Study: Can Exercise Keep Us from Aging?
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How good for you is exercise? According to a study of mice by researchers at McMaster's University in Ontario, it may be the trick to staying young.
The study involved mice that were genetically programmed to age quickly. These mice lacked the ability to properly repair genetic mutations to their mitochondria, the fuel centers of cells; that damage, which accumulates with age, eventually causes the mitochondria to malfunction and die. As reporter Gretchen Reynolds explains for the New York Times: Many scientists consider the loss of healthy mitochondria to be an important underlying cause of aging in mammals. As resident mitochondria falter, the cells they fuel wither or die. Muscles shrink, brain volume drops, hair falls out or loses its pigmentation, and soon enough we are, in appearance and beneath the surface, old.
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