Exercise and Caffeine Affect DNA

Researchers at the Karolinksa Institutet in Sweden found that exercise effects which genes are turned on in your DNA. Studying muscle cells they found that exercise causes the release of methyl groups from the nucleotides making up the DNA. These changes are known as epigenetic effects. These modifications to the DNA at precise locations appear to be early events that occur in the reprogramming of muscle for strength. This is one of the early ways muscle adapts to exercise. Interestingly, caffeine has this same effect on muscle. Obviously drinking a cup of coffee will not replace exercise, but does seem to have an early effect on muscle DNA. Since these are very early changes to muscle DNA, it is difficult to draw big conclusions from this finding. The field of epigenetics is growing and we're constantly learning more how food, exercise, and the environment in general affect the DNA. Your genes aren't the whole picture! This research was published in Cell Metabolism.