14 Hallmarks Of Ageing Regular Exercise Helps To Slow Down

You probably already know that exercise can help us to live longer.

Research has shown that walking 7,000 steps a day can lead to a 47% risk reduction in all-cause mortality, while strength training has been linked to up to four years of extra life.

In fact, the Mayo Clinic stated that strength training could “slow and, in many cases, reverse the changes in muscle fibres associated with ageing”.

But why exactly does that happen? And what do we mean when we talk about exercise “reversing” or “slowing” ageing?

A paper published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science said: “Current evidence suggests that exercise favorably modulates all 14 hallmarks of ageing.”

Here’s what those markers are, as well as how exercise improves them:

As we get older, our DNA is more likely to mutate, sustain damage, and lose the ability to repair itself.

This amounts to “genome instability”, which has been described in some research as the main driver of physical ageing.

But, the paper reads, regular physical activity “appears capable of promoting genome stability by reducing DNA damage and enhancing DNA damage repair”.

Our telomeres – DNA structures that humans have at the ends of our chromosomes, and which keep our cells working better for longer – tend to shrink when we age.

Telomeres have been compared to “the protective plastic caps at the end of shoelaces”. Shorter telomeres are associated with a shorter life.

Thankfully, the review said: “Exercise can also activate telomerase [a special enzyme that maintains telomere length] and increase telomere length and thus decrease telomere attrition”.

Epigenetic factors are those that seem to be able to switch certain genes on or off without changing a person’s actual DNA. Those genes could be beneficial or harmful to someone’s health.

“Remarkably, recent evidence suggests that changes in epigenetic information are not merely consequences but also potential drivers of mammalian ageing,” the paper said.

Exercise could help our bodies to express our genes in a more beneficial way, they added.

“Accumulating evidence indicates that exercise-induced epigenetic modifications contribute to improved health outcomes in older adults” by regulating things like our DNA “off switches” (DNA methylation).

Proteostasis is the short term for “protein homeostasis”. It refers to the “delicate balance between protein synthesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation, which is essential for cellular function and organismal health”.

As we age, that network of processes can fall out of whack, increasing our risk of disease and, possibly, brain degeneration.

But “Increasing evidence indicates that exercise can restore proteostatic mechanisms disrupted by ageing”, the review said.

Ageing well isn’t just about keeping the things we want going for longer. It’s also about getting rid of the stuff we don’t want and preventing unwanted buildups – which is where autophagy, sometimes called the body’s “cellular recycling system”, comes in.

Autophagy can help your cells to work more efficiently. But it slows down when we get older, giving e.g. cancer and other diseases better odds of taking hold.

“Several studies have shown that exercise can reverse ageing- and diet-induced impairments in autophagy across various tissues,” this study stated.

Our nutrient-sensing network helps us to recognise the nutrients in our body and tells our cells how to respond appropriately.

A faulty nutrient-sensing network “has emerged as a key mechanism that contributes to ageing and age-related disease,” the review said.

“Importantly, exercise is capable of modulating multiple nutrient-sensing pathways, and thus exerting anti-ageing effects and promoting healthy ageing.”

You probably learned in secondary school that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. More specifically, they generate a lot of the energy our cells need to do their jobs.

And – you guessed it – ageing doesn’t exactly help our mitochondria to excel.

Yet “In elderly individuals, regular exercise is associated with improved mitochondrial health and enhanced physiological outcomes, including greater insulin sensitivity, superior muscle function, and elevated exercise capacity and efficiency, even when compared to older adults who engage in recommended daily [physical activity] levels but lack structured training,” the paper reads.

Older people have more senescent cells, sometimes called “zombie” cells, which stop dividing and build up over time. As they accumulate in larger and larger amounts, our bodies are at greater risk of ageing-related diseases.

A process called senolysis usually clears these “zombie cells” away, but when we get older, that cleaning system becomes less efficient.

Regular exercise seems to help lessen the burden of senescent cells.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the non-cellular part of our body that supports and maintains our tissues and organs. When it’s not working well, issues like arthritis and organ fibrosis can appear.

“ECM remodelling is a prominent feature of ageing tissues,” said the paper.

But “increasing evidence indicates that regular exercise can counteract these detrimental ECM alterations and preserve tissue structure and function”.

A decline in the regenerative power of our stem cells – very adaptable cells which are considered the building blocks of the body, and which can renew themselves – is considered “one of the defining hallmarks of ageing… resulting in impaired tissue maintenance and repair”.

However, regular “exercise has positive effects on the function of multiple types of stem cells and can promote tissue regeneration in aged organisms”.

Our cells have to communicate with one another to make our body function. Changes to this communication form yet another “hallmark” of ageing.

But exercise seems to improve it. In fact, “exerkines”, which are secreted by tissues when we exercise, “mediate many of the systemic adaptations to exercise and play crucial roles in mitigating aging-related decline”.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about “inflammaging” – a term GP Dr Suzanne Wylie told us refers to “the low-grade, chronic inflammation that develops as we age, even in the absence of obvious infection or illness”.

It can increase our risk of age-related disease.

Luckily, per the research, “An increasing body of epidemiological research indicates that engaging in regular physical activity or exercise can reduce aging-related chronic inflammation”.

Dysbiosis – a disruption to or imbalance in your gut’s microbiome, or community of microorganisms – could become more likely as we age.

And, the review found, that might “contribute to frailty and the development of age-related conditions”.

Once again, though, regular exercise might make dysbiosis less likely.

“As individuals age, they often face a gradual contraction in the size and quality of their social network, increasing their vulnerability to social isolation and loneliness,” the review said.

That’s a shame, as isolation and related mental health struggles are linked to a higher risk of dementia and even a shorter lifespan.

“Increasing evidence suggests that the mental health of the elderly can be improved through exercise,” though, the paper ended.