Journal of Exercise & Organ Cross Talk

Abstract The global increase in the older population has resulted in escalating healthcare costs and burdens on governments and families. Understanding biological age (BA) as distinct from chronological age (CA) holds significant potential in accurately assessing individuals' health status and susceptibility to diseases. During exercise, myokines like irisin and lactate are released from skeletal muscles, facilitating cross-talk with organs such as the brain and heart. This may improve physical fitness, reducing frailty and BA. This research aimed to develop a comprehensive BA prediction model integrating genetic and epigenetic factors. The study involved 59 healthy adults, comprising 31 males and 28 females, with average ages of 58.2 ± 7 years and 50.1 ± 8.5 years, respectively. Assessments of physical fitness and completion of the Frailty Index (FI34) questionnaire were conducted to capture genetic and epigenetic influences. Feature selection, principal component analysis (PCA), and multiple linear regression (MLR) were employed to tailor BA prediction models for each gender. We identified seven significant biomarkers for males, including FI34, percent of skeletal muscle mass (SM), handgrip strength (GS), flexibility via sit-and-reach test (SR), peak torque of quadriceps muscles (PTQ), cardiopulmonary fitness (VO₂max), and basal metabolic rate (BMR). Conversely, females exhibited six key biomarkers: FI34, SM, GS, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), peak torque of hamstring muscles (PTH), and percentage of body fat (PBF). We have successfully developed a comprehensive model for estimating BA by integrating key biomarkers representing epigenetic and genetic impacts. Estimating BA is crucial for precise health evaluations and disease risk assessments.

Abstract Dear Editor-in-Chief
Lifestyle-related diseases are usually caused by mistakes in daily life, such as smoking, unhealthy diet, and inactivity. Some of these diseases are including heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, lung diseases and some types of cancer. These diseases are usually more prevalent in industrialized countries where sedentary lifestyles have spread. At the international level, these diseases are known as non-communicable and chronic diseases or degenerative diseases. Chronic diseases can lead to loss of independence, years of disability, or death, and impose a significant economic burden.
Regular physical activity helps improve your overall health, fitness and quality of life. Also, regular exercise helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, many types of cancer, depression, anxiety and dementia. Aerobic exercise can help improve your heart health and endurance. Also, these types of exercise help to lose weight. High-intensity interval training is generally safe and effective for most people. In high-intensity interval training, physical activity is performed alternately with high intensity and with low intensity, and these intensity changes have various effects on the health of the body. Strength training can improve muscle strength and endurance, make daily activities easier, reduce disease-related muscle weakness, and provide joint stability. In all these types of exercises, the skeletal muscle tissue has the most activity, and most of the positive effects of exercise are attributed to this tissue. Recently, it has been stated that muscle tissue as a secretome can secrete substances from itself and affect distant tissues. These substances secreted from muscle tissue are known as myokines.
During exercise muscles can produce and release cytokines, signaling peptides or myokines. These molecules can exert paracrine and endocrine actions. Not all of them are produced exclusively by skeletal muscle, as they can also be released by other cells such as adipose tissue (adipomyokines). Nevertheless, skeletal muscle is probably the major source of most myokines, as it constitutes more than 30% of human body mass (Piccirillo, 2019). Myokine irisin produced from muscle tissue can control many damages caused by fatty tissue and reduce the inflammatory damage of this tissue in metabolic diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver or even cardiovascular diseases. β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) is a myokine involved in browning of fat and it can reduce insulin resistance (Gonzalez-Gil & Elizondo-Montemayor, 2020). Myostatin also controls insulin resistance and prevents fat accumulation in the liver (Mikolasevic et al., 2020). Follistatin is also effective in regulating the growth of muscle tissue and reducing fat tissue (Song et al., 2019). FGF21 also promotes insulin sensitivity. Apelin and METRNL also have anti-inflammatory properties (Gholamrezayi et al., 2020). All these myokines can be effective in reducing lifestyle-related diseases with their role. Therefore, exercise should be included in your daily life.

Abstract The COVID-19 epidemic has caused lifestyle changes in people from all walks of life and has become a global threat to the health and well-being of all countries of the world. Considering changes caused by the prevalence of the disease and quarantine conditions, the increased likelihood of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in people is among these threats. On the other hand, patients with overweight and obesity, and consequently, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have a weaker immune system than other people with ideal weight, and as a result, are more likely to develop COVID-19. As there is currently no definitive treatment for COVID-19 and NAFLD, and because people with NAFLD are more likely to develop COVID-19 based on the research in this area, paying attention to this important issue is thus necessary. Considering a regular physical activity program and having a balanced diet are among the essential strategies and may help prevent NAFLD, and consequently, COVID-19. However, given the novelty of COVID-19 pathogen and the ambiguity of the exact cause of why people get NAFLD, further research is needed to be done on the type of effective diet, as well as the type, intensity, and volume of exercise for these people. This study aimed to summarize the available evidence on the pathology and epidemiology of NAFLDs and COVID-19, as well as the effect of NAFLD on COVID-19 in people. Given the existing risks, the nutrition and exercise strategies were investigated in this regard.