Journal Club - Benefits of exercise in fatty liver disease

Exercise supports the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by impacting on several metabolic pathways in the body. Regular HIIT exercise over a period of 12 weeks significantly decreased the participants' fasting glucose and waist circumference, and improved their maximum oxygen consumption rate and maximum achieved workload. These positive effects were associated with alterations in the abundance of a number of metabolites. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

In the new study, the researchers comprehensively examined the effects of exercise on metabolism in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. They were divided into an exercise intervention group that had a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) session twice a week, plus an independent training session once a week for 12 weeks, and into a control group that did not increase exercise during the study.

It was found that exercise had a beneficial effect on fasting glucose concentrations, waist circumference, maximum oxygen consumption rate, and maximum achieved workload. These factors were also associated with many of the observed alterations in the abundance of various metabolites in the exercise intervention group.

Based on the results, it was concluded that exercise can have a beneficial effect on many factors contributing to disease in patients with NAFLD, even without weight loss and dietary changes.