Genes may decide how your heart responds to exercise

While the change in lifestyle, food habits, exercises may attribute to a lot of cardiovascular health, a study says otherwise. The study suggests that genes have more to do than be just a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring. It says genes could be the determining factor to how your heart rate and blood pressure respond to exercise and may act as an early warning of future cardiovascular problems.

Researchers say that until now they weren’t sure why the response to exercise varies among different people. According to the study, published in The Journal of Physiology, they found that genetic differences in receptors found in skeletal muscles can contribute to this different response to exercise.

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Receptors are groups of specialized cells that detect changes in the environment and cause some kind of response.
The scientists identified that 

the presence of two common genetic mutations in receptors found in skeletal muscle led to higher blood pressure during exercise compared to people who did not have them, particularly in men.

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And because of the significance in effect of genetic variants in the skeletal muscle receptors, the study conducted by researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada, involved measuring heart rate and blood pressure. Two-hundred healthy young men and women were analysed for genetic risk factors before and during a hand-grip exercise.

"This research suggests the presence of these receptors can contribute to larger blood pressure responses during exercise- a risk factor for future problems with the heart or blood vessels," said Philip J Millar, an author of the study.

"It is important to examine why we saw this difference mainly in men, and to understand the specific mechanisms behind how these genetic variants influence their heart rate and blood pressure responses to exercise," Millar said.

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