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The third lifestyle change to reverse aging is physical exercise. Physical exercise can not only help us manage chronic medical conditions like blood pressure, high cholesterol and aid with sugar control, it can also lengthen our life expectancy and may even reverse aging.
People who participate in moderate to high levels of physical exercise have a lower death rate compared to individuals who are not physically active. Moderate levels of exercise have been correlated with preventing ageing and improving quality of life.
A study in the online journal PLoS Medicine looked at data on 650,000 adults ( including some who were obese ) and found that walking just 15 minutes a day was associated with living 2 years longer. Looking at normal-weight individuals only, the data showed that walking 30 minutes a a day, 5 days a week was associated with an increase in life span of more than 7 years.
On a cellular level, the process of ageing can be slowed down by sustained exercise. A study published in 2009 showed that sustained physical training in young and middle-aged athletes was associated with higher telomerase activity, increased expression of telomere-stabilising proteins and therefore longer telomeres, compared to sedentary people. The same research group recently conducted another randomised controlled trial in non-athletes to demonstrate that exercise increases telomerase activity and telomere length.
The results of the study were published in 2018 in the European Heart Journal. The researchers recruited 124 middle aged men and women who were in good health but did not exercise. During the 6 months study, participants were randomly divided into four groups.1 Control group and three exercise groups that did different types of exercises 3 times a week. 1 group did endurance training ( walking or running 45 min a day ) Another group did high intensity interval training. They worked out for 4 min at high intensity followed by a 4 min rest - this cycle was repeated 4 times. And the third group did resistance training with various weight machines.
Blood samples were taken before, during, and at the end of the study to measure telomere length and telomerase activity in white blood cells. At the end of the study, those who exercised, regardless of the type, had better cardiorespiratory capacity than at the beginning of the study. Telomerase activity was 2-3 times higher in the group who did endurance or interval exercises, compared to the control group.
This effect, however, was not observed in people who did resistance training. Similarly the telomere length was greater in those who did endurance or interval exercises, but not in those who did resistance exercise.These results suggest that endurance exercises such as running, brisk walking, or swimming and high intensity interval trainings are more effective to keep longer telomeres and delay cellular aging.
How then should you structure exercise into your life? The recommended exercise duration per week is to commit to at least 150 mins of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Moderate to vigorous physical activities refers to any form of exercise that raises and maintains your heart rate at > 50% maximal heart rate. A simple formula to calculate maximal heart rate is 220 - your age.
Do consider a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic (resistance training) exercises. One good recommendation can be high intensity interval training which cleverly incorporates the 2 types of exercise regimen in one. Try to spread out your entire 150 mins of exercise evenly thoughout the week - meaning 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week.
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