What happen when we exercise and what do Myokines have to do with it?
Many of us have heard at one point in our lives the importance of exercise either from a family member, medical professional, or even social influencers. Because obesity has increased over the last two decades the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that 1.9 billion adults were considered overweight and near a third of the population is obese. It is generally recommended for an adult to engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity daily. Interestingly enough we can all agree that physical activity is essential for a healthy life, but do we understand how it really helps us internally? Although there are many underlying processes that our body goes through when exercising I’m here to tell you about some wonderful friends our body produces during increased exercise and how they help us lead a healthier life and aid our metabolism!
The wonderful myokines are defined as cytokines and peptides which are released by muscle fibers during exercise when our muscles contract. They were first introduced with this term by a Swedish scientist in 2003. There are over 600 of them and are considered to be part of our skeletal muscle (an endocrine secreting organ) which makes up 40% of our body mass and is also heavily involved in movement that helps us exercise. One of the main responsibilities of Myokines is autocrine regulation (signaling) muscles when in use and influencing metabolic processes. It also affects some other major organs including our liver, brain and adipose tissue. Though it seems odd that something released by our skeletal muscle would influence our metabolic system it can significantly improve it, so let’s take a deeper dive into how it actually does so.
With so many different types of myokines there is so much that can be studied as each of them carry different functions, but one in particular has caught a lot of attention. Interleukin-6 which was found around the 2000’s and is first secreted from the muscles into the blood vessels that allows communication with peripheral and central organs. The action produced by interleukin-6 is mostly seen post-exercise and has been said that acts very similarly to insulin on our glucose metabolism. It promotes insulin-stimulated glucose disposal as well as glucose uptake.
Lastly let’s say we had a meal which would allow us to store certain nutrients and helps us for our run later. When this goes through our system, we are able to store glucose in our muscles and liver for later use. Now we are ready for our run, after some prolonged exercise our muscles are contracting and releasing myokines! They are going to be actively aiding with promoting insulin sensitivity because they are also contributing a process called glucose oxidation. This process helps us take that stored glucose and break it down into energy or ATP. Not only do myokines help with regulating our muscles during exercise they also protect us against low-grade inflammatory diseases like type 2 diabetes, metabolic system, insulin resistance, etc.
The body itself is a very complex bundle of systems that work hard every day and even harder when we exercise. But now we can see a bit more on how implementing exercise in our everyday lives can be a very beneficial tool to use for health benefits and preventative care. Myokines are also a still very early discovery and being actively studied as many of them exist and serve a different purpose. Hopefully with this we are able to know more about the effects of exercise on the body and find much more benefits we are able to gain by simply engaging in physical activity.
Graf, Christine, and Nina Ferrari. “Metabolic Health — The Role of Adipo-Myokines.” PubMed Central, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6941068/#:~:text=The%20release%20of%20myokines%20from,metabolic%20syndrome%2C%20and%20many%20others.
“How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 June 2022, www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm.
Lee, Jong Han, and Hee-sook Jun. Role of Myokines in Regulating Skeletal Muscle Mass and Function, National Library of Medicine , www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6363662/.
Huh JY. The role of exercise-induced myokines in regulating metabolism. Arch Pharm Res. 2018 Jan;41(1):14–29. doi: 10.1007/s12272–017–0994-y. Epub 2017 Nov 25. PMID: 29177585.
