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By that reasoning exercise should age us faster.

by alecst 5y ago

echelon 5y ago
In some ways it does! Exercise increases the presence of reactive species, which can negatively impact DNA and other molecules [1, 2]. We know exercise to be mostly beneficial, but you can't discount that it does damage too. It's just that the benefits exceedingly outweigh the downsides. Your body is going to die no matter what. Everything you do involves chemistry, and eventually entropy will win over your body's attempts to minimize it. There are behaviors that will optimize for longevity and health, though. [1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2016.00249/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2016.0024... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327321/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327321/
- alecst 5y ago
  And just as exercise is more complex than just tearing your muscle fibers, fasting is more complex than just slowing your metabolic rate. You could make a similar (but wrong) “of course” argument that, while fasting, the body doesn’t have enough energy to repair itself, so it decays faster. All I’m getting at is that this is a really complicated topic, and that the benefits of fasting go beyond just temporarily lowering your metabolism.
  - solarmist 5y ago
    That’s also kinda true (not the energy part, but the rest). Some of the studies I’ve read heavily imply this “decay” (clearing out trash) allows the body to kill off pre-cancerous cells and do other housekeeping things that it can’t do when the vascular system is busy doing nutrient delivery. This can happen with regular meals that a just a bit too big and a bit too regular. So just as it’s finishing up the rounds you’re adding new nutrients to be delivered. Apparently your body needs at least a few hours daily where it can focus on housekeeping tasks. I’ve come up with analogy of the same vehicles doing package delivery and garbage collection. So if they’re constantly busy will the former the latter will be neglected and things start to pile up.
- xwdv 5y ago
  Exercise has anti aging effects because the body generates more anti-oxidants in response to increased oxygen intake.
nabla9 5y ago
Exercise is big but limited time oxidative stressor. Body's response to it generates benefits. Antioxidants, like taking vitamin C supplements with exercise are shown to reduce some benefits of exercise.

By that reasoning exercise should age us faster.

by alecst 5y ago

By that reasoning exercise should age us faster.

In some ways it does! Exercise increases the presence of reactive species, which can negatively impact DNA and other molecules [1, 2]. We know exercise to be mostly beneficial, but you can't discount that it does damage too. It's just that the benefits exceedingly outweigh the downsides. Your body is going to die no matter what. Everything you do involves chemistry, and eventually entropy will win over your body's attempts to minimize it. There are behaviors that will optimize for longevity and health, though. [1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2016.00249/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2016.0024... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327321/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327321/

alecst 5y ago
And just as exercise is more complex than just tearing your muscle fibers, fasting is more complex than just slowing your metabolic rate. You could make a similar (but wrong) “of course” argument that, while fasting, the body doesn’t have enough energy to repair itself, so it decays faster. All I’m getting at is that this is a really complicated topic, and that the benefits of fasting go beyond just temporarily lowering your metabolism.
- solarmist 5y ago
  That’s also kinda true (not the energy part, but the rest). Some of the studies I’ve read heavily imply this “decay” (clearing out trash) allows the body to kill off pre-cancerous cells and do other housekeeping things that it can’t do when the vascular system is busy doing nutrient delivery. This can happen with regular meals that a just a bit too big and a bit too regular. So just as it’s finishing up the rounds you’re adding new nutrients to be delivered. Apparently your body needs at least a few hours daily where it can focus on housekeeping tasks. I’ve come up with analogy of the same vehicles doing package delivery and garbage collection. So if they’re constantly busy will the former the latter will be neglected and things start to pile up.
xwdv 5y ago
Exercise has anti aging effects because the body generates more anti-oxidants in response to increased oxygen intake.

nabla9 5y ago

Exercise is big but limited time oxidative stressor. Body's response to it generates benefits. Antioxidants, like taking vitamin C supplements with exercise are shown to reduce some benefits of exercise.