SDU with the surprising discovery of a new hormone. The results have just been published in the international journal Nature.

Eat a pill and lose weight without exercise. This might be the future, after the scientists have discovered a hormone that is naturally secreted into the blood after a period of training. It's Kurt Højlund, Associate Professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Southern Denmark, which together with an international research group has demonstrated that the muscles of the body secretes the hormone irisin as a result of training. The hormone has been shown to be co-responsible for the body's energy metabolism increases naturally after weeks of training. So far, the experiments have only been carried out on mice, but scientists are investigating the corresponding ratio in humans. - We suspect that the same applies to humans. If so, you can begin to develop a treatment that affects the body's energy metabolism in the same way as naturally happens after a period of training. With such a treatment will potentially be able to lose weight without exercising, says Kurt Højlund, who conducted the Danish contribution to the study.

Can be big step in obesity fight

It's not new knowledge that the energy grows when you've been training for a while. But this is the first time ever that researchers have demonstrated the existence of the hormone irisin, which appears to play a major role in the altered energy metabolism. The hormone activates a program in the white fat cells, which convert it into something resembling brown adipose tissue. Unlike white fat cells have brown fat a number of positive qualities, and therefore it will be a big step in the obesity fight, if you can increase the amount of brown-like adipose tissue in adult humans. - It is a great advantage that irsisin is a naturally occurring hormone. It increases the likelihood that you will be able to provide it in sufficient quantities to achieve an effect, without causing side effects, says Kurt Højlund, who besides being a clinical associate professor at University of Southern Denmark is also chief physician at Odense Univeristetshospital. The Danish researchers have contributed with muscle biopsies and blood samples from healthy subjects who have trained for 10 weeks associated with another study at the university.

Will also be able to help against type 2 diabetes

Preliminary results indicate that irisin would also decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The results are published in the internationally renowned journal Nature. Source: SDU