If you want to lengthen your telomeres, run!
Regular exercise prevents aging at the cellular level
Vladimir Vyatkin, RIA NovostiRegular long-term physical activity prevents the aging of the body at the DNA level in cells, in addition to providing many other positive effects on human health, the authors of the study published in the journal Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association believe.
A group of scientists led by Professor Ulrich Laufs from the Saarland University in Homburg, Germany, found that regular intense physical activity prevents the shortening of telomeres – DNA fragments that make up the edges of chromosomes and prevent them from damage. The length of telomeres determines the number of division processes that a given cell can survive, and therefore is a kind of biological clock, shortening during each division.
It is believed that it is the shortening of telomeres in the DNA of cells that make up the tissues of the body that leads to gradual aging and determines life expectancy. When telomeres become too short, the cell dies.
In their work, scientists studied the length of telomeres in the blood cells of two groups of professional athletes – young 20-year-old runners, the average distance they ran was 73 kilometers per week, and athletes aged about 50 years, running an average of 50 kilometers per week. The authors of the article compared the length of their telomeres with the length of these DNA fragments of healthy adults of the same age who do not have bad habits, but do not exercise regularly.
Scientists have found out that in the body of athletes in one of the types of blood cells – white blood cells – as a result of regular sports, a special enzyme, telomerase, is activated. This enzyme is designed to add a small fragment of DNA to a telomere site, thus compensating for the gradual shortening of telomeres. This effect was especially clearly observed in the body of older athletes.
"The most important discovery we have been able to make is that physical activity in the case of professional athletes leads to the activation of an important enzyme that stabilizes telomeres. This is direct evidence of the effect that prevents the aging of the body, which is subjected to physical exertion," Ulrich said, quoted by the press service of the American Association of Cardiologists.
Eternal Youth Portal www.vechnayamolodost.ru01.12.2009