Exercise Pill for Couch Potatoes? 40
cravey writes "CNN is running a story about how scientists at Duke University have discovered ..."the chemical pathways that muscle cells use to build strength and endurance." which may lead to the development of an exercise pill."
It will be interesting to see... (Score:1)
Just what we need... (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh...wait...I guess they are...
Could be useful for space exploration, though. (Score:4, Insightful)
This kind of advance could be very helpful to deep space exploration or other long term, low gravity situations. Combine with some way to retard calcium loss and one more hurdle is gone. Additionally, as the article mentioned, this would be a great thing for bed-ridden patients who can't exercise, or people with some other ailment preventing muscle-building routines (bad joints, arthritis, etc.)
I'm definitely not against a technology (chemical, nano or otherwise) that would give me the benefits of physical exercise like better muscle to fat ratio, strength, and endurance without actually having to engage in repetitive physical activities that I find boring. There are only so many hours in a day, and I'd prefer not to spend them paying the local gym or lugging rocks around my yard.
We've developed plenty of technologies that allow us to more easily accomplish things we found tedious or difficult (hammers, cars and planes, forklifts, word processors, slashdot) so this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like any advance, it has potential for abuse or misuse, but it sounds pretty darn cool to me.
Re:Just what we need... (Score:1, Insightful)
As many people's jobs do not involve any physical work anymore, exercise becomes a deprecated necessity from the time we needed to be optimized for physical work. Now our bodies need to evolve, to function perfectly without needing exercise, and this may help.
Watch how fast the diet industry... (Score:1)
Then, rather than using the actual formula for the 'excercise pill', it'll have rat turds and ephedrine in them.
Maybe they'll bundle a bottle of their 'miracle pills' with one of those electric gut jigglers.
Re:Watch how fast the spam industry... (Score:3, Funny)
Diets never work (Score:2)
Diets are for overweight people (meaning gover 300lbs) who can barely walk, who lack patience and want to lose 100lbs in a week.
What they dont realize is that 100lbs they lose in a week is 100lbs of muscle, so they end up looking like a smaller blimp instead of a big one.
Aerobics dont make you burn more fat, Richard simmons is an out of shape guy trying to tell people how to get in shape, I suppose someone whose 400lbs thinks hes in shape and will try his diet.
But when you look at atheletes, body builders, etc, these are the real people who are in shape and the first rule to getting in shape is to never diet.
Alot of them do modify their eating habit but consistancy is what works, not starvation diets.
Example, of a diet, this diet you eat every day for the rest of your life
Toast, Peanut butter (early morning when you first wake up)
Oatmeal + Fruit (Breakfast time)
Tuna, Toast, (Lunch)
Noodles, Chunks of chicken or Turkey (Right before training, or use suppliment)
Fish Sandwitch, Orange Juice (After Trainingg or use Suppliment)
This is what bodybuilders and atheletes eat, the meats are interchangeable depending on the sport, the grains also are interchangeable depending on the sport.
Track stars need more starches like noodles and rice, and football players need more high protien high fat foods like beef, but for someone whos neither and just wants to eat healthy, you should eat skinless chicken, turkey, and fish, no beef or pork ever, one thing all atheletes avoid is sugar, if you need something sweet, eat fruit, but no athelete eats sugar.
When training its best to eat the biggest meal right after training, and a somewhat big meal early in the morning.
Thats the formula to getting ripped, just eat the exact same thing every single day, and train 2-3 times a week via weight lifting, You'll get in shape. IF you get hungry in the middle of the night and need a snack, eat toast and peanut butter, do not eat a snack like candy, do not eat a wholee meal, all you need body wise is protein carbos and fat, no sugar.
Yes fat, because if you eat no fat your body forgets how to burn it and your metabolism slows.
Welcome to the future (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, we probably won't see these at Walgreen's (over-the-counter or prescription) until they can find it in athlete's pee.
Re:Welcome to the future (Score:4, Insightful)
For the average couch potato popping these, expect to see problems with tendons that can't handle the strength of the muscles they are connected to.
So let me get this straight... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:1)
Not quite. You still have to lift weights to get huuuge with steriods. Steroids just help your muscles recover faster so that you can lift heavier and more frequently.
No you dont have to lift (Score:2)
Does a naturally big guy have to lift to gget big? hell no, its genes.
Steriods modifies this. By having more testosterone, your muscles grow on their own.
Usually muscles only grow after weight lifting because thats when testosterone spikes, also they grow when you are sleeping, steriods is a way of giving your body that illegal testosterone spike eso they grow all the time practically.
To speed up recovery you dont need steriods, its called whey protien with glutamine, mixed with high carbs right after training.
IF you take your suppliments (high quality suppliments) or eat right, you never get sore and recover in a day or so.
Skepticism (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to wonder if artificial "push" chemistry is sufficiently workable compared to the conventional exercise-induced "pull" chemistry?
Biochemistry has loads of reactions and products going on in terms of everyday metabolism. It's hard to think that just flooding in a few key reactants is going to have exactly the same effect as real exercise in all possible ways.
There's gotta be a catch.
Re:Skepticism (Score:1)
The scary part of drugs like this is how long until the side effects show up (think thalidimide, for example)?
Re:Skepticism (Score:1)
If you take this drug your penius or clitrois starts singing.
Re:Skepticism (Score:1)
I can see no obstacles in the way
When was the last time you saw your penius? Is it MIA you fatass than do something about it even before this pill comes out, go to any > 60% poverty line white trash town, enter the waffle house/denny's next to any walmart and get some methaphetimine which is probably methcathinone [erowid.org] from the skinny strung out white folk therin (you see if they actually ate the food there they would be fat) and start snorting piggy !!!
Better Living Through Chemistry (Score:2, Insightful)
I can just see years from now, after I've been taking thousands of doses of this miracle drug to keep my gut from rolling over my belt, finding out that my hair has turned a deep shade of purple, my liver has dissolved completely, and no matter what I eat, everything tastes like pickles.
Power Up! (Score:3, Funny)
Today is April 11th (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Slash Feature (Score:2)
They already have this. (Score:2)
Re:They already have this. (Score:1)
Gross! (Score:2)
Anikin Explained (Score:1)
It is the force pill......
Take the pill Luke.
startup dream come true (Score:1)
I have a dream... (Score:1)
I'm thinking, one out of two ain't so bad...
Re:I have a dream... (Score:1)
But your point is well taken. I would also love to learn "Drunken Boxing" in 30 seconds as well as Kung Fu
Remeber steriods? (Score:2)
Steriods if you take it long enough raises estrogen levels and when you stop taking it, your body turns to shit, literally.
Theres a few legal steriods like andro on the market, but i wouldnt take any of that crap.
Look, the best way to excercise, get yourself a membership to golds gym, buy some whey protien with brain chain amino acids from GNC, and lift weights 2-3 times a week.
Thats all, its not hard, Lift on the weekends if you work long difficult hours.
If you want to get ripped, Dont eat any sugars or junk foods, and spread your meals out, eat many small meals instead of big meals with your biggest meal for breakfast.
The only time i'd recommend dangerous pills like this or steriods is for people who are over 300-400lbs, usually these people have some kinda genetic disorder where they CANT burn fat.
Alot of these people excercise more than I do, so I'm thinking maybe genetics plays a role
Dont modify your genes unless you know for a fact its your genes thats the problem, steriods modify your genes, this medicine may not, but it could still fuck you up.
Eventually we will have a pill which can raise your metabolism, I say dont use pills unless the old fashioned method of training harder fails to work.
A long way from a pill (Score:2)
Even given this, one downside of too much mitochondrial activity is that you will generate higher levels of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) - which have been implicated in aging, since they can cause damage to membranes, proteins and DNA. In other words, the overactive metabolism might cause premature aging as a trade-off for muscle overdevelopment.
Drugs... (Score:2)