Martin Lewicki

January 6, 2022, 7:12 pm | Read time: 5 minutes

Most people associate retirement age with rest and relaxation. No wonder, after many years of working and striving for goals, one is quite exhausted. As age increases, life becomes more comfortable and, unfortunately, less active. This is a dangerous mix for the body, as lack of exercise is known to be one of the main causes of most lifestyle diseases. American evolutionary researchers now explain in a study that humans are designed to lead an active life even in old age.¹ This is supposed to protect against the deterioration of the body.

“As We Age, Staying Physically Active Becomes Increasingly Important”

Evolutionary biologist Daniel E. Lieberman (47) and his colleague Aaron Baggish (57) not only research together, but they are also training partners. They are said to have exchanged ideas about the study during their morning 10 to 15-kilometer runs. Appropriately, their active lives focus on physical activity: “It is a widespread notion in Western societies that it is normal to slow down, do less, and retire as we age,” study leader Lieberman is quoted by the science portal “SciTechDaily.”² “Our message is the opposite: As we age, staying physically active becomes increasingly important,” he adds. But how do the researchers justify this theory?

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Activity Slows the Deterioration of the Body

The researchers assume that humans have evolved to remain physically active as they age. This shifts energy in the body away from processes that harm health and toward mechanisms that promote health. Therefore, exercise protects against chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers. According to the researchers, an active life can slow the gradual deterioration of the body over the years.

Unlike other studies, the scientists do not rely on clinical results but on findings from evolutionary biology. They used primates as a basis, noting that primates living in the wild only live 35 to 40 years and are significantly less active than humans. Thus, during human development, a selection must have occurred that favored longer life and physical activity.

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“We have essentially evolved from couch potatoes,” concludes study author Lieberman. He was surprised when observing wild chimpanzees in Tanzania at how much time they spent just sitting and digesting their food. In contrast, today’s hunter-gatherers engage in about 135 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day on average. That is about six to ten times more than the average American.

According to the authors, physical activity is one of the main reasons hunter-gatherers who survive childhood live about seven decades. This is about 20 years beyond the age at which people stop having children. But what processes are behind this? And how do they affect health?

Energy Redistribution Promotes Health

To find out how exercise affects health in older age, the researchers examined what happens to energy in the body. They found that through exercise, we redirect excess energy from harmful to positive processes. Energy redistribution promotes our health in the following ways:

• 1. Excess energy in the body is redirected by exercise (calorie burning) away from potentially harmful mechanisms like fat storage.
• 2. Physical activity is a physiological stress, which allocates energy to repair processes in the body. This, in turn, strengthens the body.

Through exercise, especially the repair processes in the cells and the body’s genetic material ensure that one has a demonstrably lower risk of diabetes, obesity, cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, and depression.

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Conclusion

Evolutionary biologist and study leader Lieberman concludes: “The most important point is that our bodies need movement to age well. We have evolved to be active throughout our lives.” In the past, daily physical activity was necessary for survival. Today, however, we must consciously choose more exercise to do something good for our health and fitness. According to Lieberman, we don’t have to become as active as a hunter-gatherer. Just 10 to 20 minutes of physical activity per day is enough to reduce the risk of death.

Sources

• 1. Lieberman, D.E., Kistner, T.M., Richard, D.  et al. (2021). The active grandparent hypothesis: Physical activity and the evolution of extended human healthspans and lifespans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• 2. SciTechDaily. New Biomedical Research Outlines How Longer Lives Are Tied to Physical Activity (accessed on 01/06/2022)