It is a widely known fact that physical exercise not only keeps us fit but also healthy. Pertaining to the above topic, a study claims that intensive exercise could avert reduction of telomeres which is a defensive consequence against aging of the cardiovascular system.
Apparently, study authors gauged the length of telomeres, the DNA that bookends the chromosomes and shields the ends from getting impaired. They took the blood samples from two groups of professional athletes and two groups who were healthy nonsmokers, but not habitual exercisers.
The telomere curbing mechanism supposedly restricts cells to a set amount of divisions and could be looked upon as a ‘biological clock’. Continuing decreasing of telomeres through cell divisions could result in aging on the cellular level and may restrict lifetimes. When the telomeres become decisively small, the cell apparently dies.
“The most significant finding of this study is that physical exercise of the professional athletes leads to activation of the important enzyme telomerase and stabilizes the telomere. This is direct evidence of an anti-aging effect of physical exercise. Physical exercise could prevent the aging of the cardiovascular system, reflecting this molecular principle,” commented Ulrich Laufs, M.D., the study’s lead author and professor of clinical and experimental medicine in the department of internal medicine at Saarland University in Homburg, Germany.
Fundamentally, the longer telomere of athletes is alleged to be a capable telomere. Apparently, the body’s cells are continually developing, splitting and ultimately dying off, a procedure supposedly managed by the chromosomes in every cell. These chromosomal ‘end caps’ turn shorter with every cell dissection, and when they’re gone, the cell apparently dies.
Moreover, it is exhibited that the regulation of telomere steadying proteins by exercise supposedly applies significant cellular functions further than the regulation of telomere length itself by shielding from cellular weakening and automatic cell death.
Around 32 professional runners were examined by the experts. The average age of all the participants were said to be 20. They were from the German National Team of Track and Field. It was seen that their mean running distance was around 73 km, per week.
The young professional athletes were apparently pitted against middle-aged athletes with a past of incessant endurance exercise since their youth. Their average age was about 51 and their mean distance was about 80 km, per week.
The two groups were apparently assessed against inexpert athletes who were healthy nonsmokers, but who did not exercise habitually. They were supposedly coordinated for age with the trained athletes. It was observed that the fitness level of the athletes was apparently higher than the untrained people. The athletes supposedly had a slower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure and body mass index, and a more encouraging cholesterol profile.
Long-term exercise training is believed to trigger telomerase and decrease telomere curbing in human leukocytes. The age-dependent telomere loss was apparently lower in the master athletes who had carried out endurance exercising for numerous decades.
The study was published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.