A study published last week in Nature found that mice who exercise gave birth to pups with less congenital heart defects, though they say they aren’t sure how the exercise helps.
Our bodies were meant to move! And move throughout life. These researchers took mice who have been “bred” to have congenital heart issues. They gave the mice running wheels to allow them to run as they desired several weeks prior to becoming pregnant. Because the heart develops so early in pregnancy, this was necessary. These mice who were able to run gave birth to pups with a 10% risk compared to sedentary mice with a 20%. Therefore, the suggestion is now that exercise decreases the risk of congenital heart defects.
Moving our body is a genetic requirement. It’s not optional. We are designed to move, and when we don’t things go awry. Meaning NOT moving INCREASING your risk. Exercise and all it provides to us is standard, it’s baseline. It’s not really a benefit. It just is. What we receive from exercise is available for loss only.
There’s a specific kind of mouse called the agouti mouse. It’s widely used in research because these mice seem genetically predisposed to obesity, diabetes and cancer, and are a non-mousey yellow color. It was thought that if we (humans) could come up with a cure for these mice then we could translate that to ourselves. Well, a few ingenious researchers put some of these mice in what they called an enriched environment. What’s an enriched environment? It’s one where they are allowed to move, where they are fed foods that mice typically eat, one that mimics a mouse’s typical environment and not a lab setting. These researchers found that after providing the mice an “enriched environment” the next generation were born brown, thin, and not prone to sickness! This study has heavily impacted what we now know to be true, genes don’t matter as much as epigenetic do. Meaning, our lifestyle choices select the expression of genes.
And it turns out, our lifestyle choices prior to conception and during pregnancy are INCREDIBLY important in our ability to birth healthy children which is the norm.
Yours in GREAT health,
Dr Barto
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