PHYSIOLOGY SHORTS: Benefits beyond cardiometabolic health

In this Physiology Shorts, David Jenkins of University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Australia, discusses their recent paper: Benefits beyond cardiometabolic health: the potential of frequent high intensity ‘exercise snacks’ to improve outcomes for those living with and beyond cancer
Read more in The Journal of Physiology:
Benefits beyond cardiometabolic health: the potential of frequent high intensity ‘exercise snacks’ to improve outcomes for those living with and beyond cancer.
David Jenkins et al.
601 (21), pp. 4691-4697
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.co...
Transcript:
My name is David Jenkins. I am Professor of Sport and Exercise Science at The University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) and an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. I am the lead author on a recently published article in The Journal of Physiology titled:
Benefits beyond cardiometabolic health: the potential of frequent high intensity ‘exercise snacks’ to improve outcomes for those living with and beyond cancer
Exercise snacks - brief bouts of exercise completed hourly - improve insulin and glucose control and vascular function.
Our article draws on pre-clinical findings showing that blood sampled immediately following exercise suppresses the growth of cancer cell lines. Importantly, this suppression of cancer cell growth is not seen in blood sampled ~ 2hrs post-exercise.
In our paper, we summarise the potential physiological mechanisms responsible for this transient, acute benefit that could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in those who have been diagnosed and treated for cancer and stress the importance of exercise frequency - by using the idea of exercise snacks.
In addition to the frequency of exercise being important, we explain why exercise should also be sufficiently intense to recruit the type IIb motor units - not only to maximise myokine production by the active muscles but also to evoke a high catecholamine response which others have associated with an increase in Natural Killer Cell production.
Our paper identifies areas of research that require further work - to test the translational potential of exercise snacks to cancer populations.