Aerobic fitness is associated with serum metabolite levels indicative of reduced cardio-metabolic disease risk

A Finnish study of 580 healthy adult men indicates that many serum metabolites known to be associated with reduced cardio-metabolic risk are related to aerobic fitness. There are fewer beneficial associations with maximal muscular strength. Many of the findings probably relate to skeletal muscle metabolism and fat metabolism overall, and body fat percentage is an important mediator for many of the associations.
Nuorena saavutettu hyvä kestävyyskunto yhdessä matalahkon rasvaprosentin kanssa näyttäisi parantavan aineenvaihduntaa ja suojaavan verisuonisairauksilta ja kakkostyypin diabetekselta.
Published
27.8.2019

“Previous epidemiological data show that high aerobic fitness predicts low risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and death, but the associations are less clear for maximal muscular strength,” says Professor Urho Kujala from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the Ģֱ, Finland. “Aside from other factors, the properties of skeletal muscle are suggested to contribute to aerobic fitness and muscular strength.”

How aerobic fitness and muscular strength are associated with serum metabolome (metabolites produced during metabolism) were investigated. Participants (mean age 26 years) represented individuals with low vs. high aerobic fitness and low vs. high muscular strength. The examinations included a questionnaire, body composition measurement, maximal cycle ergometer test (aerobic fitness), maximal strength test for lower extremities (muscular strength), and fasting serum samples for nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics analysis (66 metabolites were included for analysis).

Forty-eight of the 66 studied metabolite levels differed between the high vs. low aerobic fitness groups, and among the 580 men, aerobic fitness accounted for more than 5% of the variation of 25 metabolites after adjustment for age, education, smoking, use of alcohol, and dietary factors. Fewer and smaller differences in the metabolite levels were seen according to muscular strength. Aerobic fitness was associated with low VLDL and high large HDL particle concentrations, low ApoB/ApoA1 ratio, low triglycerides, high unsaturation degree of fatty acids, and with low isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, glycerol, and glycoprotein concentrations.

This study contributes mechanistic understanding of how aerobic fitness and muscular strength are associated with risk factors for cardio-metabolic diseases. Genetic factors may explain some of the associations.

“Intervention studies are needed to elucidate whether increasing aerobic fitness by exercising can reduce morbidity or premature mortality as aerobic fitness associates with many beneficial risk-factor levels,” Kujala says. “It seems that endurance-type training including muscular endurance training started early in life and improving fitness along with optimizing body fat content may be considered good preventive actions.”

Many strength training modalities can be executed so that they not only improve maximal muscle strength, but also enhance aerobic fitness and functional capacity. However, in order to improve cardio-metabolic health, endurance-type training seems better because maximal muscle strength was not strongly associated with beneficial serum metabolome cardio-metabolic risk-factor levels.

The study has been conducted in collaboration with the Ģֱ, Finnish Defence Forces and the UKK Institute.

Reference: Kujala UM, Vaara JP, Kainulainen H, Vasankari T, Vaara E, Kyröläinen H. Associations of aerobic fitness and maximal muscular strength with metabolites in young men. JAMA Network Open.

Contact:

Professor Urho Kujala. urho.m.kujala@jyu.fi. +358 40 805 3567