[Case Study] How the effects of exercise impact aging

It only takes glancing at the magazine rack at your grocery checkout stand, flipping through the channels on your TV, or surfing the internet to realize that anti-aging is a huge trend.

And it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

This should not be surprising, given that the Boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) numbered 75 million in 2015.¹

Add in another 65 million people for Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1983), and you’ve got a grand total of 150 million people over the age of 35 who are seriously committed to fighting off the aging process.

Of course, the anti-aging trend is also worth lots of money for a whole host of consumer items, ranging from skin care products, to facial cosmetic procedures, to diet aids. In fact, a leading consumer marketing research firm stated that the global anti-aging market was worth more than $140 billion in 2015 and was expected to reach more than $216 billion by 2021.²

Furthermore, the market is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5 percent from 2015 to 2021 (the rate at which the anti-aging market is predicted to grow if the growth remains steady for the entire time).²

While much of the focus on anti-aging can seem to be a fad, there has been a body of recent research that appears to show that there is an actual link between health and wellness, and the ability to slow down the aging process. One recent article seems to have found a connection between exercise and the body’s ability to fight off aging at a cellular level.^3,4

What does the research say?

An article published in the July 2017 issue of Preventive Medicine looked at the connection between telomere length and physical activity in a survey sample of over 5,500 adults who were a subset of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data set for 1999 to 2002.^3,4

Telomeres are the protein endcaps for human chromosomes. Each time a cell replicates from a chromosome, the telomeres get shorter, so the older a person is, the shorter their telomeres will become. This can provide an excellent means to determine cellular age.

The researchers compared telomere length between people who had high, moderate and low levels of physical activity, and those who were sedentary.^3,4 Their results showed that people with high levels of activity showed less cellular aging than those in the moderate (7.1 years), low (8.8 years), and sedentary (9 years) activity groups.^3,4

As the lead researcher explained: “We know that regular physical activity helps to reduce mortality and prolong life, and now we know part of that advantage may be due to the preservation of telomeres.”³

What does this research mean for your practice? If you offer anti-aging products, you no doubt already know just how lucrative the anti-aging market can be.

Consider how much you might be able to add to your bottom line by expanding your anti-aging offerings to include exercise products, such as resistance bands or balance balls. Such offerings with both add to your practice income and encourage patients to be more proactive in slowing down the aging process.

References

1. Millennials overtake the baby boomers. Pew Research Center. Accessed 6/29/2017.
2. Anti-aging market set for rapid growth to reach $216.52 billion, globally, by 2021. Zion Market Research. Accessed 6/29/2017.
3. Tucker LA. 2017. Physical activity and telomere length in U.S. men and women: An NHANES investigation. Preventive Medicine 100:145–151.
4. High levels of exercise linked to nine years of less aging at the cellular level. Science Daily Accessed 6/29/2017.