A study found that men who are in the sun eat more
Did you go out for fun in the sun and the boys in the group eliminated the side you brought? A new study by Tel Aviv University finds that exposure to the sun stimulates appetite in men, but not in women.
The skin stimulates appetite
The groundbreaking study was led by Prof. Carmit Levy and doctoral student Shivong Freak from the Department of Molecular Genetics of Man and Biochemistry at the School of Medicine and in collaboration with a long line of researchers from Israel and around the world, including researchers from Ichilov, Assuta, Meir and Tel Hashomer Medical Centers, and Dr. Yiftach Geffner and Dr. Lior Bikovsky from the Faculty of Medicine and Prof. Aharon Waller from Bar Ilan University. The study was published in the prestigious journal Nature Metabolism.
The study was conducted using epidemiological data collected over an entire year on the eating habits of about 3,000 Israeli men and women, through self-reporting of female students who went out to serve, and through parallel genetic research in model animals. The results of the study identify the skin as a first-rate regulator of energy and simple appetite (metabolism) in both model animals and humans.
For women’s attention: Estrogen prevents the feeling of hunger
The study conducted on the model animals deciphers the differences in the activation of the metabolic mechanism between males and females. According to the researchers, both in male model animals and in human males, sun exposure activates a protein called p53 that aims to repair DNA damage to the skin that results from exposure. Activation of p53 signals the body to secrete a hormone called ghrelin – which stimulates appetite. Estrogen inhibits the interaction between p53 and ghrelin, so they do not feel the need to eat after sun exposure.
The researchers explain that there are dramatic metabolic differences between the sexes that affect their health and behavior, but to date it has not been clear whether males and females respond differently to environmental triggers, such as exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
“We examined the differences between women and men after sun exposure and found that men eat more than women because their appetite increases. This is the first time that the molecular relationship between UV exposure and appetite has been deciphered, and of course the first time a sex-based medical study has been conducted on UV exposure. “Sex-based medical studies are much more complex, and require twice as many subjects to find the differences with statistical significance,” explains Prof. Levy.
“We humans have shed our fur, which means that our skin, which is considered the largest tissue in the body, is exposed to signals from the environment. The protein p53 in the skin, designed to deal with the genetic damage of sun exposure, not only repairs the damage but also signals us “The winter is over and we went out in the sun, maybe even to prepare for the breeding season (but that’s another topic for research).
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