TweetIF ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS
GOOD OL EXERCISE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO! YOU HAVE TO MAKE A LIFESTYLE CHANGE FOR IT TO STICK THOUGH
O2
TweetStudy Promises Benefits of Exercise in a Pill
Working out is tough. So why not skip the exercise and pop a few endurance-boosting pills?
That dream, cherished by millions of sedentary couch potatoes, just got a little bit closer. Today, researchers are reporting that an experimental drug can mimic the results of an exercise regimen -- with no exercise required. After four weeks of taking the pill, mice who hadn't worked out displayed a 44 percent increase in their running endurance.
"It’s tricking the muscle into ‘believing’ it’s been exercised daily," said the study's lead researcher, Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute, in a release. "It’s basically the couch potato experiment, and it proves you can have a pharmacologic equivalent to exercise."
Human muscle enhancement has already shown considerable success. Steroids easily facilitate the creation of bulky muscles. But that type of muscle-building doesn't necessarily help you run a 10k, and endurance-based exercise tends to yield more health benefits than strength training. If drugs like this work in humans, it could prove a boon to an aging and increasingly overweight American population.
But not all researchers are convinced that "exercise in a pill" is actually possible.
"Physical activity is so important for maintaining the health of the human body in almost every human organ system," said Darrell Neufer, a professor of sports medicine specializing in cellular energy systems at East Carolina University. "It's going to be nearly impossible to create a pill that will mimic all the benefits that exercise has."
Neufer cited a 2000 paper by BYU and Washington University scientists that, he said, showed the drug the Salk Institute scientists used "does not fully mimic the adaptive response to exercise."
Until this study, only high doses of resveratol, a possible anti-aging drug and metabolic enhancer, had shown promise increasing endurance by enhancing mitochondrial function. But resveratol works by stimulating an entirely different set of proteins and could have a wider range of effects, for good or ill.
The new work, which appears today in the journal Cell, tries to tackle the cellular energy problem that we call fatigue directly, by activating the enzyme AMPK with a long-known drug called AICAR.
Scientists believe that AMPK is an important regulator of the cell's metabolism. In that energy system, ATP is used to power cellular action, such as the muscle contractions associated with running. In the process, ATP breaks down into another substance called AMP. As that happens, British researchers have shown that AMPK acts to crank up ATP production.
The drug, AICAR, mimics AMP, effectively tricking the body into thinking that it needs more energy and to begin producing more ATP -- making more energy available for cellular action.
In other words, if ATP is the "molecular currency" of cellular energy transfer, AMPK is the mint that can print more money, and the drug is a kind of forged note from the Treasury Secretary ordering the mint to begin printing more bills.
Neufer, however, questioned the novelty of the research around AICAR, saying that the compound has long been linked to the creation of mitochondria -- cells' engines -- which, in turn, create more ATP.
"The bottom line is that the main finding is not a particularly new finding," Neufer said. "I'm surprised that this got into such a high-profile journal."
Still, the molecules Evans is studying have athletic authorities worried because they appear to increase endurance among trained athletes. In the same Cell paper, the researchers showed that, using a separate drug, they could increase the levels of a protein called PPAR-delta, which resulted in a 68 percent endurance gain for exercise-trained mice.
Evans is already working with the World Anti-Doping Agency to find a way to test for this new kind of doping. It won't be ready by this year's summer Olympics, but the test could be ready in time to retroactively test the blood samples from athletes who compete in the 2008 games.
Neufer agreed that human athletes need to be cautious about trying to obtain pharmacological help.
"Right now you have no way to target the drug to specific cell types. By giving Aicar systemically, you'd be activating the signaling pathway in every cell of the body," he said. "Without knowing what impacts that might have that would be a dangerous thing to do."
Disclaimer: Steroid use is illegal in a vast number of countries around the world. This is not without reason. Steroids should only be used when prescribed by your doctor and under close supervision. Steroid use is not to be taken lightly and we do not in any way endorse or approve of illegal drug use. The information is provided on the same basis as all the other information on this site, as informational/entertainment value.
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TweetIF ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS
GOOD OL EXERCISE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO! YOU HAVE TO MAKE A LIFESTYLE CHANGE FOR IT TO STICK THOUGH
O2
Tweet....what? thats all i do!
HE WHO MAKES A BEAST OF HIMSELF, GET'S RID OF THE PAIN OF BEING A MAN!!
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"Actually for once your actually starting sound quite logical!"-djdiggler 07/10/2007
I LOVE BOOBOOKITTY...
TweetI have to go on the sly for my HRT because no doctor will touch the whole "steroid" issue. I train hard, stay fit, never sick and yet if i was a lazy **** i'll be able to take a pill to look like i'm in shape!! Can it get anymore messed up??
TweetImagine if deca eq and all sorts og gear was in pill form and did no harm to your liver. now thats what I would want
Disclaimer: Steroid use is illegal in a vast number of countries around the world. This is not without reason. Steroids should only be used when prescribed by your doctor and under close supervision. Steroid use is not to be taken lightly and we do not in any way endorse or approve of illegal drug use. The information is provided on the same basis as all the other information on this site, as informational/entertainment value.
Please take the time to read these threads!
Fitness Geared Shoutbox rules
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https://www.fitnessgeared.com/forum/f334/
https://www.fitnessgeared.com/forum/f283/
https://www.tgbsupplements.com/
TweetForget about all that stuff, find me a myostatin blocker that actually works and doesn't reverse the effects when you discontinue......that's what I want. Put on 20 lean pounds of muscle and NEVER LOSE IT. You find that drug, and I'll take a second mortgage out on my home. LOL It will be the last drug I ever have to take for BBing.