Scientists from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) found that excessive physical activity leads to acceleration of biological aging. results published on the medRxiv platform.
The study included 11 thousand pairs of twins, aged 18 to 50, who were followed from 1975 to 2020. Before the observation phase began, researchers collected information about the participants’ health status and physical activity levels. Volunteers were classified as sedentary (13.4%), moderately active (36.7%), active (38.7%), and very active (11.2%).
The researchers did not specify how much time people had to spend doing the exercises to fall into each category. The scientists also took blood samples from the subjects to track the rate of biological aging (the degree of wear and tear of the body’s organs and systems). To calculate the participants’ biological age, the researchers looked at changes in their DNA.
It turned out that volunteers in the second, third and fourth activity groups were 15-23% less likely to live a shorter life than those who were sedentary. But when factors such as weight and bad habits were taken into account, people who were highly active had a 7% lower risk than people who were inactive. Additionally, participants who put a lot of effort into physical exercise were 1.8 and 1.3 years older than biologically active volunteers and people with average activity levels, respectively.
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