Good news, for those who want the benefits of exercise without sweating in gyms! Scientists are working on an exercise pill that will give some of the benefits of exercise without having to move a muscle. The US researchers have developed two drugs called AICAR and GW1516, which seem to be able to build muscle, increase stamina, and even burn fat.
Professor Ronald Evans, lead researcher from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute in California, said that in the test, mice given the drugs had greater endurance and were able to run 44% further and also remained lean even when fed a high fat diet.
Researchers reported in the journal Cell that the two drugs are in advanced human testing to see, if it can prevent a complication of heart bypass surgery. Medical experts believe that a drug like this could help treat obesity in people who are unable to exercise due to medical reasons. They also hope the drugs could help reverse muscle frailty associated with aging, as well as diseases such as muscular dystrophy. "Almost no-one gets the recommended 40 minutes to an hour per day of exercise - for these people, if there was a way to mimic exercise, it would make the quality of exercise they do more efficient," said Professor Ronald Evans.
Researchers said the master gene PPAR can control many other genes activity and by adjusting this could in theory have an effect on the way the entire body works. In the genetically altered mice, the enhanced activity of this gene led to the development of muscle that burned fat rather than sugar. They felt the next step was to be able to produce similar effects without genetic alteration and only a drug.
Professor Evans said, "If you like exercise, you like the idea of getting 'more bang for your buck', and if you don't like exercise, you love the idea of getting the benefits from a pill."
Path breaking as this may sound experts are worried that the pills may be misused in sports and pose a new threat to the Beijing Olympics. Readily available and easily synthesized, these drugs have no existing tests to reveal their presence. Colin Palmer, a professor of pharmacogenetics at the University of Dundee, said "It's basically a drug that enhances training. The thing that raises eyebrows is the concept of a drug that improves endurance training for sports professionals." To develop a blood or urine test for the drugs, Professor Ronald Evans, and scientists are working with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
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