New 'Exercise Pill' Could Induce Fitness Benefits Without Exercise
sciencealert.com
sciencealert.com
But the public loves convenience. They love short cuts. Why control and discipline yourself when a pill can fix everything. That mindset alone is far from ideal.
Into the pods we go. The Matrix isn't as sci-fi as it once seemed to be.
I don't have a problem with the "laziness" angle (despite being a keen cyclist myself) as we have many different shortcuts to health that could be considered "lazy" such as adding vitamins/nutrients to foods to make it easier for people to not suffer deficiencies. It could be considered "lazy" to have pasteurised milk etc.
Edit: Also there's people with disabilities that can make it much harder to exercise.
Second, of course there are exceptions (e.g., disabilities). That said, we have to wonder if the push to make obesity a disease is to legitimize the market, and a massive market - no pun intended - is is. Big Pharma loves big markets.
Finally,
True Story 1: Approx 5 yrs ago I met a friend and her colleague for dinner. They do med / pharma research. The friend was working on something diabetes related. I asked, "Why isn't the treatment to change their diet and lifestyle?" The direct answer was, "They don't do it. It's not going to happen."
True Story 2: My parents are on meds that are only necessary because they don't want to change their diet and lifestyle. I have friends with parents on meds for the same reasons.
I don't know why. I don't know how. I'm not being a critic. But at this point people are people and 9 out of 10 times it's pills over diet or lifestyle change. I wish I could say otherwise.
There's also people with disabilities that can have a much harder time exercising than other people - seems unfair to use them as guinea pigs.
It would be interesting if they could measure things like motivation and happiness on that pill as well.
Absolutely. The improvement of mood after exercising in green spaces is often under-stated. Exercise doesn't just have to be about building strength and fitness.
To be fair, a pill doesn't have to provide all the benefits of exercise to still be useful, but it would be a concern if people took it as a replacement for exercise as opposed to those people who don't exercise for whatever reason.
Personally, I'm a huge fan of Active Travel as it's such an easy way to get a lot of people to exercise and also interact with their environment in a way that you don't get if you just sit in a vehicle and watch the world through a pane of glass. (Also has the benefit of reducing traffic congestion and is very time efficient compared to commuting and then going to a gym).
Shortcuts will always have unintended consequences, not the least of which is a diminishing of will-power, which also requires exercise (in a different sense).
The drug companies are rubbing their hands together and licking their lips for the latter, while claiming they're doing it for the former. I believe the scientists are in it for the people that need it, but if this gets developed into a drug or treatment, I have little faith that it will be as restricted as it ought to be.
SLU-PP-332 is a compound which is a potent but non-selective estrogen-related receptor (ERR) agonist, acting most strongly at ERRα with an EC50 of 98 nM. It was found to counteract metabolic syndrome in mice, suggesting a possible role for compounds from this class as medications for the treatment of obesity.
Although based on the article, this seems more about burning fat, rather than gaining muscle, which isn't as useful.