An Association Between Time Spent Running and Telomere Length
Average telomere length measured in immune cells from a blood sample is a terrible measure of biological age. Trends only appear in large study populations, and the measure can move up and down with transient changes in health, such as infections. It is as much a measure of momentary pressure on the immune system and increased immune cell replication as it is a measure of longer term trends in health due to underlying mechanisms of aging. Still, while much of the world has moved on to epigenetic clocks, some groups still insist on using telomere length in their studies of the pace of aging. In large study populations, one would expect to see good lifestyle choices correlating with a slower erosion of telomeres, as occurs here.
Telomere length is a good index of cellular aging. Longer telomeres are predictive of longer life, and healthy lifestyles are associated with longer telomeres. This study explored the relationship between time spent jogging or running each week and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in 4,458 randomly selected U.S. adults. The association was studied using data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and a cross-sectional design. Total weekly jog/run time was calculated from survey responses. From the minute totals, three categories were formed: <10 minutes/week, 10-74 minuntes/week, and ≥75 minutes/week. Adults in the third category met the U.S. guidelines.
Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Partial correlation was used to adjust for differences in potential mediating factors, including demographic and lifestyle/medical factors. In the total sample, after adjusting for all the potential covariates, mean LTL significantly differed across the three jog/run categories. Specifically, adults who met the guidelines via jogging and/or running had significantly longer telomeres than adults who performed no jogging/running. Adults in the middle category did not differ from the other two categories. A minimum of 75 minutes of jogging/running weekly is predictive of longer telomeres when compared to adults who do not jog or run regularly.