These studies on the genetic basis of exercise are not going to benefit\u00a0 just athletes\u2014physical activity is one of the greatest preventative medicines for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.\u00a0 It is likely that genes correlated with exercise response could be mutated in people that have obesity or heart disease, which proposes new options of drug and gene therapy <\/a>as preventative medicine.\u00a0 The more we understand the benefits and mechanisms of exercise, the better we can understand how exercise can be used to improve public health.\u00a0 So next time you go to the gym or run outside, think to yourself, \u201cthis is science.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Abby Larson Can someone really be born to be an athlete?\u00a0 Science says so.\u00a0 The idea of a genetic basis to exercise is a fairly new area of science, but it makes sense based on how the human body works. The expression of genes controls the function of human physiology: muscle development, capillary growth, … Continue reading Running in Genes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[2092,2090,2119,2118,2089,2085,2091],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brain-and-body","tag-athletics","tag-exercise","tag-exercise-physiology","tag-exercise-science","tag-genes","tag-genetics","tag-physiology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/files\/2010\/02\/w370_sports-science-sprinter_149-243x300.jpg\" "\\"w370_sports")
<\/a>Recent studies have identified over 200 genes that can determine the body\u2019s ability to adapt quickly to exercise.\u00a0 Based on this, training and conditioning could only take an athlete up to his or her genetically predetermined potential.\u00a0 Does this mean that children can be genetically tested to see if they will be good at sports?\u00a0 Is there a gene that makes a good football player versus a good runner? It\u2019s more complicated than saying if a person has a specific gene, he or she can be a top athlete.\u00a0 Like all processes in the human body, multiple genes are involved in adaptation to exercise and gene interactions play a large role.\u00a0\u00a0 Gene products don\u2019t interact in a linear fashion, but in pathways and networks.\u00a0 This makes genes harder to understand, and our knowledge of the interactions is in its infancy.\u00a0 Once these pathways are discovered, scientists can begin to understand the extent to genetic determination of athletic ability.<\/p>\n