How Exercise helps the body

The article I read this week was Exercise as Housecleaning for the Body. I found this article in the New York Times and thought that it was very interesting and relevant to what we have learned about in the last week or so of class. This is because it discussed a study that was performed using mice to show how a high sugar diet and lack of exercise can cause diseases, such as diabetes because of the lack of the ability for the cells to clean themselves out and undergo autophagy, and break down the proteins in the cells and create energy. Without being able to undergo this process the cells will die or malfunction and not be able to work correctly. An increase in autophagy was prompted by exercise and is important in receiving the gains that exercise is supposed to give. The study also shows how important it is to maintain an active lifestyle to keep healthy and to keep the processes of that cells have to undergo such as autophagy in normal functioning order.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/exercise-as-housecleaning-for-the-body/?scp=1&sq=cell%20aging%20&st=cse