Aging in better health: What are the recommended exercises? | Rosario3.com

Forget the weights and that kind of strength exercises. If you want to age better, you can choose resistance exercises, such as running, swimming, cross-country skiing or cycling. This will help you age better. A study published in the "European Heart Journal" showed that this type of exercise slows down or even reverses cellular aging.

The study badyzed different types of exercises – aerobic training, at regular intervals or at high intensity, or strength training – in order to check how cells age in the human body.

Our DNA is organized into chromosomes in all the cells of the body. At the end of each chromosome, there is a repetitive DNA sequence, called telomere, a kind of chromosomal plug that prevents its extremities from deteriorating. As we get older, telomeres get shorter, which is an important molecular mechanism involved in cell aging. The process of shortening telomeres is regulated by several proteins. Among them is the enzyme telomerase, able to thwart the process of shortening and even increase the length of the telomeres.

Researchers led by Professor Ulrich Laufs of the University of Leipzig (Germany) recruited 266 young healthy volunteers, although previously inactive, and randomly badigned them to six months of training or training. of different lifestyle group control changes.

Researchers badyzed telomere length and telomerase activity in white blood cells extracted from volunteers at the start of the study and six months later.

The study identifies a mechanism by which a certain type of exercise improves healthy aging. It may be useful to design future studies on this topic using telomere length as an indicator of "biological age" in future intervention studies, "explains Professor Laufs.

One possible mechanism that could explain why resistance and intensive workouts increase telomere length and the activity of telomerase is that these two types of exercise affect nitric oxide levels in blood vessels, which contributes to: changes in the cells.