title: Physical activity in adulthood: genes and mortality.
abstract: Observational studies report a strong inverse relationship between leisure-time physical activity and all-cause mortality. Despite suggestive evidence from population-based associations, scientists have not been able to show a beneficial effect of physical activity on the risk of death in controlled intervention studies among individuals who have been healthy at baseline. On the other hand, high cardiorespiratory fitness is known to be a strong predictor of reduced mortality, even more robust than physical activity level itself. Here, in both animals and/or human twins, we show that the same genetic factors influence physical activity levels, cardiorespiratory fitness, and risk of death. Previous observational follow-up studies in humans suggest that increasing fitness through physical activity levels could prolong life; however, our controlled interventional study with laboratory rats bred for low and high intrinsic fitness contrast with these findings. Also, we find no evidence for the suggested association using pairwise analysis among monozygotic twin pairs who are discordant in their physical activity levels. Based on both our animal and human findings, we propose that genetic pleiotropy might partly explain the frequently observed associations between high baseline physical activity and later reduced mortality in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Sira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karvinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silvennoinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, 2021 BSRB, 109 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-2200 USA.
authors.forename: Lauren G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, 2021 BSRB, 109 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-2200 USA.|Department of Molecular &Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School, 2021 BSRB, 109 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-2200 USA.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, P.O. Box 41, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute for Molecular Medicine (FIMM), P.O. Box 20, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 20, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaprio
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kainulainen
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Urho M
authors.initials: UM
authors.lastname: Kujala
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D009043:Motor Activity; D051381:Rats; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic; D055815:Young Adult