Exercise does a lot of good things – it burns calories, helps keep your weight in check and lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Now add one more thing to the list: physical activity can change your DNA.
Exercise-induced alterations to DNA are like tune-ups, helping muscles to work better and more efficiently.
What’s more, these changes occur even after a single 20-minute workout.
The journal Cell Metabolism published an article about the very early changes muscle cells undergo the first time you get off the couch and into the gym. The researchers worked with a group of 14 young men and women who were relatively sedentary, and asked them to work out on an exercise bike that measured their maximum activity levels. The participants also gave up a little bit of muscle (from their quadriceps) in a painless biopsy procedure performed under local anesthesia. The researchers took the biopsy of muscle cells before the participants exercised, and again within 20 minutes afterward.
Researchers found more genes were turned on in the cells taken after the exercise and the participants’ DNA showed less methylation, a molecular process in which chemicals called methyl groups settle on the DNA and limit the cell’s ability to access certain genes. By controlling how much methylation goes on in certain cells at specific times, the body regulates which genes in the DNA are activated.
Methylation also helps to prime muscle cells for a bout of exercise, getting them to pump out the right enzymes and nutrients the muscle needs to get energy and burn calories while you’re pounding the pavement during that mile-long jog.
The more intense the exercise, the more the methyl groups are on the move.
Finally, exercise can be fun. Find a physical exercise you enjoy and just do it. (Remember to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.)