In general, genes, not exercise, are the main factors in life expectancy.
Experts from the Finnish University of Jyväskylä have suggested that physical education, contrary to popular belief, does not help a person live longer. Twin studies conducted by scientists have shown that life expectancy, no matter how unfair it may seem, mainly depends not on human efforts, but on the genes that nature has awarded him.
The essence of the twin method is that researchers compare individuals with an identical genotype, but behaving differently or living in different environmental conditions. Usually this term is used when it comes to people, but in this case, scientists in the course of their study observed laboratory rats, reports yle.fi.
The researchers, who published their work in the journal Scientific Reports, found that it was genetic factors, and not physical activity, that influenced the lifespan of the rat. Moreover, individuals that initially did not have "good athletic performance" but were subjected to physical exertion lived on average 16% less than their "lazy" twins.
Having studied the information previously collected by the University of Helsinki about twin people, some of whom were engaged in physical activity and others were not, scientists also did not find a direct relationship between attitudes towards exercise and life expectancy.
At the same time, scientists note that they, nevertheless, found positive effects from physical exercise. In particular, it turned out that they have a positive effect on metabolism. Thus, even if physical activity does not prolong life, it is still beneficial for health, according to the study authors.
It should be noted that experts studied adult rats that had not previously been subjected to additional physical activity. In the future, scientists hope to conduct a new study, during which it is planned to test their findings in rodents involved in physical education "from a young age."
Dmitry Istrov
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