Exercise and Aging.

  When I hit one of those Big O's, I decided it was time to begin exercising on a more regular basis because I heard it was good for me.

I was one of those kids who hated P.E. in school.  I preferred college because I could take dance classes rather than tennis or volleyball.  I was not a physical child.  I preferred sitting in a corner reading book after book. 

Once I got out of college and began working, I realized, I needed to incorporate exercise into my daily routines because it helped keep me sane, allowed me to work off stress, and keep my weight under control.  Now that I'm a bit older, I've discovered exercise is still good for me but in a different way.

It appears that exercise does help reduce aging because the exercise helps keep cells younger.  They've found as long as people start exercising by middle age, cells slow their aging.  They've found dating a cells age is difficult because its chronological and physical age are seldom the same.  Due to this, scientists are now looking at its age based on functionality rather than actual age.

The issue is the length of the telomeres the scientists are examining.  When a cell ages, the telomeres shorten and fray but research indicates the more different exercises a person participates in, the slower these telomeres fray keeping them younger.  This appears to be especially true for the 40 to 65 age group.

Researchers have discovered that the more you exercise the younger your body will be.  It can gain up to 9 years compared to those who do not exercise who and are the same age. The exact mechanics of why this happens is not yet known.

As for the outside, exercise also provides help.  Around the age of 35, people begin to loose muscle mass, and gain fat but exercise helps keep muscle lean, maintains a high metabolism and keeps your weight down.  It also creates myokines which helps keep skin looking young.  Myokines are proteins released by muscles during exercise.  So exercise, means less bone pain, less bone loss, fewer wrinkles, and more mobility as one ages. 

In addition, other studies indicate that exercise can decrease the amount of inflammation a person experiences. They do recommend a person avoid extreme exercise because that can cause inflammation but participating in moderate exercise 20 to 30 minutes each day for a total of about 150 minutes per week is the best. 

Exercise is also great because it can reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce the risk of osteoporosis, the risk of diabetes, improve sleep, and it stimulates the hippocampus which increases memory.

All the reasons one should continue to exercise as long as one physically can.  Let me know what you think.  Have a good day.