This was the title of an article in this weekend's Parade magazine. Maybe you read it.
It had this information in it:
Most aging is just the dry rot we program into our cells by sedentary living, junk food, and stress. Yes, we do have to get old, and ultimately we do have to die. But our bodies are designed to age slowly and remarkably well. Most of what we see and fear is decay and decay is only one choice. Growth is the other.
So how do we achieve growth rather than decay? According to the article:
The hard reality of our biology is that we are built to move. Exercise is the master signaling system that tells our cells to grow instead of fade. when we exercise, that process of growth spreads throughout every cell in our bodies, making us functionally younger.
The article went on to talk about cell replacement. Most people know that our cells are constantly being replaced by new ones. Dead skin cells flake off, white blood cells just last 10 days, etc. I guess exercising means that the new cells stay strong and get stronger rather than just decaying from their birth day on.
I was imagining my cells getting stronger and my body staying young last night as I did combination kicking across the floor!
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2 comments:
You're right! Some cells get stronger! But we owe it all to our eurythrocytes (red blood cells) and leukocytes (white blood cells) for helping us maintain the other tissues. When red and white bood cells are "born", they immediately start to deteriorate. You are correct that some white blood cells last give or take 10 days, because they ultimately die off from killing microrganisms in our bodies. Red blood cells live about 100 - 120 days. THey are responsible for delivering oxygen to our other tissues (including the tissues in organs). So actually, the more we work our bodies, the more oxygen we have to deliver to our tissues, the faster we kill off our blood cells. Blood cells we absolutely need to live! And don't worry that we kill so many off, we produce about 2 million per second!! Now if you are thinking about muscle cells- then YES! They would be getting stronger with each combination kick! But blood cells, one kind of cell we absolutely need to keep lifein our other cells- No. We just keep killing them of- and that is a good thing!
Alas, no, it wasn't me. Wish I could claim it!
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