Exercising after age 40 slows down the aging process
Exercising after age 40 slows down the aging process
Anonim

We all know that if you play sports, you will be healthier and live longer. Recently, scientists have suggested that playing sports after age 40 - no matter how much - is crucial.

Exercising after age 40 slows down the aging process
Exercising after age 40 slows down the aging process

Paul Loprinzi and Jeremy Loenneke of the University of Mississippi, and Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, who was on the team that won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine, analyzed the responses 6,500 people aged 20 to 84 to the National Health and Nutrition Survey questionnaire.

During this study, thousands of adults answer questions about their health and get blood tests. The blood samples allowed scientists to study the telomere length of the participants. Telomeres are the ends of DNA strands and are shortened by disease, obesity and age. Life expectancy depends on the length of telomeres.

The aging process depends on the rate of telomere shortening
The aging process depends on the rate of telomere shortening

The researchers wanted to find out if exercise could reduce the rate of telomere shortening. And it turned out that yes, but only for people between the ages of 40 and 65. If people at this age were involved in any kind of sports: walking, cycling, lifting weights, then most often they did not fall into the group with short telomeres.

In a study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, there are ambiguities: does exercise directly affect the inhibition of telomere shortening? It is also not clear which exercises and in what quantity should be performed.

Nevertheless, the study has established a strong relationship between sports and genetic markers that influence age, which opens up a lot of research in this area.

Another large study found that those who exercise 450 minutes a week, or a little more than an hour a day, are 39% less likely to die prematurely than people who do not pay enough attention to sports.

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