Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: FIRAS ABDULLAH / ANADOLU AGENCY / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA AFP 17:29 pm, June 09, 2023

It is not uncommon to hear that high-intensity sport could have consequences on the body and especially aging. For the occasion, Dr. Alexandre Marchac, guest in the show "Bienfait pour vous", relocated to Roland-Garros, returns to this question and gives us an answer.

Too much sport, kill sport? While the show Bienfait pour vous is in the studios of Europe 1 at Roland-Garros, it is an opportunity to talk about intense physical activity and aging of the body. You've certainly heard people say that doing too much sport can have health consequences. But concretely, can too much physical activity make you age faster? To answer the question, Dr. Alexandre Marchac, invited alongside Julia Vignali and Mélanie Gomez, explains the impact of sport on skin and health.

Beware of outdoor sports

Does running affect the shape of the face? "No, jogging doesn't make the face fall. On the other hand, he can dig it. It's true that if you have a friend who started the marathon recently, he has lost a size of pants and his face has lost weight. What for? Because the fat on his face reduces to the bottom of his cheekbones. So fortunately, we invented hyaluronic acid, "ironically the doctor at the microphone of Europe 1.

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Sport is great for the figure, but for the face, as with running, it can be counterproductive. "This sport will improve microcirculation, we will have a face that is still more hydrated, more toned. And at the same time, there is the problem of all outdoor sports, especially tennis. Here, it's dramatic for the sun, it's the first enemy of the players. From 20 years old, you should never be on the courts without your SPF 50 and your cap, otherwise at 50, it is a skin like a crimson shoe, "warns Alexandre Marchac.

Living longer and healthier

Present at Roland-Garros, Europe 1, the official radio of the tournament, is in contact with athletes who subject their bodies to superhuman efforts. A question therefore arises: do they not still get damaged to do so much sport? "They can get hurt. You saw Gaël Monfils who had to withdraw because of his tendon injuries. And we know that in the long run, they have a career that ultimately stops because they have joint injuries. But beyond that, if we take on longevity, studies show that athletes live better than people in the general population," says Dr. Alexandre Marchac.

A study was carried out on people who had participated in the Olympic Games. 2,400 French athletes had participated in this great competition since 1948. "We saw that they had a 50% decrease in mortality compared to the general population. It's not nothing," he notes. This was confirmed by a large meta analysis with 165,000 professional athletes.

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Is it the same result for all sports? "This is true for most disciplines, some more than others. There are sports that cause trauma, brain trauma or fractures (boxing, rugby). So strength sports are the worst. On the other hand, what is very good are endurance sports. Tennis is one of them. It will lower the risk of cardiovascular problems and the risk of cancer," says the doctor. These people will therefore live longer and healthier lives. However, the doctor indicates that between two and a half and five hours of exercise per week, there are huge benefits on the longevity of occasional athletes.

Winston Churchill, the exception?

How to explain these people who live a long time without doing sports? Like Winston Churchill, who died at the age of 91 while smoking, drank and did not practice any sport. "He had exceptional genetics. This allows you to exceed your potential. But if he had played sports, had not drunk or smoked, he would probably have lived to be 100 years old. What you need to know is that Churchill lived the last years of his life in a bad state, with repeated strokes and ending up in a wheelchair, "says the doctor at the microphone of Europe 1.

So the real question: what do you want your last ten years to look like? "Sport is a fundamental component for living well and healthy in the last years of your life," says Alexandre Marchac.