Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Athletes know a vigorous workout can release a flood of endorphins: "feel-good" hormones that boost mood. Now there's evidence that exercise produces another hormone that may improve memory and protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to a study co-led by Ottavio Arancio, MD, PhD, a researcher at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain.
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
Physical activity is known to improve memory, and studies suggest it may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. But researchers don't understand why.
A few years ago, exercise researchers discovered a hormone called irisin that is released into the circulation during physical activity. Initial studies suggested that irisin mainly played a role in energy metabolism. But newer research found that the hormone may also promote neuronal growth in the brain's hippocampus, a region critical for learning and memory.
"This raised the possibility that irisin may help explain why physical activity improves memory and seems to play a protective role in brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease" says Arancio, who is a professor of pathology and cell biology and of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
How exercise may protect against Alzheimer's
Journal Reference:
- Mychael V. Lourenco, et. al. Exercise-linked FNDC5/irisin rescues synaptic plasticity and memory defects in Alzheimer’s models. Nature Medicine, 2019; 25 (1): 165 DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0275-4
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @10:34PM
Everybody knows it's in Africa. My aunt is a hippo, and she got her degree there.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 09 2019, @11:54PM (2 children)
My new job probably burns at least 500-600 extra calories a day, maybe a lot more, because of all the running up and down the hospital delivering medicine it involves. I'm actively moving pretty much 8 hours straight aside from a lunch or supper break in the middle. It's never faster than a light jog but it's constant. Does this also release irisin, or do you need to get all sweaty and pumped?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday February 10 2019, @03:45AM
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/verdict-feel-good-exercise-hormone-irisin-real/ [iflscience.com]
I'd guess that if one feels good after the exercise, one got the shot.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Sunday February 10 2019, @03:47AM
Well, you gotta ask yourself one question - do I feel good from it? Well, do ya? ;)
(Score: 4, Touché) by deimtee on Sunday February 10 2019, @03:10AM
Can we get this irisin in a pill?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 10 2019, @08:39PM
Exercise produces many other hormone-like chemicals which have receptors all through the body. The research is relatively new, as biology goes, and a great deal remains to be discovered about what they do.