New research shows that nine minutes of aerobic exercise alters a whopping 9,815 molecules in your blood.
Researchers at Stanford University attempted to look at everything that changes in the body from metabolism to genes, from proteins and fats to microbiome, from immune response to hormones and more.
With 36 people, the volunteers completed a nine to ten minute treadmill test going to exhaustion. The researchers drew blood before, immediately after and 15, 30 and 60 minutes later.
They measured 17,662 molecules. Over half of them, 9,815 changed. Some changed in small ways. Some in big. Some moved early. Others later on.
Cell Study Exercise Alters
“It was like a symphony,” says Michael Snyder senior author of the study. “First you have the brass section coming in, then the strings, then all the sections joining in.”
One of the most interesting findings in this study was that people who insulin resistance had:
- Smaller increases in molecules related to blood sugar control
- Higher increases in inflammatory molecules
This suggests that this group got less benefit from the same exercise.
It lends evidence that insulin resistance is far from just about insulin. I like to think of it as cellular resistance. That is your cells do not communicate as well.
This is mostly brought about from years of dietary abuse. Poor quality fats that become your cell membranes. Excess sugars that send wild signals that overwork these cells burning out their responsiveness. Various toxins that cause further damage.
Michael Snyder was surprised by these findings. “I had thought, it’s only about nine minutes of exercise, how much is going to change? A lot, as it turns out.”
I am not so surprised. Science tends to reduce things down. To try to isolate a single variable. While that certainly has its place, understand that exercise causes a systemic response.
I’d love to see similar research down with weightlifting of some sort as compared to aerobic exercise to compare.
My question for you is: have you altered 9,815 molecules in your body today?
If you need a good program to do so, check out The 80/20 Strength Challenge which is on sale here.
References:
1. Contrepois K, Wu S, Moneghetti KJ, et al. Molecular Choreography of Acute Exercise. Cell. 2020;181(5):1112-1130.e16. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.043
2. Reynolds, G. (2020, June 10). A Single Session of Exercise Alters 9,815 Molecules in Our Blood. New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/well/move/a-single-session-of-exercise-alters-9815-molecules-in-our-blood.html