor in the Sydney School of Public Health at The University of Sydney on Healio. “They call it in Japanese 10,000 steps, and somehow that got lost in translation. Everybody thinks we need 10,000 steps.”
What made this study different? Most studies look at all-cause mortality, and this one included a range of health outcomes.
Walking throughout the day is such a simple way to get the body moving. After I quit my active day job, it took me a bit to realize I wasn’t really that active throughout the day.
Yes, I exercised in the morning but sat mostly writing the rest of the day. Now, daily walks are part of what I do. I don’t have a step goal, but I’m usually around 7,000-15,000 depending on the day and if I run.
The big three takeaways
Even when looking at the same research, experts often disagree on key health topics—like strength training for midlife women. Understanding how your body works and staying informed about the research will help you make decisions that fit your life.
Explore my Midlife Muscle series to learn what works for your body. A new post is coming soon!
Science is getting closer to pinpointing when biological aging accelerates, which could lead to clearer guidelines for midlife health. In the meantime, now is the perfect time to commit to a midlife-focused lifestyle guided by the One Health Principle.
Two missing keys that I believe can make a big difference in vascular health with aging is working on breathing and including nitrate-rich vegetables.
Even modest increases in daily activity make a difference and is a great place to start if fitting in exercise is challenging. Aim for more steps each day—every extra 1,000 steps add benefit.
That’s it for now. Have a great weekend and let me know how things are going with you!
I love this line "Midlife women often lose out; a lot just give up, figuring, 'If even the experts can’t decide, it’s not worth the effort.'" And that's exactly what happens. We know any movement is better than no movement. If you can lift heavy weights that are heavy for you great and if that's too much then you do what you can do. These hard and fast rules are making people crazy and driving a billion dollar "wellness" industry. Women are reading they should lift heavy weights and then they go to do that without being told that there's a process that has to happen before starting to pick up heavy weights and then they injure themselves. Studies are great but not at the expense of common sense. Great article!
So glad you are following these studies closely. It's hard to know what's true and not cherry-picked when you listen to the "experts" on menopause. Fear mongering doesn't help any of us get through this stage. Your Substack is one that I will continue to trust so thank you!
Good luck with your daughter heading off to college; it's a big change!