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Everyone knows that exercise improves health, and ongoing research continues to uncover increasingly detailed information on its benefits for metabolism, circulation, and improved functioning of organs such as the heart, brain, and liver. With this knowledge in hand, scientists may be better equipped to develop "exercise pills" that could mimic at least some of the beneficial effects of physical exercise on the body. But a review of current development efforts, publishing October 2 in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, ponders whether such pills will achieve their potential therapeutic impact, at least in the near future.
"We have recognized the need for exercise pills for some time, and this is an achievable goal based on our improved understanding of the molecular targets of physical exercise," says coauthor Ismail Laher, of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Several laboratories are developing exercise pills, which at this early stage are being tested in animals to primarily target skeletal muscle performance and improve strength and energy use—essentially producing stronger and faster muscles. But of course the benefits of exercise are far greater than its effects on only muscles.
Couch potatoes would rejoice, of course, but exercise pills could also benefit the bed-ridden or astronauts who spend extended periods in microgravity.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday October 04 2015, @04:50AM
This trend is phenomenally unlikely. For the scientific mind just look at the humans that currently spend their lives as professional atheletes. Performance enchancing drugs have largely been relegated to *slight* changes in metabolic activity. Steroids are poisonous. EPO has side-effects. Many other molecules become toxic by the need for the liver to adapt to break down their metabolites (the secondary reason for steroids being poisonous, surprisingly).
There is a disturbing trend in the media and that includes "scientific pop-sci" type articles to cast being clinically obese as something that can be treated in anyway other than eating less and exercising more. Sure there is a society structure problem (hard to exercise if you are working two jobs and decent food expensive for many), but that doesn't sell newspapers.
The massive irony that the pharmaceutical industry is trying to sell these cataclysmic deleterious molecules while at the same time the political forces are trying to ban naturally occurring ones in any quanitities, should give pause to believe anything along these lines.
Follow the money...