Study: Exercise Blunts Effect of Fat Gene
Hot off the presses: “Exercise blunts fat gene effect”
A number of studies have linked variants in a particular gene, FTO, with obesity risk. New research suggests, however, high physical activity could blunt the effects.
The researchers looked at 704 Amish men and women, chosen because of that community’s relative genetic “purity”, with members generally able to trace their ancestry back for 14 generations to early settlers from Europe.
Volunteers were fitted with “accelerometers”, measuring their precise movements over a period of time.They found that while the expected link between the number of copies of FTO carried and increased body mass index could be seen in less active volunteers, that link was broken once in those who recorded high levels of activity – equivalent to three to four hours of moderately intensive activity.
Dr Soren Snitker, who led the research, said: “Our results strongly suggest that the increased risk of obesity due to genetic susceptibility can be blunted through physical activity.
What’s interesting about this study, is that it highlights a crucial point: genetics does not necessarily imply inevitability…what we call “genetics” is often an interaction between genes and environment.
Notes Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, the current study, which was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, highlights a critical new understanding in the relationship between genes and our lifestyle. It’s long been known that we can compensate for our genetic makeup by our lifestyle choices — by watching what we eat and how much we exercise, for example — but as this study shows, it’s now becoming clear that our lifestyle patterns may actually alter our genes and the way they are expressed as well. “We can nurture nature,” he says, “and the idea that you can alter genetics through lifestyle is an emerging theme. The power of lifestyle is dramatic.”
