Irisin aids weight loss and health without exercise
In research that may alarm gym owners, scientists have found a hormone responsible for many of exercise’s health benefits. The newly discovered hormone”named “irisin” after the Greek messenger goddess Iris”turns ordinary white fat cells into energy-burning brown fat, and helps ward off diabetes by improving glucose tolerance, Time reports. Researchers found that the body produces irisin in response to exercise, and the hormone helps muscle cells “talk” to the body’s fat cells. There has been a feeling in the field that exercise talks to various tissues in the body, Bruce Spiegelman, a cell biologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. But the question has been, how? Speigelman and his colleagues found that exercise”in both mice and humans”starts a cascade of signaling changes, including the production of a never-before-described hormone. They dubbed the new hormone irisin, as a nod to the Greek messenger goddess Iris for its ability to send information to surrounding body tissue.
Dr. Spiegelman injected irisin into obese, diabetic laboratory mice and the hormone did indeed switch on genes that would help burn fat, just as exercise would. After 10 days of injections, the irisin-boosted mice had shed a little weight and become more sensitive to glucose”all without exercise. And a later dissection showed that the hormone spike didnt seem to have any negative biological effects.
For example, the hormone does not appear to make muscles stronger, still an important outcome of daily physical exercise. Blood glucose levels are lowered. All KINDS of good implications in fighting obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and a whole host of health problems.
Diet News
