Cycling can keep you young in wide-ranging ways, study finds

'Our findings debunk the assumption that ageing automatically makes us more frail'

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 08 March 2018 17:30 GMT
Comments

Exercises like cycling can hold back the effects of ageing and keep people young in profound ways, a new study has found.

Activities like regularly riding a bike appear to undo the assumption that we get more frail as we get older, the authors of the new research claim.

The studies compared data on amateur cyclists with healthy adults that did not regularly exercise. It found that those who were exercising seemed to be preserving many parts of their health.

The findings showed that the cyclists preserved muscle mass and strength with age while maintaining stable levels of body fat and cholesterol. In men, testosterone levels remained high.

More surprisingly, the anti-ageing effects of cycling appeared to extend to the immune system.

An organ called the thymus, which makes immune cells called T-cells normally starts to shrink from the age of 20. But the thymuses of older cyclists were found to be generating as many T-cells as those of young individuals.

Professor Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, said: "Hippocrates in 400 BC said that exercise is man's best medicine, but his message has been lost over time and we are an increasingly sedentary society.

"However, importantly, our findings debunk the assumption that ageing automatically makes us more frail.

"Our research means we now have strong evidence that encouraging people to commit to regular exercise throughout their lives is a viable solution to the problem that we are living longer but not healthier."

Male cyclists taking part in the study had to be able to cycle 100km in under 6.5 hours while women had to cover 60km in 5.5 hours.

The non-exercising group consisted of 75 healthy people aged 57 to 80, and 55 young adults aged 20 to 36.

Professor Stephen Harridge, director of the Centre of Human & Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King's College London, said: "The findings emphasise the fact that the cyclists do not exercise because they are healthy, but that they are healthy because they have been exercising for such a large proportion of their lives.

"Their bodies have been allowed to age optimally, free from the problems usually caused by inactivity. Remove the activity and their health would likely deteriorate."

The research is outlined in two papers published in the journal Aging Cell.

Additional reporting by agencies

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in