Larry Tucker, the author of the study and a professor of sports science at Brigham Young University in Utah, said that the "biological age" of highly active people is about 9 years younger than that of people who never exercise in the study.
Research shows that in order to get these benefits from exercise, you need to run for 30 to 40 minutes every day, five days a week.
In this study, Tucker looked at more than five items of data, and 800 people aged between 20 and 84 participated in a health survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey named "National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey" aims to collect data about people's lifestyle, health, physical activity and nutrition. [20 17 how to start your exercise plan]
In addition to filling out the questionnaire, participants also collected their DNA samples collected by CDC investigators from 1999 to 2002.
The purpose of this DNA collection is to measure the length of human telomeres. Telomeres are molecular "hats" found at the ends of chromosomes, which can protect the genetic structure from damage. Telomeres will shorten with time, but the speed of this shortening varies from person to person. Therefore, telomere is considered as a sign of a person's "biological age", which refers to the age of this person's cells, not his or her age.
Although the CDC survey has data about physical activity level and telomere length, the relationship between them has not been analyzed.
In the study, Tucker studied this relationship and found that people with high physical activity level have much longer telomeres than people who don't exercise at all, and people with lower exercise frequency and intensity also have much longer telomeres.
Especially for the men in the study, their exercise intensity and duration are equivalent to running for 5 days and 40 minutes, and their weekly exercise is equivalent to running for 5 days and 30 minutes. The length of telomeres shows that their cells are 9 years younger than those who don't exercise at all.
Tucker also compared the telomere length between the high exercise group and the low exercise group. In this case, he found that the difference of cell senescence between the two groups was 7 years. [Prolonging life: 7 ways to live beyond 100 years old]
Tucker told Life Science that this discovery shows that "telomeres seem to be important to take them to the next level of activity".
In other words, "if you want to see the real difference in slowing down biological aging, then a little exercise doesn't seem to reduce it," Tucker said in a statement. "KDSP" and "KDSP" don't know why high activity is related to longer telomeres, but previous studies have shown that exercise can help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which are related to the rapid shortening of telomeres. Tucker said:
A previous study found that the telomerase activity level of professional athletes is higher than that of people who don't exercise. This enzyme can stabilize telomeres.
Originally published in the journal Life Science.