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Exercise even keeps your cells young: Study
Ever wondered if your exercise impacts you on a molecular level? It does, according to a new study.
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Through looking at 6,000 participants, researchers found that the more exercise people got, the less their cells appeared to age. (Shutterstock/File)
Ever wondered if your exercise impacts you on a molecular level? It does, according to a new study in Preventive Medicine.
Through looking at 6,000 participants, researchers found that the more exercise people got, the less their cells appeared to age.
All participants were enrolled in a multi-year survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and were asked about their exercise habits over the past month. They then provided DNA samples, from which the researchers measured telomere length, which are markers of aging and health.
“We know that, in general, people with shorter telomeres die sooner and are more likely to develop many of our chronic diseases,” said Larry Tucker, study author and professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University. “It's not perfect, but it's a very good index of biological aging.”
Read also: Drinking wine a form of exercise, study says
According to Time, “Tucker found in his study that people who exercised the most had significantly longer telomeres than those who were sedentary” after having adjusted for outside factors, such as smoking, weight, gender and race.
Tucker was surprised to find the difference between moderate and high levels of exercise -- high levels meant at least 30-40 minutes of jogging a day for five days a week.
“Moderate exercise was still valuable and it had some benefit, but it was really those high levels of physical activity that made the real difference.” (sul/kes)
