![]() ![]() "We don't have to wait for a magic potion," says Dr. However, our environment, and its effect on our own behavior, plays a huge role in determining how much we exercise and how much we eat, and therefore how much we weigh. So there is justifiable excitement about the discovery of irisin, and about the speed with which science is discovering the chemistry of exercise, appetite, metabolic rate and body weight. That may make it more potent and less likely to have adverse effects. Rather, it's part of our natural body chemistry. However, irisin is not an unnatural pharmaceutical. Yes, other medicines with a similar promise have come and gone. Theoretically, irisin could become a treatment to help us maintain a healthy body weight and reduce the risk of diabetes." However, the discovery of irisin also could have some very practical and beneficial applications. "They help us to understand better how our body works. "Studies like these are just plain interesting, in and of themselves," says Dr. While not yet proven, it is very likely that irisin has similar effects in humans. Spiegelman did his studies in mice, he found that humans have irisin, too. In addition to its effect in creating brown fat cells, it also helps prevent or overcome insulin resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes.Īlthough Dr. ![]() How does that happen? Irisin may be an important part of the answer. For example, a lifestyle program that included regular moderate exercise reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by nearly 60%-more than any medicine yet invented. We've known for some time that a regular program of moderate exercise protects us against type 2 diabetes. And those newly-created brown fat cells keep burning calories after exercise is over. If your goal is to lose weight, you want to increase the number of your brown fat cells and to decrease your white fat cells," says Dr. "Brown fat cells don't store fat: they burn fat. In 2009, studies from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere discovered that humans have not only white fat cells but also brown fat cells. A large part of it came from the fat they stored away after a meal. In between meals, they needed some source of energy. Forty thousand years ago on the Serengeti, our ancestors were able to get a serious meal only a few times each week. Our distant ancestors didn't eat as regularly as we do. Why do we store fat? When we eat more calories than we burn by exercise, the extra calories have to go somewhere. Most of these fat cells are called white fat cells, and their function is to store fat." White fat vs. "Irisin travels throughout the body in the blood, and alters fat cells," explains Dr. The study showed that exercising muscle produces a hormone called irisin. The study was done in mice, but may well apply to humans. Bruce Spiegelman, a Harvard Medical School professor, published a new study in the journal Nature. In January 2012, a research team led by Dr. "Muscles get that energy by burning fat and sugar brought to them by the blood. Anthony Komaroff, a professor at Harvard Medical School. "Our muscle cells need a source of energy when they exercise," says Dr. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School and elsewhere are identifying the molecules that not only affect our weight, but also cause other health benefits of exercise. Over the past 20 years, scientists have identified natural molecules in all of us that influence our appetite and our metabolism-and, hence, our weight. When you exercise, your body chemistry changes in ways that we only now are coming to understand. The last thing you're thinking about as you pick up the pace is what's happening to your body chemistry. When you're taking a brisk walk on a beautiful day, what are you thinking about? The sun, the breeze, how good it feels to loosen up the stiff parts. Harvard researchers discover a hormone released by exercise. ![]()
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