Saturday, March 8, 2008

Molecular Causes of Physical Inactivity Needs More Study, Scientists Say

Not being active can change your body for the worse. And while we already know much about what can happen, a pair of researchers at the University of Missouri want to know how and why the body adapts to physical inactivity.
Physical inactivity is a basic biological question that deserves more attention, write Frank W. Booth and Simon J. Lees in their 2007 article, "Fundamental questions about genes, inactivity, and chronic disease" published in the Physiological Genomics journal.
There is a biological basis for the current epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes.
"In the case of chronic disease caused by physical inactivity, we need not complicate matters by producing separate drugs for each of the benefits afforded by physical activity when physical activity is already the answer," Booth and Lees write in the journal article.
The journal authors, both researchers in the department of biomedical sciences and at the Health Activity Center at the University of Missouri, argue that determining how and why physical activity causes the body to adapt to inactivity would be a better use of time spent.
There have been increased incidences of chronic disease triggered, at least in part, by physical inactivity. For example, the CDC has recognized that physical inactivity is an "actual cause" of diabetes. The molecules for the "actual cause" need to be identified, Booth and Lees argue.
For example, understanding how and why physical inactivity produces low insulin sensitivity could make clear a cause of type 2 diabetes, they say.Providing molecular evidence of chronic diseases would allow scientists and health officials to further promote physical activity as a means of preventing chronic disease, potentially allow early detection and provide society with the information needed to counter the increasing amounts of physical inactivity in our daily lives.
More than 50 percent of American adults do not get enough physical activity to provide health benefits and 25 percent of adults are not active during their leisure time. Furthermore, two-thirds of children in grades 9th through 12th do not meet minimum physical activity requirements.
Researchers have documented all the negative risks associated from physical inactivity. Physical inactivity increases the risk of coronary artery disease by 45 percent, stroke by 60 percent, hypertension by 30 percent and osteoporosis by 50 percent. Physical inactivity can lead to obesity, falls in the frail and elderly, depression and anxiety disorders. There is also some evidence that physical inactivity increases dementia and harms school academic performance. In an extreme state, such as constant bed-rest, bones lose density and muscles can shrink.
Scientists are only recently starting to document evidence of the gene interactions that result from physical inactivity.There are some documented epidemiological examples of physical inactivity-gene interaction leading to a chronic disease.
For example, there is a known hereditary risk involved with Type 2 diabetes. The Harvard Nurse's study reported that women with parents with Type 2 diabetes had a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes than did women whose parents did not have Type 2 diabetes. Among those women whose parents had diabetes, the 20 percent most inactive had a 65 percent greater risk of diabetes than the women who were most active.
Evidence exists that lifestyle change among diabetics can improve their health more than drugs.In the U.S. Diabetes Prevention Program, the lifestyle intervention group (weight loss, diet and physical activity) was about twice effective as the drug. The incidence of Type 2 diabetes was reduced by 58 percent with the lifestyle intervention and by 31 percent with metformin, a diabetes drug used to control blood sugar levels.
In the past, humans had to be physically active in order to survive. With technological advances, automation has eliminated the need for humans to "hunt" and "gather.
"The challenge for researchers, according to Booth and Lees, is to see whether "stone age" genes can be made modern, or to see if "stone age" genes work in the "space age."

Citation:Frank W. Booth and Simon J. Lees
Fundamental questions about genes, inactivity, and chronic disease
Physiological Genomics 28: 146-157, 2007

2 comments:

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