We all know the countless benefits of exercise, but can it really affect a person at the molecular level? According to a new study, yes it can! With exercise, there are fewer methylations of the nucleotides of DNA, affecting gene expression. The researchers obtained biopsies from healthy, but sedentary, men and women after acute exercise. This showed that exercise causes gene hypomethylation which then results in gene activation. One of the researchers, Juleen Zierath of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said regarding the study: “Our muscles are really plastic. We often say ‘You are what you eat.’ Well, muscle adapts to what you do. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and this is one of the mechanisms that allows that to happen.” Another interesting finding in the study is that caffeine produces similar changes in DNA methylation. Not that caffeine is a replacement for exercise, but an interesting finding nonetheless…
There is a growing body of evidence that exercise also stimulates pools of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the brain, which essentially works like Miracle Gro for neural networks. A must read is “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.” Every PA student reading this book will be convinced that they should exercise in the morning prior to classes as the author, John J Ratey MD, provides compelling evidence of the link between BDNF and learning, especially long-term potentiation (LTP), which is a neuroscience term for the enhancement in signal transmission between neurons and considered one of the major processes underlying long-term memory. In other words, you’ll learn better and retain much more of what you learn by priming your brain with exercise!
David Payne PA-C
http://www.Physician-Assistant-ED.com
That is so fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing. I will definitely put that book on my reading list!