If anything is going to inspire you to get to the gym, this might be it.
Intense aerobic exercise could slow down the ageing process, a new study claims. As we age, the protective caps on each strand of our DNA wear down and shorten. But new research has found endurance training protects those caps - called telomeres - from shortening.
It suggests such physical activity produces chemicals that strengthen and lengthen telomeres - thereby maintaining our youthfulness for longer. But if early data is accurate, it is the world's first successful example of telomere lengthening via gene therapy in a human individual.
