Discovery of 'Exercise Factor' in the Body May Help in Physical Endurance, Muscle Health: Study

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According to Iowa Now, a brand new mouse-model research found out that "exercise hormone" improves muscle health and physical endurance.

The study shows that exercising causes muscles to produce a peptide called musclin. It is the peptide referred to as the exercise hormone or exercise factor. Why? It is because increased musclin circulation is very helpful in improving muscle performance and promoting mitochondria production.

Leonid Zingman, a senior author of the research, a physician scientist at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an internal medicine associate professor at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, said that their research team does not aim to replace the act of exercising by using musclin because. Instead, they want to use the exercise hormone to make exercising easier for people by increasing exercise tolerance.

The Science Daily reported how the research went through. The researchers made mice lacking musclin through genetic engineering. They observed how the mice without musclin differ from the mice with musclin.

The mice they produced through genetic engineering look and act like the usual wild-type mice. However, the difference lies in terms of their exercise tolerance. The mice without the exercise hormone were not able to exercise as hard and as long as the ones with musclin. Therefore, they have lower exercise tolerance.

The researchers also tried to infuse the "exercise factor" peptide back to the mice. Then, they noticed a sudden change when it comes to the capacity of the animals to exercise. According to Ekaterina Subbotina, Ph.D., Zingman's laboratory's post-doctoral scholar, it only took one week for the mice to regain their exercise capacity after infusing the peptide.

When the infusion was done, the researchers observed that the animals can now run faster and longer than before. The mice also increased their voluntary treadmill activity. Aside from these, it has been found out that the musclin also promotes mitochondria production. The research links the improved mitochondria production to an improved aerobic capacity of the mice.

According to Financial Express, increasing physical activity might be very challenging at some times. However, it seems like the "exercise hormone" can help people with increasing their exercise activity.

The results are the data gathered observing and experimenting mice. There is still no proof that it will also have the same effect to people. However, researchers believe and hope for it since it will be a big help in boosting people's exercise capacity.