The benefits of physical exercise for health mean that it is increasingly recommended as a preventive measure against the appearance of various conditions and to promote healthy aging, and that doctors also prescribe it as a support in the treatment of numerous diseases. In fact, a new study has confirmed that a simple aerobic exercise such as brisk walking for 150 minutes per week achieves a 30% relative reduction in liver fat and would therefore help treat non-fatty liver disease. alcoholic (NAFLD).
The authors of the paper are scientists from the Penn State College of Medicine (USA) who have determined that for these patients to obtain significant clinical improvement they need to perform 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity a week. “Our findings may give clinicians the confidence to prescribe exercise as a treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” said Dr. Jonathan Stine, associate professor of medicine and public health sciences and hepatologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
About 30% of the world’s population suffers from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can lead to long-term complications such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. There is currently no cure, but scientific studies have shown that exercise can reduce the accumulation of fat in the liver and improve body composition, health and quality of life in these patients.
“Brisk walking or cycling for half an hour a day five times a week” would help significantly reduce liver fat
Stine believes that setting a specific physical activity goal will help medicine and exercise professionals develop personalized approaches to help people with fatty liver disease or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease adopt healthier lifestyles that include physical activity. regular exercise. The results of the research have been published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
What is the dose of exercise that reduces fat in the liver
The researchers reviewed 14 studies in which 551 individuals with NAFLD had participated in randomized controlled trials involving exercise interventions and analyzed data from all of them, including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), change in body weight, adherence to exercise practice, and liver fat measured by magnetic resonance imaging. The main objective of the investigation was to evaluate the association between physical training and a clinically relevant improvement in liver fat.
They found that, regardless of weight loss, the odds of achieving a clinically significant treatment response (greater than or equal to a 30% relative reduction in MRI-measured liver fat) were three and a half times higher with training. physical than with traditional clinical care.
They then performed another analysis to determine the optimal “dose” of exercise to significantly improve liver fat and found that 39% of patients who were prescribed a task greater than or equal to 750 metabolic equivalents ( for example, 150 minutes per week of brisk walking) achieved a significant response to treatment compared to only 26% of those prescribed lower doses of exercise.
Stine explained that the clinically relevant decreases in liver fat seen with increased amounts of physical activity—which is the same as recommended by the American Gastroenterological Association and the European Association for the Study of the Liver—are similar to those found have achieved in trials with drugs that block the production of fat.
“Exercise is a lifestyle modification, so the fact that it may match the ability of therapies in development to achieve the same result is significant,” Stine said. “Doctors counseling NAFLD patients should recommend this amount of activity to their patients. Walking briskly or biking for half an hour a day five times a week is just one example of a program that would meet these criteria.”
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