On a near daily basis, the internet spews out numerous tips and tricks for exercise motivation. Now we can add smell to the long and growing list.
A research team led by a scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has found olfaction—or smell—may play an important role in motivating mammals to engage in voluntary exercise.
Performed in lab mice, the study may open up new areas of research and have relevance for humans. Study results appear in PLOS ONE.
“Exercise, which is essential for both physical and mental health, can help prevent obesity and other inactivity-related diseases and disorders in humans,” said Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at UC Riverside and the study’s lead author. “Some people like to exercise more than others do, but why this is so is not well understood.”
Read more of the original article from MedicalXpress
