Exercise changes your DNA but be consistent!

Exercise keeps us young!

Different types of  exercise empowers our DNA to keep us young in different ways:

1. Quick blasts of effort turn on just the right amount of Reactive Oxygen Species to activate our antioxidant defenses to clean up and renew our cells.*
2. Endurance exercises or sustained activity over time cause the cells of our hearts to adapt.
   • Enlarges our muscles including our heart
   • Causes proliferation of cardiac cells or cardiomocytes for regeneration
   • Tunes epigenetic factors towards health by reducing the transcription factor C/EBP beta levels and increasing the expression of CITED4

What does all this mumbo jumbo mean?

A research team from Boston has found that your heart has the ability to grow in response to exercise and regenerate by production new cells. Your heart becomes more resistant to the development of cardiac dysfunction!*

The amazing thing about this finding is prior to this study, it was believed that our hearts couldn’t fully mend! Now, it seems that through epigenetics and exercise, our hearts can regenerate.

This effect may be seen in as little as 40 minutes on a treadmill. The caveat is that endurance exercises must be done on a consistent basis to get sustained results! Consistency is necessary to see benefits from both kinds of exercise.

Mind you, this doesn’t mean that you have to jog on a treadmill. You can exercise anyway you want! You can do what the healed man did in Acts 3:8, “And he leaping up stood, and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping and praising God.” This man was healed, and your heart can be regenerated epigenetically by acting as if it is already done. In Mark 11:24, we are told, when you pray believe that you have already received them”. In other words, act as if it has already happened. You want a healthy heart? Act as if you already have one! Check with your Doctor and then get walking, leaping and praising yourself into rejuvenating your heart!

One other thing!

Forgive! Forgiveness is good for the heart but more on that epigenetic kernel in a later blog.

Hugs, health and happiness,

Cia

*Bosuzid MA, et al. Radical Oxygen Species, Exercise and Aging: An Update. Sports Med. 2015 Sep ;45(9):1245-61. doi: 10.1007/s40279-015-0348-1

*Boström, P., et al. C/EBPβ controls exercise-induced cardiac growth and protects against pathological cardiac remodeling. Cell, 143(7), 1072–1083. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2010.11.036