World Walking Day in Rehovot (photo by Rehovot Studios)
The American Ministry of Health recommends 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity every week to maintain good health – in a simple calculation, this is less than 22 minutes a day. A new study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers adds incentive to exercise according to this recommendation. According to them, achieving this level of physical activity can protect against fatty liver disease.
“Our findings can give doctors the confidence to prescribe exercise as a treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,” said Professor Jonathan Stein, a pathologist at the medical center. “Having this amount of physical activity to aim for will be useful for health and exercise professionals to develop personalized approaches when helping patients change their lifestyles and become more physically active.”
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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects nearly 30% of people worldwide. Unlike the disease already caused by drinking too much alcohol, NAFLD is often the result of obesity, type 2 diabetes, or high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high triglyceride levels.
Over time, the condition can lead to even more serious complications such as cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and cancer. To make matters worse, there are no approved medications for the condition. That’s why it’s important to know that something as accessible to many people as exercise can reduce liver fat and improve overall physical health and quality of life.
Stein claims that previous studies have failed to narrow down the amount of physical activity, or what “dose” of it is necessary to produce clinically meaningful results. He and his team analyzed 14 studies involving a total of 551 subjects with NAFLD who participated in randomized controlled trials that focused on exercise interventions. They assessed data such as age, sex, body mass index, change in body weight, adherence to exercise protocols, and levels of liver fat measured by MRI.
In order to consider the effect clinically significant, there had to be a relative reduction of 30% in liver fat, as measured by MRI. Researchers show that exercise is 3.5 times more likely to produce these results than conventional treatment methods.
In the second analysis, the team determined what the optimal “dose” of physical activity was, and found that 39% of patients who reached or exceeded the equivalent of 150 minutes of brisk walking per week were able to reach this healthy liver threshold. Only 26% of those who exercised less than that reached this mark. The findings support the amount of physical activity recommended by the American Gastroenterological Association and the European Society for the Study of the Liver.
“Exercise is a lifestyle change, so the fact that it may match the ability of emerging drugs to achieve the same result is significant,” Stein said.
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