The New Science of Muscle Physiology

You can burn fat with fat with this miracle hormone.

September 21, 2021

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Neuro Athletes! 

A few years back there was alot of excitement about the hormone called irisin- a recently discovered myokine which is a hormones secreted from muscle in response to exercise. This hormone triggers the transformation of white fat cells into brown fat cells. Which is what we all want.

Here’s why:

Brown fat is better for us because it's more involved in burning energy increases our metabolism rather than storing it. Brown fat intrigues scientists because it physically resembles muscle more than fat and plays a major role in maintaining normal weight. It also acts and behaves more like muscle than fat, which likely explains its ability to burn fat so efficiently.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association in their physical activity guidelines (2007) made this statement:

“It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time, compared with those who have low energy expenditures”

Irisin and Alzheimer’s Disease

A recently published study found that irisin could be an effective therapeutic for addressing deficits of the brain that result from Alzheimer’s disease. 

“Preserving cognitive function is a major challenge in an increasingly aging population,” says Christiane Wrann, DVM, PhD, leader of the Program in Neuroprotection in Exercise at MGH and senior author of the study. “Exercise is known to have positive effects on brain health, which is why identifying key mediators of those neuroprotective benefits, like irisin, has become such a critical goal of research.” 

Irisin vs HIIT in Overweight Female Adolescents

A study published in Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome looked at the effects of aerobic training (15) vs HIIT (15) in female adolescents.

The session of aerobic exercise included cycling at 65% of their peak heart rate (HRpeak) for 40 min. In the HIIT group, exercise included six bouts of 1 min at 85–95% HRpeak separated by 1 min of recovery.

Levels of expression of irisin in skeletal muscle increased significantly after a session of HIIT (p less than 0.05), while aerobic exercise no effect on irisin levels. 

Irisin and Inflammation

A recent study on centenarians (people who lived to be 100) found that the only thing that can predict someone going to that age is decreasing inflammation. Keeping inflammation under control is crucial to lifespan and healthspan.

A recent attempt was made to study the anti-inflammatory effects of irisin directly on adipocytes, an important component of adipose tissue which plays a crucial role pro-inflammatory recruitment and activation of macrophages in obese state.

The authors demonstrated that irisin treatment suppressed the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, nuclear factor- kappa B (NF-κB), TNF-α and IL-6 in a concentration dependent manner.

My 2 cents: we shouldn’t really be looking for designer drugs to fix epidemics however this hormone does provide exciting and promising research in the near future.

More importantly, the benefits of exercise (both in general and in Alzheimer’s disease) are not restricted to irisin production.

Just keep moving and sleeping efficiently. Your brain will thank you.

Coming up in today’s newsletter for premium members:

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