Exercise Pills? You’re Kidding Right?
Posted on July 31, 2008
Exercise in a pill. That is the result of research done at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. They found a drug that produces very similar results to aerobic exercise training without the exercise. Granted, the study was done on mice and is probably far from being used on humans, but I still think it’s worth mentioning.
The article I read from MSNBC here talks about how in the future, this drug could help treat patients suffering from obesity and/or diabetes. I guess a drug like this would be a good thing to have, but I can’t help but think how much easier it would be to use real exercise to help prevent or reduce the risk of those conditions before they happen.
I’m sure a drug like this would be beneficial for people who absolutely could not do any exercise. I am fine with that. If taking a pill is all they can do to get some “exercise” benefits, that’s fine. What I’m not ok with is people who will take pills like this because they are lazy.
Technology and advances in medicine are great. We can cure a lot of conditions. We can also prevent a lot of them before they happen. Instead of solving our problems with a pill, we should be preventing them through healthy lifestyles. We don’t need clever marketers of a pill to tell us that.
It will probably be some time before researchers find out if a drug like this is even safe or viable for humans. Until then, let’s keep getting real exercise.
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» Filed Under Exercise, Prevention
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