Exercise and Aging | Intense exercise can stop or slow down Aging

Before we start….. Exercise is the Most important thing we can do against aging. read more.

How exercise slows down aging?

Exercise Increases Brain plasticity and memory that leads to better learning

Exercise Increases brain BDNF

Exercise Boosts and improves cardiovascular system

Exercise creates inflammations that makes body boost immune system

Exercise triggers body production of growth Hormone

Exercise triggers body sweat system

Exercise fights obesity

Triggers production of new brain cells

Research in progress

Main question on exercise-aging relation:

Before going into details of how exercise can actually improve your body we should have and understand some questions:

Why do we HAVE TO exercise?

Do you know what it means that cells in our body and specially our brain Age?

Does our body make new cells everywhere? even in brain?

When does aging stats?

Do you know Why our body operates the way it does and how can it affect our modern lifestyle?

Does aging happen in brain or skin or all of our body?

If we are perceiving the world in our brain shouldn’t we really care about protecting it from getting old?

First Aging starts From 15 to 20 so take this seriously. If you are in your 20s, you are already there.

We are based on our needs. All body structure and how it functions is designed or evolved based on its needs. if we did not need a hand we would not have one or hair or nose. The structure of our body is designed to get stronger and grow under pressure of need. fear is one of the strongest tools in nature that makes animals shape the way they are.

Telomeres that are the tiny caps found on the end of DNA strands, like plastic aglets on shoelaces. They are believed to protect the DNA from damage during cell division and replication. As a cell ages, its telomeres naturally shorten and fray. our modern lifestyle expedites that things like smoking or bad foods or obesity all contribute hugely to expediting that process.

In our original lifestyle we used to run to hunt or escape, for food and staying alive and keep living. our cells and DNA knows why they are shaped the way they are. Actually exercise and intense physical activity has been an integral part of our lives in the past. and our structure is shaped based on that.

If we dont use part of our body it starts weakening to its minimum. Imaging your muscles if you dont use a specific muscle it weakens even if you are an athlete if you stop the pressure after a while you see that because your muscle is not under pressure it loosens up and weakens. after one or two years you are nothing like your old body and that strong part is the weakest. you did nothing and that is the exact problem. doing nothing with your body for your DNA means you dont need it. so it gets rid of it. It can not get rid of it in one generation but weakens it as its possible. and eventually gets rid of it if you pass enough generations.

Remember it should be intense and/or long. The high intensity and long time is what makes the difference and makes your body to fight aging.

High intensity exercise is a strong signal to all cells involved specially your brain to work and grow and get stronger.Also long time can do it in another way for sure a 40 min session is much better and more effective than a 10 min session. you body feels like its running out of resources and power. They are all feeling fear and that is what is running them forward. Because that is how our body made to survive if it feels loos for a long time it means aging and slow death.

Aging In our brain and memory vs exercise | Can you grow new brain cells?

The science of neurogenesis suggests it’s possible to create neurons that improve your memory and thinking skills.(source) For example in relation of AHN and exercise in a study Named: Physical exercise increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis in male rats provided it is aerobic and sustained done by Miriam S. Nokia, Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. On Exercise and AHN it was found that: Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a continuous process that contributes to a variety of adaptive behaviours, such as learning (for review, see Aimone et al. 2014). A well-demonstrated means of promoting AHN in rodents is aerobic exercise, namely running (van Praag et al. 1999). High-intensity interval training had a smaller than expected effect on AHN. Resistance training does not promote AHN.

In accordance with several previous reports on the beneficial effects of running on AHN and cognition in rodents (for a review, see Vivar et al. 2013), in our present study forced endurance training on a treadmill as well as voluntary running in a running wheel led to a higher number of immature adult-born hippocampal neurons compared with that observed in animals not engaged in aerobic exercise. Furthermore, we found that daily voluntary running on a running wheel increased AHN considerably more than 30 min of forced endurance training on a treadmill three times a week. The correlation between running distance and AHN might be explained by considering the consequences of running (in a more naturalistic setting). The further an individual travels, the more likely it is to encounter new environments and stimuli from which it must make sense rapidly.

Finally in the Conclusion it is mentioned that: Sustained aerobic exercise increases AHN and advances this field of study in several ways. First, we tested several different forms of physical exercise to study their effects on AHN. We also took advantage of a newly developed genetically heterogeneous contrasting rat model system that we selectively bred for low and high response to aerobic training to take into account genetic variation in training responsiveness. According to our findings, anaerobic resistance training does not affect AHN in the studied animals, despite its overall positive effects on physical fitness. Second, the effects of exercise on AHN depend, at least to some extent, on sustained aerobic activity, as HIT did not have statistically significant effect on AHN. Third, the highest numbers of adult-born hippocampal neurons were observed in rats selectively bred for a high response to aerobic exercise that ran voluntarily on running wheels. Thus, for all reasons combined, AHN is highest in animals born with a tendency for a higher response to exercise training ,engaging in a large amount of voluntary aerobic activity. (source)

Why and how physical activity promotes experience-induced brain plasticity is also another important study done by Gerd Kempermann , from Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, German Research Foundation, Dresden, Germany.

In animals, most if not all aspects of cognition are inseparable from locomotion and physical activity. Exploration, spatial navigation, and most types of learning accessible in a rodent are based on its movement in the outer world. Search for food, shelter, and mates are physical activities, requiring mental input to be successful on both a phylogenetic and ontogenetic scale. Consequently, the fact that running induces neurogenesis will be less counterintuitive if one appreciates physical activity as a basis for cognition. An important question is, whether this association is preserved in humans. Physical activity would be an intrinsic behavior-based signal to the brain (and hippocampus) implying that the likelihood of cognitive challenge is increased. In addition, one could speculate that running long distances increases the chance to encounter new environments increasing the need for spatial orientation and memory like wild animals that need to find the way back to their safe shelter. (source)

Brain BDNF (Brain plasticity) and Exercise

What is brain plasticity? Neuroplasticity – or brain plasticity – is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-wire itself. Without this ability, any brain, not just the human brain, would be unable to develop from infancy through to adulthood or recover from brain injury.

What is BDNF? The BDNF gene provides instructions for making a protein found in the brain and spinal cord called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This protein promotes the survival of nerve cells (neurons) by playing a role in the growth, maturation (differentiation), and maintenance of these cells. In the brain, the BDNF protein is active at the connections between nerve cells (synapses), where cell-to-cell communication occurs. The synapses can change and adapt over time in response to experience, a characteristic called synaptic plasticity. The BDNF protein helps regulate synaptic plasticity, which is important for learning and memory.

The BDNF protein is found in regions of the brain that control eating, drinking, and body weight; the protein likely contributes to the management of these functions.

How To Increase BDNF (Brain-Derived Neutrophic Factor)

Increase your BDNF , there are some specific ways this can be done. It should also be noted that many methods that increase BDNF simultaneously increase neurogenesis.

1. Intense Exercise

Yes, Intense Exercise is number 1. If you don’t exercise much, your brain may not be producing sufficient BDNF. To increase it, you’ll want to engage in an intense exercise; the greater the intensity, the more likely BDNF production will increase. It has also been suggested that the more frequently you engage in high intensity exercise, the greater the production. Most specifically, aerobic exercise within the 60% to 75% of your max heart rate should be maintained for approximately 30 minutes. Don’t expect a huge boost in BDNF after just one gym session.

(Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21282661 – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21722657)

2. Intermittent Fasting or Caloric Restriction

3. Dietary modifications

4. Sunlight (Vitamin D)

5. Supplements

6. Lose weight

7. Certain drugs

8. Social Enrichment

How exercise and aging muscles relations are?

Basically we have 4 main types of exercise:

1.Endurance

Endurance, or aerobic, activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Building your endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities.

Brisk walking or jogging

Yard work (mowing, raking, digging)

Dancing

Strength

2. Strength exercises

Strength exercises make your muscles stronger. Even small increases in strength can make a big difference in your ability to stay independent and carry out everyday activities, such as climbing stairs and carrying groceries. These exercises also are called “strength training” or “resistance training.”

Lifting weights

Using a resistance band

Using your own body weight

Balance

3. Balance exercises

Balance exercises help prevent falls, a common problem in older adults. Many lower-body strength exercises also will improve your balance.

Standing on one foot

Heel-to-toe walk

Tai Chi

Flexibility

4. Flexibility exercises

Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and can help your body stay limber. Being flexible gives you more freedom of movement for other exercises as well as for your everyday activities.

Shoulder and upper arm stretch

Calf stretch

Yoga

Almost any amount and type of physical activity may slow aging deep within our cells, a new study finds. And middle age may be a critical time to get the process rolling, at least by one common measure of cell aging. But a recent study from Cell Metabolism discovered that certain forms of exercise may increase muscle mass and mitochondrial density, particularly with people 64 and over.Not surprisingly, resistance training increased muscle mass and strength for all subjects. And cardio HIIT (high intensity interval training) improved the age-related decline in mitochondria.

For those of us who don’t know every portion of our cells’ interiors, telomeres are tiny caps found on the end of DNA strands, like plastic aglets on shoelaces. They are believed to protect the DNA from damage during cell division and replication. As a cell ages, its telomeres naturally shorten and fray. But the process can be accelerated by obesity, smoking, insomnia, diabetes and other aspects of health and lifestyle as we have talked about in all of our articles. In those cases, the affected cells age prematurely.

Exercise may slow the fraying of telomeres. Past studies have found, for instance, that master athletes typically have longer telomeres than sedentary people of the same age, as do older women who frequently walk or engage in other fairly moderate exercise.

But those studies were relatively narrow, focusing mostly on elderly people who ran or walked. It remained unclear whether people of different ages who engaged in a variety of exercises would likewise show effects on their telomeres.

So for the new study, which was published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers from the University of Mississippi and University of California, San Francisco, decided to look more broadly at the interactions of exercise and telomeres among a wide swath of Americans.

Exercise And Ageing, Exercise Is The Key To Keep Your Body Young

Ageing is a natural part of life. Face it. As soon as you hit your twenties, you notice changes in your body that are clear signs of ageing. However, people age differently and you want to be one of those people who looks and feels younger than they actually are. You want to be as healthy and strong as you possibly can be so you can still enjoy life even in your later years.

Let’s take a look at how exercise can help you keep your body young.

As you get older, your heart muscle becomes less efficient. It works harder to pump the same amount of blood to your organs. Blood vessels also tend to lose their elasticity and hardened fatty deposits may make the supply of blood even harder. This can be avoided by eating a healthy diet with limited saturated fats, a lot of lean protein and vegetables. Consistent daily exercise will also go a long way in delaying the onset of such problems.

One of the features of a young body is its ability to move fluidly. As you age, your bones decrease in size and density. It is even said that you lose a total of 2 inches as you grow older. Less dense bones make them prone to fracture. Muscles, joints and tendons also generally lose strength and flexibility as you get older. When you regularly exercise, your body gets used to physical activity and tries to keep up. Include weight training in your exercise regiment to keep your bones strong and your joints fluid. Proper diet will also go a long way to helping with this.

Exercise the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Exercise causes a beneficial response in the brain and an increase of BDFN, which is a trophic factor which is linked to cognitive improvement and the alleviation of anxiety and depression. The levels of this protein have been found to increase after exercise. You may already have experienced this before when in an anxious state. Exercise seems to alleviate the anxiety and make you have clearer thoughts. As you get older, your mental sharpness decreases slowly. You can delay this through regular exercise from a young age.

As you get older, maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight becomes even more difficult. Given that most people tend to go into a sedentary lifestyle as they age, it may seem almost impossible. Your metabolism also slows down, meaning that you burn fewer calories. The best remedy for this is maintaining a consistent workout schedule consisting of strength and cardio workouts at least 3 times a week. This ill help you increase your ratio of lean muscle to fat. Being overweight naturally, makes you look and feel older than you actually are. You may feel like you are hurling around a heavy body everywhere you go.

Exercise and nutrition go hand in hand when considering slowing down the ageing process. One cannot do without the other.

Online Sources for exercise and aging:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/JP271552/full

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/does-exercise-slow-the-aging-process/

mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/03/30/8-ways-to-increase-bdnf-levels-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor/

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