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Smoking Impairs Muscle Recovery from Exercise [08/26-2]
Excerpts from: For those who smoke young...
Eurek
Alert! [08/25/03]
The dangers of cigarette smoking are well known, and each day America's young
people are exposed to a number of public and privately sponsored anti-tobacco
campaigns. Despite the best efforts of health educators, children and adolescents
become regular tobacco users each day.
Many take up the habit believing that if they stop at a relatively young age
there will be no long-term adverse consequence to their health. Unfortunately,
these same young people are unaware that cigarette use has been linked to insulin
resistance and insulin-dependent glucose metabolism. Insulin resistance is known
to be a major risk factor in the development of adult-onset diabetes, a disease
reaching epidemic proportions. Scientists also suggest there may be a dose-response
relationship between smoking and the risk of diabetes.
Impaired insulin-stimulated muscle glycogen synthesis is an early defect in the cause of diabetes and is present in individuals at high risk of diabetes before the development of impaired glucose tolerance
Why? Significant differences in glycogen replenishment can be attributed to hormone insulin. Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to carbohydrate consumption. The hormone's many functions include the transportation of glucose into liver and muscle tissues and to stimulate the synthesis of carbohydrate into muscle glycogen, which is how the muscle stores energy. Because insulin is essential in replenishing muscle glycogen after exercise, researchers have focused on enhancing insulin release during recovery. It is well known that increasing the amount of carbohydrate consumed will increase insulin levels and result in more muscle glycogen storage.
Postexercise muscle metabolism plays a major role in systemic carbohydrate
balance and may be influenced by smoking. Although the association of cigarette
smoking with insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance has been established
through previous research, the question of whether this smoking affects the
final step in the physiological process -- impaired muscle glycogen storage
– has yet to be addressed
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