British scientists appear to have discovered another benefit of exercise. That means our bodies may be better able to use certain types of fat. In a new study published this week, researchers found that endurance athletes burn saturated fat much better than sedentary people with type 2 diabetes. This difference became more pronounced in the diabetic group once they started exercising.
The research was led by scientists at the University of Aberdeen. They were interested in solving a particular biological mystery known as. athlete’s paradox. Research has shown that both endurance athletes and people with type 2 diabetes tend to store more fat within their muscle fiber cells than other people, even though they are very different in other ways. Masu. For example, athletes typically have a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease than diabetics, and they typically have higher insulin sensitivity (by definition, type 2 patients do not respond to insulin or produce insulin effectively). ).
To better understand how this phenomenon occurs, researchers enrolled 29 male endurance athletes and 30 diabetics into an experiment.
First, they injected volunteers with small amounts of different fats intravenously and scanned their thighs with MRI to see how these fats were used by muscle cells. They also biopsied cells from the thigh muscles and took basic metabolic measurements. The volunteers then essentially swapped lives for the next eight weeks, with the exercisers avoiding regular physical activity and the type 2 diabetics undergoing endurance training and exercising five hours a week. Eight weeks later, the same test was performed again.
Researchers found that athletes’ bodies store more saturated fat within their muscle cells than diabetics, but they are also much more efficient at burning it. Conversely, the bodies of people with diabetes stored more unsaturated fat in their muscles, but were worse at burning both types of fat. But after the swap, the two groups began to mirror each other, with active diabetics storing and burning saturated fat just like unconditioned athletes.
The team’s findings show that published Wednesday’s Nature Communications is based on a relatively small sample size. Therefore, further research will be needed to confirm what the team found here. But many studies have shown many ways that exercise improves our health for the better, so it’s certainly possible that this is one of them.
“These results are completely novel and highlight how staying healthy and active improves saturated fat metabolism as a direct benefit of exercise,” said the study’s senior author, from Aberdeen. said Dana Dawson, chair of the University’s Department of Cardiology. statement From university.
Aside from boosting fat burning, researchers also found that when people with diabetes started exercising, they lost weight, increased insulin sensitivity, and lowered cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood sugar levels. These are all good reasons for people who don’t exercise to start exercising.
Brian Williams, chief scientific and medical officer at the British Heart Foundation, said in a statement from the university: “To get active, it’s important to develop habits that you enjoy and stick to.” “Try to increase him to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, such as brisk walking, swimming, and cycling.”
