Exercise has potential to influence epigenetic marks and health outcomes according to recent scientific publications. Explore tai chi, endurance training, and yoga, and learn about the ways in which these exercises and many others might be able to influence our well being.

The Benefits of Exercise Goes Epigenome-Deep

January 17, 2023 Natalie Crowley

Not everyone likes to exercise, but let’s face it, exercise is essential for good health. In addition to keeping weight in check, it helps combat many physical and mental disorders. Numerous studies have attested to the benefits of exercise, providing data supporting its role in preventing and managing conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, and anxiety. So then, why isn’t exercise something we all do regularly? Some say we live in an “obesogenic” world, where inactivity is more or [more…]

Exercise Training Epigenetically Benefits Overall Health

September 14, 2021 Natalie Crowley

There’s no question that exercise is good for you, not only for developing a great physique but for overall health. Some would even say that regular exercise, combined with proper nutrition, is better at preventing and treating certain diseases than many pharmacological interventions. Even so, medical experts are still trying to determine exactly how physical fitness affects the chemical make-up of the body, especially regarding how it reduces the risks of developing chronic illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and [more…]

Maternal Exercise During Pregnancy Epigenetically Improves Future Health of a Child, Regardless of Parental Weight

April 13, 2021 Natalie Crowley

It’s never too late to exercise – even if you’re pregnant. Not only does it benefit the mother by reducing her chances of getting gestational diabetes or other possible complications, but it will also improve the baby’s total health. New research reveals that exercise could even prevent certain metabolic disorders from being passed on from overweight parents, and the findings point to epigenetics. Women have always been encouraged to eat right and maintain a healthy weight during pregnancy. But many [more…]

Lazy Versus Active Lifestyle Preferences May Have Epigenetic Roots

January 7, 2020 Andrea P

Some people are content with lying on the couch and watching TV, while others need to be active and exercise every day. Could it be due to the difference in genetics, environment, nurture vs. nature, or something else? In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine wanted to examine the relationship between nurture and exercise; specifically the mechanisms responsible for making some people enjoy exercising more than others. The study highlights how epigenetics suggests that [more…]

Paternal Exercise Epigenetically Enhances Expression and Inheritance of a Key Gene Involved in Learning and Memory

February 19, 2019 Matthew Mahavongtrakul

It is widely known that a mother has substantial influence over her offspring during prenatal development. Her eating, exercising, and overall lifestyle can have lifelong effects for her children. But what about the father? It turns out that fathers are not off the hook when it comes to prenatal development, and his physical activity may have lasting effects on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in an area of the brain important for learning and memory: the hippocampus. First, a [more…]

Epigenetic Mechanism May Reprogram Heart to Fail

August 28, 2018 Tim Barry

Heart disease is one of the most prevalent ailments among Americans, and can often be deadly. According to the CDC, about 1 in 4 deaths is directly related to heart disease, and it is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the US. Risk factors that contribute to the development of heart disease include poor diet, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, and smoking. Coronary artery disease is the leading type of heart disease and is [more…]

Parents Who Exercise Could Epigenetically Pass on Heightened Learning Ability to Their Children

May 29, 2018 Bailey Kirkpatrick

Exercising your body and your brain are two ways to improve your own health. It’s well known that physical and mental activity can boost learning ability and reduce risk for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. But, could doing so also directly benefit your future children? New research in Cell Reports indicates that a child’s capacity for learning could actually be boosted as a result of the physical and mental exercise that their parents carried out before they were born. Researchers are [more…]

Epigenetics Clues to Obesity and How Lifestyle Changes Could Modify Your Epigenetic Profile

May 1, 2018 Estephany Ferrufino

Adiposity is a condition of being severely overweight or obese and it has numerous connections to epigenetics. Understanding more about the epigenetics underlying obesity could help to introduce preventions based on lifestyle changes which may be able to modify our epigenetic marks and improve health. A rough measure of obesity is body mass index, BMI, which can be calculated by dividing one’s body weight in kilogram by the body height in square meters. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) [more…]

Exercise May Offset Drinking’s Harmful Epigenetic Effect on the Brain

April 17, 2018 Natalie Crowley

Drinking alcohol on a regular basis, even in moderation, can cause damage to the brain. Physical activity, however, has been reported to protect cognitive function. So, could exercise counteract drinking’s harmful effects on the brain? In a recent study conducted at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Louisville, KY, a group of researchers decided to tackle this question by taking an epigenetic look at how alcohol and exercise affect the brain. Specifically, they looked at alcohol-induced epigenetic and [more…]

Epigenetics May Explain Why Stress From Exercise is Good for the Heart

March 6, 2018 Tim Barry

In the exercise community, it is often preached that working out is a form of medicine and can be crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Routine exercise helps to retain healthy body weight and has been shown to lower the risk of diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. It’s even been shown to keep the brain healthy. High-intensity exercise places a “good stress” on the heart allowing robust function – but why is stress from exercise considered [more…]

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