We’ve been hearing about this modern marvel as a possibility for quite a long time now. It’s the idea that people could gleen the same benefits from a pill that their body could from actually getting off their duffs and exercising. In other words, a pill that could cardiovascularly condition you just like exercise, and elevate your metabolism, as well as all those other wonderful “side effects” you get from exercising on a regular basis.
A new pill that has been developed as a drug for those who cannot exercise but need the benefits of exercising, has been tested on lab mice with positive results thus far, making scientists think they might be on to something for near future use for human consumption. The idea is that those that are incapacitated in some way would reap the benefits of exercise, since they cannot actually move around too much, but the applications may spread beyond that into a strictly cosmetic diet aid as well for all we know.
The drug was tested on sedentary mice and found that the sedentary mice who received the pills for four weeks straight burned more fat and had less body fat, and a higher metabolism than those mice that did not receive the pill and were not sedentary. This means that, at least in mice so far, who biologically are supposed to be fairly similar to humans, this drug is working it’s magic on the metabolism and fat burning capabilities of their bodies.
Although this drug sounds great, and it most certainly would be a blessing to those who truly cannot move, I doubt it could ever wholly replace all the benefits that go with exercise, like feeling great after a workout, mood balance, and possibly even the development of muscle definition. Also, we just don’t know the long term effects of drugs like these because there simply isn’t enough time to test them before they go to market. Usually something that alters the body chemistry in these ways is eventually going to have some sort of repercussion.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Health and Fitness News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.