Imagine that you could take a pill that would boost your immune system, give you clearer skin, improve your sleep, lower your risk of cancer and other diseases, boost your brain power, keep your weight down AND improve the health and fitness of your muscles.
If exercise could be bottled into a pill that you could take every morning alongside your multivitamin, you would have all of the above benefits and MORE. The list of benefits that exercise provides are endless, and everyday we are learning about more of its’ incredible effects.
Another massively important benefit was added to list from a study conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. They showed that exercise alters your genetic expression. By exercising you create new methylation patterns in over 5,000 of the 20,000 genes in your body.
How Exercise Alters Your Genetic Expression
Epigenetics is the alteration of your genetic expression (in both positive and negative ways) based on the influences of your environment. In regards to exercise, the genes that were altered were most often related to positive or improved function of energy metabolism, insulin response, and inflammation within muscles. Exercise creates positive changes within your body and may help to negate the harmful impact that the environment or lifestyle may have.
It is likely that you have felt happier after a workout or have noticed you sleep more deeply at night when you are sure to get to the gym, go on a hike, or ride your bike to work that day. Now you can have yet another reason to make that magic exercise pill a part of your daily health routine.
Simply put, by placing yourself on a regular exercise routine you can change over 25% of your genome. Exercise can be easy, free and FUN. If you need help on how to make something a habit then refer back to our last post about meditation, where we provide some great tips for cultivating positive habits.
