Long-Term Exercise Can Slow the Effects of Aging

It’s no secret that being a couch potato can lead to ill effects on your health. Scientists have long known that regular exercise can go a long way in the prevention of heart disease and cancer. However, a group of German researchers have discovered that the secret to maintaining youth may also be connected to physical activity, and that the key to slowing the aging process may be revealed by looking at the body’s cells. The report was recently published in the journal of the American Heart Association, Circulation. Dr. Ulrich Laufs, a professor of clinical and experimental medicine in the department of internal medicine at Saarland University in Homburg, Germany, and colleagues, found that the white blood cells of endurance athletes had longer telomeres than those of healthy, nonsmoking adults who did not follow a regular exercise program. Telomeres are DNA located at the ends of chromosomes that protect the tips of the chromosomes from damage. Share and Enjoy:

Vigorous exercise cuts stroke risk for men, not women

Moderate-to-high intensity exercise such as jogging, swimming or tennis may help reduce stroke risk in older men but not in women, researchers report. The study included almost 3,300 men and women, average age 69, in Manhattan who were followed for about nine years. During that time, there were 238 strokes among the participants. At the start of the study, 20 percent of the participants said they did regular moderate-to-high intensity exercise, while 41 percent said they did no physical activity. Men who did moderate-to-high intensity exercise were 63 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who didn’t exercise. Over five years, the baseline risk of ischemic stroke (the leading type of stroke) for all study participants was 4.3 percent; 2.7 percent for those who did moderate-to-high intensity exercise and 4.6 percent for those who didn’t exercise. Share and Enjoy: