Even a single workout could be good for the heart. That’s the conclusion of a fascinating new study in mice that found that 30 minutes on a treadmill affects gene activity within cardiac cells in ways that, over the long haul, could slow the aging of the animals’ hearts.
Although the study involved mice, the results may help to explain just how, at a cellular level, exercise improves heart health in people as well.
It turned out that immediately after a single, 30-minute jog, the runners’ heart cells were noticeably different than those of the animals that had not moved. In particular, they showed higher levels of the proteins directly related to telomere length. These increases were slight but consistent. The runners’ cells also had markers of greater activity in the genes that respond to DNA stress than the nonrunners’ cells.
These findings indicate that a single, moderate workout beneficially alters telomere biology in the heart, says Andrew Ludlow, who was a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study. He currently is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Presumably, such changes would accumulate with repeated training, he says, and over time help to keep cardiac telomeres longer than without the exercise.
That process could be slow, though. In this study, many of the effects seen in the animals’ hearts immediately after the run were beginning to dissipate an hour later, with protein levels dropping back almost to those seen in the sedentary mice.
So it may be necessary, Dr. Ludlow says, to stick with an exercise routine for some time in order to realize the cellular benefits for the heart.
It is also worth repeating that this study involved mice, not people.But the implications are encouraging. It looks like getting up and moving may start to immediately change how the heart’s cells work, Dr. Ludlow says, in ways that “seem to make gene expression more youthful and keep the heart young.”
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