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Post-Exercise Hormone Predicts Biological Age

Business.Cloud6Scientists from Aston University have discovered a potential molecular link between Irisin, a recently identified hormone released from muscle after bouts of exercise, and the ageing process.

Irisin, which is naturally present in humans, is capable of reprogramming the body’s fat cells to burn energy instead of storing it. This increases the metabolic rate and is thought to have potential anti-obesity effects which in turn could help with conditions such as type-2 diabetes.

Dr James Brown from Aston’s Research Centre for Healthy Ageing, said; “Exercise is known to have wide-ranging benefits, from cardiovascular protection to weight loss. Recent research has suggested that exercise can protect people from both physical and mental decline with ageing. Our latest findings now provide a potential molecular link between keeping active and a healthy ageing process.”

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Source: MedicalXpress.

Social Contact, Regular Exercise Important Anti-Aging Strategies

Support.Social.Network1Social contact and regular exercise are key to aging well and living a longer life, according to newly presented research. In fact, feeling extremely lonely can increase an older person’s chances of premature death by 14 percent, an impact nearly as strong as that of a disadvantaged socioeconomic status, according to John Cacioppo, psychology professor at the University of Chicago.

He noted that a meta-analysis of several studies published in 2010 showed that social isolation had twice the impact on the risk of death as obesity.

“Retiring to Florida to live in a warmer climate among strangers is not necessarily a good thing if it means you are disconnected from people who mean the most for you,” Cacioppo said.

Often, loneliness is accompanied by a sedentary lifestyle, which can significantly weaken one’s health.

Simple exercise such as walking regularly at a good pace can’t just cut the risk of cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease by 50 percent—it can also clearly slow down the normal aging process of an older person’s brain, Kirk Erickson of the University of Pittsburgh told AFP.

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Source: MedicalXPress