Activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness is referred to as exercise. However, it is performed for various reasons, including development, increasing growth, preventing aging, perfecting athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, also just for enjoyment, as previously mentioned when indicating the best protection against aging. Here Dr. Joseph Mercola, Mercola.com, reflects on ‘exercise hormone':

 

 “While diet has the greatest impact on your weight, exercise is an important part of the total equation. It’s the ultimate levering agent for optimal health too. Exercise influences your biology in so many ways, it’s virtually impossible to pin down its benefits to one particular thing.

That said, recent research suggests a fat-burning hormone, released during exercise, plays a role.^1,2,3,4 This hormone, irisin (aka, FNDC5), helps your body shed fat and keeps body fat from forming in the first place. As reported by Epoch Times:⁵

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“Irisin appears to work by boosting the activity of genes and a protein that are crucial to turning white fat cells into brown cells. It also significantly increases the amount of energy used by those cells, indicating it has a role in burning fat.”

Tests show irisin is able to suppress fat cell formation by 20 to 60 percent. Normally, your body produces only small quantities of irisin. Exercise is the key to boosting its production.

Fat-Busting Hormone Also Improves Heart Function and More

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Previous research into the effects of irisin — which is also classified as a myokine,⁶ meaning a cytokine or chemical messenger produced by muscle — suggests it has a number of beneficial health effects, including:⁷

• • Reducing arterial plaque buildup by preventing the accumulation of inflammatory cells, hence lowering your risk of atherosclerosis
  • Increasing the metabolic rate and energy expenditure in your myocardium (the thickest layer of your heart muscle)
  • Increasing mitochondrial biogenesis
  • Inducing telomere elongation in cells.⁸ In humans, telomere length and integrity plays a role in diseases, disease susceptibility and aging.

Short telomeres are a risk factor for many diseases, including decreased immune function, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, atherosclerotic lesions and DNA damage.

Irisin May Improve Diagnosis of Common Endocrine Disorder

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Interestingly, irisin may also be used as a marker for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in teenage girls.⁹ As such, it may allow doctors to diagnose the condition easier and result in earlier treatment.

PCOS¹⁰ is the most common endocrine and metabolic disease affecting women of reproductive age (puberty to menopause). An estimated 10 to 20 percent of women of reproductive age struggle with this problem.

While many of the symptoms involve the ovaries, these abnormalities are the result of a much larger metabolic problem. Common criteria for a diagnosis of PCOS include:

• The complete or almost complete lack of ovulation
• Increased androgen (male hormone) production; facial hair and/or acne
• Obesity
• Hyperinsulinemia (insulin resistance with elevated serum insulin levels)

Any hormone problem that interferes with normal ovulation results in what is known as a “polycystic” ovary which, regardless of the cause, will produce increased amounts of androgen. Conversely, increased androgen production interferes with normal ovulation.

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Evidence suggests obesity plays a role in the androgen excess syndrome; overweight women produce increased androgens even if they have no underlying abnormality in the adrenal gland.

Dr. John Lee, who has written about PCOS on my website, also believes in utero exposure to xenobiotics — environmental pollutants that mimic estrogen — can be a causative factor.

Teens With PCOS Tend to Have Higher Irisin Levels

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In the current study, presented at the Annual European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology Meeting,¹¹ Greek researchers compared the hormone panels of 23 teenage girls diagnosed with PCOS with those of 17 healthy girls of the same age and body mass index (BMI).

Those with PCOS had significantly higher levels of irisin, which in turn was associated with higher levels of testosterone (a marker of PCOS). Next, the researchers will investigate the actual role irisin plays in the condition, with the hopes it might improve and expand treatment options.

One important treatment strategy is to dramatically reduce your net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber), as this is foundational for weight loss and insulin sensitivity. Since insulin resistance is a central issue in PCOS, cutting back on added sugars and grains will help control the disease.

I believe the foundational issue with PCOS is severely diminished insulin receptor sensitivity. If you can restore that with fasting and nutritional ketosis, the problem should resolve.

Optimizing your vitamin D is another important step, and progesterone may be helpful. You can read more about this in Lee’s article on PCOS.¹²

The Benefits of Brown Fat

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Getting back to the main focus of this article, irisin appears to be an important player in weight loss associated with exercise. As mentioned, a key part of this benefit is due to its ability to transform white fat cells into brown fat cells, the latter of which primarily burn energy rather than storing it.”

To stay healthy, there are specific steps to follow that’ll increase life expectancy. Exercise, which is considered one way to extend life. The Body Reboot book reveals how a low carb, high fat diet can improve health. Keep reading to learn about additional ways to increase life expectancy and improve your health.

 

Read More … Article Source: https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2016/10/21/irisin-exercise-hormone.aspx

 

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