Long-life Endurance Exercise and Healthy Aging

Overview

The project aims to explore the mechanisms by which lifelong exercise can promote healthy aging and slow down the negative impact of aging on the muscular system, immunity and the circadian system. The main goal of the project is to investigate the effect of lifelong endurance exercise on physical fitness, body composition, bone density and selected hormonal, biochemical, histological and molecular indicators of metabolic health and circadian clock function based on blood, immune cell and skeletal muscle tissue analyses in volunteers differentiated by age and weekly volume of physical activity. It is hypothesized that lifelong endurance exercise may have beneficial effects on the circadian system stability and many, but not all health outcomes. Osteopenia/osteoporosis and low-grade malnutrition may be more prevalent in the group of endurance-trained senior runners. In order to achieve the above research aims, sixty male subjects in total will be recruited according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Four groups of subjects will differ according to their age and physical activity levels: * a group of endurance-trained seniors (age range 65 - 75 year old, n=15) ● a group of sedentary seniors (age range 65 - 75 year old, n=15) * a group of well endurance-trained young men (age range 20 - 30 year old, n=15) ● a group of sedentary young men (age range 20 - 30 year old, n=15). Subjects must meet the following inclusion criteria: 1. for athletes' groups: defined as more than 150 minutes of running activity per week; for young athletes at least 3 years and for master athletes at least 15 years history of running. 2. for groups less active than recommended: no history of regular physical activity training and no more practice than 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity per week. The standard inclusion criterion for every group will be body mass index (range 18.5-30 kg/m2). No experimental study has been published on the potential of life-long exercise to attenuate the aging-induced disorganization of the circadian system and thus to promote healthy aging. In this aspect, the proposed study is original and up-to-date. Moreover, also other aspects of the study, e.g. exercise and inflammaging or the risks (besides the benefits) of the long-life endurance training on bone tissue etc. have been studied only scarcely. Therefore, more scientific information is needed before it can be safely prescribed to the aging population