We all know exercise has all sorts of benefits beyond just making us stronger and fitter. It lowers and inflammation. It buffers stress and anxiety. It clarifies our thinking. In fact, regular exercise is one of the few things we know with reasonable confidence can help extend our healthy lifespan.

But for all the evidence of the benefits of exercise, it's a bit surprising that we don't know more about how exercise does all these great things for our bodies and our brains.

Today's guest, Jonathan Long, recently discovered a new molecule produced when we exercise a compound called Lac-Phe. Lac-Phe appears to be linked to a number of health benefits from regulating appetite to boosting learning and memory.

Long is a chemist by training — and an institute scholar of Sarafan ChEM-H, the Institute for Chemistry Engineering and Medicine for Human Health, our sister institute here at Stanford. So I started our conversation by asking him how his background as a chemist informs how he thinks about studying exercise and human health.

NOTE: Thanks to everyone who's tuned in to our first season! We're going to take a break for the summer to get ready for next season, but we'll have more tales from the frontiers of brain science for you in the fall.

Learn More

Organism-wide, cell-type-specific secretome mapping of exercise training in mice (Cell Metabolism, 2023)

Understanding how different cell types respond to exercise could be key step toward exercise as medicine (Wu Tsai Human performance Alliance, 2023)

An exercise-inducible metabolite that suppresses feeding and obesity (Nature, 2022)

‘Anti-hunger’ molecule forms after exercise, scientists discover (Stanford Medicine)
Why Does a Hard Workout Make You Less Hungry? (New York Times)
An exercise molecule? (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology blog)

Mechanistic dissection and therapeutic capture of an exercise-inducible metabolite signaling pathway for brain resilience (Innovation Award from the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute)

Episode Credits
This episode was produced by Michael Osborne, with production assistance by Morgan Honaker, and hosted by Nicholas Weiler. Art by Aimee Garza.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Exercise and the brain

From Our Neurons to Yours

Exercise and the brain