High levels of exercise can take nine years off the ageing process
“Just because you’re 40, doesn’t mean you’re 40 years old biologically,” exercise science professor Larry Tucker said. “We all know people that seem younger than their actual age. The more physically active we are, the less biological ageing takes place in our bodies.”
The study, published in the medical journal Preventive Medicine, finds that people who have consistently high levels of physical activity have significantly longer telomeres than those who have sedentary lifestyles, as well as those who are moderately active.
Telomeres are the protein endcaps of our chromosomes. They’re like our biological clock and they’re extremely correlated with age; each time a cell replicates, we lose a tiny bit of the endcaps. Therefore, the older we get, the shorter our telomeres.
Tucker found adults with high physical activity levels have telomeres with a biological ageing advantage of nine years over those who are sedentary, and a seven-year advantage compared to those who are moderately active. To be highly active, women had to engage in 30 minutes of jogging per day (40 minutes for men), five days a week.
“If you want to see a real difference in slowing your biological ageing, it appears that a little exercise won’t cut it,” Tucker said. “You have to work out regularly at high levels.”
Tucker analysed data from 5,823 adults who participated in the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, one of the few indexes that includes telomere length values for study subjects. The index also includes data for 62 activities participants might have engaged in over a 30-day window, which Tucker analysed to calculate levels of physical activity.
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