Study: Exercise Can Reverse Aging

According to www.sciencedaily.com The Buck Institute for Age Research recently released a study performed on humans that measured the affects of exercising on muscle tissue in aging adults.

The study was co-led by Buck institute faculty member Simon Melov, PhD. and Mark Tarnopolsky, MD, PhD, of McMaster University medical Center in Hamilton, Ontario. The main focus of the study was before and after observation of gene expression profiles in tissue. The tissue was sampled from 25 healthy older men and women. These participants performed six weeks of weight resistance training. The training occurred twice a week, and on average, the men were seventy years of age. Analysis of the tissue of the older participants was then compared to tissue samples of younger healthy men and women. The younger men and women were sedentary adults aged between 20 and 35, and they did not do any weight training.

Surprisingly, "The vast majority of aging studies are done in worms, fruit flies, and mice" said Melov according to www.sciencedaily.com. "This study was done in humans." Therefore the results of this study should be very helpful to the older community. The study was a first in studies previously done on older people because it looked at the gene expression profile otherwise know as the "molecular fingerprint" of aging. There is a normal decline in mitochondrial function that occurs with the onset of age. Several previous studies have shown that mitochondrial dysfunction may be related to function impairment and the decrease in muscle mass that is commonly observed in older people. Gene expression profiles are involved in mitochondrial function that has to do with age. According to www.canada.com Study co-author Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky said "There's accumulating evidence to show that mitochondria are involved in the aging process and if the mitochondria don't work very well, the energy, the endurance, and the strength of muscles become diminished."

The results of the study revealed a dramatic increase in muscle strength after the older adults completed their weeks of resistance training. Exercise also showed a significant reversal in gene expression profiles. The profiles went back to levels that were very close to those of younger adults. Following the weeks of strength training, increase in muscles mass was measured in the older participants. There was a 50% improvement in muscle strength, and the end result was that the older adults were only 38 percent weaker than the older adults.

Doctors were very surprised at the findings of the study because they did not expect the changes in the cells of older adults to be so dramatic. They previously believed that the gene expressions would have stayed steady. However, this study revealed that weight training can take off up to 45 years of aging. It's also good to know that the older participants in the study did not weight train all of their lives. They only had to exercise for a short period to gain the results they experienced.

"Exercises Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Tissue" Science Daily, url: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070522210936.htm