How exercise makes the liver make more sugar
Enhanced glucose production in norepinephrine and palmitate stimulated hepatocytes following endurance training
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Fat (palmitate) stimulated glucose production as strongly as the stress hormone norepinephrine.
Most people think only hormones or carbs affect blood sugar — but here, fat alone triggered the liver to make as much glucose as a full adrenaline-level response.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t panic if your fasting glucose is slightly high — if you’re highly active, it might reflect fitness, not prediabetes.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Fat (palmitate) stimulated glucose production as strongly as the stress hormone norepinephrine.
Most people think only hormones or carbs affect blood sugar — but here, fat alone triggered the liver to make as much glucose as a full adrenaline-level response.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t panic if your fasting glucose is slightly high — if you’re highly active, it might reflect fitness, not prediabetes.
Publication
Journal
Frontiers in Physiology
Year
2024
Authors
K. Sumida, Vera M. Lordan, Casey M. Donovan
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Claims (6)
Female rats that did treadmill training for 10 weeks made more glucose in their liver cells, even when resting and without hormones, compared to rats that didn’t train.
Liver cells from female rats that were trained for endurance produce way more sugar when triggered by a stress hormone, compared to liver cells from untrained rats — showing their bodies are better tuned to respond under stress.
In female rats that were trained for endurance, their liver cells used more lactate to make glucose when stimulated, and this extra fuel use completely explains why they made more glucose—meaning the key change was how much lactate got into the cells, not how fast the cells processed it.
After 10 weeks of endurance training, female rat liver cells become more sensitive to a stress hormone called norepinephrine, meaning they start producing more sugar with much smaller amounts of the hormone compared to untrained rats.
In rat liver cells, a type of fat called palmitate boosts sugar production just as much as a stress hormone does, and adding both together doesn’t do more — suggesting they work through the same switch in the cell.