A team of researchers in the United States has found that a chemical compound formed in the body during exercise suppresses the feeling of hunger in the brain.
Researchers from a group of American universities and research institutions, including Stanford University School of Medicine and the Dan Duncan Neurological Research Foundation in Texas, found that the chemical compound “Lac Phe,” which the body secretes during exercise, suppresses the feeling of hunger by affecting nerve cells in the brain.
They stressed that this discovery may help in finding new treatments for the problem of obesity and overweight.
During the study published in the scientific journal Nature Metabolism, which specializes in metabolic diseases, the researchers found, after conducting a series of tests on laboratory rats, that physical exertion reduces appetite in rats and helps in weight loss.
Researcher Yang He, an assistant professor specializing in neurology at the Dan Duncan Research Foundation, says: “Practicing regular exercise is an effective way to lose weight and prevent obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease,” adding in statements to the website Scitech Daily, which specializes in scientific research, that “exercise helps in losing weight by increasing the amount of energy that the body consumes, but there are likely other mechanisms.” It helps in this process as well.”
“We investigated how the brain regulates appetite and feeding behaviors, and found that Lac Phe is important in helping people who need to lose weight,” Yang explained.
The researchers found that this chemical compound works directly on AgRP neurons located in the hypothalamus in the brain, which are responsible for activating the feeling of hunger, and reduces their activity, allowing the activation of another type of nerve cell that gives a feeling of fullness and is called PVH cells.
Although this study focused on mice, the results it reached are considered promising for humans, with the need to conduct more research to learn more about the role of the Lac Phe compound in various metabolic problems such as obesity or thinness, and to understand how the brain deals with the feeling of hunger, so that these results can be used for therapeutic purposes in the future.