Weight-lifting mice lose liver fat, improve blood glucose
Short-term strength training shows health gains even without weight loss.
Even a short period of strength training could improve the long-term health of obese people, if results achieved in mice scale up to human levels.
In a paper published in the Journal of Endocrinology, scientists led by Leandro Pereira de Moura of the University of Campinas in Brazil detail the results of short-term workouts given to obese mice. The mice underwent strength training, but over too short a period to lead to weight loss or changed body shape. Nevertheless, it did lead to reduced levels of fat around the liver, reduced inflammatory markers and improved blood glucose regulation.
“The fact that these improvements in metabolism occurred over a short time, even though the overall amount of body fat was unchanged, suggest that strength training can have positive effects on health and directly affect liver function and metabolism so may be a more effective, non-drug and low-cost strategy for improving health in obesity,” says Pereira de Moura. The outcomes are promising, because obesity is linked to increased risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, but the researchers acknowledge that they must be viewed with caution.
Previous research indicates that many, perhaps most, results obtained using mice as models fails to replicate in humans.