An American study has found that there is a correlation between engaging in high-intensity exercise and slowing down one’s aging process.
Photo: Mne's Health
UTAH, UNITED STATES – Could exercise really be our gateway to resisting the effects of aging?
Enthusiasts of interval training and Tabata can rejoice, because a new study has shown that high-intensity workouts can give rise to as much as nine years of slower aging.
Publishing his findings in a journal titled Preventive Medicine, Professor Larry Tucker from Brigham Young University in Utah has established a possible link between the amount of physical activity we engage in and our aging process at the cellular level.
Believe it or not, much like the growth rings of trees, humans do actually have indicators of our age hidden inside our bodies. These indicators, named telomeres, are the protein caps of our chromosomes. In simple terms, they exist to prevent each chromosome from deterioration and from fusing with adjacent chromosomes.
As we age and each time our cells replicate, a tiny bit of these caps is chipped off. In essence, the shorter our telomeres, the older a person is.
So where does exercise come in in all of these? In his study, Tucker analysed the telomere lengths of 5,823 American adults who participated in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The survey also included data for 62 different activities that participants engaged in.
As it turned out, Tucker concluded that participants who engaged in exercise of high intensity, such as interval running for 30-40 minutes, five days a week, had shorter telomeres than those who led a significantly more sedentary lifestyle. Some of these participants even had telomere lengths that corresponded to an age nine years less than their actual age.
Yes, you heard that right!
That’s high-intensity exercise five days a week!
Participants who merely engaged in short walks and the occasional biking did not display telomere lengths that were significantly shorter than those who did next to nothing.
While the study did not determine exactly the reason between the connection, it is believed that exercise reduces the chances of inflammation and prevents chemical imbalances, both of which are detrimental to those small yet crucial chromosome caps.
So, whether your running shoes are well-worn to death or covered in a layer of dust, for better or worse, if you would like aging to take a backseat, you best hit the ground running.
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