Brett's Blog: Exercise in a Pill…One more way to keep America Lazy
August 1, 2008 | by Brett Blumenthal | 4 Comments
by Brett Blumenthal
Great. One more wonder drug for Americans to gobble up in order to ‘fix’ themselves. A recent research study on mice has revealed that a drug can produce the same kind of physical endurance that comes from exercise training, according to Ronald Evans, Ph.D., of the Salk Institute. The study tested mice for four weeks and showed that they burned more calories and had less fat than untreated mice. Further, when the doped up mice were tested on a treadmill, they could run about 44% farther and 23% longer than untreated mice. Even sedentary mice given the drug could run longer and further than those which had exercise training with no drug administration. Benefits other than endurance included: leaner body mass, even when fed a high fat diet that would normally have caused the mice to become obese, and improved insulin response, lowering blood sugar levels.
As if people don’t make enough excuses for not exercising. Do we really need to pop pills to get in our daily and weekly doses of exercise? Granted, if you are rehabilitating, frail or are unfortunate to have a disease like muscular dystrophy, a pill like this could work wonders. And I’m sure all of the ‘keep me young and beautiful until I’m 100′ types would eat this up in a heart beat, but let’s be honest: There are obvious ethical dilemmas with this kind of drug. Interestingly enough, researchers are already thinking about how this drug can be abused by athletes, and as a result, are developing blood and urine tests for the drug.
Would you take an ‘exercise pill’ instead of working out?
Relevant Topics:
- What is Physical Endurance?
- How Many Calories are Burned During Exercise?
- Calculate your Lean Body Mass and your Body Fat
- Top 5: Excuses for not exercising
Sources:
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25949447/
- http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/ExerciseFitness/tb/10357
- http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5igDTZyGQ9ZH8O-RpaZfe4V3UnDWA
Just because we know that the pill supplies some of the benefits of exercise, do we know that it supplies all of the benefits? Does it increase mood? Fend off breast cancer or Alzheimer’s? I don’t see an ethical issue. However, as a practical matter, medicine and the drug companies don’t have that great a track record of understanding the systemic issues.
“There are obvious ethical dilemmas with this kind of drug.” Uh… really? What ethical dilemmas are you referring to exactly? If the drug isn’t harmful then what’s the problem. That is like saying there is an ethical dilemma to taking vitamin C pills…
It sounds more to me like you are upset that someone can get the same result from a pill that you get from working out, and you don’t like it. That isn’t an ethical dilemma, it is your own self-righteousness rearing its ugly head.
Yes, I would take the pill. In this busy everday world, one less thing to have to do would be great. Maybe they can make a pill to clean the house, make dinner, and rev up the sex life all in one.
yes,i would take the pill.