How vigorous and regular exercise slows aging....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 6-14-2011

We have already posted that a study was done of regular runners and exercisers.

That study found they lived years longer with less signs of aging and had fewer diseases from heart disease to cancer than very similar people who did not exercise.

And, we did a post when another study found that people doing regular, vigorous exercise several days a week not only had higher LDL and lower triglycerides and LDL from doing such exercise. In addition, their readings got better every year they kept exercising!

We have already posted that vigorous exercise causes your body to release growth hormones including testosterone and BDNF that grows new nerves.

We may have even posted the research that found that exercised muscles did not show signs of aging or slower response and action times.

Now, thanks to the research that Dr Al Sears found, we know why.

It’s beginning to be well known that the cause of aging is the shortening of the telomeres at the end of the DNA in cells. When the DNA between the telomeres at the two ends of each strand of DNA is intact, the cell it’s in makes perfect copies. But when the telomeres get too short, imperfect copies are made until no more copies are made at all or the body marks the cell for elimination.

1. Dr Sears found a study done on twins who got differing amounts of exercise.

A recent study of 2,401 twins found that physical activity was related to telomere length.

Those twins who exercised moderately had telomeres that looked five or six years younger than a twin who did none.

The twins who exercised vigorously had telomeres that looked nine years younger!

2. Dr Sears also found a study by researchers in Germany who found that intense exercise keeps your cardiovascular system from aging by preventing shortening of telomeres.

Vigorous exercise is not the only way to keep longer telomeres and slow aging.

But vigorous exercise has so many benefits including helping you get and stay trim and more that it makes sense to use it.

Best of all, it can be done in short sessions at home each morning for no money or close to no money.

These sessions can be as little as 6 to 10 minutes or as long as half an hour depending on how many exercises you do.

Most people can fit in 6 to 15 minutes most mornings for such vigorous exercises. (If you can also do brisk walks or Tai Chi for 20 to 40 minutes several times each week that’s a plus. But the brief and strenuous or fast exercises do you the most good. And, they do NOT need to take long to do!)

Half squats require no equipment. Pushups don’t need equipment; but putting down a towel so you don’t breathe floor or rug dust is a good idea. For crunches or marching in place while lifting your knees high it can be nice to have a soft rug or a gym mat.

For jumping rope, it’s important to have a soft rug or a gym mat. But you may already have an appropriate rug.

Or you can do “rebounding”, jumping on a mini-trampoline. These cost less than
$200. Last time I checked, the urban rebounder cost close to $150. See www.urbanrebounder.com . (I just checked and they also have DVD set of advanced exercises that looked to be unusually effective at helping people lose abdominal fat.)

You can also buy single dumbbells at different weights and do each exercise once for each hand. You can even buy them used and locally in some cases.

The nice thing is that you can use the time you exercise your other hand as a break. That means that you can literally go from exercise to exercise with almost no break needed in between exercises.