Is Physical Fitness Inherited?

New Study shows physical fitness is an inherited trait…. So if you won’t exercise for yourself, will you do it for your future kids?

A recent study in Sweden titled A Six Months Exercise Intervention Influences the Genome-wide DNA Methylation Pattern in Human Adipose Tissue has shed some light on this almost science-fiction like concept. It is all part of an area in biology called Epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of how genes are expressed. It tries to explain why identical twins become less identical as they grow up. They are born with exactly identical DNA down to the last gene but how those genes function will depend on several factors including diet, environment, and behavior such as smoking. Remember, every type of tissue has all of the bodies genes imbedded in its cells but something has to tell it to be a bone cell or a nerve cell or a blond hair as opposed to a brown hair. Certain periods of life such as puberty or pregnancy also result in changes in how the genes are expressed. Think of it like the Genes are the computer hardware and the Epigenome is the software that tells the computer what to do. Methylation is the mechanism of one way the gene function or expression can be altered. Scientist believe this is how some cancers are created and there is now a whole new area of cancer research based on altering the epigenome of the cancer cell rather than killing it. What is even more fascinating is that there is evidence that not only are genes passed on to offspring but also some epigenes as well. In other words not only are you what you eat but your children and grandchildren are also what you eat. And now comes a study that shows that exercise can dramatically change the epigenome in fat cells particularly parts of the cells that have to do with obesity and Type II diabetes. While it was already well known that exercise has a beneficial effect on these two health problems, now they are gaining insight into how it occurs on a molecular level. And that brings me back to my original statement. Based on what we know about Epigenetics it may well be possible that the beneficial changes that occur with exercise can be passed on to our children and grandchildren. And those changes can occur in as little as six months. So if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your kids.

http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003572

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/how-exercise-changes-fat-and-muscle-cells/?_r=0

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/08/are_our_genes_a075111.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html