How well does your fat function? It isn’t a question that one gets asked very often.
Recent research has found that the function of our fat tissue, or adipose tissue, is central to why our bodies decay with age, and strongly linked to human diseases like diabetes 2, cancer, and obesity often develop and fat cells undergo functional changes as we get older.
Overall health is therefore not just influenced by the amount of fat we bear, but about how well our fat tissue functions.
In a new study, researchers found that ‘training’ your fat may ward off diseases as you age.
They looked at the role of age and physical training in maintaining fat tissue function.
Specifically, they studied mitochondria, the tiny power plants within fat cells. Mitochondria convert calories from food to supply cells with energy. To maintain the life processes within cells, they need to function optimally.
The researchers compared mitochondrial performance across a range of young and older untrained, moderately trained, and highly exercise trained Danish men.
The results showed that the ability of mitochondria to respire—i.e., produce energy—decreases with age, regardless of how much a person exercises.
However, they found that a high level of lifelong exercise exerts a powerful compensatory effect. In the group of well-trained older men, fat cells are able to respire more than twice as much as in untrained older men.
Just as a car engine produces waste when converting chemicals to usable energy, so do mitochondria. Mitochondrial waste comes in the form of oxygen free radicals, known as ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species).
The team found the group of older people who train most form less ROS and maintain functionality to eliminate it. Indeed, their mitochondria are better at managing waste produced in fat cells, which results in less damage.
Therefore, exercise has a large effect on maintaining the health of fat tissue, and thereby probably keeping certain diseases at bay as well.
The researchers also found that the older participants who exercised most throughout life have more mitochondria, allowing for more respiration and, among other things, an ability to release more of the fat-related hormones important for the body’s energy balance.
The team hopes that the research world will focus more on what people can do to maintain the health of their fatty tissue.
If you care about weight management, please read studies that common eating habits may cause too much weight gain, and this exercise has unique benefits for weight loss.
For more information about weight management, please see recent studies about the cause of weight gain after smoking cessation, and results showing that weight loss may help prevent severe COVID-19.
The study is published in The Journals of Gerontology and was conducted by Anders Gudiksen et al.
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