Research
Hormonal
Irisin acts as an insulin-sensitizing hormone that facilitates glucose uptake in skeletal muscle and improves hepatic glucose metabolism, potentially reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Exercise improves glucose metabolism through multiple pathways, including irisin-mediated effects. Do not expect irisin supplementation to cure diabetes. Focus on resistance and aerobic exercise to naturally support insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Irisin facilitates glucose uptake by skeletal muscles, improves hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism, having a positive effect on hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia caused by obesity and metabolic syndrome... acts as an insulin sensitizing hormone.
Why this rating
Mechanistic evidence is strong in animals, but human clinical outcomes regarding diabetes prevention are mixed and observational.
Source
Irisin: A Hope in Understanding and Managing Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
Lidia Iuliana Arhire et al. · Frontiers in Endocrinology · 2019
DOI 10.3389/fendo.2019.00524
narrative_reviewCited 304×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Exercise-induced irisin promotes the browning of white adipose tissue and increases energy expenditure, offering a potential therapeutic mechanism for managing obesity and metabolic syndrome.Moderate
- Irisin has anti-inflammatory properties in adipose tissue, suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokines and promoting the switching of macrophages from a pro-inflammatory (M1) to an anti-inflammatory (M2) state.Moderate
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