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.”

Acute and chronic elevation of erythropoietin in the brain improves exercise performance in mice without inducing erythropoiesis

Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology