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Exercising is nothing less than a healthy habit, contributing greatly to our well-being, our physical condition and our overall health.
Exercising is nothing less than a healthy habit, contributing greatly to our well-being, our physical condition and our overall health.
We might not all follow an exercising routine and some of us might have skipped visiting a gym or sports location all our lives. For others, medical conditions or disability is a serious impediment to clocking hours in the gym.
And still, we want to rip the benefits of a healthy workout routine. Scientists are working for us. Particularly a joint scientific team comprising researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Sydney have come up with the blueprint of what could become ‘exercising in a pill’.
The breakthrough, announced in a specialty article in the Cell Metabolism journal, is not yet another over-the-counter miracle slimming pill, or muscle-enhancing drug. When it becomes reality, this new drug would imitate molecular reactions taking place in our body as a result of exercising.
In the statement announcing their breakthrough, Doctor Nolan Hoffman, one of the authors of the study, as well as research associate with the School of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Sydney, declared:
“We’ve created an exercise blueprint that lays the foundation for future treatments, and the end goal is to mimic the effects of exercise. It’s long been thought that there many signals elicited by exercise, but we were the first to create this map and we now know the complexity”.
During their research the team found that there are over 1,000 molecular reactions and changes that take place in the skeletal muscles as a result of exercising. Now, the goal is to identify the most important so that they can be replicated with the use of drugs.
The research team used mass spectrometry to look at how protein modifies in skeletal muscles once a full exercise routine is completed. Four participants, all male, have bravely volunteered as test subjects. Prior to riding a bike for ten minutes, they underwent muscle biopsy. The same routine was performed once the exercise round was over.
In the Sydney-based laboratory the muscle samples have been subjected to thorough analysis. The research is much more comprehensive than just this steps, and according to official statements it already spans three years. Of the 1,000 molecular changes that were identified, the research team must now select the most important, that have a great impact on our health.
The drug that would deliver the effects of exercising in a pill would not be available for at least another ten years. Yet, Doctor Hoffman is convinced that it will become reality. The goal is to aid patients suffering from obesity and type-2 diabetes.
Photo Credits: Pixabay
