Recent studies at the Medical School provide early signs that exercising while pregnant may reduce the prevalence of diabetes in the unborn children.
The studies focused on diabetes, looking for molecular changes in offspring based on the mother’s behavior.
“We can use exercise as positive intervention for chemical modification,” said Dr. Zhen Yan of the University’s Cardiovascular Research Center.
Numerous studies have shown that the mother’s stress, environment and activity can have negative effects on a fetus. But the Medical School researchers found that exercising while pregnant can reduce the chemical modification that causes pre-diabetic symptoms.
Post-doctoral fellow Rhianna Laker, said the experiment which led to these results was conducted on three different groups of mice.
The first group was the control, with a normal diet and routine exercise regime. The second group was given a high fat diet six weeks before conception, with restricted ability to exercise. The third group of mice were given the same high fat diet as the second group, but were able to exercise.
The mice that exercised averaged about 10 km a night on their running wheels. The mice would run before becoming pregnant, and through their pregnancy, but reduce the amount of exercise as the time to deliver came closer. Results showed chemical modification indicating pre-diabetic symptoms in the offspring of mice that didn’t exercise. The mice that exercised had offspring that did not show pre-diabetic symptoms.
The researchers will run more experiments and trials to explore alternative answers for the results.Tests on animals that are closer in anatomy to humans have been suggested, but because of ethical issues, it is difficult to conduct studies with bigger mammals.
The study is still far from moving to clinical trials, but if it is ultimately tested on humans it may help to answer further questions about whether physical activity is more effective before conception or during pregnancy.
Although the study was focused on diabetes, Yan said results could be telling in terms of other
diseases.
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