Sept. 19, 2022 – We all know exerciseIt is good for us. It helps you to manage your weight, as well as lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. Nearly Half of U.S. adults don’t get the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week.
Others may blame lack of motivation, time, or energy. Some may be limited by age or chronic conditions.
What if you could make it happen? Exercise has many benefits without breaking a sweat – by simply popping a pill or injecting medicine into your body?
This may sound too good for true, but scientists are making progress towards that goal. Step one is to determine how exercise can have health benefits on a molecular basis. Two recent studies have furthered this field.
A team of researchers from Australia focused on muscle changes.
“Many of these benefits [of exercise] arise from contracting skeletal muscle,” says study author Benjamin Parker, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Physiology and Anatomy at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
The researchers took muscle samples. biopsiesThe study included participants who did endurance, sprint, or resistance training before and after the exercise. They discovered that the same gene – called the C18ORF25 gene – was activated after all types.
Parker states that the mice were unable to exercise as well as had muscle defects when this gene was removed. It activated the gene, which led to an increase in muscle function.
“Our study identifies C18ORF25 as a new exercise gene to promote muscle benefits,” Parker says.
These findings were published in the journalCell Metabolism,This may provide valuable insight into how to manage muscular disorders like muscular dystrophyAnd myasthenia gravisParker says it will help to combat the effects of age-related muscle wasting and enhance sport performance.
This follows other Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine.Examining the effect of exercise on specific molecules.
After analyzing blood samples from mice before and after the rodents had been running on a treadmill, the researchers found that one compound – called Lac-Phe (N-lactoyl-phenylalanine) – increased more than any other. The Lac-Phe level increased as the exercise intensity increased. Similar findings were observed in blood samples from 36 people – levels of Lac-Phe peaked after hard exercise and declined within an hour.
“We were looking for a basic biochemical understanding of the Physiology of exercise and stumbled upon the discovery of Lac-Phe,” says study author Jonathan Long, MD, a biochemist at Stanford.
Lac-Phe – a byproduct of lactate (produced in large amounts during exercise) and phenylalanine (a building block for protein) – may help regulate the drive to eat, the scientists found. Rodents that had been previously injected with the molecule were able to make their own decisions after being given the drug. ObeseA special diet allowed you to eat 50% less food and lose half the weight Weight. (Interestingly, Lac Phe did not show the same results when taken in pill form. It could have been that the stomach’s digestive acids broke down Lac Phe, rendering it ineffective. This could explain why we don’t feel hungry right after intense exercise.
“We are actively investigating both the appetite-suppressing and underlying mechanisms of Lac-Phe,” says Yong Xu MD a Baylor professor in pediatrics, nutrition and molecular biology. If all goes well, it could eventually be used in humans to help weight loss, he said.
These are not the only studies to go after an “exercise pill.” In the past decade, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have reported on a hormone that triggers some of the health benefits of exercise and has recently been shown to reduce levels of a protein linked to Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers from the University of Southampton discovered that there is a way to make a living. Compound that improves blood sugar levelsSedentary people will be able to lose weight. Obese mice. In other ResearchSalk Institute scientists found a way to activate a gene pathway in mice using a chemical substance. The National Institutes of Health continues to fund a Large study to examine the molecular effects of exercise.
Despite the interest, it is likely that these discoveries will take years to be made into clinical treatments. In the meantime, if you want to reap the benefits of exercise, you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.
