Can exercise replace alcohol cravings?
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When people exercise as part of a treatment for alcohol abuse disorder it reduces their volume of alcohol consumption. But why? One reason may be FGF21. FGF21 – a hormone produced during vigorous exercise – prevents cravings for alcohol and animal studies suggest it may even be used as a drug to treat excessive alcohol use.
In this short video, I discuss...
- Why vigorous exercise matters
- The brain's reward system as a target of treatment
- What type of exercise produces the most FGF21?
- How FGF21 as a drug reduced alcohol consumption in mice and monkeys – by as much as 50 percent
- Why this mechanism may have evolved to protect the liver
- Is exercise effective as an adjunct treatment for alcohol use disorder?
- Concluding thoughts
A hormone produced during exercise influences reward-seeking behavior.
FGF21 is typically produced in the liver and fatty tissue, where it controls many aspects of metabolism. But FGF21 is also produced in working muscles.
Research shows that FGF21 can cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to receptors in the hypothalamus. It also alters dopamine signaling – a key process in the brain's reward pathways and alcohol-seeking behavior.
In this short video, I present evidence from two FGF21-related studies – one in humans, and the other in animals.
The human study showed that vigorous exercise boosts FGF21 production. The animal study went a step further. It showed that injected FGF21 alters alcohol consumption behaviors in both mice and monkeys – implying that FGF21 is involved in telling our brains when we should stop drinking alcohol. It also implies that giving FGF21 as a drug may decrease alcohol consumption.
Drinking alcohol increases a person's risk for many chronic diseases. Vigorous exercise might be the perfect thing to do when taking a break from alcohol.
Longer endurance aerobic exercise seems to be most effective at producing higher levels of FGF21, coinciding with anecdotes you might have heard from runners who have successfully used exercise in this sort of way.
Relevant publications
- Flippo, Kyle H., et al. "FGF21 supresses alcohol consumption through amygdalo-striatal circuit."Cell metabolism 34.2 (2022): 317-328.
- Claflin, Kristin E., et al. "Pharmacological FGF21 signals to glutamatergic neurons to enhance leptin action and lower body weight during obesity."Molecular metabolism 64 (2022): 101564.
- Morville, Thomas et al. "Divergent effects of resistance and endurance exercise on plasma bile acids, FGF19, and FGF21 in humans."JCI insight 3.15 (2018).
- Lardier, David T., et al. "Exercise as a useful intervention to reduce alcohol consumption and improve physical fitness in individuals with alcohol use disorder: A systemic review and meta-analysis." Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021): 2465.
- Schmolesky, Matthew T. David L. Webb and Rodney A. Hansen. "The effects of aerobic exercise intensity and duration on levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in healthy men." Journal of sports science & medicine 12.3 (2013): 502.
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Why vigorous exercise matters
-
The brain's reward system as a target of treatment
-
What type of exercise produces the most FGF21?
-
How FGF21 as a drug reduced alcohol consumption in mice and monkeys – by as much as 50 percent
-
Why this mechanism may have evolved to protect the liver
-
Is exercise effective as an adjunct treatment for alcohol use disorder?
-
Concluding thoughts
A type of protein that acts on neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems. BDNF is a type of neurotrophin – or growth factor – that controls and promotes the growth of new neurons. It is active in the hippocampus, cortex, cerebellum, and basal forebrain – areas involved in learning, long term memory, and executive function. Rodent studies suggest that lactate, one of many so-called exerkines, mediates some of the benefits of exercise on learning and memory via inducing neuronal BDNF expression.[1] Exercise in combination with heat stress increases BDNF more effectively than exercise alone.[2] BDNF is a profoundly universal point of convergence for mechanistically explaining essentially all known activities that promote brain health.
A hormone produced primarily in the liver that plays important roles in energy homeostasis and metabolism. FGF21 acts via a paracrine effect, a form of cell-cell signaling. Evidence suggests that FGF21 delays thymic involution, thereby serving as a pro-longevity hormone.[1]
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