Interesting article that shows the obvious concept that regular exercise is good for you, even if you are a fly. Here the scientist used flies with short lifespans to suggest that years of life can be added to an animal's life by doing regular exercise. The trick was making flies exercise, the solution was having them inhabit a terror chamber that continually shook every 20 seconds. Could there be a parallel solution for humans?
The experiments show, for example, that after "years" of regular exercise, elderly flies demonstrate the vigor of middle-aged flies, says Wessells, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. "The goal is not to extend their life spans, but to improve their ability to move around well and have a good quality of life as they age," he continues. "And it turns out that flies have some of the same trouble that humans do -- getting started is the hardest part." Every 20 seconds, a motorized arm trips a lever and drops the frame a short distance causing the flies to be knocked to the bottom of the tube. And as soon as they fall down, they scurry back up the wall. They do it again and again and again. "The machine takes advantage of their natural instinct to climb."
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