Study: Stay Active to Stay Young
We are all looking for ways to feel younger and there have been many studies that exercise is a good way to make that happen.
But this new study is one of the most compelling we’ve seen.
Researchers in the UK gathered together 125 cyclists, aged 55-79, as well as 75 people between 20 and 36 who did not exercise. Then they gave them multiple tests. And what they found was pretty shocking, according to this article:
The cyclists were healthier, both in terms of their muscles and their immune systems, than middle-aged couch potatoes. That’s no surprise. But they also looked as healthy, biologically, as a group of people aged 20 to 36 who did not exercise…The older cyclists did not lose muscle mass, their cholesterol levels stayed healthy, they did not gain as much body fat as the inactive adults and their immune systems looked 30 or more years younger…
While they didn’t look it, their bodies were essentially battling against aging incredibly well.
Now, these men and women are in what we would consider peak physical condition — they could bike for 35 to 60 miles a day at a good pace. But there are two big takeaways from this:
- A good dose of exercise late in life can apparently take decades off your life. And if you are looking to be moderately healthier later in life, then you need to exercise, even a little. There is no way around it…
- …because the researchers say that this pretty much proves that it’s not the healthy who end up exercising when they’re older, but it’s those who exercise when they’re older who end up that much healthier.
-Shane M.