We've been saying it for years, but now we have one more piece of evidence: Exercise can keep you young.
Last week, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published research demonstrating that exercise was able to reduce almost all the visible and functional effects of aging in mice that had been genetically programmed to grow old at an accelerated pace, according to an article in the New York Times. This study is incredibly crucial information for the human lifespan.
For this experiment, professors at McMaster University in Ontario used lab mice whose mitochondria carried a genetic mutation that affected their ability to repair dysfunctional mitochondria.
We all learned in 7th grade biology that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. They combine oxygen and other nutrients to create cellular energy. Inevitably, the rodents' mitochondria begin to malfunction and die over time, which is suspected as the beginning of the aging process in mammals.
Researchers believe that when mitochondria fail, every cell in the body can be affected. Mitochondrial failure can result in chronic fatigue, neurological disruption, problems with sight and hearing, hair loss and muscle weakness. Sound familiar? We usually call these symptoms "getting old."
The mice in the study all developed mitochondrial disorders by three months of age -- which is equivalent to 20 years in human terms. One group went about "life" normally, without exercising. By the time these mice were eight months, or 60 in human terms, they were in poor health and all were dead before the age of one.
The other group of mice exercised on a wheel for 45 minutes three times a week for five months beginning around the time the genetic mutation began developing. At eight months, while the other group of mice was frail and close to death, these mice looked and functioned quite youthfully. They had healthier hearts, dark full hair, greater brain volume and muscle mass and well functioning sexual organs.
This experiment demonstrates that, to an extent, all rational organisms have control over their individual aging processes. These mice showed that exercise could, in fact, prevent and slow down the aging process. Exercise was seen as the main factor that set the two groups of mice apart.
I am intrigued by longevity and the factors that either extend or limit it. I have always been a proponent of exercise and think it is an incredibly important part of anyone's life. Firsthand, I have experienced the positive effects of exercising. Over 20 years ago, I was suffering from horrible migraines, living off of an unhealthy diet and was even a smoker. I was intent in taking control of my migraines, so I started running. Almost instantly, I felt better. My unhealthy cravings subsided, my debilitating headaches lessened and I was motivated to stop smoking. My skin began to look better, my hair was thicker and I had a mind-blowing surge in energy. I looked, felt and functioned 100 times better than I had before.
It was my own experience that made me understand the power of exercise and this experience that has me so interested in the findings of this experiment.
When my clients come to me expressing concerns with their appearance and energy levels, while I may suggest different nutrients depending on the individual, I always recommend upping their workout routine. One hundred percent of the time my clients list exercise, whether intense or moderate, as one of the top things that they find most beneficial to their daily routines.
Although it is already widely known that exercise is advantageous, these kinds of experiments can serve as additional proof. I can't understand why our culture is so adverse to exercise when it can and will increase your quality of life and make you look younger.
So put down that bottle of expensive skin cream and take a long walk. Over time it will service your appearance and health favorably. Now that's something to jump up and down about.
Follow Oz Garcia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ozgarcia
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THANK YOU. Why isn't this said more often? We live in a society in which beauty is important. Or if not important, its advantageous to have, and people will go to great lengths to achieve it, especially young people. Plastic surgery, injectables, skin creams.... The best way to be physically beautiful (and I don't mean in some bullsh*t beautiful on the inside way) is to be healthy. To eat a healthy varied plant based diet and to exercise regularly. I simply can't understand why there aren't more people obsessed on health and nutrition in today's world.
Great article!
I partake in 3 indoor cycle classes that last an hour and I am amazed how I can outlast people in their 20's and 30's. I might be 43 years of age, however on the inside of my body I feel like I am in early 30's.
It is sad that I can play back to back football (soccer) matches on Sunday and people in their 20's cannot complete one match.
Telomere length is a reliable marker of age. The shorter they become, the older your body becomes, irrespective of your chronological age. A recent German study showed that exercise keeps the usual telemore shortening as cells divide.
Fascinating to my humble mind.
Read "How Exercise Slows the Aging Process": http://www.garmaonhealth.com/2010/04/exercise-longevity/
Exercising increases the amount of anti-oxidants in your body naturally more than any other natural process and free-radical damage is consistently and clearly found to be a driving force in the aging process as well as a major factor in tissue damage due to disease.
To name but a few benefits of exercise that doesnt even touch upon the boost in self-confidence that you get from exercise which also lowers your stress which lowers the amount of Cortisol (main stress hormone) in your blood stream and thus reduces the negative effects of high cortisol levels on your cells/tissues.
It started with the understanding that working out could make you look better and, in fact, feel better, both in the present time. Then we understood that there was a longer term benefit to our cardio-vascular health and to our longevity. This recent research suggests an underlying benefit to those mechanisms we associate with aging at the cellular level.
In my field, we are optimistic about the burgeoning evidence that physical exercise is also great for the brain and for cognition. We have long understood that staying active can help to ensure a steady supply of oxygen rich blood to the brain, but there is now solid evidence of other benefits as well. Research in the last year alone has shown correlations between physical exercise and (1) the maintenance of brain cells through time, (2) generation of new brain cells, and (3) preserved cognitive function.
We discuss such research and its practical implications on a daily basis at the Brain Today blog: www.braintoday.com
The Blackburn Lab at UCSF has tied aging to the wearing away of telomers, the caps at the end of our chromosomes. The longer our telomers are, the longer our lifespans will be. Exercise does seem to play a role in that however, they report that an active lifestyle does mean a longer lifespan. Recently, researchers at Harvard restored the youth of old and sick mice using telomerase to extend the telomers of their chromosomes.
The fault, my dear Oz, lies not in our mitochondria, but in our genes!