We know exercise is good for health, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all prescription when it comes to individual needs. Everyone is different in terms of how their bodies fight diseases and respond to therapies. The physicians and scientists at AdventHealth are working on some of the biggest problems in health care, including uncovering the mystifying effects of exercise.
“When we think about individuals who are aging, we know some can age very well. They maintain their functional capacity. Their brain health is good. There are others who appear to have an accelerated aging. We're trying to discover these differences,” said Dr. Steven Smith, senior vice president and chief scientific officer at AdventHealth.
In this episode of the Inspiring Wholeness podcast, presented by AdventHealth in partnership with the Orlando Business Journal, Smith and Bret Goodpaster, Ph.D., senior scientific director at AdventHealth’s Translational Research Institute (TRI), discuss partnering with the National Institute of Health (NIH) on a 10-year study titled Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC).
The goal of the research is to discover more about why the body breaks; how physical activity can improve brain health, protect the heart, prevent diabetes, influence cancer and promote other health benefits; and why people’s bodies respond differently to exercise.
You can’t answer these questions through experiments with mice or at a broader population level. This research couldn’t have been conducted a decade ago because the revolutionary technologies used to sequence DNA, genes, proteins, etc. weren’t available, according to Goodpaster.
Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about:

• Why AdventHealth’s research efforts are often described as one of Orlando’s best-kept secrets.
• The importance of understanding what’s happening in the body during exercise on a molecular level and why the results vary from person to person.
• Sedentary behavior and the debate about how much physical activity it takes to promote health benefits.
• Resilience and what it has to do with how some people age better than others.
• Why Francis Collins, the former director of the NIH, calls MoTrPAC the moonshot for muscle and physical activity.
• How these research findings will be used to develop personalized medicine for treating diseases in individuals, which will help the general population.

AdventHealth has provided whole-person care for 115 years. Today, our services, including cancer, cardiac, neurosurgery, orthopedics and a dedicated women’s and children’s hospital are rated among the nation’s best. Learn more at feelhealthyfeelwhole.com.
Disclaimer
AdventHealth and the Orlando Business Journal are providing this podcast as a public benefit. This podcast is not intended to be a substitute for any professional advice or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of AdventHealth or the Orlando Business Journal policy. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by AdventHealth or the Orlando Business Journal. The views expressed by our guests are their own. Their participation in the podcast does not imply an endorsement by them or any entity they represent. AdventHealth and the Orlando Business Journal hereby disclaim any and all liability to any party for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequence of damages, arising directly or indirectly from any use of the content in this podcast, which is provided, as is, and without warranties.