
Can Exercise Keep You Young? - mhb
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/can-exercise-keep-you-young/
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rmason
Funniest comment in that article that I've read all month:

Ok, Ok, you don’t have to beat me over the head with more research. You’ve
convinced me.

I’m going to force the mice in my apartment to exercise more.

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shasta
Possibly even the funniest comment in that article of all time.

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bootload
_"... Half of the mice were allowed to run on a wheel for 45 minutes three
times a week, beginning at 3 months. These rodent runners were required to
maintain a fairly brisk pace, Dr. Tarnopolsky said: “It was about like a
person running a 50- or 55-minute 10K.” (A 10K race is 6.2 miles.) The mice
continued this regimen for five months. ..."_

Do this every day for five months, year in year out? A 10km/hr pace might not
seem fast but I'll bet you most people will not keep this up for long. The
will power required, level of exertion and increased injury sees to this.

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electromagnetic
IIRC the Roman Army had hit its sweet spot at a 15-mile (~25km) march a day.
They'd force march on occasion, but this was rarely before battle. They wanted
their soldiers rested before battle.

I'd guess that exercising much beyond 2 miles/hour is going to be detrimental
to your body if done daily. Our bodies were built for endurance, which is why
our locomotion is derived from gravity. Our ancestors hunted animals that
survived by their endurance.

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quickpost
Hmmm, not able to reply to your "reply" so I'll post here:

I'm still confused by that 2mph number, the average human walking speed is
5kph (or 3.1 mph), so to walk at a 2mph pace seems suboptimal and potentially
more difficult and dangerous than walking at your "normal" pace would be.

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bootload
_"... the average human walking speed is 5kph (or 3.1 mph), so to walk at a
2mph pace seems suboptimal ..."_

The forced march (140 cadence) is really is the realm of special forces.
Moving over distance is as much about reliability. A function of carry weight
X distance travelled. 5km/hr over distance, 30km+/day with 15kg pack, day
after day is difficult going. A 100-120 cadence is more reachable. ~
[http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/militar...](http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/mil_hist_inst/m/march2.asc)

For your average person a 140 cadence daily over 10km is probably too hard.
Just maybe a 3x week might be enough. But is it enough? From the abstract:
_'Endurance exercise rescues progeroid aging and induces systemic
mitochondrial rejuvenation in mtDNA mutator mice'_

 _"... The systemic mitochondrial rejuvenation through endurance exercise
promises to be an effective therapeutic approach to mitigating mitochondrial
dysfunction in aging and related comorbidities. ..."_ ~
[http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/02/18/1019581108.abst...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/02/18/1019581108.abstract)

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electromagnetic
What I don't get is that they're "exercising" rats that are being forcibly
sedate. Rats travel long distances on a daily basis, they have large areas in
the wild (not so much in the city) where they find food.

For a fair study you would have to find how much a wild non-urban rat
"exercises" during a day and then up that to see whether exercise will keep
them young.

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cj
Before human civilization I suspect that we walked much more than a couple
miles per day. Caging the rats is comparable to the reduction in daily
movement due to cars, availability of food, etc.

Setting the baseline to non-urban rats would tell us more about the health of
prehistoric humans than modern ones.

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electromagnetic
For their study to be valid in proving that exercise prolongs 'youthfulness'
it requires that they be meeting the species normal exercise limits before
expanding on them, otherwise they're actually performing a study on how
sedentary lifestyles reduce youthfulness.

This is a scientific study that isn't being accurate about what it's even
studying, which makes me instantly dubious of any of its results.

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cj
That is assuming the definition for exercise is any level of activity above
the standard and expected activity level of a species.

Put into context, your reasoning implies that a rat running around all day
looking for food is not exercise.

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sarahmccrum
My big question is about the difference between this kind of body pummelling
exercise and gentler types of exercise such as the Chinese have done for
millennia to promote longevity. I don't think the Chinese live longer than
Americans or europeans, but then most of them don't do their traditional
exercise styles any more. But i know that the feeling you get after an hour of
Chinese-style exercise is so much fresher and more invigorating than after
strong western style exercise. In my experience western style exercise
circulates your energy (which is really good for you) and also drains it but
Chinese exercise actually boosts your energy as well as circulating it. This
is only based on personal experience - no science, but it would be worth
investigating more seriously for anyone interested in longevity.

