Let’s face it. Cardio is boring.
Running laps around a track or pedaling away like some spandex wearing gerbil.
Boring.
But,according to the authors of this new study, “your personal aerobic fitness is not something you will see in the mirror but it is an important predictor of your long-term health,”
“The most important part of physical activity is protecting yourself from diseases that can be fatal or play a significant role in increasing the risk factors for other metabolic diseases.”
The Study
Fatty Liver
For years, we have known that poor aerobic fitness is associated with obesity, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. This new study adds another serious condition to the list – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
The study also suggests that the resulting liver problems play a crucial step developing obesity-related illnesses. In fact, the study authors think that “Fatty liver disease will be the next big metabolic disorder associated with obesity and inactivity.”
So, to test the link between aerobic fitness and fatty liver disease, the researcher bred a strain of genetically unfit rats. These couch-potato rats could only run an average of 200m compared to over 1500m for the average fit rat.
Leaving both strains of rats to their own devices, the researchers noticed that at 25 weeks, the unfit rats showed clear signs of fatty liver. “By the end of their natural lives, the rats’ livers had sustained damage including fibrosis (the precursor to cirrhosis) and unexpected cell death”.
In contrast, the ‘fit’ group enjoyed heathy livers throughout their lifespans – despite the fact that neither group was getting any real exercise.
The team’s findings provide the first biochemical links between low aerobic fitness and fatty liver disease, and have lead the authors to suggest that NAFLD could potentially be treated or prevented by a suitable exercise program.
Conclusion
- Aerobic exercise is boring
- Aerobic exercise prevents fatty liver disease
- You don’t want fatty liver disease, so
- Get movin’
.
If you like what you see here, click here for updates or Share this Post with the rest of the world.
.
Related Posts
- Scientists discover how to create “anti-obesity” brown fat
- Healthcare and the Obama Stimulus Bill
- 10 Ways to Screw up your Diet
- Why Do I Crave Carbs?
- Diet Pills Suck!!!
- Obesity: Insulin trumps Genetics
Popularity: 2% [?]
This is BS. NAFLD is strongly associated with obesity. If you did the same study using anerobic exercise, you would get the same results. No point in giving extra credit to aerobic exercise.
Rambodoc,
I am trying to get my hands on the full study, so my comments are being based solely on the abstract,
As well, I am making the assumption that all of the test rats had identical environments – access to exercise, food, etc… If that assumption is true, and the only difference between test subjects is the genetic difference affecting aerobic performance, then I think their claim of a biochemical link between low aerobic fitness and fatty liver disease is completely valid.
I would also agree that their findings suggest that NAFLD could potentially be treated or prevented by a suitable aerobic exercise program.
With that being said, I would also be the first one to cheer if anaerobic training is proven to provide the same benefits. Cardio training bores me to tears.
No
Great info.
How did the investigators take obesity into account in their analysis?
As far as I can see from the abstract, they didn’t.
I am still trying to get a look at the full study. I will report back if and when I get it.
As part of that study, I can maybe explain the research a little better. There are 2 groups that originated from multiple generations of breeding.
Group 1) High Natural Aerobic Fitness. The animals with the highest natural aerobic fitness as determined by a single bout of exercise.
Group 2) Low Natural Aerobic Fitness. Animals with low natural aerobic fitness.
NOTE: In the study these animals were NOT exercise trained.
Both groups fed a low-fat normal chow. Both groups ate the same amount of food, but the “cage” activity (non-exercising activity) was less in the low-aerobic group. Yes the low-aerobic group was heavier and fatter. No, we did not control for that, which we would to force them to diet (take away some of their food). We would love to do this in future studies to tease determine if independent of the obesity low-aerobic capacity can cause NASH.
Thanks for posting this, good to see some of our labwork reaching the real world. For a nice editorial that accompanies this paper go here:
http://jp.physoc.org/cgi/content/full/587/8/1637
-mjlaye
PS- We have shown in several other papers that giving obese rats access to a wheel completely prevents obesity and NASH, almost completely due to a change in liver biochemistry compared to muscle.
Thanks for the inside info
Feel free to drop by anytime and get us up to speed on the latest research.