Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC - "Hormone Linking Exercise and Health Benefits Found!.......Now to Make it a Drug"

The following story is a prime example of a ‘good news-bad news’ scenario. An international team of scientists believe they have isolated the natural hormone found in muscle cells responsible for some of the health benefits related to exercise. Senior author Dr Bruce Spiegelman, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues, write about their findings in the 11 January online issue of Nature.

 The authors of this study believe that finding this chemical messenger, named “Irisin” after a Greek goddess, will help them better understand the health benefits of exercise. With the ultimate goal of using the information to treat a myriad of other diseases including; diabetes, obesity and maybe even cancer. 

 For this study, researchers used lab cultures and mice to find that Irisin had a direct effect on white adipose tissue. This tissue also referred to as ‘white fat’ is the subcutaneous deposits that we commonly associate with obesity. In other words, those of us who have a ‘spare tire’ around our guts or ‘saddle bags’ on our hips, have a unhealthy accumulation of white fat in these areas. 

White fat is one way our bodies tend to store and collect excess, unburned calories. In this study, it was discovered that when humans and mice exercise, the levels of Irisin in muscle tissues go up. When this happens, the Irisin triggers a response that helps to convert white fat into a healthier form or ‘brown fat’.

Brown fat is considered healthier because it has the ability to burn off more excess calories than exercise alone. In addition, it was found that Irisin helps to improve our bodies glucose tolerance. Glucose tolerance is actually a good indicator of our overall metabolic health. The better our metabolic health, than the better we are at preventing ailments like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. (For instance, people who suffer from diabetes have poor glucose tolerance)

Now for the ‘bad news’ portion of this story. The potential effect of this discovery for the prevention and treatment of a whole slew of health problems is enormous. From patients who are obese, at risk of strokes or even developing cancers could all benefit from this exercise induced hormone. The researchers intend to develop this discovery into a drug. That’s right, the lead researcher has already expressed interest in beginning clinical trials of a potential drug based on Irisin in the next two years. Basically, researchers want to sell you the natural benefits of exercise in a prescription pill!

The irony should be blatantly obvious here. Science has discovered a possible link between exercise and better health. A natural hormone that may explain why exercise has so many health benefits on the human body and be paramount in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. But now instead of promoting exercise and a healthy lifestyle to the general public, they would instead like you to take yet another pill! I hope everyone can see the folly in this logic. Instead of taking a pill, why not produce the hormone yourself through exercise!

If you have questions about this article, please leave a comment. In the Commercial Drive area of East Vancouver? visit my office or my website here; COMMERCIAL DRIVE – EAST VANCOUVER CHIROPRACTOR; DR. DOMINIC CHAN DC!!!!


References;
“A PGC1-[alpha]-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis”; Pontus Boström, Jun Wu, Mark P. Jedrychowski, Anisha Korde, Li Ye, James C. Lo, Kyle A. Rasbach, Elisabeth Almer Boström, Jang Hyun Choi, Jonathan Z. Long, Shingo Kajimura, Maria Cristina Zingaretti, Birgitte F. Vind, Hua Tu, Saverio Cinti, Kurt Højlund, Steven P. Gygi & Bruce M. Spiegelman; Nature, Published online 11 January 2012; DOI:10.1038/nature10777