Why just 10 minutes of exercise helps
Source: Agencies |
June 2, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TEN minutes of brisk exercise triggers metabolic changes that last at least an hour. The unfair news for panting newbies - the fitter you are, the more benefits you might get.
We all know that exercise and a good diet are important for health, protecting against heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions. But what exactly causes the health improvement from working up a sweat or from eating, say, more olive oil than saturated fat? And are some people biologically predisposed to get more benefit than others?
They're among questions that metabolic profiling, a new field called metabolomics, aims to answer in hopes of one day optimizing those benefits - or finding patterns that may signal risk for disease and new ways to treat it.
"We're only beginning to catalog the metabolic variability between people," says Dr Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital, whose team just took a step toward that goal.
Researchers measured biochemical changes in a variety of people: the healthy middle-aged, some who became short of breath with exertion, and marathon runners.
First, in 70 healthy people put on a treadmill, the team found more than 20 metabolites that change during exercise, naturally produced compounds involved in burning calories and fat and improving blood-sugar control.
"Ten minutes of exercise has at least an hour of effects on your body," says Gerszten, who found some metabolic changes that began after 10 minutes on the treadmill still were measurable 60 minutes after people cooled down.
Your heart rate rapidly drops back to normal when you quit moving. So finding lingering biochemical changes offers what Gerszten calls "tantalizing evidence" of how exercise may be building up longer-term benefits.
We all know that exercise and a good diet are important for health, protecting against heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions. But what exactly causes the health improvement from working up a sweat or from eating, say, more olive oil than saturated fat? And are some people biologically predisposed to get more benefit than others?
They're among questions that metabolic profiling, a new field called metabolomics, aims to answer in hopes of one day optimizing those benefits - or finding patterns that may signal risk for disease and new ways to treat it.
"We're only beginning to catalog the metabolic variability between people," says Dr Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital, whose team just took a step toward that goal.
Researchers measured biochemical changes in a variety of people: the healthy middle-aged, some who became short of breath with exertion, and marathon runners.
First, in 70 healthy people put on a treadmill, the team found more than 20 metabolites that change during exercise, naturally produced compounds involved in burning calories and fat and improving blood-sugar control.
"Ten minutes of exercise has at least an hour of effects on your body," says Gerszten, who found some metabolic changes that began after 10 minutes on the treadmill still were measurable 60 minutes after people cooled down.
Your heart rate rapidly drops back to normal when you quit moving. So finding lingering biochemical changes offers what Gerszten calls "tantalizing evidence" of how exercise may be building up longer-term benefits.
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