Scientists Chart How Exercise and Diet Can Affect Your Body
Two new studies suggest ultra running may not be so bad for your heart, says Marcelo Gleiser
(The Quiver): In this generation, we’ve all struggled with weight gain and loss, and to maintain a healthy weight, we’ve all put ourselves through various workouts like running and weightlifting. We’ve also all pondered why some exercises make us put on weight while others help us lose it.
In order to understand the mechanics underlying this process, which has thus far proven challenging due to the participation of a large number of cells and tissues, scientists have now for the first time looked at what occurs at the cellular level. To better understand the effects of diet and exercise on the body, a research team studied mice.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a significant role in obesity and exercise-induced tissue adaptation.
The MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers identified the cells, genes, and biological pathways that are altered by physical activity or a fatty diet.
It is crucial to comprehend the molecular mechanisms underlying the positive effects of exercise and the negative consequences of a high-fat diet in order to create interventions and medications that imitate the effects of exercise on a variety of tissues. Professor of Computer Science in MIT Manolis Kellis said.
“Obesity is a universal factor that affects every element of human health, along with ageing.” Kellis said.
Researchers looked examined how mice fed high-fat diets responded to 53 types of cells found in skeletal muscle and two types of fatty tissue. To analyse the cellular level changes, they employed single-cell RNA sequencing.
Three different types of tissue which are skeletal muscle, visceral white adipose tissue, which is packed around internal organs and accumulates fat, and subcutaneous white adipose tissue were subjected to RNA sequencing (which is found under the skin and primarily burns fat).
One of the major findings from our work is how, while exercise appears to push nearly all of these cells and systems in the other direction from high-fat diets, which is overwhelmingly obvious. It claims that exercise can have a significant impact on the entire body, she added.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) appeared to regulate many of the diet-related genes, according on their cataloguing of genes that were activated or reduced by exercise in various cell types.
The 24-hour cycles that regulate numerous activities, from sleep to body temperature, including circadian rhythms, were found to be affected in opposite ways by high-fat diets and exercise.
“Eat well and exercise if you can should be the advice for everyone.” Kellis said.
