Study: Regular Physical Exercise Linked to Slowing the Aging Process

Working out for 30 minutes five days a week can extend your lifespan by up to 10 years. According to a new study, researchers at the Brigham Young University found that high levels of exercise slow down the aging process. Researchers were surprised to find that those who regularly engaged in high levels of exercise such as jogging for five days a week had longer telomeres in comparison to others who did not exercise at all.

Telomeres are repetitive segments of DNA found at the end of each and every chromosome. As a cell grows older, telomeres become shorter. Consequently, scientists correlate short telomeres with age.

Researchers argue that some people seem younger than her actual age because they are more physically active, which results in less biological aging.

Exercise Science Professor Larry Tucker explained in a statement, “Just because you’re 40, doesn’t mean you’re 40-years-old biologically. We all know people that seem younger than their actual age. The more physically active we are; the less biological aging takes place in our bodies.”

Researchers for able to discover this after analyzing nearly 6000 adults from data taken from the CDC’s National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey, which tracks telomere lengths in research subjects.

Rise of Obesity in America

Despite this research breakthrough, within the United States, only 20% of people get enough exercise and nearly 64% never exercise at all. Moreover, research has shown that 40% of a child’s weight is linked to their parents.

In addition, scientists discovered a correlation between child development issues and obese parents. 75% of children with overweight fathers had problems interacting with others. Furthermore, children with two obese parents were 300% more likely to have problem-solving issues by the time they turn 3 years old.