Ultrarunners Have Longer Telomeres (Which is Good)

Signs of slower cellular aging in regular runners compared to sedentary people.
By Scott Douglas
Published
August 5, 2013

When it comes to telomeres, bigger is better. And that's good news for regular runners, according to new research out of Australia.

Telomeres are DNA strands at the end of chromosomes that, current thinking goes, work like the plastic tips of shoelaces to prevent fraying (in this case, the fraying of genes). As telomeres shrink with age, cellular susceptibility to disease increases. Therefore, having longer telomeres, the theory goes, should provide protection against disease, and result in a lower biological age (compared to chronological age) than someone with shorter telomeres.

In a study published in the online journal PLoS One, Australian researchers report that ultrarunners have telomeres that are 11% longer than those of age-matched sedentary people. As a result, the researchers write, the ultrarunners have a biological age 16 years less than their chronological age (which was an average of 43).

The researchers say these differences aren't related to the ultrarunners' better risk profiles for cardiovascular disease. That is, the fact that the ultrarunners had better blood pressure and other measurements “had no effect on the association between telomere length and ultra-endurance aerobic exercise,” the researchers wrote. However running might favorably affect telomere length, it does so independently of the known heart-health benefits of regular aerobic exercise.

“Patients with a variety of chronic diseases exhibit shorter telomeres when compared to healthy individuals,” Fadi Charchar, Ph.D., of the University of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia, and one of the study authors, told Runner's World Newswire. “The trick is that we can actually do things to make our telomeres last longer. We found that doing running–and lots of running–can be one of those great things for telomeres.”

Charchar told Newswire that although his research involved ultrarunners, it has significance for many runners.

"The ultramarathon runners from our study performed an average 40 to 100 kilometers of running each week,“ Charchar said. ”A large percentage of recreational runners would accrue a similar volume of training each week.“

Telomeres remain an intriguing frontier in research into aging and the benefits of exercise.

”There are many questions left unanswered in regards to exercise and the effect on telomere length,“ Charchar said. ”For example, is there a minimum amount of exercise that confers ideal telomere length maintenance? Is there a threshold at which point exercise does not benefit telomere length maintenance? Is the benefit exercise has to telomeres intensity-dependent? How are the telomeres being maintained?“

While scientists pursue those questions, the rest of us should keep running, Charchar advises.

”At this stage, the supporting literature and results from our study demonstrate that aerobic endurance exercise benefits telomere length maintenance," he said.

http://www.runnersworld.com/health/ultrarunners-have-longer-telomeres-which-is-good