DailyDirt: Replacing Exercise With A Pill

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some people really enjoy exercising. Some people really don't. And some people have physical limitations that restrict the amount or kinds of exercise they can do. If there were a pill that could provide some of the benefits of exercising, plenty of folks would take it. Not surprisingly, a lot of research is looking at how exercise affects the body -- and some projects might lead to a pharmaceutical solution for couch potatoes. Here are just a few examples.

• Drug candidate SR9009 sounds like a pill from The Jetsons that helps you lose weight and build muscle -- without exercising. Mice treated with this drug showed increased metabolic activity in skeletal muscle and improved athletic endurance for running. [url]
• Different colonies of intestinal bacteria may spur obesity or prevent it. Studies of lab rodent fecal transplants suggest that some kinds of bacteria can help keep fat mice lean when eating a low-fat, high-fiber diet. [url]
• Regular exercise may help boost autophagy processes in the body that clear out surplus proteins and other cellular detritus -- potentially leading to some anti-aging benefits. Researchers are just beginning to learn more about autophagy mechanisms (and maybe someday we'll get the benefits without the exercise). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: anti-aging, autophagy, bacteria, drugs, exercise, health, medicine, pharmaceuticals, sr9009