Regular exercise has multi-system anti-aging effects. Here we summarize how exercise impacts the major hallmarks of aging. We propose that, besides searching for novel pharmaceutical targets of the aging process, more research efforts should be devoted to gaining insights into the molecular mediators of the benefits of exercise and to implement effective exercise interventions for elderly people.

While the detrimental effects of a chronic positive energy balance due to a sedentary lifestyle have been well established, the impacts of a short period of abruptly reduced physical activity and overeating arising from strict confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic will soon start to emerge. To reasonably anticipate major consequences according to the available evidence, we hereby review the literature for studies that have explored the health impacts of several weeks of a reduction in physical activity and daily step-count combined with modified eating habits. These studies identify as main metabolic consequences increases in insulin resistance, total body fat, abdominal fat and inflammatory cytokines. All these factors have been strongly associated with the development of metabolic syndrome, which in turn increases the risk of multiple chronic diseases. A plausible mechanism involved in these impacts could be a positive energy balance promoted by maintaining usual dietary intake while reducing energy expenditure. This means that just as calorie intake restriction could help mitigate the deleterious impacts of a bout of physical inactivity, overeating under conditions of home confinement is very likely to exacerbate these consequences. Moreover, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease have been identified as potential risk factors for more severely ill patients with COVID-19. Thus, adequate control of metabolic disorders could be important to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19.

The increasing ageing of our societies is accompanied by a pandemic of obesity and related cardiometabolic disorders. Progressive dysfunction of the white adipose tissue is increasingly recognized as an important hallmark of the ageing process, which in turn contributes to metabolic alterations, multi‐organ damage and a systemic pro‐inflammatory state (‘inflammageing’). On the other hand, obesity, the paradigm of adipose tissue dysfunction, shares numerous biological similarities with the normal ageing process such as chronic inflammation and multi‐system alterations. Accordingly, understanding the interplay between accelerated ageing related to obesity and adipose tissue dysfunction is critical to gain insight into the ageing process in general as well as into the pathophysiology of obesity and other related conditions. Here we postulate the concept of ‘adipaging’ to illustrate the common links between ageing and obesity and the fact that, to a great extent, obese adults are prematurely aged individuals. image