Here's a story I just heard on the news this evening. It was another interesting twins study. Apparently, exercise is linked to younger DNA. The news story showed seniors in an exercise class moving their arms and legs at about level 2 of exertion. The two bits of information didn't quite jive for me, but I was interested so I looked up the longer print story("telomeres" are parts of the DNA).
"To try to separate the influences of heredity and lifestyle, researchers at King's College in London studied more than 2,401 sets of twins.
The length of the twins' telomeres was directly related to their activity levels, the researchers found. People who did a moderate amount of exercise — about 100 minutes a week of activity such as tennis, swimming or running — 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 — doing about 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."
Nation & World | Exercise linked to "younger" DNA | Seattle Times Newspaper
I think the key words are "moderate to vigorous activity," a detail that my local TV news failed to illustrate. Anyway, pretty interesting.
"To try to separate the influences of heredity and lifestyle, researchers at King's College in London studied more than 2,401 sets of twins.
The length of the twins' telomeres was directly related to their activity levels, the researchers found. People who did a moderate amount of exercise — about 100 minutes a week of activity such as tennis, swimming or running — 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 — doing about 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."
Nation & World | Exercise linked to "younger" DNA | Seattle Times Newspaper
I think the key words are "moderate to vigorous activity," a detail that my local TV news failed to illustrate. Anyway, pretty interesting.