According to an ambitious new animal study of exercise timing, morning exercise has a very different effect on metabolism than the same exercise later in the day. In this study of healthy laboratory mice jogging on a small treadmill, hundreds of discrepancies in the number and activity of molecules and genes throughout the rodent’s body ran first in the morning or in the evening. I mapped it according to whether I ran deeply.
Many of these changes are associated with fat burning and other aspects of animal metabolism. Over time, such changes can have a substantial impact on their illness risk and well-being. The study focused on rodents, but the findings show that it’s better to exercise before work, or that you can get as much or more health benefits from overtime exercise. It’s relevant to all of us who wonder.
As anyone with a body knows, our internal operations and the operations of almost all living things follow a well-organized and popular 24-hour circadian rhythm. Recent studies of animals and humans have shown that almost every cell in our body has a version of a molecular clock that works with a wider systemic timing system to direct most biological manipulations. It contains. Thanks to these internal clocks, our body temperature, blood sugar, blood pressure, hunger, heart rate, hormonal levels, drowsiness, cell division, energy consumption, and many other processes surge in a repeating pattern throughout the day. And it will be late.
These internal rhythms are predictable, but they are also adaptable. Our internal clock can readjust itself based on complex clues from inside and outside of us. In particular, they react light and dark, but are also influenced by our sleep habits and when we eat.
Recent research shows that during the time we exercise, we also adjust our internal clock. In previous studies in mice, running at different times affected animal temperature, cardiac function, and energy expenditure throughout the day, altering circadian rhythm and age-related genetic activity. rice field.
Researchers jogged mice moderately on the wheel for an hour early in the day, while other mice ran the same amount in the evening.
But people’s results were inconsistent. For example, in a small 2019 study of men who participated in an exercise program to lose weight, those who exercised in the morning, even though they all completed the same exercise routine, later that day. I lost more weight than those who exercised. However, in a 2020 study, men at high risk for type 2 diabetes who started exercising three times a week had better insulin sensitivity and glycemic control when exercising in the afternoon than in the morning. These results reflect similar results in 2019, with men with type 2 diabetes who first exercised hard in the morning showed unexpected and undesired spikes in post-exercise blood glucose, but in the afternoon. The same exercise improved blood sugar levels-blood sugar control.
However, some of these studies challenged deep into the surface to investigate molecular changes that promote health and circadian rhythm results. This may help explain some of the discrepancies from one study to the next. These experiments, which examined the effects of exercise at the microscopic level, usually in mice, tended to focus on a single tissue such as blood or muscle. However, scientists studying physical activity, metabolism, and chronobiology have found that the effects of exercise timing extend to many other parts of the body, with complex interactions between multiple cells and organs. I was wondering if it was.
Therefore, in a new study published this month as a cover article for Cell Metabolism, an international consortium of researchers will quantify almost all metabolic-related molecular changes that occur during exercise at different times of the day. Decided. Using healthy male mice, they jogged the wheels moderately for an hour early in the day, while other mice ran the same amount in the evening. An additional group of mice sat on these locked wheels for an hour during the same time, acting as a sedentary control group.
Approximately one hour after training, researchers repeatedly take samples from the muscles, liver, heart, hypothalamus, white fat, brown fat, and blood of each animal and use advanced machinery to relate to energy use. Almost all molecules in the tissue have been identified and listed. They also checked for markers of activity from genes involved in metabolism. Next, we tabulated the totals between tissues and groups of mice.
The researchers in this study are working on an equivalent experiment involving people.
An interesting pattern has emerged. Because mice are nocturnal, they wake up in the evening, grow vigorously, and prepare to sleep in the morning. This is the opposite schedule to us (unless we are vampires or teenagers). When mice jogging at the beginning of their activity time (corresponding to the morning for us), researchers counted hundreds of molecules that increased or decreased after exercise. This is different from the level seen in mice approaching bedtime or not exercising. Jeez.
In addition, some of these changes occur in much the same way in different parts of the body, suggesting to researchers that different organs and tissues are virtually communicating with each other. For example, rodent muscles and liver shared many molecular changes when the animal ran in the morning, but less when jogging just before bedtime.
A professor of clinical integrated physiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, the Novonordisk Foundation Center for Basal Metabolism Studies at the University of Copenhagen oversaw a new study.
Overall, differences in molecular profile between morning training (in mouse terms) and training later in the day tend to indicate a greater dependence on fat than blood glucose to promote early exercise. there was. The opposite happened when the mouse ran in the evening. If these patterns apply to people, morning exercise may contribute to fat loss, but late-night training may be more suitable for controlling blood sugar levels.
Follow-up will show if biking and running in the evening can stop diabetes more effectively than a lively walk or swim in the morning.
However, mice are not humans, and it is not yet known if the molecular pattern applies to us. Researchers in this study are working on equivalent experiments involving people, Dr. Zierath said.
This study also examined a single session of moderate aerobic exercise in male mice, which was of limited scope. It does not show how other types of exercise in the morning or evening affect the internal workings of mice and people. Also, we don’t know what we eat, what time zone we eat, and whether chronotypes (which tend to be morning or evening people) affect these effects, or whether they are female. Hmm.
However, despite its limitations, “this is a very important study,” said Dr. Lisa Chow, a professor of medicine and endocrinology at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study. It emphasizes the effectiveness of the exercise at any time of the day.
It also suggests that as additional studies are conducted based on the results of this study, it may be possible to time training to achieve specific health goals. Follow-up studies, for example, show whether riding or running an evening bike can stop diabetes more effectively than a lively walk or swim in the morning.
But for now, Dr. Chow said, “The best time for people to exercise is whenever they have the opportunity to exercise.” – This article was originally New York Times