Is that a telomere in your pocket or are you happy to see me?

I <heart> weekends.  Even weekends that are jam-pack filled with things to do.  And even weekends that I have to go to continuing education.  Yes, us doctor-like people still have to go to 'school' to keep our smartness license to practice.  This allows us to stay abreast (ha!) of any new treatments.  Clearly from my last post, there are not any English related classes.... but that's another subject.  Anyhoo, so I went to class on Friday and Sunday.  Friday's class was all about neuroanatomy and brain lesions/tumors.  Very important stuff but very tedious.  Besides that, the lecturer was so dry and had that God-awful southern accent with the drawl, that I could barely understand what he was saying.  Sunday, on the other hand, was a great lecture with interesting topics and an engaging lecturer from NYC.  (Which has it's own drawbacks, but at least I could understand him.)

Ok, so to get to the point of this babble.  I won't bore you with all the detiails of the lecture, but at one point he began talking about how important exercise is for the overall health of your body, and eyes!  Well, duh you say.  But he went on to say that people who 40 minutes of exercise 3-5 x week have longer telomeres than those that did not.  (English please?)  Telomeres are like the plastic tips on the ends of your shoelaces. They are the ends of your chromosomes and protect the chromosomes from fraying and sticking together, which would scramble an organism's genetic information to cause cancer, other disease and death.  (source for all information in this post about telomeres)

Over time, telomeres get shorter with each cell division.  When they get too short, the cell can no longer divide and then dies.  This process is associated with aging, cancer and death.  One of the diseases associated with the shortened telomeres, is glaucoma.  Glaucoma is an eye disease that is caused by higher pressure in the eye.  It damages the optice nerve and causes side vision loss and eventually central vision loss.  Those that exercised regularly, were able to lower their eye pressure by 3-5 points!  Imagine!  A free treatment for glaucoma. 

So, long story short, all this exercise you do DOES play a role in keeping you healthy and cancer/disease free AND can help you keep your eyesight as you age.  Even if you don't care about being fit and not taking a million pills for diabetes, hypertension etc, most people are very concerened and worried about losing their eyesight.  And here is a free treatment to help you avoid glaucoma.  Free!  Grab your sneakers and walk, run, jog, bike whatever.  In the words of Nike,  Just Do It!!  Then you will be the envy of all your friends for your long, luscious telomeres.  :)