A recent study on whole body vibration (that can be read by clicking here) was able to demonstrate an increase in the hormone irisin during a single session of use. For those of you who missed that post, irisin is a hormone that is produced by skeletal muscle under the influence of exercise that may be, in a large part, responsible for the positive effects of exercise on overall health.
Based on this knowledge on the role of irisin on chronic disease, this particular study looked at the relationship between irisin levels of the risk of chronic disease in centenarians.
These healthy 100+ year olds had their irisin levels compared to young healthy adults and young adults who had developed heart disease earlier than they should have. Here’s the levels they found:
- The highest levels of irisin were in disease-free centenarians (35.3 ng/mL).
- The next highest levels were in young healthy controls (20.7 ng/mL).
- The lowest levels were found in the young patients who had experienced a heart attack (15.1 ng/mL).
I’m not entirely sure what this means, but I will definitely keep my ears open for any future studies on irisin and how we many maintain or increase our irisin levels (beside, as previously mentioned, using a whole body vibration unit…).
