Free Radicals in Exercise and Aging

Explore the emerging field of free radical biology, exercise, and aging with this definitive reference. Free Radicals in Exercise and Aging addresses the current debate regarding whether free radicals released during exercise accelerate the aging process. It explains how free radicals can serve as important regulators of aerobic processes, and it clarifies the importance of exercise in increasing the efficiency of the antioxidant and oxidative repair systems.

Mounting research data indicate that free radicals are involved in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes. This book focuses on exercise-induced adaptation. In general, a person's ability to adapt to internal and external changes decreases during the aging process. However, by continually exposing the body to different challenges, regular exercise triggers an adaptation process that keeps the body and mind fit. Free Radicals in Exercise and Aging elucidates the role of free radical species in regulating this process.

This text is also one of the first to provide an in-depth review of skeletal muscle oxidative stress and aging. This issue is pivotal because muscle serves such a critical role in mobility and normal life. Free Radicals in Exercise and Aging shares the most current understanding of how reactive oxygen species influence the biology of skeletal muscles. It explores some of the unique characteristics that skeletal muscle displays during aging, both in terms of free radical production and with regard to antioxidant systems.

The implications of this research are far-reaching. Mutation of DNA is linked very closely to cancer, and if regular exercise improves the regulation of the antioxidant systems and the oxidative damage repair system, these mechanisms may be a very important tool against this deadly disease.

This research-oriented text presents the latest information on the subject. It reviews and critiques current literature and provides critical information for exercise physiologists, sports medicine specialists, sport nutritionists, and gerontologists.

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

Zsolt Radák is an associate professor and head of the faculty of Human Kinesiology at the Hungarian University of Physical Education in Budapest. He has worked in the fields of sport biomechanics and training theory, and he coached the Hungarian national track and field team. In the last seven years he has become interested in free radical physiology as it relates to exercise.

Radák received a PhD from the Hungarian University of Physical Education in 1990 and a PhD from the University Tsukuba in Japan in 1996. In 1998 he received a senior research fellowship from the Japanese Foundation of Aging and Health, and in 1999 he received Hungary's Bolyai Research Fellowship in Medicine. He is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the Oxygen Society, and he has served as secretary of the Sport Science Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His articles have been published in the Journal of Applied Physiology and Free Radical Biological Medicine.

Radák lives in Budapest with his wife Kalmar Zsuzsa. In his leisure time he enjoys playing tennis, skiing, and traveling.