RESEARCH ROUND-UP
EXERCISE IS MEDICINE
Exercise has a positive impact on many aspects of our lives, from the physical to the emotional and social. Recently there’s been a vast amount of research that continues to support this point, highlighting the many and varied benefits of exercise. Kristoph Thompson rounds up some of the latest published studies
Exercise mends a broken heart R
egular and strenuous exercise can reactivate dormant stem cells, leading to the development of new heart muscle, according to research published in the
European Heart Journal. These findings indicate that the damage caused by heart disease or failure could be partially repaired by exercise. Researchers from Liverpool John Moores
University in the UK showed that healthy rats undertaking the equivalent of 30 minutes of strenuous exercise a day demonstrated activity in 60 per cent of previously dormant heart stem cells. After two weeks of exercise, there was a seven per cent increase in the number of cardiomyocites – the ‘beating’ cells in heart tissue. While previous research has shown that
injections of chemicals known as growth factors can coax dormant stem cells back to life, this is
the fi rst study to show that regular exercise can have a similar effect by stimulating growth factor production. Researchers will now examine the effects
of exercise on rats that have suffered heart attacks to determine if the results are even more pronounced. Dr Georgina Ellison, who led the study, says: “We hope exercise might be even more effective in damaged hearts, because you have more reason to replace the large amounts of cells that are lost” – ie the body has a greater need to adapt and repair itself after a heart attack. While an exercise programme is normally
included in cardiac rehabilitation, “maybe to be more effective it needs to be carried out at a higher intensity, in order to activate the resident stem cells,” adds Ellison.
Waring, C.D. et al. (2012). The adult heart responds to increased workload with physiologic hypertrophy, cardiac stem cell activation, and new myocyte formation. European Heart Journal. Oct 25. [Epub ahead of print]
“To be more effective in cardiac rehabilitation, exercise may need to be carried out at a higher intensity, in order to activate the resident stem cells”
42 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital April 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
MEDICAL WELLNESS
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