Exercise and DNA

It is well known that regular exercise could improve overall well-being and reduce the risk of many chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease. You could wear women’s leggings when you are exercising. Women’s leggings are flexible and comfortable, and they are made of high-quality and recycled fabrics.

However, how the mechanisms of exercise at play are not yet fully known. Recently, some scientists have discovered that regular physical exercise may result in beneficial effects, in part from the changes to the DNA structure.

Exercise Improves the Shape and Function of DNA

A new study shows that exercise makes changes in the shape and function of our genes, which is important to improve health and fitness. The human genome is very complex and dynamic, and genes are constantly turned on or off, based on the different biochemical signals that they receive from the human body.

When some genes are turned on, for example, they express proteins that will invoke physiological responses elsewhere in the human body. Scientists have discovered that some genes become more active or quieter as an outcome of exercise while they have not fully found out how these genes respond to exercise.

Exercise Rewires the Enhancers of DNA

DNA refers to the molecular instruction manual in all the cells of the human body. Some sections of DNA are genes, and they are the instructions for building proteins, which are the body’s building blocks. But other sections of DNA are enhancers, and they regulate which genes to switch on or off in which tissue and when.

For the first time, scientists have discovered that exercise could rewire the enhancers in the areas of DNA that have been known associated with the risk for disease.

Exercise Promotes Health of Organs

The scientists hypothesized that exercise could remodel the activity of enhancers in skeletal muscle, and they put healthy young men for a six-week trial of an endurance exercise program.

The scientists found that the structure of enhancers in these young men’s skeletal muscle had been altered after finishing the six-week endurance training program. After the scientists connected the enhancers to the genetic databases, they also found out that a lot of the regulated enhancers were already identified as hotspots of the genetic variation between individuals, which are associated with human disease.

Evidence has shown that there is a functional link between the epigenetic rewiring enhancers after endurance exercise and the modulation of risk for disease in humans.