Research
Hormonal
Exercise-induced skeletal muscle secretion of IL-6 mediates metabolic crosstalk, specifically enhancing glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation within muscle and stimulating hepatic glucose production during exercise.
Regular exercise triggers your muscles to release IL-6, which helps your muscles use more glucose and fat for energy and signals your liver to release glucose when needed. This hormonal communication is a key reason why exercise improves metabolic health beyond just burning calories.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
It is well documented that IL-6 increases both basal glucose uptake as well as glucose transporter GLUT4 translocation... IL-6 signaling within the muscle can affect both glucose uptake or whole body fatty acid oxidation via AMPK activation... Muscle-derived IL-6 plays a role in triggering glucose output from the liver during exercise in humans.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple human infusion studies, clamp studies, and rodent models, though specific dosing varies.
Source
Muscle–Organ Crosstalk: The Emerging Roles of Myokines
Mai Charlotte Krogh Severinsen et al. · Endocrine Reviews · 2020
DOI 10.1210/endrev/bnaa016
narrative_reviewCited 1,092×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Exercise-induced secretion of myokines like IL-6, BDNF, Cathepsin B, and Irisin mediates muscle-brain crosstalk, promoting hippocampal neurogenesis, cognitive function, and potentially protecting against neurodegenerative diseases.Good
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