Moderate regular exercise can delay the ageing process and halve the risk of heart attack death among those in their fifties and sixties, according to a team at Saarland University in Germany.
Walking makes you live longer
The team put men and women aged between 30 and 60 on a daily exercise programme, and presented their findings at the European Society of Cardiology congress on Sunday. The participants were healthy, non-smoking people, who had not exercised regularly before the study. Within six months, key markers of ageing in the blood showed changes, helping to repair DNA.
Sanjay Sharma, professor of inherited cardiac diseases in sports cardiology at St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London, said that everyone should try to build up the habit of exercise, and that you are never too old to begin exercising.
"Exercise buys you three to seven additional years of life. It is an anti-depressant, it improves cognitive function and there is now evidence that it may retard the onset of dementia," the cardiologist told The Telegraph.
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