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Sport:12 minutes of intense exercise is enough to make a difference

A study tells us that short periods of exercise can modify more than 80% of the metabolites circulating in our blood, which can influence our cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health in the long run. term.

Physical activity is not only an effective way to lose weight or maintain your figure, it also helps prevent many chronic, mental and/or related diseases at the age. However, that's not all. According to a recent study, short bursts of vigorous exercise can also produce "remarkable" effects on metabolites circulating in the body . By extension, this can lead to the improvement of a wide range of bodily functions.

Much is known about the effects of exercise on the body's cardiac, vascular, and inflammatory systems, but our study provides comprehensive insight into the metabolic impact of exercise by linking specific metabolic pathways to exercise response variables and long-term health outcomes “, says Gregory Lewis, heart failure and heart transplant specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

"What struck us were the effects that a brief bout of exercise can have on circulating levels of metabolites that regulate key bodily functions such as insulin resistance, oxidative stress, vascular reactivity, inflammation and longevity “.

In this study, Lewis and his team used data from the Framingham Heartont to examine the levels of 588 circulating metabolites in 411 men and women middle-aged before and immediately after doing twelve minutes of intense exercise . In concrete terms, metabolites are small molecules produced by metabolism which represent all the chemical reactions taking place inside our body.

Sport:12 minutes of intense exercise is enough to make a difference

Immediate and long-term effects

Results revealed favorable changes in 85% of these metabolites . On this sample, some have evolved in a very interesting way. Levels of one, glutamate, a metabolite linked to diabetes, heart disease and decreased longevity, notably dropped 29% . Levels of the metabolite DMGV, linked to an increased risk of diabetes and liver disease, also decreased by an average of 18% .

Curiously, our study also revealed that different metabolites follow different physiological responses to exercise and therefore may provide unique signatures in the bloodstream that reveal whether a person is in good physical shape, just as current blood tests determine the functioning of the kidneys and liver “, adds Matthew Nayor, co-author of this work. “Lower levels of DMGV could for example mean higher levels of fitness “.

The Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 and now pools cardiovascular data from three generations of participants, also allowed researchers to apply the same signatures used in the current study population to the stored blood of previous generations. By studying the long-term effects of metabolic signatures of responses to exercise, they were then able to predict an individual's future health status and longevity.

Details of this work are published in the journal Circulation.