Don't feel like exercise? Scientists find compound
that may help you work out harder June 12, 2012 in Medical research As science rushes to develop
safe weight loss drugs, a new research report approaches this problem from an
entirely new angle: What if there were a pill that would make you want to
exercise harder? It may sound strange, but a new research report appearing
online in The FASEB Journal suggests that it might be possible. That's because
a team of Swiss researchers found that when a hormone in the brain,
erythropoietin (Epo), was elevated in mice, they were more motivated to
exercise. In addition, the form of erythropoietin used in these experiments did
not elevate red blood cell counts. Such a treatment has obvious benefits for a
wide range of health problems ranging from Alzheimer's to obesity, including
mental health disorders for which increased physical activity is known to
improve symptoms. "Here we show that Epo increases the motivation to
exercise," said Max Gassmann, D.V.M., a researcher involved in the work
from the Institute of Veterinary Physiology , Vetsuisse-Faculty and Zurich Center
for Integrative Human Physiology at the University
of Zurich in Switzerland . "Most probably,
Epo has a general effect on a person's mood and might be used in patients
suffering from depression and related diseases." To make this discovery,
Gassmann and colleagues used three types of mice: those that received no
treatment, those that were injected with human Epo, and those that were
genetically modified to produce human Epo in the brain. Compared to the mice
that did not have any increase in Epo, both mouse groups harboring human Epo in
the brain showed significantly higher running performance without increases in
red blood cells. "If you can't put exercise in a pill, then maybe you can
put the motivation to exercise in a pill instead," said Gerald Weissmann,
M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "As more and more people
become overweight and obese, we must attack the problem from all angles. Maybe
the day will come when gyms are as easily found as fast food restaurants."
More information: Beat Schuler, Johannes Vogel, Beat Grenacher, Robert A.
Jacobs, Margarete Arras, and Max Gassmann. Acute and chronic elevation of
erythropoietin in the brain improves exercise performance in mice without inducing
erythropoiesis. FASEB J. doi:10.1096/fj.11-191197
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