Health and Fitness.

Researchers reveal why exercising elderly are in better shape

Friday, December 3, 2010 4:52

Posted in category Exercises

Have you ever thought why aged people who exercised throughout their life were in better shape that those who didn’t? Well, a study conducted by Prof. Dafna Benayahu and her team at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine seems to have found the answer. The researchers have found out that regular exercise, ranging from jogging to a complete work out, keeps the stem cells of muscles unlocked. This way, their old muscles remain in-shape and rejuvenated even at old age. The professor hopes to find a drug based on this study which would allow the consumer to heal their muscles quickly.

She explained that as we get old, our bodies experience sarcopenia and osteopenia. The former is a decline in mass & function of muscles, while the latter means bone loss. Since our bones and muscles work in cohesion, it is important for our musculoskeletal system to remain in perfect shape. But, due to ageing, this system faces regular wear & tear, making it weaker on the whole, thereby increasing the chances of falling among the elderly. Since the stem cells decrease, the musculoskeletal system is unable to heal itself and the muscles deteriorate. According to Dr. Gabi Shefer of the team, they conducted experiments on rats of both sexes & different ages in order to see the effects of exercising in lab rats.

The research team found that the number of stem cells increased among rats which ran on treadmills for 20 mins for the duration of 13 weeks. While the younger subjects showed a stem cell growth rate of 20-25%, their older counterparts exhibited a 33-47% increase. The experiment demonstrated that exercising the levels of ‘spontaneous locomotion’, whose decline is said to be closely associated with ageing. With a drug that can increase levels of such locomotion and stem cells, the elders would be able to keep osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at bay.

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