Exercise Lengthens Telomeres

Researchers looked at the impact of exercise on the length of telomeres in the twins’ white blood cells. The study found longer telomeres were positively associated with more recreational exercise. This finding held after the researchers adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, socioeconomic status, and physical activity at work.

Recently, however, a handful of studies have measured protective and longevity benefits of exercise by measuring effects on length of the protective caps of DNA chromosomes, called telomeres. Stress and aging have been shown to shorten telomere length.Physical Activity and Exercise Effects the Length of Telomeres Several studies have been done on the effects of physical activity and exercise on the length of our telomeres, and they have all come to the same conclusion: Being physically active has a positive effect on telomere length and is associated with slower aging. (1, 2).In this review we discuss the possible role of exercise in the relationship between shorter telomeres, telomerase activity, and cancer. In summary, there is evidence that exercise leads to less telomere attrition and exercise also may diminish the risk of cancer, these two outcomes are possible intermediated by a reduction in oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation.

This article is going to look at how to lengthen telomeres with diet and exercise. Let’s discuss exercise first. The trend in fitness today is a heavy focus on weight training and diet alone to get lean.

Cardio is thought of as unnecessary and even counterproductive.There’s also another key player in the game: telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme that lengthens telomeres and keeps them from wearing out too fast or too early.

But with constant cell division, telomerase levels are depleted, enabling telomeres to shorten.Yet, it remains unclear if the initiation of an aerobic exercise training protocol can actually affect the rate of cellular aging by stabilizing or lengthening telomeres or increasing the activity of telomerase in those who were previously inactive.Endurance exercise may have a particularly beneficial impact on telomere length.

In a study with ultramarathoners and healthy counterparts, the ultramarathoners were found to have 11% longer telomeres than controls (3). Researchers translated that to about a 16.5 year difference in biological age.Endurance workouts increased telomerase activity, the enzyme that helps lengthen telomeres European Heart Journal In an admittedly small.A small pilot study shows for the first time that changes in diet, exercise, stress management and social support may result in longer telomeres, the parts of chromosomes that affect aging.

It is the first controlled trial to show that any intervention might lengthen telomeres over time. UC.Cardio Is Queen for Lengthening Your Telomeres Ever since exercise was found to build up telomeres-by stimulating the body’s production of the enzyme telomerase-the question has been about the most effective workout route.In certain cells, the ribonucleoprotein, telomerase, maintains and lengthens telomeres, allowing continued mitotic activity without progression to senescence (5).

In cells with telomerase activity, telomere length can be maintained, thus delaying senescence and tissue aging.People who do moderate aerobic exercise – about three times a week for 45 minutes – have telomeres pretty much as long as marathon runners. Mixing things up seems to be good too.In summary, the body of available evidence shows that one of the factors that exercise may lead to an attenuated telomere attrition and aging is the maintenance of good body composition ( Sousa-Victor et al., 2015; Simoes et al., 2017 ).Telomeres, the protein caps on the ends of human chromosomes, are markers of aging and overall health.

Every time a cell replicates, a tiny bit of telomere is lost, so they get shorter with age.

List of related literature:

The question of whether exercise helps keep telomeres long (and sedentary behavior hastens their shortening) is a contentious one, as we’ll see in Chapter 13.
from Exercise Is Medicine: How Physical Activity Boosts Health and Slows Aging by Judy Foreman Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2020
Physical exercise is suggested as a means to enhance the integrity of the telomeres.
from Essentials of Managing Stress by Brian Luke Seaward Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2019
The preservation of your telomeres is just one in a long list of benefits from exercise.
from Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever by Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman Rodale Books, 2010
Critically shortened telomeres
from Oxford Textbook of Cancer Biology by Francesco Pezzella, Mahvash Tavassoli, David Kerr Oxford University Press, 2019
Natural substances that support telomeres:
from Bio-Young: Get Younger at a Cellular and Hormonal Level by Roxy Dillon Atria Books, 2017
Overexpression of TRFI results in progressive shortening of telomeres; underexpression results in lengthening.
from Medical Biochemistry by N. V. Bhagavan Elsevier Science, 2001
facilitate transformation and immortalization by stabilizing telomeres (Swanberg and Delany, 2003 and references therein).
from Handbook of Models for Human Aging by P. Michael Conn Elsevier Science, 2011
This chapter provides a simple outline on structural and functional aspects of telomeres in normal cell proliferation controls and their maintenance in cancer cells by activation of either telomerase or alternative mechanisms.
from Science of Ashwagandha: Preventive and Therapeutic Potentials by Sunil C. Kaul, Renu Wadhwa Springer International Publishing, 2017
It has been shown that cycling hepatocytes suffer irreversible erosion of telomeres, which leads to senescence.25 Functional capacity is a relative rather than absolute parameter.
from Canine and Feline Gastroenterology E-Book by Robert J. Washabau, Michael J. Day Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012
The most active people had telomeres that were considerably longer than ones from people who did not exercise at all (Cherkas et al., 2008).
from Health & Wellness by , 2008