Couch Potato Mice?

Hi, Everyone –

An interesting new drug was discussed in the New York Times earlier this week involving couch potato mice – who knew those existed?! Dr. Ronald Evans from the Salk Institute in San Diego talked about two drugs that have allegedly dramatically improved the endurance of mice. According to the study, the drug Aicar boosted the rodent’s treadmill performance by nearly 50 percent over a month, and the drug GW1516 improved endurance when combined with exercise. Interesting. In a nutshell, the drug is supposed to “trick” muscles into thinking they have been exercising - without actually having exercised, of course. 

The drug is touted to give hope to those battling diabetes and obesity. While this is definitely a potentially interesting breakthrough, one has to realize that there really is no substitute for the real thing. Most of us are, at some level, physically able to participate in exercise of some kind. I know I say this over and over, but life changes and using the right tools are the safest, surest bet to a healthy lifestyle.

I’m curious what you think of this study. If given the opportunity, would you take a drug that tricked your muscles?

Dr. Snyder

Add comment August 5th, 2008