Regular Exercise Slows The Aging Process

03/09/2011

Joseph

By now you've probably heard that regular exercise is a great anti-aging tool because it helps the body to remain young and healthy. Even so, you might still be on the fence as to whether or not all the buzz is for truth or just a bunch of hoo-eee.

Well, the fact of the matter is, exercise really can help to slow down the effects of aging. In this article, you're going to learn some interesting facts about what exercise does for the cells of your body. Facts that will hopefully get you off the fence and onto your feet.

Exercise Extends The Life Of Your Cells

The human body is composed of trillions of cells. You can think of cells as tiny machines that function to support the life and well-being of the whole organism (you). As with any machine, cells need a power source or a battery. Mitochondria is the battery that generates adenosine triphosphate (ATP) an energy source that powers living cells.

They're also responsible for apoptosis or cellular death. If the mitochondria were to become damaged in someway (aging, mutation, disease, etc.) it would cause the cell to become sickly and possibly die.

Aging cells undergo increased genetic mutations, produce less mitochondrial enzymes, and proteins and experience greater oxidative stress than young cells. When this happens on a grand scale, the loss of cellular function leads to decreased health and vitality. So it stands to reason that protecting the mitochondria will protect the entire organism.

Research conducted on aged animals and humans shows that regular exercise extends cellular life and slows sarcopenia (muscle loss) by muting mitochondrial dysfunction.

One study in particular, that conducted by Simon Melov and his associates, found that elderly adult humans who participated in six months of strength training exercise were able to partially reverse the effects of muscle loss and weakness.

Yes, that's right. Just six months of strength/resistance training exercise was able to reverse the aging of elderly adults improving their strength to levels not far behind that of younger adults. This is proof that exercise is beneficial in slowing the aging process.

DNA and Aging

Much of aging can be traced to changes within cellular DNA. Every cell in the body contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which are molecules that essentially act as blue prints that gives the cells their marching orders. The DNA is wound up into tight strands that are organized into chromosomes and on each chromosomes are bead like structures known as genes.

Genes are responsible for passing on information from parent cells to daughter cells. It's also their job to produce proteins that the cell needs in order to survive. Each chromosome has a protective cap or telomere.

Each time a cell divides, its telomere shortens a bit. Shortened telomeres can lead to genetic mutations. If the telemores become too short it can disrupt cellular function causing the cell to die. This is part of the aging process.

But exercise can reverse telomere shortening thereby extending the cell's lifespan. German researchers recently performed an experiment with young and older track runners which showed that telomere length can be conserved with regular exercise.

Older people who have a long history of physical activity (in this case long distance running) can actually slow down the loss of telomere length if they continue exercising. Their cells experienced heightened activation of a special enzyme known as telomerase. This enzyme prevents telomore loss and thus giving it a very important role in cellular aging.

It's Never To Late To Start

Regardless of age, it's never too late to start exercising. Exercise is beneficial to mind, body and spirit. In addition to its anti-aging benefits, regular exercise gives you something to look forward to, keeps you centered and boosts confidence.

Talk to your doctor about setting up an exercise plan that is right for you. If you're not used to physical activity, it would be a good idea to start slowly and gradually increase your activity level as you become more accustomed to exercise.

Get moving, there's no time to waste.

What about you? Have you or anyone you know started exercise after a long hiatus? Or are you someone who has exercised all of your life? What are some of the positive things that exercise has done for you? Tell us about it in the comments.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10

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Article Sources

Werner et al: Beneficial Effects of Long-term Endurance Exercise on Leukocyte Telomere Biology. Circulation 120:S492.

Melov et al: Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle. PLoS ONE. 2007; 2(5): e465.