Well-Functioning Fat May Be Key to Fewer Old-Age Ailments; High Levels of Exercise May Be Crucial

Fat tissue plays an important role in human health. However, our fat tissue loses function as we age, which can lead to type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other ailments. High levels of lifelong exercise seem to counteract this deterioration--this, according to research at the University of Copenhagen, where biologists studied the link between aging, exercise, and fat tissue function in Danish men. How well does your fat function? It isn’t a question that one gets asked very often. Nonetheless, research in recent years suggests that the function of our fat tissue, or adipose tissue, is central to why our bodies decay with age, and strongly linked to human diseases like diabetes 2, and cancer as obesity often develops and fat cells undergo functional changes as we get older. Thus, overall health is not just influenced by the amount of fat we bear, but about how well our fat tissue functions. A new University of Copenhagen study demonstrates that even though our fatty tissue loses important function with age, a high volume of exercise can have a significant impact for the better.