Good news for Bloggers. There may be a pill that lets them watch their computer screen and get their exercise, too—without moving a muscle.
Scientists have found a drug that mimics the effects of a workout by, among other things, increasing the body’s ability to burn fat.
It tricks the muscles into believing they’ve been exercised. Says Ronald Evans, a developmental biologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif., and co-author of a study published in Cell. “It proves you can have a pharmacologic equivalent to exercise.”
In addition to supercharging stamina, the drug, called AICAR, may also be useful in treating debilitating muscular disorders such as muscular dystrophy as well as metabolic diseases such as diabetes, because it also appears to help the body use and remove sugar from the blood more effectively.
The key to this transformation is a protein called PPARdelta, which Evan’s team previously showed could create so-called high-endurance marathon mice. another expirimental drug that targeted only PPARdelta had some metabolic benefits, including lowering fatty acids and blood sugar.
Warning athletes! Evans has developed urine and blood tests designed to detect the drug.
Read the full article here:
Scientific American
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