Does exercise influence your genes?

• April 20, 2024

Exercise promotes health, reducing the risks of development, of most people, to diabetes and growing obesity. But, how, at the cellular level, the exercise that is carried out can benefit?
Several studies suggest that exercise seems to be capable of drastically altering the functioning of genes, how?

Genes, of course, are not static. These are activated or deactivated depending on the biochemical signals they receive from different areas of the body. When activated, genes secrete various proteins that, in turn, drive a series of physiological actions in the body.

One of the powerful means that can affect gene activity is a process called methylation, in which the methyl groups (carbon and hydrogen atoms) adhere to the outside of a gene and make it easier or harder for that gene to receive and respond to the body's messages.

In this way, the behavior of the gene is changed, but not the fundamental structure of the gene itself. These methylation patterns can be transmitted to offspring - a phenomenon known as epigenetics.

What is particularly interesting about the methylation process is that it seems to be driven mainly by the way you live your life. Many recent studies have found that, for example, it mainly affects gene methylation. But, in the case of exercise, how does it happen?

In a study by the Lund University Diabetes Center in Sweden and published by the journal PLoSOme, which included the participation of generally healthy but sedentary adult men. A sample of their fat cells was taken and they were subjected to a molecular technique. They also measured men's body composition, aerobic capacity, waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and similar markers of health and fitness.

Then the men were asked to start an exercise routine. Under the guidance of a coach, volunteers began attending one hour of aerobics classes approximately twice a week for six months. At the end of that time, the men had eliminated fat and inches in the waist, improved their blood pressure and cholesterol profile.

However, the most important thing is the alteration that was found in the methylation of many of the genes in your fat cells. In fact, more than 17, 900 individual locations of 7, 663 different genes in fat cells showed changes in methylation patterns. In most cases, the genes had become more methylated, but some had fewer methylated groups. Both situations affect the way those genes express proteins.

The genes that show the greatest change in methylation tended to be those that had previously been identified that play a role in fat storage and risk for the development of diabetes or obesity.

"Our data suggest that exercise may affect the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity by changing the DNA methylation of these genes,"e Charlotte Ling, associate professor at the University of Lund and lead author of the study.

Meanwhile, other studies have found that exercise also has a profound effect on DNA methylation within human muscle cells, even after a single workout.

Video Medicine: 4.4 Epigenetics: How Food Affects Your Genes (April 2024).