20-minute workout can alter your DNA
for the better, study says
(CBS News) Exercise doesn't only change your body's appearance; it can change your core - right down to your DNA.
A new study in the March issue of Cell Metabolism shows that that when people exercise for something as little as a 20 minute workout, it can alter their DNA almost immediately. While the main genetic code isn't changed - which means you won't go from a blonde to a brunette - the DNA molecules within your muscles are structurally changed at specific locations. The research concluded that the changes, known as so-called "epigenetic modifications," seem to be the early precursor to the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength, structure and the metabolic benefits of exercise.
"Our muscles are really plastic," says Juleen Zierath of Karolinska Institute in Sweden. sa "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."
The researchers also found out that caffeine can change muscle in similar ways. Zierath explained that the researchers made the muscle samples contract in lab dishes and observed that both the muscles that had been exercised and the ones that had been exposed to caffeine showed fewer DNA chemical marks than they did before exercise. This suggests the muscles were activating genes important to exercise. The more rigorous the workout, the more the chemical marks changed. Zierath steered clear of recommending coffee over exercise however, but noted that athletes who drink coffee before training might be doing something right.
Exercise
is medicine," Zierath says, and it seems the means to alter our genomes
for the better
may be only a jog away!
So
no more excuses get out there for 20 minutes a day, every day and make the
difference!
Commit
to get fit,
Debra
