Is one of your wishes this year to look and feel younger? Who doesn’t want those things! What if we told you we had the answer to the long sought out ‘fountain of youth’? No, it isn’t a magic pill or solution. No, you don’t have to travel far to find it. No, it isn’t something that costs a lot of money nor is it very hard to do. Would it surprise you to know that it is EXERCISE?!

Studies, including many done here at The Cooper Institute, have long shown that exercise can defend against all causes of mortality including heart disease and cancer. Recent research sheds light on one of the possible explanations as to why. Across our life, our DNA divides or replicates in order to create new cells. During this process part of the end of the DNA gets cut off. In order to protect the DNA from deterioration, there is a region of repetitive DNA at the end called a telomere that does not contain codes for proteins like the rest of DNA. So when DNA is replicating, it is part of the telomere that is getting cut off that way the actual coded DNA is protected. When the telomere gets too short however, the cell stops dividing. This cell can continue to function, possibly in an altered fashion, for some time but ultimately cell death will occur. This is thought to be one of the contributing factors to aging.

Recent research has indicated that those who exercise have longer telomeres, therefore having a greater protection against deterioration, in essence, keeping their cells younger. Specifically, German researchers have looked at the DNA of white blood cells of athletes and compared them to the white blood cells of healthy, non-smoking, sedentary adults¹. White blood cells are a key part of our immune system not only fighting off infections but also continuously seeking out abnormal cell growths and destroying them. These researchers feel that this is direct evidence of the anti-aging effect of physical exercise. If exercise maintains the youthfulness of white blood cells by preventing the shortening of the telomere, it may keep them more efficient at dealing with abnormal growths like plaques and cancer cells to name a few. And you don’t to be an athlete to have this protection. Scientists at King’s College in London found that subjects who spent just 100 minutes a week on physical activity had longer telomeres than those five or six years younger who exercised less than sixteen minutes a week². For those who exercised more than three hours each week, even longer telomeres. Their telomeres were longer than subjects ten years younger who only exercised less than sixteen minutes a week! The subjects in this study were twins one of whom exercised significantly more than the other. This strongly suggests that the difference in telomere length was due to lifestyle factors, in this case more physical activity, and not genetics.

This evidence highlights even further the amazing power of exercise! To gain this powerful benefit as well as others, be sure to follow the current guidelines for physical activity that are outlined in one of our past blogs, Be Active Your Way. And to be reminded of the many other “proven” benefits of physical activity, re-read Physical Activity—Where’s the Science? And lastly, re-visit last week’s blog, A New Look at Creating Resolutions. It provides a number of great information and links to really help you make 2010 the year that you become consistent with your physical activity.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and youthful 2010!

1 Werner, C., Furster, T., Widmann, T., Poss, J., et. al. Physical exercise prevents cellular senescence in circulating leukocytes and in the vessel wall. Circ. 120: 2438-2447, 2009.

2 Cherkas, L.F., Hunkin, J.L., Bernet, S.K., Richards, B., et.al. The association between physical activity in leisure time and leukocyte telomere length. Arch. Intern. Med. 168 (2): 154-158, 2008.