3 ms·
How do they know that the relationship isn't the inverse: people with slower telomerase reduction age more gracefully and are more likely to report being physic
by dibujante 11y ago
How do they know that the relationship isn't the inverse: people with slower telomerase reduction age more gracefully and are more likely to report being physically active because they have developed fewer disabilities? Their "critical window" (40-65) also lines up suspiciously well with when people's bodies start to get creaky.
- Someone 11y agoThey don't. From the article: "However, as Dr. Loprinzi points out, this study is purely associational, so cannot show whether exercise actually causes changes in telomere length, only that people who exercise have longer telomeres."
- dredmorbius 11y agoThere are studies which can look at this, if you can do long-term longitudinal studies. Taking two otherwise identical populations, particularly identical twin populations, and looking at how they respond to a regime of exercise vs. one without might work. The duration of such studies (years to decades) makes them exceptionally difficult and expensive to carry out. And, of course, you don't get results for ages. One of the more famous of these is the Framhingham Heart Study, begun in 1948, and now on its third generation of participants. The original study included over 5,200 participants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framingham_Heart_Study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framingham_Heart_Study