Is the rate of cells dying in your body different to other people if you are an athlete?

Question: Is the rate of cells dying in your body different to other people if you are an athlete?
- Keywords:
  athlete,
  cell,
  dying,
  sport
Asked by to Jeremy on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by .
- Jeremy Green answered on 16 Jun 2011:
  
  That is a really interesting question. My guess is yes, but not in a bad way.
  
  Athletes are likely to have frequent strain on bones, joints and muscles. Sore muscles are said to be a sign of sites of micro-damage. Probably cells die where “damage” has happened, but, as you may know, the muscles and bones are able to respond to stress by getting bigger and stronger. That means special stem cells around those tissues divide to make more muscle and bone cells not only to repair the damage but to increase the muscle and bone mass. That is what training is for. Joints probably respond too, but perhaps less well or less obviously. Since you have stem cells to last many decades, the benefits to an athlete’s health of this kind of damage-repair cycle almost certainly outweighs the possibility of “running out” of stem cells. Stem cells, by the way, replenish themselves.

Question: Is the rate of cells dying in your body different to other people if you are an athlete?