What if the Most Powerful Way to Live Longer Is Just Exercise?

These are extracts from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal

People are chasing longevity with ice baths and supplements. But the benefits of exercise have years of science behind them.

Longevity researchers have spent decades hunting for a magic pill to slow the aging process. But the best solution—at least for now—may be the simplest one: Move more.

No single thing—whether it’s regular cold plunges or off-label drugs and supplements like metformin, rapamycin or taurine—has a track record that can match exercise’s in terms of protecting against age-related diseases and helping people get more from their later years, a vast body of research shows.

The muscle and bone growth stimulated by exercise can help older adults maintain their independence, lessen fatigue and protect against bad injuries from falls, the leading cause of injury-related death among those over 65. Regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing certain age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. “It’s really remarkable how many of these different hallmarks of aging exercise can target,” says Nathan LeBrasseur, an exercise and aging researcher and director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic.

A team of researchers who analyzed data on more than 650,000 adults over about a decade found that, compared with those who were inactive, those who got about half the government’s recommended physical activity added an average of 1.8 years to their lives. Those who exercised for roughly five to eight hours weekly gained an average of 4.2 years.