Reaping Exercise Benefits…Without Exercising!

Deriving the benefits of exercising…..without exercising! Sounds strange? But it’s true, at least in rodents. A team of Californian researchers suggest the idea of ‘exercise in a pill’. A simple pill, significantly improved the ability of cells to burn fat and retain muscle mass in mice. It also substantially prolonged their endurance during exercise, researchers highlight.

Replicating the findings from the new animal model onto humans, researchers hope the new strategies will help protect people against obesity, diabetes and muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy. The research could also act as a tool that could accelerate the development of new treatments.

Originally developed to treat metabolic diseases, the pill, when used on adult mice boosted their stamina and the mice ran considerably farther than compared to mice who only exercised, the research published in the July 31 issue of journal cell reveals.

Initiated in 2004, researchers at first altered the PPAR-delta gene to produce genetically engineered mice with altered muscle composition and increased endurance.

As PPAR-delta regulates other genesdefine, by altering its function, researchers basically programmed the muscle cells of the mice to burn more fat than sugar. These mice could then run twice as far as than their ‘normal’ counterparts.

With an idea to add something more……..researchers then administered young adult mice a drug called GW1516, intended to increase the activity of PPAR-delta, for 5 weeks.

Researchers noted NO marked improvement in the mice.

So, another component - four weeks of exercise training was added along the drug.

The drug combined with exercise training bolstered the rodents’ long-distance running by about 70 percent compared with mice receiving exercise training alone. The combination also increased the rodents' running time by 68 percent, researchers noted.

Moreover, just with a months’ dosage, even sedentary, couch-potato mice improved their running stamina by a remarkable 44 percent.

However, it would be difficult to reap all benefits of real exercising as ‘people who exercise have lower levels of depressiondefine and higher bone density’, the pill could come as quite a relief for patients who are bedridden or wheelchair-bound and can't exercise, highlighted Joseph Hornyak, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.