Exercise: It’s good for you. You know it’s good for you.
You know it prevents a myriad of chronic diseases and you probably also know of its positive benefits on mental health. What we don’t know, however, is how exercise specifically benefits us at the molecular level—until now, that is.
A study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, helps fill in some of the blanks of the metabolic powers of exercise. During the experiment, scientists could see first hand just how much being fit changes your ability to burn fat, moderate blood sugar and maintain overall health.
Researchers used a mass spectrometer to enumerate specific molecules in the bloodstreams of people who’d been exercising. The molecules were metabolites, which drive or are the byproduct of metabolic changes in the body.
Essentially, researchers wanted to know how your metabolism changes during and after exercise. Here’s how the study played out;
- Scientists drew blood from a group of normal, healthy adults, as well as from a separate group of unfit adults.
- Each of the groups was told to exercise for about ten minutes on a treadmill or a stationary bicycle, then had more blood drawn.
- Scientists also examined blood samples from a group of runners who had finished the 2006 Boston Marathon.
Findings
- After ten minutes of treadmill jogging or stationary-bicycle riding, the fit adults showed increases of almost 100 percent in many of these molecules.
- The less-fit group had increases in those same metabolites of about 50 percent.
- The marathoners’ blood contained up to ten times more of the fat-burning markers.
These findings suggest both short-term and long-term effects on your body’s ability to use and burn fat, according to Gregory Lewis, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and an author of the study.
Dr. Lewis does caution that this study is only a “snapshot”—static and limited of a person’s bloodstream after exercise.
Although preliminary, this study gives some important clues as to the deeper, cellular effects of exercise. We tend to look at what exercise does on a superficial level, but there are so many intricate and profound ways in which exercise contributes to our well being.
Originally published on Diet Blog
