Have you ever found yourself in a dilemma of whether to go for a workout at the gym or enjoy a rich strawberry milkshake treat? Many of us face this question, and the details of the processes happening in our brains in this situation remain a secret for a long time. Still, thanks to the research conducted by scientists from ETH Zurich, at least some responses have already been given. They discovered that a brain chemical called orexin is central to making such choices.
Importance of Understanding Orexin
This discovery is quite important in today’s context of the escalating and dreadful statistics associated with physical inactivity and obesity. The World Health Organization show that 80% of adolescents and 27% of adults fail to get adequate exercise. The given types of non-communicable diseases are increasing today not only in the adult population but also among children and adolescents. Knowledge of how the brain decides between exercise and caloric excess may help treat these worrisome worldwide health trends.
I chose Professor Denis Burdakov and his team a the ETH Zurich University to study because they are researching orexin – a brain chemical that is not very well explored. Preceding studies have disclosed the contribution of other chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin in behaviour and motivation, nevertheless, orexin’s part has remained virtually unknown. For example, dopamine is required for motivation and enjoyment in general. But it does not touch on the reasons why one would opt for a very intense session of exercise as opposed to a yummy dessert or the reverse. But, this is where orexin comes into the picture.
Findings from Mouse Experiments
In their mouse experiments, Burdakov and his colleagues devised situations where have to run on a wheel or drink a strawberry-flavoured, sweetened milkshake. But as any author would expect, mice with a healthy orexin system were more active playing the treadmill and less time on consuming the milkshake. On the other hand, when the Oreoxin system was inhibited either pharmacologically or genetically, the mice ate the milkshake preferentially and reduced its locomotion. This implies that orexin is useful in decision-making processes especially when one is between a knife’s edge for instance between exercising or taking a hearty meal.
Orexin’s Role in Decision-Making
It’s even more interesting that the behaviour of the mice didn’t alter in situations when there was only one possible choice. However, when the mice had only the running wheel or only the milkshake with them, the orexin status did not have any impact on them. This means that what orexin does not regulate is general activity or food intake, but where there is the option of both, it assists in choosing between them.
These finding have numerous implications. Therefore, if orexin has a similar function in people, it could result in the development of new methods to tackle obesity and encourage exercise. For example, interventions could be developed to facilitate carefully the orexin activity in persons who cannot make the right decision between choosing physical movement and consumption of unhealthy food. Especially for people who have no exercise routine or spend many hours in front of the computer, this could provide great benefits for anyone who is at risk of obesity.
The Potential of Orexin Research
The next step in the researchers’ pipeline is to replicate these observations in human beings. An option would be to assess preclinical populations with abnormally low orexin activity levels like patients suffering from narcolepsy – a condition that results from a shortage of orexin neuropeptides. Another approach could be to look at the impact of sleep-promoting drugs that antagonise orexin, which are in use today to treat sleep disorders.
This study’s co-author, Professor Daria Peleg-Raibstein, thus underlines the potential of such results in helping to create better health interventions, stressing the results of the research. If we were to decode the function of this protein, it would be possible to make individuals stand up from their couches instead of indulging themselves in sweets, Eating is a crucial process in sustaining our bodies, but given the increasing occurrences of obesities all over the world, we must decode the function of this protein called orexin so that people could get up from their couches instead of going for sweets.
All in all, the next time you are sitting on the crossroads of exercise vs eating junk, there could be a tiny brain chemical known as orexin nudging it. This fascinating research not only enlightens the daily choices that we make today but also can help enhance the standard of living for millions or even billions of people around the world. More discoveries are yet to be made by scientists as they further investigate the realm of orexin in human society.
