Daily HealthBeat Tip - July 10, 2007

Making old genes young again

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells. And even though these powerhouses can grow weary as we grow old, exercise may give them a boost. Simon Melov of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California, looked into it.

Melov had people with an average age of 70 do six months of weight training. He found genes that regulate mitochondria in muscle cells, and the mitochondria themselves, seemed to reset themselves – to become young again – as the exercisers gained strength:

"We’ve known for a very long time that exercise is good for you. That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that exercise is good for you in a sense because it makes you younger at some level." (11 seconds)

The study in the online journal PLoS One was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July, 10 2007