If you’re up there in age and feel like you can coast as a couch potato, you may want to reconsider. A new study suggests, for the first time in women over age 70, that working up a sweat can reduce the influence one’s genes have on obesity.
If you’re up there in age and feel like you can coast as a couch potato, you may want to reconsider. A new study suggests, for the first time in women over age 70, that working up a sweat can reduce the influence one’s genes have on obesity.
“Our sample, which included older women, is the first to show that in the 70- to 79-year-old age group, exercise can mitigate the genetic effects of obesity,” said the study’s lead author Heather Ochs-Balcom, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health in the University at Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.
“The message here is that your genetic risk for obesity is not wholly deterministic,” Ochs-Balcom, PhD, adds. “The choices we make in our life play a large role in our health.”
Read more at University at Buffalo
Image: Dr. Heather Ochs-Balcom. CREDIT: University at Buffalo
