4 ms·

The pithy response is of course, "Exercise improves health. In other news, water is wet". But of course that's too simplistic ... this kind of research is aweso

The pithy response is of course, "Exercise improves health. In other news, water is wet". But of course that's too simplistic ... this kind of research is awesome. Anything that can help us understand these mechanisms are one step closer to a literal fountain of youth.

untilHellbanned 10y ago
I'd bet any amount of money that this data already exists in some form and so re-inventing the wheel - haha - with this study was not particularly useful. Like the parent comment says, water is wet. When you exercise stuff changes. What most biologists never do is point out all the things that don't change. That's how we'd see how special it is in this case that telomeres change.
- untilHellbanned 10y ago
  Ok so me-too apps like yet another photo sharing app is not cool, but me-too incremental biomedical research is cool. Good to know we are all about innovation here.
  - TelmoMenezes 10y ago
    In science, "me-too research" is also known as "replication", and it's one of the pillars of the scientific method. There should be more of it, not less (as recent crisis have shown). "Incremental research" is 99.999% of what scientists do. Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are very, very, very unusual scientists. That's a good sign, by the way -- if science was suffering major paradigm shifts every day, that would mean that no stable knowledge was being produced. Keeping in mind that we are talking about extending the healthy lifespan of human beings -- that could be the people you love -- who cares about "being cool"?
    - mikk14 10y ago
      Just a quick note pointing out that also Darwin and Einstein did 99.9% incremental research. Natural selection and evolution were well known concepts before the Origin of the Species, and so it was relativity. What Darwin and Einstein provided was just small steps forward, and a LOT of perspective over what was already there.
  - chc 10y ago
    You don't even know if this is "me-too" — you just "bet" it is, and then hedge the description with "incremental," which allows that it might actually add something. There is literally no factual substance to the complaint. Your objection here is so shallow that the word "shallow" implies more depth than it actually has.
    - untilHellbanned 10y ago
      Ok so my 20 years in the field means nothing to trolls. I can live with that.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
harveywi 10y ago
> one step closer to a literal fountain of youth I think you mean "Literally one step closer to a metaphorical fountain of youth." Or, in other words, the literal journey is literally the reward.
- castis 10y ago
  If, via this research (and heaps of handwaving), we can invent a water fountain that dispenses something that make you live longer. Then we have invented a literal fountain of youth.
  - anigbrowl 10y ago
    Too complicated. Why not just hurl young people out of tubes on an ongoing basis? True, some passers-by will suffer fatal injuries from the impact of juvenile bodies, but literary fountains of youth have always had the possibility of unexpectedly killing off people who drink from them too often, so their unexpected deaths will be ironically satisfying. I can think of worse ways to go.
- eagletusk 10y ago
  at what point does a word get used so commonly in an incorrect form that it becomes, literally, the new definition?
  - dave_sullivan 10y ago
    We're past that point. A slang synonym of "literally" is "very". It suggests something is so similar to the thing it's compared against, it ought to literally be that thing. It's a humorous exaggeration, humorous because the object in question is obviously not the other object. No doubt, some users of this form are unaware of its original definition. Yet others are fully aware of the original definition and thus use it to upset pedants on Internet forums. Language evolves and always will; does anyone think the English dictionary arrived on the scene mostly finished? If people understand your meaning, it must be some kind of language.
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
Except we also have research the suggests acute exercise raises the risk of adverse CV events[1]. So you just can't assume "Oh if I work super hard then I'll only see benefits." There are liabilities here and understanding balance and what works for you is what's going to matter. Studies like this just draw in the Ray Kurzweil 'live forever' crowd, hence it at the top of HN. They aren't comprehensive and may have nothing to with human health at all and probably don't add anything to our practical knowledge of exercise. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27017149 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27017149 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/115/17/2358 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/115/17/2358 http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/heart-risk-marathoners-have-larger-plaques-in-arteries http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/heart-risk-marathoners-... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3298928 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3298928
- jey 10y ago
  > CONCLUSIONS: Exercise acutely increases the risk of adverse CV events, with greater risk associated with vigorous intensity. The risks of an adverse CV event during and immediately after exercise are outweighed by the health benefits of vigorous exercise performed regularly. A key challenge remains the identification of occult structural heart disease and inheritable conditions that increase the chances of lethal arrhythmias during exercise.

untilHellbanned 10y ago

I'd bet any amount of money that this data already exists in some form and so re-inventing the wheel - haha - with this study was not particularly useful. Like the parent comment says, water is wet. When you exercise stuff changes. What most biologists never do is point out all the things that don't change. That's how we'd see how special it is in this case that telomeres change.

untilHellbanned 10y ago
Ok so me-too apps like yet another photo sharing app is not cool, but me-too incremental biomedical research is cool. Good to know we are all about innovation here.
- TelmoMenezes 10y ago
  In science, "me-too research" is also known as "replication", and it's one of the pillars of the scientific method. There should be more of it, not less (as recent crisis have shown). "Incremental research" is 99.999% of what scientists do. Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are very, very, very unusual scientists. That's a good sign, by the way -- if science was suffering major paradigm shifts every day, that would mean that no stable knowledge was being produced. Keeping in mind that we are talking about extending the healthy lifespan of human beings -- that could be the people you love -- who cares about "being cool"?
  - mikk14 10y ago
    Just a quick note pointing out that also Darwin and Einstein did 99.9% incremental research. Natural selection and evolution were well known concepts before the Origin of the Species, and so it was relativity. What Darwin and Einstein provided was just small steps forward, and a LOT of perspective over what was already there.
- chc 10y ago
  You don't even know if this is "me-too" — you just "bet" it is, and then hedge the description with "incremental," which allows that it might actually add something. There is literally no factual substance to the complaint. Your objection here is so shallow that the word "shallow" implies more depth than it actually has.
  - untilHellbanned 10y ago
    Ok so my 20 years in the field means nothing to trolls. I can live with that.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

harveywi 10y ago

> one step closer to a literal fountain of youth I think you mean "Literally one step closer to a metaphorical fountain of youth." Or, in other words, the literal journey is literally the reward.

castis 10y ago
If, via this research (and heaps of handwaving), we can invent a water fountain that dispenses something that make you live longer. Then we have invented a literal fountain of youth.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  Too complicated. Why not just hurl young people out of tubes on an ongoing basis? True, some passers-by will suffer fatal injuries from the impact of juvenile bodies, but literary fountains of youth have always had the possibility of unexpectedly killing off people who drink from them too often, so their unexpected deaths will be ironically satisfying. I can think of worse ways to go.
eagletusk 10y ago
at what point does a word get used so commonly in an incorrect form that it becomes, literally, the new definition?
- dave_sullivan 10y ago
  We're past that point. A slang synonym of "literally" is "very". It suggests something is so similar to the thing it's compared against, it ought to literally be that thing. It's a humorous exaggeration, humorous because the object in question is obviously not the other object. No doubt, some users of this form are unaware of its original definition. Yet others are fully aware of the original definition and thus use it to upset pedants on Internet forums. Language evolves and always will; does anyone think the English dictionary arrived on the scene mostly finished? If people understand your meaning, it must be some kind of language.

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

Except we also have research the suggests acute exercise raises the risk of adverse CV events[1]. So you just can't assume "Oh if I work super hard then I'll only see benefits." There are liabilities here and understanding balance and what works for you is what's going to matter. Studies like this just draw in the Ray Kurzweil 'live forever' crowd, hence it at the top of HN. They aren't comprehensive and may have nothing to with human health at all and probably don't add anything to our practical knowledge of exercise. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27017149 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27017149 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/115/17/2358 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/115/17/2358 http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/heart-risk-marathoners-have-larger-plaques-in-arteries http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/heart-risk-marathoners-... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3298928 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3298928

jey 10y ago
> CONCLUSIONS: Exercise acutely increases the risk of adverse CV events, with greater risk associated with vigorous intensity. The risks of an adverse CV event during and immediately after exercise are outweighed by the health benefits of vigorous exercise performed regularly. A key challenge remains the identification of occult structural heart disease and inheritable conditions that increase the chances of lethal arrhythmias during exercise.