How to Relieve Stress and Stay Young with Exercise
A study of British twins shows that exercise is one of the best stress relievers and is more important for combatting aging than genes. Physically active people are around 9 years younger on a cellular level than couch potatoes of the same real age!
Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, telomeres gets shorter. When the telomeres get too short, the cell dies. As telomeres shorten and cells die, aging occurs. This may show up as weakening muscles, wrinkling skin, loss of hearing, impaired eyesight, suboptimal organ functioning, and unfocused, foggy thinking. Telomere length is a good marker of biological aging.
This study shows that we can be take control of this aging process, by exercising. Yes! More proof that we are not at the mercy of our genes!
Exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells, keeping the body young and healthy.
2,400 twins’ telomeres along with their exercise habits were analyzed over a ten year period.
The length of the twins' telomeres was directly related to their activity levels, the researchers found.
Those that did a moderate amount of exercise, around 100 minutes a week of activity, had telomeres that on average looked like those of someone about five or six years younger than those who did the least, about 16 minutes a week.
Those who did the most, around three hours a week of moderate to vigorous activity had telomeres that appeared to be about nine years younger than those who did the least. The more people exercised, the longer their telomeres.
Factors such as obesity, smoking and marital status were all taken into consideration.
How to Relieve Stress with Exercise
While exercise alone is anti aging, it is also one of the best stress relievers. Stress also causes our telomeres to shorten and our cells to die, so exercises such as yoga and Tai Chi that have been designed to fight stress on every level are probably particularly beneficial.
Just another reason to get up and get moving!
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