Exercise can make skin (and butt) look decades younger (Getty)
A moderate exercise regime can turn back time and actually reverse the skin’s aging process, according to new research.
The study showed that a minimum of three hours per week, even in people who were previously sedentary, could knock up to 40 years off the skin’s aging process.
Some middle-aged subjects of the scientific research carried out at McMaster University in Ontario even ended up with “a butt like a 20-year-old,”a New York Times interview with project leader Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky revealed.
Tarnopolsky said: “I don’t want to overhype the results, but, really, it was pretty remarkable to see.”
His team studied a group of 29 male and female volunteers between the ages of 20 and 84.
Half of the participants were instructed to get at least three hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week, and the other half to remain sedentary.
All the volunteers then surrendered a patch of skin on their butts — an area rarely exposed to the skin-damaging effects of the sun — and results showed the exercising group displayed the tight skin of a person as young as 20.
“All they had done different was exercise,” Tarnopolsky said.”It is astonishing to consider all of the intricate ways in which exercise changes our bodies.”
He accepted that the sample size was small but further extensive research is now underway.
