Telomeres
Yep, that’s right the title of this post is telomeres. I know an unlikely topic for someone whose last post was about leg warmers.
Just as a reminder for us, here is an overly simplified explanation of telomeres:
They are the tips at the end of our chromosomes. As cells divide over and over again our telomeres shrink in length. When they become too short our cells will no longer divide. Its a normal process associated with aging.
It turns out that some really smart people discovered that elderly people with a history of long term exercise had longer telomeres than their inactive counterparts. Which according to the study means that exercise has an anti-aging effect.
Since I have no real idea what I’m talking about other than the fact that exercise may keep me looking like I’m in my 20′s for another decade, check out these articles:
- Read the abstract from the actual study here.
- Read the NY Times article from the Well Blog, which gives a better explanation about the study and its findings.
- Read more about telomeres and aging at the University of Utah’s Genetic Learning Center.
Bonus points if you read about the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day! LOOOVE the title of this blog post — I totally studied way too much about telomeres in college. Oh, the life of a pre-med! Love your blog, and looking forward to following you! Take care and happy running! ~Patricia
Yeah for telomers! I just read something about this recently, probably because it’s been in a lot of articles lately. It’s big in the nutrition world. I guess I gotta keep exercising! That’s not a problem. thanks for all the links, I love reading about new research
I learned something new today! Never heard of this before.
I’m vain enough about looking young to take that and run with it….literally!!! Drinking lots of water and being active keeps my skin looking fresh as a young daisy.
Courtney
adventures in tri-ing
yay for excercise and looking like your 20! lol
I saw this, too. It’s really interesting, but I don’t think it proves anything. Maybe people with “stronger” or more resiliant telomers are more likely to keep exercising into old age. Maybe people who exercise that much (about 50 miles a week!) also have other healthy habits that prevent telomere shortening. I’m not getting too exciting because the study only looked at sedentary people v. those that ran 40 to 50 miles weekly. That’s a lot! I wonder how the telomers of mid-rage exercisers are.
I hate science, but that’s quite interesting!
Wow I had no idea what those even are, but I’m always up for another reason to exercise!
That’s really cool!
Huh, I didn’t even know those existed! But I am all for another reason to keep up with exercising!