Study identifies six exercises that reduce the risk of obesity.
The Los Angeles Times (8/1, Healy) reports on a study published in PLOS Genetics “that identifies six ways people with unlucky bits of DNA can stave off the accumulation of excess pounds.” While, according to the Times, “inheritance…accounts for somewhere between 21% and 84% of the average person’s propensity to become obese,” the study “found that fat-prone residents who jogged regularly were the most likely to overcome their inherited vulnerability to obesity.” Researchers “also found that mountain climbing, long yoga sessions, ballroom dancing, ‘exercise walking’ and even plain-old walking helped ward off a body-mass index (or BMI) that defines obesity.” The study included data from 18,424 Taiwanese citizens 30 to 70 years old from Taiwan’s central Biobank.
Newsweek (8/1, Gander) reports participants “were marked down as working out regularly if they exercised for at least 30 minutes, three times a week.” Researchers found that “exercising regularly appeared to ease the overall influence of genes linked to obesity on four measures: BMI and body fat, as well as waist and hip circumference.” In addition, investigators found that “exercising for less than 30 minutes three times a week is not enough to reduce the adverse genetic influence on obesity.”
AMA Morning News 8/2019