Exercise and the Elderly

[Guest guest]

I thought people might be interested in this story. It is taken from the BBC

News website. Sorry I lost the link.

Sharah

Sydney, Australia

Exercise 'reverses' muscle ageing

A twice-weekly trip to the gym may not just give you stronger muscles - it may

give you younger muscles as well.

Research on over-65s has shown that regular resistance training appears to

reverse signs of ageing in the muscles.

Analysis of muscle tissue showed the molecular machinery powering muscle cells

became as active as that in 20-year olds after exercise.

Its authors say the Canadian study, published in the journal PLoS One, shows the

benefits of remaining active.

Around 25 healthy adults over the age of 65 were given twice-weekly hour-long

training sessions for six months. The results were compared with participants

aged 20-35 years.

Before the sessions, which used standard gym equipment and a programme of 30

contractions of each muscle group, the older adults were 59% weaker than the

younger adults.

This shows that it's never too late to start exercising and that you don't have

to spend your life pumping iron in a gym to reap benefits

Dr Mark Tarnopolsky

But after the training the older adults were only 38% weaker.

The researchers also took tissue samples to look at changes in the mitochondria,

the rod-like " power plants " that sit within every cell and generate energy.

Previous studies have suggested that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in

the loss of muscle mass and function commonly seen in older people but the team

wanted to look specifically at the gene activity in the mitochondria.

The results showed the gene expression - the generation of functional proteins

by a gene - declined with age.

But exercise resulted in a reversal of the gene expression back to levels

similar to those seen in the younger adults.

Reversed

Dr Simon Melov, who co-led the research at McMaster University Medical Centre in

Hamilton, Ontario, said: " We were very surprised by the results of the study.

" We expected to see gene expressions that stayed fairly steady in the older

adults.

" The fact that their 'genetic fingerprints' so dramatically reversed course

gives credence to the value of exercise, not only as a means of improving

health, but of reversing the ageing process itself, which is an additional

incentive to exercise as you get older. "

Co-author Dr Mark Tarnopolsky added that a further four months of follow-up

found most of the older adults were no longer doing formal exercise in a gym,

but were doing resistance exercises at home, lifting soup cans or using elastic

bands.

" They were still as strong, they still had the same muscle mass. "

" This shows that it's never too late to start exercising and that you don't have

to spend your life pumping iron in a gym to reap benefits. "

Professor n McMurdo, head of ageing and health at the University of Dundee,

said: " There is an age-related loss of muscle from about 35 onwards.

" It used to be thought this was completely irreversible but what we have begun

to understand is that there's a sedentary loss as well. "

" We know that people in their 90s can regain lost muscle tissue and lost muscle

strength with quite a modest amount of exercise. "

" The encouraging thing is it doesn't have to be vigorous and only a little

exercise is necessary. "