Exercise and your biology: How physical activity influences the telomeres and mitochondria of your cells
You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old. So opined the late comedian George Burns. Today, I want to briefly explore the health-promoting habits of physical activity and sleep, respectively.
Making changes to your lifestyle can pay huge health dividends: A Harvard study discovered that those who adhered to five habits — eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, not drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, and not smoking — increased life expectancy by more than a decade.
Move! If you have higher levels of physical activity, you will tend to have longer telomeres. These protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes shorten with age. Telomeres are a kind of biological clock. Get moving, and you can slow this shortening process. One study from Brigham Young University (Utah, USA) discovered this:
Adults who got 30 minutes of exercise five days per week had telomeres that appeared to be nine years “younger” than those who were sedentary.
I am often asked by my patients what kind of physical activity is best for effects on telomeres. While resistance training has great value, the available research suggests that cardio-type activity might be preferred. High-intensity interval (HIIT) and endurance training appear to slow telomere shortening more than does resistance training.
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