A Texas woman, who weighed 332 pounds three years ago and dropped nearly 200 pounds on a daily exrcise regimen, isn't only a healthier 54-year-old but will likely be a much younger looking 60-year-old given new research on how exercise can delay and sometimes even revert the aging process.
Teena Henson, who stands about 5'4, wasn't suffering any health issues a few years back despite her weight but as she relates she knew such good fortune wasn't going to last long given her diet and lifestyle. A serial dieter who tried many times to follow a strict food regiment, Henson knew it would take much more than a diet to make a big life change.
"For me, 'diet' is a four-letter word for failure," she said.
So she started going to gym every day and just hasn't stopped, calling it a "discipline" but still fighting a battle in controlling her food choices. So she started small and just cut out soda. She lost nearly 20 pounds in the first month.
At fast food eateries she swapped fried foods for salads, allowing herself just fries. Soon she had nearly dropped 70 pounds. Then it was 100. Today she's eating whole wheat bread, veggies and strives to keep her calorie intake to 1,200 a day.
It took three years, but she lost 166 pounds and celebrated her three-year exercise anniversary.
Such an exercise commitment may reverse aging, according to a new study, especially for those who start later in life.
Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario initially began studying exercise and aging using mice in a lab. It revealed sedentary mice grew frail, ill, went bald or gray and sometimes suffered from dementia.
So they decided to see the impact exercise had on human skin, especially aged skin featuring wrinkles and skin sagging. Using a group of 49 men and women, ranging in age from 20 to 84, the research team divided up the members into two groups: one participating in three hours of moderate to vigorous activity each week, the other group not exercising at all.
The researchers then biopsied skin from each group member and found that men and women who exercise more had thinner, healthier stratum corneums and thicker dermis layers, like those of a 20- to 30- year-old.
But given the vast diets of the group, as well as lifestyles, they did a bit more research using just a group of sedentary volunteers and took a skin sample before the group began an endurance training program taking place twice a week.
They then did another skin biopsy.
"I don't want to over-hype the results, but, really, it was pretty remarkable to see," said Dr. Tarnopolsky, explaining the skin "looked like that of a much younger person, and all that they had done differently was exercise."
