CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Couch potatoes everywhere, come together. There is mounting evidence for why you have a tough time getting up and some of that eye-opening research is happening in our own backyard.
"I started thinking, is there a biological issue here," asked Dr. Tim Lightfoot, who is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at UNC-Charlotte.
Lightfoot is trying to find the science behind one simple question. Can you be born a couch potato? In study after study, the answer is a resounding yes.
"What we're pursuing now is, what are the things that make you a couch potato or not?" he said.
He and other researchers are identifying the genetic factors that regulate daily physical activity. Think about it this way, said Lightfoot, "We all know someone who can't get off the couch and we also know people who don't want to sit down."
Mary Ann Mitchener is a prime example of the latter. She's part of the pastoral staff at Concord's Crossroads Church and she'll tell you up front, she rarely stops.
"I don't even really go to movies; maybe once or twice a year. It is too much sitting and not enough activity," she said, taking a moment to talk to us in her church office.
Mitchener does pause for devotional time, but the rest of her days are action packed.
"Any free time I have I want to be outside," she added.
The daughter of a still very active 83-year-old Mother, she comes by it honest but isn't sure what led to what.
"I don't know how much of genetics it is and how much environment and how much role modeling played," she said.
If Mitchener is the non-couch potato, then local radio personality Yankee Pete is her opposite.
"Once I've parked myself here, I really don't want to get up," said Pete, sitting on the couch in the office he shares with his radio show family. "Yea, it takes a while to get going. As far as exercise, does it really look like I exercise?"
Jokes aside, the executive producer of the syndicated Ace & T.J. show isn't looking for excuses. In fact, he doesn't buy the DNA argument one bit.
"It wasn't heredity for me at all. As a matter of fact, I used to be relatively thin until I got out on my own and had some freedom and just got to sit back and enjoy life on the couch," said Pete.
Back at UNCC, Dr. Lightfoot knows there are skeptics. But he continues to searching for even more proof.
"We've got a fairly complete genome map at this point, so we have started the process of looking at specific genes," he said. And at this point, research shows somewhere between 38% and 52% of your physical activity level is likely influenced by genetics.
What will come from all this work? "It may be a treatment. We don't know that. Probably in the shorter term what we hope to understand is the mechanisms and some bio-markers," said Lightfoot. "If you came into me and said you know I'm interested in getting active we might take a little skin sample; a cheek swab or something and run it through a genetic analyzer and say, okay, you're predisposed to be inactive. So, we're going to put you on a different kind of exercise program," he said.
Whatever the end result is, the goal remains the same. It's much more than just putting a label on lazy. "We're interested in getting people active. Activity is probably the cheapest medicine," Lightfoot said. Lightfoot, by the way, has gotten funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2003. He's been at UNCC since 1996.
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