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While getting physical exercise is beneficial for everyone, a recent study found the benefits of exercise during pregnancy for both mother and offspring. He says that women who exercise significantly reduce their children’s chances of developing diabetes and other metabolic diseases later in life.
A study in laboratory mice found that exercise during pregnancy prevented the transmission of metabolic diseases from an obese parent – mother or father – to the child. If the finding is true in humans, it will have “huge implications” for helping pregnant women ensure their children live the healthiest lives possible, the researchers report in a new scientific paper.
This means that one day soon, a woman’s first trip to the doctor after conception could include a prescription for an exercise program.
“Most of the chronic diseases we are talking about today are known to have fetal origin. That is, poor health conditions of parents before and during pregnancy have negative consequences for the child, possibly through chemical modification of genes, “said researcher Zhen Yan, PhD, an expert in high-level exercise at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
“We were inspired by our previous research on mice, implying that regular aerobic exercise for an obese mother before and during pregnancy can protect the child from the early onset of diabetes. , what if the father is obese? “
Scientists know that exercise during pregnancy helps give birth to healthy babies, which reduces the risk of pregnancy complications and preterm delivery. But Yan, director of the Skeletal Muscle Research Center at AVU’s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, wanted to see if the benefits continued throughout the children’s lives. And his work, both previous and new, suggests it.
To determine this, Yan and his collaborators studied laboratory mice and their offspring. Some of the adult mice were fed typical mouse food before and during pregnancy, while others were fed a diet high in fat and calories to simulate obesity.
Some given a high fat diet before mating only had access to a voluntary racing wheel during pregnancy, where they could run whatever they wanted, while others did not, which means that they remained sedentary.
The results were striking: mothers and fathers in the high fat group could predispose their offspring to metabolic disturbances. In particular, male offspring of sedentary mothers on a high fat diet were much more likely to develop high blood sugar and other metabolic problems in adulthood.
To better understand what was going on, the researchers looked at the metabolism of adult offspring and chemical (epigenetic) modification of DNA. They found that there were significant differences in metabolic health and the level of activity of certain genes between different groups of offspring, suggesting that the negative effects of parental obesity, although different between the sire and mother, last throughout the life of the offspring.
The good news is that maternal exercise only during pregnancy prevented a host of “epigenetic” changes that affect how genes work in the offspring, the researchers found. Maternal exercise, they determined, completely blocked the negative effects of maternal or father obesity on the offspring.
The results, they say, provide the first evidence that maternal exercise only during pregnancy can prevent the transmission of metabolic diseases from parent to child.
“The take-home message is that it is not too late to start exercising if a mother becomes pregnant. Regular exercise will not only benefit pregnancy and childbirth, but also your life. long-term health of the baby, “said Yan.
“This is more exciting evidence that regular exercise is probably the most promising intervention that will help us deter the chronic disease pandemic in the aging world, as it can disrupt the vicious cycle of disease transmission from parents. to the child.
This story was posted from an agency feed with no text editing.
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