Thoughts Alone Start Glucose Metabolism
Reported December 04, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Just the thought of dessert may encourage your muscles to start taking up more blood sugar.
A new study shows a chemical in the brain called orexin plays an important role in regulating glucose metabolism, and that anticipation alone can activate the process.
Researchers injected rats with orexin-A and found the injection increased glucose uptake and storage in skeletal muscle. The sympathetic nervous system also demonstrated an important role: When the researchers lacked receptors for orexin in the sympathetic nervous system, the glucose metabolism process was blunted.
When mice were conditioned to expect the sweet taste of saccharin, the orexin- sympathetic nervous system process started promoting glucose uptake. In addition, researchers found mice lacking the gene for orexin were less interested in sweets than normal mice.
In addition to possibly controlling and coordinating both feeding behavior and muscle glucose metabolism, orexin is known to play a role in active wakefulness.
Source: Cell Metabolism, December 2009