Metabolomics: A Custom Fit For Your Fitness

An illustration of the “pyramid of life” which shows the increasing influence of the environment and physiology on the genome, proteome and metabolome, respectively.[6]

METABOLOMICS is based on the systematic study of the complete set of metabolites (metabolome) present in a given biological system.[1][2]

• Metabolomics allows scientists to study the metabolic status of an organism under fixed physiological conditions. For example, as a consequence of drug treatment, environmental influences, nutrition, lifestyle and genetic effects.[2]

• Metabolomics may one day lead to a scenario in which fitness and nutritional plans are custom designed right down to the very genes of each individual; a day when prêt-à-porter, one-size-fits-all solutions are carted away to the dusty nutritional, fitness and weight loss archives.

• Through the study of metabolomics, we may each as individuals be provided with the most accurate answer to the question we have all asked at one time or another: Why is it that two people can perform the same exercise regimen and eat the same meal plan and still have such dissimilar physical results?

In a January 2015 Maclean's Magazine article, Martin Gibala, professor and chair of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, suggests as much:[3]

“What’s coming down the pipe is individualized exercise prescriptions. There’s a field that’s known as metabolomics, which is essentially allowing people to get their individual chemical signatures from a saliva or blood sample. In some ways, it’s analogous to what we’re seeing in the field of medicine where, for example, oncologists will biopsy a tumour and tailor an individualized treatment program, because they know certain tumours respond in certain ways. We’re a fair way away from that in the exercise literature, but efforts are already being made to take blood samples, look at the metabolites and get this signature. Then you have people exercise in different ways and see who responds the most and least. Thereby, we can get this picture of which biology responds well to a particular type of training or nutrition, even. So I think we’re going to get better at individualizing the approach."

MAJOR METABOLIC PATHWAYS

• Studying the metabolome enables scientists to assess the influence of diet on gene expression. Thus, by modifying the diet, it becomes possible to intervene in the interaction between nutrients and metabolism; tweaking it to reach and maintain the best overall health and fitness.[2,3,4]

• Understanding how single nutrients influence metabolic regulation would enable the formulation of personalized diets which, if followed from an early age, may prevent the onset of certain chronic diseases such as diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and obesity.[2] 

LINKS TO RESEARCH

·         If this is a subject that interests you, I strongly recommend reading this comprehensive BioMed Research International article: Review Clinical Metabolomics and Nutrition: The New Frontier in Neonatology and Pediatrics

• In this 2013 study, the authors investigated how metabolomic analysis of serum samples might help to identify metabolic predictors of weight loss in obese children.

• This 2014 study applied metabolomics to serum samples to analyze the responses following exposure to an energy-restricted diet in overweight & obese older adults.

• Through the analysis of plasma metabolomics patterns this 2015 study found:

"A novel observation was that person-to-person differences in habitual physical activity and magnitude of weight loss were accompanied by unique blood metabolite signatures." 

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FIN

REFERENCES

[1] J. K. Nicholson and J. C. Lindon, “Systems biology: metabonomics,” Nature, vol. 455, no. 7216, pp. 1054–1056, 2008.  View at Scopus

[2] Angelica Dessì, Flaminia Cesare Marincola, Alice Masili, Diego Gazzolo, and Vassilios Fanos, “Clinical Metabolomics and Nutrition: The New Frontier in Neonatology and Pediatrics,” BioMed Research International, vol. 2014, Article ID 981219, 8 pages, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/981219  http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/981219/

[3] http://www.macleans.ca/society/health/the-interview-the-benefits-of-short-intense-workouts/

[4] V. Fanos, R. Antonucci, and L. Atzori, “Metabolomics in the developing infant,” Current Opinion in Pediatrics, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 604–611, 2013. View at Scopus

[5] V. G. Makarov, M. N. Makarova, A. V. Rydlovskaya, and S. V. Tesakova, “Nutrimetabolomics from the points of systemic estimation of function of metabolomic complexes,” Voprosy Pitaniia, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 4–10, 2007. View at Scopus

[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolome

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11306-013-0550-9

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24402878

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/2015/01/28/jn.114.201574.abstract



IMAGE CREDITS

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