Aging is a part of life that cannot be avoided. However, we may have some control over how quickly we age or how our bodies respond to age. Much of rate of the aging process is determined by our lifestyle, our genes, and environmental influences. Learning how aging occurs can help us to avoid things that trigger accelerations in the aging process. If it were not for disease, declining or malfunctioning organs, or the slowing of body systems, we probably wouldn’t mind aging much at all.

Slowing down the aging process and preventing things that are in our control can help us to reduce the risk of illness, disease, and disability. If you ask most people, the will agree that improving the quality of life is just as important as increasing longevity.

One interesting discovery about telomeres shows us how exercise can literally increase your lifespan in a way that we previously have not considered possible. Telomeres are “genetic”, so you would think that it would be something that you do not have control over. A telomere is like a cap that fits over the end of a strand of DNA. Telomeres protect our chromosomes from being damaged. Every time a cell replicates, the DNA strand separates and it loses a little bit of length from the telomere. When the telomere gets too short, DNA can be damaged. This is generally when our cells are “too old” to replicate anymore and enter a period of decline, or aging.

Studies on telomere length are interesting and show that people who exercise lose their telomere length at a much slower rate than their sedentary counterparts. In fact, runners in their 50’s have telomeres similar to those of someone in their 20’s, indicating that their cells will last a lot longer before they reach their replication limits and age.

Another way to lengthen the life of your cells is to protect your cells’ mitochondria. Mitochondria convert energy from each cell into a usable form. The process produces free radicals, or waste products, that need to be cleared from the cell. As we use oxygen, more free radicals are produced. Athletes produce more free radicals, which you would think damage and kill more cells, but regular exercise also increases each cell’s defense against the damage of free radicals.

Antioxidants are molecules that trap free radicals so that they can be cleared from the body before they cause damage to cellular membranes or DNA, which kills the cell. The body cannot manufacture all types of antioxidants, so even those who exercise regularly are generally urged to get extra vitamin E and vitamin C through supplementation or their diets. Those who don’t exercise regularly have an even higher requirement for antioxidants because when they exercise, they produce excess free radicals, but have not yet built up the natural defenses of their cells. People who live a sedentary lifestyle have an even higher depletion of antioxidants and are the most susceptible to oxidative stress, disease, and early death.

Aging can also affect our ability to absorb and use the antioxidants that we take or include in our diets. Highly absorbable, readily bioavailable forms of supplements are generally recommended as we get older. Sodium ascorbate is one of the best forms of vitamin C and is generally well tolerated by those who have gastrointestinal disturbances with other forms of vitamin C. Speak with your doctor about how much of this buffered form of vitamin c powder would be appropriate for your age and activity level.

About the Author: Phil Le Breton is owner at Wholesale Nutrition. He has a strong interest in helping people achieve greater brain and body health with vitamins and supplements, with an emphasis on vitamin C powder. Wholesale Nutrition has provided the world with the best vitamin C and wholesale vitamins since 1970. Visit http://www.nutri.com to buy high-quality discount vitamins today!

Sources:

https://www.thieme-connect.com/ejournals/abstract/sportsmed/doi/10.1055/s-2000-8881

http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/antiox.html

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/phys-ed-how-exercising-keeps-your-cells-young/

http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/aging.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_radicals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_oxygen_species

http://longevity.about.com/od/researchandmedicine/p/telomeres.htm

http://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/aging/introduction.cfm