Imagine if you never had to step foot inside a gym ever again. With a new "exercise-in-a-pill", you may be able to get fit without doing any training. Welcome to the future!
Research at Salk Institute found that a fitness pill enhanced athletic endurance by 70 percent.
But before we cry "that's just going to make people lazy!" it's important to note that scientists hope the pill will help mobility-limited people and the elderly get essential exercise.
How was the discovery made?
Previous research found that running triggers a particular gene pathway. In the new study, a team figured out how to activate the pathway in mice using a chemical compound. This mimics the health benefits of exercise, without a single step being taken.
Published in Cell Metabolism journal, the study shows that we could one day soon be popping a pill to burn fat and vastly improve fitness.
Senior author Ronald Evans from Howard Hughes Medical Institute explains:
"It's well known that people can improve their aerobic endurance through training.
"The question for us was: how does endurance work? And if we really understand the science, can we replace training with a drug?"
What were the results?
A group of (hopefully well-treated) lab mice were used to test this hypothesis. One group of mice was given a high dose of a chemical compound called GW1516, which the team already knew mimicked the health benefits of exercise (by activating a gene pathway called PPARD).
They took the compound for eight weeks, and were then put through a series of treadmill tests to assess their endurance.
The control mice – the ones who weren't given the compound – ran for 160 minutes before reaching peak exhaustion. The mice that took the drug ran for 70% longer – 270 minutes.
Co-author Michael Downes said, "This study suggests that burning fat is less a driver of endurance than a compensatory mechanism to conserve glucose.
"PPARD is suppressing all the points that are involved in sugar metabolism in the muscle so glucose can be redirected to the brain, thereby preserving brain function."
Another author of the study said they've shown you can get the same results without "mechanical training". That means we could all one day improve our endurance without lifting a finger.
Originally published on Sep 23, 2017
