Sedentary life associated with accelerated aging
Having an active lifestyle appears to make people biologically younger, this is from a report from the January 28th issues of the Archives of Internal Medicine. This reinforces what many take for granted, but it is important to back up common sense with actual data.
Regular exercises have the following traits; lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, and osteoporosis. Lynn F. Cherkas, of Kings College London studies 2,401 twins, by having them fill in questionnaires on details such as physical activity, smoking and their socioeconomic status. The participants then gave blood samples from DNA. The length of their leukocyte ( immune cells) telomeres was measured. Telomeres are important as they potentially are marker for biological aging. Telomere length decreases on average by 31 nucleotides per year, while the men an women who were less physically active had shorter telomeres.
The mechanism via which exercise may slow down aging, is oxidative stress and inflammation levels which are higher with a sedentary lifestyle. However as ever with scientific reports of this nature it is important to note that correlation does not mean causation. This is exemplified by a quote from Jack. M. Guralnik, of the National Institute of aging from science daily.com
“Persons who exercise are different from sedentary persons in many ways, and although certain variables were adjusted for in this analysis, many additional factors could be responsible for the biological differences between active and sedentary persons, a situation referred to by epidemiologists as residual confounding,” Dr. Guralnik writes. “Nevertheless, this article serves as one of many pieces of evidence that telomere length might be targeted in studying aging outcomes.”
Exercise is the simplest way to be healthy. How hard is it for us to fit a walk into our day? For our health? Shouldn’t be very hard.