A new understanding of endurance exercise

Longevity gained through regular exercise is cemented into popular wisdom. Today the cardiovascular benefits from moderate exercise are undeniable and the data from large cohort studies keep piling up. But the benefits from endurance exercise are less clear and even less is known about its effects on longevity. What endurance exercise cannot do is explain away myocardial remodeling and arrhythmias. Despite this, until now no underlying mechanism to explain increased life expectancy resulting from endurance exercise has been very convincing. Harman suggested in a groundbreaking paper that mitochondria are the orchestrators of aging. He argued that mitochondria are both producing and being damaged by free radicals, but antioxidants do not enter the mitochondria...