Report in today's Sun: http://winnipegsun.com/life/living/cycling-slows-down-aging-study-says/wcm/7...

The key to the fountain of youth may rest on the back of a bicycle.

A new study found that cycling can hold back the effects of aging and help boost the immune system.

Researchers studied a group of 125 amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79 and compared them to a group of 75 healthy adults aged 57 to 80 who did not exercise regularly and 55 young adults between the ages of 20 and 36.

It found cyclists preserved muscle mass and strength as they aged, while maintaining stable levels of body fat and cholesterol.

According to the research, an organ called the thymus, which makes immune cells called T-cells, typically starts to shrink at 20-years-old. However, the thymuses of older cyclists were generating as many T-cells as those of young people.

“Hippocrates in 400 BC said that exercise is man’s best medicine, but his message has been lost over time and we are an increasingly sedentary society,” said professor Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Aging at the University of Birmingham to the U.K. Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/08/cycling-keeps-your-immune-system-young-study-finds .

“However, importantly, our findings debunk the assumption that ageing automatically makes us more frail. Our research means we now have strong evidence that encouraging people to commit to regular exercise throughout their lives is a viable solution to the problem that we are living longer but not healthier.”

The study’s findings were outlined in two papers for the journal Aging Cell http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1474-9726.