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The ups and downs of insulin resistance
When you’re insulin resistant, that is, you’ve got metabolic syndrome, pretty much every chemical in the body is NOT QUITE RIGHT. Some are up. Some are down. Few are actually at physiologically NORMAL levels.
Traditionally the focus is on the big guns.
- Sugar
- Insulin
- And cholesterol
In this series, we take a look at some of the other players.
Who they are, what they’re up to and how they’re part of the state of insulin resistance.
This week, we feature Irisin.
Irisin is typically lower in someone with metabolic problems.
So who is irisin ?
Irisin, is named after the Greek goddess, Iris. In Greek mythology, iris was the messenger of the gods, she typically delivered bad news.
In the body, she is an 112 amino acid hormone, derived as a product of fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5).
Irisin, is dispatched by skeletal and cardiac muscles, when they’re IN a spot of TROUBLE.
Specifically, they’ve been called upon to push and pull, like crazy and they’re finding it tough going, because they are suffering an energy crunch.
The message goes forth, to all and sundry……………….
Irisin’s dispatch, brings relief to the stressed out muscle…………. she facilitates the uptake of glucose.
Allowing the muscle to keep going, a little bit longer.
So where does the fuel come from ?
At this stage, how the message is “heard” is still a bit of a mystery, but among the cells, that pick up the “distress” signal, are fat cells.
It sparks them to up their game.
After all, situations like this, is what FAT CELLS live for……
Fat cells heed the call
They’ve spent their days, squirreling away resources – now when muscles call, they’re ready.
They pull out all the stops.
Switching from being fat storers, to fat burners.
Now to do this, requires some major changes in their chemistry. Mitochondrial enzyme activity sky rockets, so do mitochondrial numbers.
And fat cells with more mitochondria, look and act, a little different.
The transformation is described as “browning”…..
Fat cells firing on all four cyclinders
It’s a good thing !
For muscles and for waist lines………………
So, although irisin is BAD news for muscle, it’s good news for metabolic health. Mice given recombinant irisin shots, show improvements body chemistry.
Bone and muscle mass increases and irisin shows, anti-diabetic , anti-hypertensive and anti-depressant activity,
So is irisin-based therapy coming soon ?
Probably, lots of research groups around the world, are working create these.
If you are metabolically challenged, getting more irisin, should be on your shopping list. But you don’t need to wait for big pharma, to get more. You can do it yourself !
Things to do, to dispatch irisin
Since freaked out muscles are the source of irisin, to get more, you need to get more muscle and you need to make the muscle you’ve got, work HARD, in the moment.
Multiple studies have shown, irisin levels increase when you exercise hard or VIBRATE. The increase doesn’t last terribly long, but it does good things, in the long run.
Effect of an acute exercise bout on immediate post-exercise irisin concentration in adults: A meta-analysis. Scand J Med Sci Sports. (2018) 28:16–28. J. Fox, B. V. Rioux, E. D. B. Goulet, N. M. Johanssen, D. L. Swift, D. R. Bouchard, H. Loewen, M. Sénéchal.
A review of the role of irisin in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Journal of Pharmacopuncture (2017) 20(4) : 235 -242. Mamo Gizaw, Pandi Anandakumar, Tolessa Debela
Further reading
Metabolic syndrome is not a fat thing, it’s a muscle thing
Teens with metabolic syndrome, that are not obese are slightly muscle deficient. Obese teens also have low muscle mass – suggesting metabolic syndrome is a muscle thing
Exercising muscles don’t burn fat, so is exercising for weight loss pointless ?
Burning fat, is by definition an oxidation reaction i.e. it needs OXYGEN. The unpleasant reality, the harder you’re exercising, the less oxygen is available.
More muscle knocks out insulin resistance
Insulin resistance happens when your cells hire a locksmith to change the locks on the glucose gates. Muscle building tires out the locksmith knocking out IR.