Spanish researchers want to get rid of the desire to exercise

Regular exercise, along with diet, is one of the fundamental principles of a healthy lifestyle. reach old age with a good quality of life. People who engage in moderate exercise tend to have greater muscle mass, denser and stronger bones, fewer mobility problems, and therefore greater independence, especially as they get older. In addition, sport brings a sense of well-being because of the release of endorphins. But despite the huge benefits, starting to exercise is difficult.

To exercise regularly, you need to develop a habit. It all starts with small actions that will require a lot of effort at first, but gradually we will be able to do them almost automatically. This period of adaptation varies greatly among each of us. While some people can develop a habit in as little as 15 days, others need several months for their body to adapt to the new situation. Now, the National Cancer Research Center believes that in the future, we may skip this period.

To this end, the Metabolic Disease Organ Interactions Group, led by researcher Guadalupe Sabio, is studying how different organs relate to each other. In one of his latest studies, published in the journal Achievements of Science They were able to demonstrate how exercise activates two proteins called p38α and p38γ. Of the two, p38γ is particularly interesting because it induces the production of IL-15. The researchers suspect that IL-15 is able to alter the activity of the cerebral cortex and promote the desire to play sports spontaneously.

In other words, they found a mechanism by which, when performing the exercise, the muscle tells the brain that it wants to do it againIn the future, they hope to use this knowledge to turn it into a drug that could “hack” the brain into wanting to exercise.

Obesity is a public health problem

The latest data from a study carried out by the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition in collaboration with the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Institute of Health in 2020 show that 55.8% of the adult population in Spain is overweight.. Of these, 18.7% are obese and 4.9% are severely obese. In lower income groups, lower education levels and smaller municipalities, these figures are even higher. Thus, the statistics show inequality in exposure to factors that lead to excess weightsuch as access to healthy food, the means to exercise, or free time to exercise.

But this health problem also has major economic consequences. According to 2022 data, the fight against the consequences obesity in the population and associated diseases account for up to 9.7% spent health of the country, and this figure has increased every year since records have been kept. This figure can be significantly reduced by regular exercise, since, as noted by a professor of public health at the Juan Carlos Alfonso Jimenez University of Madrid: “A person who is active five days a week costs 23% less per year to the health care system.”

Doing sports is not that easy

But while the data shows the importance of exercise, many people still struggle to get started and maintain the habit over time. So one of their next steps is to synthesize a drug that mimics the action of p38γ, or IL-15. That way, they could create a kind of “switch” that stimulates the desire to exercise.

But before these studies can be considered, they need to confirm whether IL-15 is indeed the molecule that plays the most important role in regulating the desire to exercise. So far, previous studies have shown that this cytokine (IL-15) plays a very important role in innate and cellular immunity. This is especially true in celiac disease, where experiments in mice have shown that blocking it can prevent the intestinal damage caused by the disease.

That’s why, Developing this switch is still a distant idea and will have to overcome some very important hurdles. For now, Dr. Sabio says the next step is to first find out which sports activate this newly discovered signaling pathway and whether they have the same effect on obese people and athletes. The results may also be very useful for people with other metabolic disorders.

Fighting obesity on all fronts

The drug proposed by CNIO may join the already known ones in the future semaglutide-based treatmentsuch as Ozempic and Wegoby, which are currently used for weight loss in severe cases of obesity. These drugs were originally developed to treat type II diabetes, but due to their stimulating effect on insulin production and glucagon inhibition, one of their side effects is decreased appetite. For this reason, it has recently begun to be used for weight loss, although not without great controversy.

The case with these drugs is similar to what happened with Sidenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.which was originally intended to treat angina. Because of one of its side effects (it caused erections in adult men), it was used for other purposes.

Unification decreased appetite with incentive to exercisepeople who are at high risk of obesity-related health problems will have a better chance of beating the disease. By increasing their arsenal of drugs, they will be able to control the two most important factors when it comes to weight gain. Now that we are firmly on our feet, we still have a long way to go, so The best treatment for obesity remains preventionboth at the individual and social level.