Discovery Of A New Muscle Hormone Might Allow Benefits Of Exercising To Be Induced

It won't. But it will certainly have side effects.

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say they have isolated a previously unknown hormone they found in muscle cells. They sat that the protein serves as a chemical messenger triggering many of the key health benefits of exercising.

Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, a cell biologist at Dana-Farber, and senior author of the report, published in Nature worked alongside Pontus Bostroöm, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Spiegelman lab.

Bostroöm said :

"It's exciting to find a natural substance connected to exercise that has such clear therapeutic potential."

The hormone which Spiegelman named "Irisin," after Iris, a Greek messenger goddess, could open the door for treatment for people with diabetes, obesity and possibly other disorders, including cancer. It's the first stage in understanding how the body broadcasts the benefits of exercise into positive changes in physiology, and should with further research enable scientists to mimic that effect, both in healthy people and by way of combating disease.

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