Chalk up another potential benefit to endurance training – a German study showed that physical activity in distance runners activated the enzyme telomerase, which helped preserve telomeres. Telomeres are described as “protective caps on the chromosomes that keep a cell’s DNA stable but shorten with age.”
Researchers are calling the study “direct evidence” that physical activity has an anti-aging effect.
The researchers measured the length of telomeres in blood samples from two groups of professional athletes and two groups of people who were healthy non-smokers, but who did not take regular exercise.
One group of professional athletes included members of the German national track and field athletics team, who had an average age of 20.
The second group was made up of middle-aged athletes who had regularly run long distances – an average of 80km a week – since their youth.
The researchers found evidence that the physical exercise of the professional athletes led to activation of an enzyme called telomerase, which helped to stabilise telomeres.
This reduced the telomere shortening in leukocytes, a type of white blood cell that plays a key role in fighting infection and disease.
The most pronounced effect was found in athletes who had been regularly endurance training for several decades.
I’m not much of an endurance athlete. As in, at all. But this study is just one more kick in the rear to get off the couch and get moving.
(Via FuturePundit)