It is well known that physical exercise is beneficial to health, but there are little-known aspects that underline its importance, for example, in terms of rejuvenation. There is evidence that exercise reverses ageing-related gene changes and thus the phenotypes of senescence and chronic inflammation in tissues throughout the body. It also dampens the activity of pro-inflammatory genes that goes out of control with ageing.
Exercise is a robust intervention to restore mitochondrial function and achieve reactivation of aged adult stem cells, such as muscle and other stem cells. For example, exercise activates genes related to nervous system function (such as the development of neural projection and cognition) primarily in the cerebrum, cerebellum and spinal cord. Also, confers mental benefits in adultsThe most important factors in terms of memory, mental agility, emotional stability and speed of reflexes.
On the other hand, physical training increases the mitochondria content in the heart; and increases the number of motor neurons in the motor cortex and spinal cord, together with a higher neurofilament content in the motor terminals of skeletal muscle, indicating a strengthened muscle innervation, which will give better stability of balance.
Surprisingly, in the nervous system, the thickness of the cortex increased substantially in young and old mice after 12 months of exercise compared to young and old animals that did not exercise, and helped explain the improvement in physical and cognitive ability conferred by exercise.
Slow and fast twitch fibres in skeletal muscle and fibroblasts in the heart were rescued to a similar extent as neurons. The spinal cord, skeletal muscle, aorta, heart, kidneys, lungs, liver and testes were also reprogrammed by exercise.
In the same way happened with immune cellsespecially virgin CD8 T-cells+ in peripheral blood. In addition, we found that CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes+ aged and CD8+ of memory T cells in the peripheral blood and spleen were effectively rescued by exercise.
Overall beneficial effect
Physical activity reduced age-associated expression in the central nervous system, including the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, cerebellum and spinal cord. As for the inflammatory status in other aged tissues, exercise enhanced the exacerbated infiltration of CD45 immune cells. + and neutrophils in liver, lung and kidney, indicating an underlying inflammatory state in many people. It also decreased age-associated IL-1β expression in liver and kidney.
Exercise therefore reshapes the landscape of ageing genes, and exerts an overall beneficial effect on the whole body, attenuating the genetic changes associated with ageing. At the cellular level, a variety of different types of strongly rescued cells to a younger state.
In contrast, a sedentary lifestyle activates a network of inflammatory pathways that promotes the development of neurodegenerative states, insulin resistance, atherosclerosis and tumour growth. It has been known for decades that people who are physically active have a more capable immune system.
Activity helps our body to fight against the oxidative stress and free radicalsThe common cause of ageing. As a consequence of exercise, the organs of the body begin to provide us with health, through exerkines for their role in the communication and coordination of all organs and systems.
It is as if our body were resetting all its organs, inducing, in a kind of healing metabolic revolution, the production in various tissues such as muscle (myokines), liver (hepatokines), adipose tissue (adipokines, insulin-sensitising and anti-inflammatory), or the heart (cardiokines).
Most cardiokines, as important mediators, have roles in the maintenance of cardiac homeostasis or in the response to myocardial damage. Also in neurons (neurokines), in addition to the enhancement of telomere length, or mitochondrial function. There is no organ of the body that does not benefit from exercise.including gut flora.
Therefore, moderate exercise has many positive effects, from strengthening the heart and weight control, to the functional capacity of the lungs and the overall functioning of the brain.
*José Antonio Rodríguez Piedrabuena is a specialist in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, and in management training, group and couple therapies.