Exercise Keeps Old Muscles Young

Sure, exercise keeps older people running faster longer. Everyone knows that. But now researchers at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana have a better idea of how that really works. The New York Times reports that the researchers gathered a group of older athletes, mainly runners in their 70s or 80s who hadn’t stopped training, and literally looked inside their muscles. The scientists put the runners through a grueling single session of weight training, then biopsied their muscles and took blood samples. They then compared their findings with those from muscles of much younger athletes and those from older men who did little or no exercise. What did they find? The Times reports that the young athletes’ muscles showed little inflammation, and a powerful anti-inflammatory response. The elder athletes’ muscles showed slightly more inflammation and a slightly less powerful anti-inflammatory response. In the elders who didn’t exercise, however, the finding were very different, with serious inflammation and little anti-inflammatory response. One moral of the story: older people who begin to exercise should start slow, and give their muscles chance to catch up to those of younger people.