Balance Blog

It isn’t exactly a news flash that staying fit keeps your body in better working order than those who just lie around all day. But a recent article in the New York Times tells us now we have  research that shows us why it also keeps us younger: exercise keeps your cells living longer!

In a recent study, German scientists formed four groups: young (in their 20s) and sedentary, young and active (running at least 45 miles a week), older (average age of 51) and sedentary, and older and active (running at least 50 miles a week. *Editor’s Note: Whoa!*) and examined their white blood cells. What the researchers discovered was some pretty amazing stuff.

First, the scientists found that the cells in both the active and sedentary young adults had similar-size telomeres. Don’t let us lose you there. Telomeres are the caps at the end of a DNA strand, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. Basically telomeres keep your cells from dying. (Still confused? Check out the Wiki entry here.)

However, when they looked at the older groups, they found that the couch potatoes’ telomeres were 40 percent shorter than the running group. The older running group did experience some deterioration compared to the younger groups, but only by about 10 percent.

This would probably help explain why some of those in the active older group looked younger than those half their age in the sedentary group!

Check out the full article about the research, which ran in The New York Times magazine last week, here!