Low‐intensity exercise stimulates bioenergetics and increases fat oxidation in mitochondria of PBMCs from sedentary adults, 2020, Liepinsh et al

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
Full title: Low‐intensity exercise stimulates bioenergetics and increases fat oxidation in mitochondria of blood mononuclear cells from sedentary adults

Not posting because I think we need to exercise to get better, I'm posting because I think the changes that exercise/exertion bring about in otherwise healthy people need to be understood and then investigated in pwME.
Aim

Exercise training induces adaptations in muscle and other tissue mitochondrial metabolism, dynamics, and oxidative phosphorylation capacity. Mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation was shown to be pivotal for the anti‐inflammatory status of immune cells. We hypothesize that exercise training can exert effects influence mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The aim was to investigate the effect of exercise on the fatty acid oxidation‐dependent respiration in PBMCs.

Design
Twelve fasted or fed volunteers first performed incremental‐load exercise tests to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer to determine the optimal workload ensuring maximal health benefits in volunteers with a sedentary lifestyle. In addition, the same volunteers performed 60 min of low‐intensity constant‐load exercise.

Results
In the incremental‐load exercise, the maximal whole‐body fat oxidation rate measured by indirect calorimetry was reached at the fasted state already at a 50 W workload. At the 75–175 W workloads, the contribution of fat oxidation significantly decreased to only 11%, the heart rate increased to 185 BPM, and the study participants reached exhaustion. These results show that low‐intensity exercise (50W) is optimal for maximal whole‐body fat utilization. After low‐intensity exercise, the ROUTINE mitochondrial respiration, as well as fatty acid oxidation‐dependent respiration in PBMCs at LEAK and OXPHOS states, were significantly increased by 31%, 65%, and 76%, respectively. In addition, during 60 min of low‐intensity (50W) exercise, a 2‐fold higher lipolysis rate was observed and 13.5 ± 0.9 g of fat was metabolized, which was 57% more than the amount of fat that was metabolized during the incremental‐load exercise.

Conclusions
In individuals with a sedentary lifestyle participating in a bicycle ergometry exercise program, maximal lipolysis and whole‐body fat oxidation rate is reached in a fasted state during low‐intensity exercise. For the first time, it was demonstrated that low‐intensity exercise improves bioenergetics and increases fatty acid oxidation in PBMCs and may contribute to the anti‐inflammatory phenotype.
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Open access, https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.14814/phy2.14489
 
I guess the key factor is that pwME whose illness enforces a sedentary lifestyle, end up with two conditions: their ME/CFS plus the consequences of their sedentary lifestyle.

The BPS brigade think all that needs sorting is to fix the consequence of the sedentary lifestyle, completely/conveniently overlooking the fact that that the primary illness, ME/CFS, prevents that happening, and may also be worsened by it.
 
What exactly is occurring with pwME who are able to do mild forms of exercise? Is this actually beneficial for us considering we have disturbances in fatty acid and metabolism? I'm able to do mild exercise, and cross my fingers that I'm not making things worse long term.
 
Mij said:
What exactly is occurring with pwME who are able to do mild forms of exercise? Is this actually beneficial for us considering we have disturbances in fatty acid and metabolism? I'm able to do mild exercise, and cross my fingers that I'm not making things worse long term.
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I'm worried about this as well. when I am able, I am active. Who knows what that does to the body, but not being active doesn't feel right either. It feels so good to MOVE. When I was hospitalized at the beginning of my illness because I was barely able to walk, the feeling when I started to become better and could walk properly at a regular pace is still one of the strongest feelings I've had in my life. I have experienced similar periods of not being able to move about a lot later, but that first time was something else. Now it's more of a "OK, this is what I am capable of at this moment..." kind of thing when I need to support myself walking a few meters..
 
Mij said:
What exactly is occurring with pwME who are able to do mild forms of exercise? Is this actually beneficial for us considering we have disturbances in fatty acid and metabolism? I'm able to do mild exercise, and cross my fingers that I'm not making things worse long term.
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You may be like my wife. She can do mild exercise and can do it for a while. Her instinctive pacing skills seem to work well here, seeming to know when to stop; she will end up paying later, but she seems to have found a balance that suits her. The rate at which she can do stuff is slower than normal, and is why I always say the limiting factor seems to be power (the rate at which energy can be utilised). To continue for longer she works in start stop mode - just short stops help her keep going longer, as if there is some short term energy storage that gets the chance to recharge; but that only works for a while.

My wife has been doing this for over 10 years now, and I've come to trust her instincts regarding pacing.
 
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@Barry

Is power the same as stamina? I don't do things slowly, in fact I'm much faster than most. It's my nature. My problem is the next day after activities, I don't have the stamina and need to take it slow and rest. Does that make sense?
 
Optimal "fat utilisation" only matters if your goal of exercise is to lose fat!

If you want to increase strength or fitness, unfortunately the only way to do so is through intense activity. But keep in mind this intensity can be extremely brief - it is about quality, not quantity.
 
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@Barry

Stamina is a measure of how long you perform something at a set rate?
Does power require more muscle strength?

Thanks. I read your explanation and I think I understand.
 
Mij said:
@Barry

Stamina is a measure of how long you perform something at a set rate?
Does power require more muscle strength?

Thanks. I read your explanation and I think I understand.
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I'm not going to pretend I understand biology or physiology because I don't. There is obviously much more going on than just the basic physics that I understand.

I imagine strength must come into it, especially if that implies being able to exert more force. I suspect that for my wife, in my years of knowing her and her ME/CFS, that a key signature of her fading is her muscle strength fading. As her ME/CFS fading progressively kicks in, she gets slower and slower. And somewhere along the way here her cognitive abilities start to give up on her, the slightest bit of decision making becoming more and more overwhelming for her. Basically as she tries to persevere with the same energy consuming activities as she was a while earlier, she can only do them slower and slower, as if the energy required can only be processed more and more slowly. Whether that is because the energy is not being made available to her at the required rate, or because it is there but cannot be taken up and used at the required rate, or because those are fine but some power-control mechanism is wonky and is "over controlling" ... I don't know. But I'm sure that for whatever reason my wife's body rapidly and progressively loses the ability to process energy at the required rate, in a way that is very different to that of a healthy person.

But for all I know it may be more than just muscle strength. What if the muscles of pwME also cannot move so fast, as well as becoming weaker? (Purely conjecture on my part I have to emphasise). I would not be surprised if muscle strength were not the only problem.

Do you have any thoughts on this @PhysiosforME?
 
I have low citric-acid cycle intermediates based on a panel of tests I had done. I don't have the ability to convert stored energy from food into ATP fast enough to replenish energy. Of course there are other factors too.

Could be muscle strength in your wifes case too. I don't feel this is the case for me though. There are days I can lift light weights without difficulty, while on other days I can't lift 1 kg.

Ron Davis: "ME/CFS patients have a marked decrease in some of the Citric Acid Cycle metabolites while mitochondrial mutations generally cause an increase".
 
For myself it's both, weakness and inability to use energy I feel is there.

I'm pretty sure that biologically it makes no sense but it is the walking through treacle/water thing.

I feel that I am strong enough, capable, but when I try and do something it's like I'm moving through a medium which has a lot more viscosity than it should have.
 
Midnattsol said:
I'm worried about this as well. when I am able, I am active. Who knows what that does to the body, but not being active doesn't feel right either. It feels so good to MOVE. When I was hospitalized at the beginning of my illness because I was barely able to walk, the feeling when I started to become better and could walk properly at a regular pace is still one of the strongest feelings I've had in my life. I have experienced similar periods of not being able to move about a lot later, but that first time was something else. Now it's more of a "OK, this is what I am capable of at this moment..." kind of thing when I need to support myself walking a few meters..
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Same. It increases my fatigue levels a bit, not enough for full blown PEM but gosh does moving feel good or sometimes necessary. One irony of my experience with me/cfs is how much harder it is to sit and relax.
 
Barry said:
I'm not going to pretend I understand biology or physiology because I don't. There is obviously much more going on than just the basic physics that I understand.

I imagine strength must come into it, especially if that implies being able to exert more force. I suspect that for my wife, in my years of knowing her and her ME/CFS, that a key signature of her fading is her muscle strength fading. As her ME/CFS fading progressively kicks in, she gets slower and slower. And somewhere along the way here her cognitive abilities start to give up on her, the slightest bit of decision making becoming more and more overwhelming for her. Basically as she tries to persevere with the same energy consuming activities as she was a while earlier, she can only do them slower and slower, as if the energy required can only be processed more and more slowly. Whether that is because the energy is not being made available to her at the required rate, or because it is there but cannot be taken up and used at the required rate, or because those are fine but some power-control mechanism is wonky and is "over controlling" ... I don't know. But I'm sure that for whatever reason my wife's body rapidly and progressively loses the ability to process energy at the required rate, in a way that is very different to that of a healthy person.

But for all I know it may be more than just muscle strength. What if the muscles of pwME also cannot move so fast, as well as becoming weaker? (Purely conjecture on my part I have to emphasise). I would not be surprised if muscle strength were not the only problem.

Do you have any thoughts on this @PhysiosforME?
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Thanks for the question - a bit tired tonight as have just done a webinar for the chartered society of physiotherapy with over 200 physios about post viral fatigue syndrome, ME and appropriate rehab. I will ask Nikki (our resident expert on all things exercise physiology) and come back to you
 
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