Throughout the years exercise and health has been studied over and over again. I think we all can agree that exercising is good for you. But where is the hard scientific proof? Is there any evidence on the molecular level?
Supportive evidence of this idea was found in the Dec. 15th issue of the American Heart Association Journal Circulation. The researchers found that subjects who get regular exercise, about 50 miles of running a week, show a significant difference in the length of telomeres on their chromosomes than those who do not get regular exercise. Telomeres are the DNA-proteins on the ends of your thread-like chromosomes. They protect your genes during cell division, it’s like the plastic on the ends of your shoelaces.
As your life goes on and your cells divide, the telomeres get shorter and shorter. Eventually they will get too short and the cell will no longer be able to divide and will die. Researchers believe that this shortening process is critical to aging and causes people to become more susceptible to disease.
So although you eat healthy foods and your weight is appropriate, that doesn’t mean you don’t need exercise. Regular exercise can keep your cells in shape, if your cells are in good shape then so are you. After all, cell are what you’re made of!
