“Exercise Tells Stem Cells To Become Bone, Not Fat”
Well of course. If you use your body, your body figures out how to improve itself.
Tag Archive for 'Exercise'
It certainly looks that way. Researchers in Tel Aviv studied rats who exercised daily for three months and found that “younger rats showed a 20% to 35% increase in the average number of stem cells per muscle fiber retained — and older rats benefited even more significantly, exhibiting a 33% to 47% increase in stem cells.
The greater prevalence of stem cells among those who exercise enhances the ability to rejuvenate tissue and avoid two of the major symptoms of aging: sarcopenia, a decline in mass and function of muscles, and osteopenia or bone loss.
Apparently the more blood your heart pumps, the larger your brain.
A study published earlier this week provides evidence that “strenuous, long-term exercise may have anti-aging properties by virtue of its effect on chromosomes.” Specifically, exercise appears to benefit telomeres, which function as a protective cap at the end of chromosomes.
It has been known for a while that telomeres function like cellular clocks. With each division the telomere gets shorter and the cell gets older. Measuring the length of telomeres in a cell provides a good estimate of the age of that cell line.
This new study, involving about 100 subjects, showed that blood cells isolated from endurance athletes showed increased activity of telomerase, an enzyme which helps to repair the telomeres at the end of chromosomes.