Soon, drugs that make people more willing to exercise

London, June 3 (ANI): Scientists from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts are working on developing a drug that would one day encourage people to exercise.

In the study conducted using mouse model, researchers showed that very overweight mice doubled their amount of physical activity after hormone leptin - which regulates appetite - was switched on in their brain.

The study mice were genetically engineered to lack the ability to respond to leptin.

However, when the leptin sensitivity was restored to a single class of their brain cells, their blood sugar levels rose and they also increased their exercise levels.

"This gives us the opportunity to search for drugs that might induce the desire or will to voluntarily exercise," the Telegraph quoted Dr Christian Bjorbaek, an endocrinologist Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, as saying.

Although they remained obese, the mice began eating about 30 per cent less calories and lost a modest amount of weight.

The results of the study were published in the Cell Metabolism journal. (ANI)