For many years, there was a profession of people that seemed to defy the aging process or at least they aged much slower than most other people. On the outside, they may have looked old, weathered and worn, but on the inside, they tended to have a better immune system, greater muscle mass, lower levels of cholesterol, less heart disease, less diabetes and basically the internal bodies of younger people.

Who are they? Farmers.

For years, we heard that it was due to their better diets and eating less processed foods. It’s true that they didn’t eat nearly as much processed foods, but their diets were often not all that heart and diabetes friendly, but they still had fewer incidence of the two conditions that destroy so many people today.

I had farmers in my family and they often ate fried food, lots of red meat, lots of gravy made with animal fat, lots of potatoes, bacon and eggs every morning and lots of breads and pastries, all homemade.

So, if it wasn’t diet, what was it that kept them so much healthier and living longer?

A recent study may have just found the reason and a way for all of us to slow the aging process. Researchers from the University of Birmingham and King’s College London set out look at the health of older adults and found a key difference between those that aged like many of us and those that seemed to have the bodies of a younger person.

The difference was regular exercise or physical activity.

In their study, they found that people that exercised regularly or were more physically active, had more muscle mass than those who didn’t. They also discovered that the rates of smoking and heavy drinking occurred more often in those who were not as active or did not regularly exercise. This group also had more cases of high blood pressure.

While these results are not all that surprising, there was one thing that showed up that did surprise the researchers and it had to do with part of a person’s immune system.

An important part of our immune system are cells known as T cells. These cells are called T-cells because they are produced in the thymus gland, a small gland located between your lungs and behind the sternum. The thymus is generally active in young people, but after puberty, it begins to shrink and as it shrinks, it produces fewer T cells.

T cells play an important role in fighting off a number of illnesses. After puberty, when the T cells become fewer, we tend to become less able to fight off certain ailments.

In the study, researchers discovered that people who are more physically active or exercised regularly appeared to have as many T cells as younger people.

Professor Janet Lord, Director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, stated:

“Hippocrates in 400 BC said that exercise is man’s best medicine, but his message has been lost over time and we are an increasingly sedentary society.”

“However, importantly, our findings debunk the assumption that ageing automatically makes us more frail.”

“Our research means we now have strong evidence that encouraging people to commit to regular exercise throughout their lives is a viable solution to the problem that we are living longer …”

Regular exercise or physical activity like working a farm every day, does have a number of health benefits, as Hippocrates stated so long ago. From other studies, it’s never too late to begin to be more active or exercise regularly. It may be too late to make a difference in your T cell production, but it should make a difference in muscle mass, lowering blood pressure, reducing the effects or risk of diabetes and stroke and so much more.