The common problem that everyone face is gain more weight as the age increases and most often we attribute this to our inconsistency in doing regular exercises and maintaining a proper diet. But now a recent Study by scientists has proved that Gaining Weight has nothing to do with doing regular exercise.
How was the study conducted?
The scientist found that a particular enzyme present in animals plays a critical role in increasing the body weight of that animal. It is found that the activity of this particular enzyme increases with age and hence the increase in the body weight.
The researchers observed this by conducting an experiment on mice that had a high-fat diet and found that the weight of the mice tends to decrease by blocking the enzyme in the mice.
Fox News reported that Dr. Jay Chung, the head of the Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute said ‘While most of the people attribute the increase in body weight to lack exercise and good diet, the recent study have shown that lack of doing regular exercise and maintaining the fitness is mainly due to the increase in the activity of a particular enzyme.’
Since the study was conducted on mice, the researchers doubt that if blocking the enzyme in the human body will have the same effect as that in mice.
However, they reported that more research on this topic is vital before coming up with a new medication for blocking this enzyme and thereby controlling the increase in weight.
What is the enzyme that increases the body weight?
Dr. Chung and his colleagues have found that an enzyme called DNA-dependent protein kinase or DNA-PK tends to increase its activity along with age.
This enzyme is mainly found to be involved in the production of mitochondria in the cell and the conversion metabolism of nutrients to fat. The study also found that the number of mitochondria in the human body decreases along with age.
In the study conducted on mice with a high-fat diet, the researchers have observed that giving a drug that hinders the activity of DNA-PK to the mice tends to increase the weight of the mice when compared to those not given the drug.
The study further observed that the number of mitochondria and the aerobic fitness is found to increase in those mice which were given the drug. Thus the researchers were able to conclude that the DNA-PK enzyme is responsible for lowering the capability of doing exercise and staying fit in older adults.
Though the study has proved that doing regular exercise has nothing to do with maintaining your weight as the age increases, the researchers have advised that it is always good to exercise regularly on a daily basis to stay healthy.
