Psst… Exercise Really is the Fountain of Youth

How often do you hear that exercise keeps you young and vital? If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard it so much, in fact, that the information starts to go in one ear and out the other.. An article relating to just that jumped out at me today, and I thought it was important enough to share. The latest studies show a significant decrease in all signs of aging when a person exercises. Exercise is an important part of Reshape the Nation, the weight loss plan developed by Chris Powell to help his best friend David Smith lose over 400lbs.

Not only do people, (well, rats in the study), live longer, they physically age slower. The time it takes to go gray, yes, rat fur turns mottled-gray with age as well, develop an enlarged heart and gonads was exceptionally longer when rats participated in exercise for the whole of their lives. Half the rats in the study, having a genetic disease that caused premature aging, were allowed to run on a wheel for 45 minutes, 3 times a week, the human equivalent of a 50-minute10k, three times a week. The other half led a life with the genetic mutation. The result of the test was remarkable. The rats who were allowed (I use the word ‘allowed’ loosely) to run on the wheel three times a week were more energetic, had more natural colored fur, and lived much much longer than their sedentary counterparts. While the typical lifespan of the genetically inferior mice was 8 months, the exercising mice were still going strong, the little show-offs.

The genetic mutation which causes the mice to age prematurely affects the health of mitochondria, which are microscopic power generators located within cells. They are responsible for combining oxygen with nutrients, providing fuel for the cells. They have their own DNA and multiply on their own, separate from the cell’s genetic material. In the course of a lifetime, mitochondria start developing abnormal genetic material, causing them to malfunction and die. Less mitochondria equals physical aging. The mice in the experiment weren’t able to produce healthy mitochondria, thus leading a shortened and decrepit life. Scientists have found less healthy and a lesser amount of mitochondria in aged mammals. If mitochondria feeds cellular growth, then cellular growth is stunted without healthy organisms.

Suffice it to say we are not mice, and we typically won’t run a 50-minute 10k (6.2 miles) three times a week, but scientists say the amount and type of exercise doesn’t matter, any will aid in a longer and healthier life.

Maybe the next time I stumble across an exercise for longer life article, I won’t be so quick to file it in the stuff I already know.

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