New Drug Mimics the Beneficial Effects of Exercise 492
Zothecula writes "A drug known as SR9009, which is currently under development at The Scripps Research Institute, increases the level of metabolic activity in skeletal muscles of mice. Treated mice become lean, develop larger muscles and can run much longer distances simply by taking SR9009, which mimics the effects of aerobic exercise. If similar effects can be obtained in people, the reversal of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and perhaps Type-II diabetes might be the very welcome result."
The alternative (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Interesting)
How well has that worked so far?
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What does that have to do with anything?
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Insightful)
Easier said than done.
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The alternative (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it's not. Instead of watching that 4th hour of television every night, spend a half hour or so and walk around the block a few times. Cut out all the dairy and wheat products and there you've probably avoided most of the crap that the pill is supposed to cure.
I literally lost 25 pounds walking a half hour a day and cutting out the dairy, wheat and a lot of the superfluous carbs. At no point did I feel sick, tired or particularly hungry, in fact I felt and looked better than I had in years as my digestive track went back to a healthier state and my blood wasn't full of the crap that's in the usual American diet.
It doesn't take that much work to eat and live healthily, it just requires some commitment to your heatlh and a willingness to give your body the kind of foods and exercise that it evolved dealing with. You don't need to eat just because it's dinner time, you eat when your body gets hungry, and I mean hungry, not just a craving to eat.
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I don't disagree with your main point, but as someone who put on 50kg over 5 years while dealing with a chronic illness that was misdiagnosed and mistreated, options could be lifesavers. Put on drugs that caused weight retention, and not being able to exercise without having a seizure, was not a good time in my life. Something like this might have meant the 4 year recovery may have been doable in 1 or less.
There are always reasons that people can't "just do" something that is good for them - not excuses, re
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Interesting)
Note to people in the future reading this, with healthy sexy bodies in spite of eating 25,000 calories a day of bleu cheese wrapped in burger wrapped in breadding, deep fried and dipped in cream cheese sauce: this is what we have to put up with.
Memes as offboard quasi-DNA guiding behavior, guiding social pecking orders and reproduction (of DNA and memes). "Fucking fatass" is more about raising the speaker in his mind's eye as to social status vis-a-vis the ladies, by putting down as defective behaviours you in the future are no longer are concerned with. Similar to "fucking heathen" might be to us.
Most people don't realize their brain is little more than the meme equivalent of the cellular chemicals doing DNA's bidding. How lucky you are, not having to deal with this, and only your ant overlords.
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"Fucking fatass" is meant as an incentive to stop making excuses and become fit and healthy. The speaker really wants you to succeed in living a long, slim and successful life you fucking fatass.
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Informative)
Recent studies [plosone.org] have shown that shaming obese people leads to greater weight gain [huffingtonpost.com], not weight loss.
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Funny)
Not being a "Fat Ass" myself, I personally think everyone who goes around verbally abusing obese people is a pindick.
But then, not being a puny pindick myself, I actually make friends, some of which are in fact obese, so I can see how a stupid pindick would be limited by their own assinine personality and never get the same perspective I have had,
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Interesting)
Great idea for those of us that can't walk (7 year survivor of bone marrow cancer, taking 3 kinds of pain meds just to be able to walk the minimum distances required for work and living)...
Biking and swimming (only in heated pools) are my only kinds of exercise that I can do on a regular basis.
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, there are stationary bikes for "spinning" in pools. They use paddles on the wheels for resistance while giving the added benefit of being in a heated pool.
While nothing is better than the benefits of actual exercise, a pill such as this would make a big difference, as you noted, with people with mobility problems.
I, personally, have Type 2 diabetes and love to cycle (not "spin"). I also have achilles tendonitis in BOTH ankles that flares up all the time resulting in excruciating pain. It would be nice to get some of the benefits of exercise on those days when it's just difficult to walk. If it could help get my A1C down, that alone would be exciting. Another benefit of lower A1C???? Better circulation and less inflammation - benefits all around. Bring it on!!!
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HBA1C? At least that's what we call it in the UK..
Yes - "A1C" and "HBA1C" are both short for "Hemoglobin A1c".
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Funny)
Or you know, people could just go outside for a walk.
I'd rather do a few hours of overtime every week ... so I can afford to buy pills and avoid all that WORK.
Re:The alternative (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Insightful)
I could be reading this wrong, but it looks like life expectancy is trending upwards since the 50's. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005148.html [infoplease.com]
You could be reading it wrong. Note that it explicitly says "life expectancy at birth". There has been a lot of criticism of this sort of things from statistics-enabled researchers, who point out that almost all of the life-expectancy gains in the past century have been through elimination of most early-childhood deaths. Life expentancy at birth has increased, but the life expectancy of someone 30 or 60 years old hasn't actually changed much.
There has been a bit of publicity around related topics lately. Thus, there has been a lot of discussion of the apparent fact that the increase in mammograms has produced no measurable increase in lifetime, just an increase in medical bills for the testing (and the "treatment" of false positives ;-). Similar statistical problems have been reported for prostate-cancer screening, and for an assortment of other medical tests.
Another statistical trick used to make things look better than they are is the common practice of giving cancer survival rates in terms of survival 5 years after diagnosis. This means, for example, that if you were to come up with a new test that diagnoses a cancer 5 years earlier than any existing test, your test would result in a 100% "cure" rate even with no further treatment, and no change in the death statistics. I've heard a couple of interviews in which the interviewer points out this problem, and the interviewee just continues talking about the same "5-year survival" figures.
In general, it seems that if you're over 10 years old, modern medicine really hasn't done much in increase your (statistical) lifespan, though it is sometimes fairly good at extracting money for treatments that don't increase lifespan.
(Perhaps some of the treatments improve quality of life, but the statistics for that don't seem to be widely studied or reported. It might be interesting to be shown wrong in this regard, however. OTOH, there has been a bit of media coverage lately of the problems with "treatment" of false positives.)
(And a more general problem here is that the general public -- and the media -- is generally ignorant of even the most basic statistical concepts.)
Exercise is a luxury in US culture (Score:4, Insightful)
When one MUST commute 45 minutes one way, work a ten hour day, commute another 45 minutes - traffic permitting, eat, do chores, etc .. getting proper exercise is challenging to say the least.
I'm a real fitness nut and I have to plan my day pretty carefully and set some strict limits on other people's demands on my time.
It's extremely difficult in technology since the culture is to live to work and live at work - if you're not constantly in front of the computer, then something is wrong with you.
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one MUST commute 45 minutes one way, work a ten hour day, commute another 45 minutes
No, just no.
Or you value your life very little.
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No.
Change jobs.
Change professions.
Change homes.
Change debt loads.
I've done all of those over the last decade to get to where I can bike to work in 10 minutes, sleep 8+ hours, have dinner with my family, and run around with the kids. It can be done. But only if you value your life outside of work a little more.
Re:Exercise is a luxury in US culture (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't do anyone any favors by implying that your suggestions are trivial.
I implied no such thing. If you can't see they're not trivial, you have bigger issues.
I quit my job, moved across the country (without selling my old house), without a cushy job to fall into, just so I could spend more of my life with my family and less of it having to work to pay for that.
So don't whine when you say you can't. You're just scared to.
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And for everyone who did the successfully, dozens end upon the street.
Re:Exercise is a luxury in US culture (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that I'm a failure, I am quite content with life at the moment, but I have had enough life experiences to know better than to think that friends of mine that struggle more than I do are just lazy or stupid. We all have our own burdens and situations and not everyone will be in a better position if they quit a horrible job.
Re:The alternative (Score:5, Insightful)
How about those who can't? Muscle wasting is a major problem that complicates a variety of injuries and conditions, this could be a breakthrough for many people just wanting to live with more mobility and less pain.
But then I guess that doesn't occur to the blinkered "fuck you" generation.
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Re:The alternative (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't meant to sound cruel but I've personally never met anyone that was so unfit they could not exercise or change their diet in some way that would help.
You are young and healthy and have never met anybody who was dealt a bad hand genetically or suffered a crippling accident or infection. Get north of 50 after a life of minor accidents, or hang out with young people who have two pacemakers, biweekly seizures and a heart that leaks blood when it beats, and you'll find that not everybody is physically capable of what you envision everybody as able to do. Sometimes it is as simple as a quick infection of the pericardium and heart as a young child. Other times it is something work related like the other car driving into a ditch atop your ATV while you were both pursuing a suspect in the dark. It can even be their fault: I've known people thrown out of the back of pickup trucks who live with a solid brace bolted into their spinal column. It doesn't matter: it is their reality, and they have to deal with what they can do. Eating well, exercising in the pool, doing exactly what their doctors tell them to, but still unable to really be fit.
These are the people who need help beyond mere "exercise and a change in their diet". There are people living beyond your sphere of experience who can benefit greatly from things like this.
not when you are on the 80 hour work week (Score:2)
get back to your desk
This can't end well (Score:5, Insightful)
If it seems too good to be true...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If it seems too good to be true...
Wait until you see the side effects...
Re:This can't end well (Score:5, Funny)
I think "getting laid" will be in there somewhere so I welcome the extra eyeball or two...
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Re:This can't end well (Score:5, Funny)
Do you get to choose the gender(s) of the person(people) you get laid with (by)? Or do you not really care?
I'm not gay, but it's nice to get a little attention every now and then.
Re:This can't end well (Score:5, Funny)
Screw the side effects. Add it to the water supply.
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Is it water-soluble?
Do environmental bacteria look at it and go "Yummy" before tucking in and converting it to some potent neurotoxin?
Important considerations.
Re:This can't end well (Score:5, Informative)
SR9009 is available for research purposes, $150 for 25 mg [millipore.com]. From the structure, I would say it's likely to be only slightly soluble in water; also, the only solubility data given is in DMSO. It requires storage by refrigeration or freezing, and comes packaged under inert gas, so I would say its environmental persistence would be rather low. I don't know if a molecule like this would be stable enough for oral administration, actually. In their mouse study [nih.gov], injections were made.
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Assuming people that need exercise most are actually drink water and not sugary drinks.
So...add it to sugary drinks!
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Turning green and having an irresistible urge to smash things?
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If the effects prove out, they had better make sure that they test for side effects at absurd overdose levels, because regardless of how it's intended to be used, there will be thousands if not millions of people who assume that if 100mg a day is good, 1000mg a day will be better -- and knowing what the overdose effects are in advance will make it easier to recognize and treat them.
Not to mention coming up with a workable test to detect its use that the various sports anti-doping agencies will want to use..
Re:This can't end well (Score:5, Insightful)
Are boats just for lazy fucks who are too good to swim, and computers for people who lack the moral fiber for doing math in their heads?
Why is 'putting in the work', when an engineering solution (may, research is still preliminary) offer a labor saving method of solving the same problem? Is all of applied science and engineering immoral laziness, or is there some special virtue to sweating and grunting?
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Oh, the AC will happily use the computers and machines. They're one of the "entitled" ones.
It's just all those "other" people who are lazy assholes who should be forced to live an 18th century existence.
It's a lot like when people advocate drastic population reduction. My response is "Ok. You first."
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Speculation (Score:5, Insightful)
Biology being what it is, it's reasonable to think that the health benefits of exercise are a multi-factor phenomenon and that any one chemical will deliver fewer benefits than the real thing.
Then the odds are that the drug won't be bio-equivalent to the chemical signals released by real exercise and will have side effects as a result.
Re:Speculation (Score:5, Insightful)
Or it could also be the exact opposite, perhaps it will give us the benefits of exercise without the downsides, such as the increased wear and tear in the body that exercise causes.
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that sounds like cocaine. all of the fun of a high heart rate, none of the bother of getting off the toilet.
most exercise doesnt really have wear and tear. that rumor gets consistently rebuffed by scientific methods.
Re:Speculation (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a large segment of people that will say things like " running causes arthritis in your knees". This is what I was directing my comment at. Running, on its own, does not cause your knees to become weak or necessarily damaged. There is a chance of an injury occurring, but that does not mean that people should not exercise in general.
there is nothing different from "exercise over time leads to injury" and "being alive for a long time leads to injury" . Sitting at a bus stop has risks, sitting in your house has risks, walking anywhere can have one bad step that can do absurd amounts of permanent damage. None of this means that exercise will cause injury.
I have a permanent injury to a shoulder, so I somewhat understand your perspective .It happened from several odd falls, and then one day it came out while lifting a bucket and tore things up when it slid back in. I will never be able to do a pullup unless I can nearly one arm it with the other side.
My statement is not ignorant, it was targeted at people who are misinformed and loud, and the opposite of ignorant. Like I said, because of science. If it is arrogant, it is only because of the number of times I have to hear the nonsense about the cause (not risk) of injury being exercise.
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Not true. I have always had a very large frame, and even when at a "healthy" BMI, my weight is about 260 lbs. Years of jogging/running and playing soccer (yes, I know, soccer...I was too much of a geek to ever think of playing football, much to several coaches' lament) have left my knees painful, popping, pre-arthritic degenerative wrecks. Actually, come to think of it, it's probably for the best that I never liked football.
Unfortunately, my doctors have only just recently told me that I should have avoi
Needs a catchier name (Score:5, Funny)
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Buffout.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Buffout [wikia.com]
SUPER CRACK (Score:2)
WOOT my face is so muscular now! O yea bustin' walnuts with my nostrils and shit!
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THIS! [youtube.com] XD
Side effects. (Score:5, Funny)
I will probably work great... except for the anal leakage.
Re:Side effects. (Score:5, Funny)
I will probably work great... except for the anal leakage.
Sorry, that side effect is patented by Olestra. You need to find another one.
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I can see adult diapers becoming fashionable among celebrities now.
Skeptic (Score:2)
I'm just going to file this in the "Deeply suspicious" file, shall I?
But you all try it, let me know how it goes.
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No, they'll stick with their usual MO -- do minimal testing, say there's no evidence to suggest it's harmful, get it approved, and wait until people have been using it to 'discover' side-effects.
In all probability, they will have fudged their numbers to have excluded people with those effects as outliers.
That's how they've been doing it for years.
Would probably be outlawed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Steroids, contrary to the public perception, can be used responsibly and with few health consequences, especially by men, to more easily lose fat and gain muscle.
It's not quite a free lunch, you can't sit on your couch and become Ronnie Coleman, but it will accelerate things.
Oops, sorry. Because we must protect the "integrity" of sports (and the money they bring in) we decided Steroids should be scheduled drugs
They'd probably do the same thing if something like this actually worked.
Re:Would probably be outlawed... (Score:4, Insightful)
can be used responsibly and with few health consequences
Other than these....... [wikipedia.org]
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Steroids, contrary to the public perception, can be used responsibly and with few health consequences, especially by men, to more easily lose fat and gain muscle.
It's not quite a free lunch, you can't sit on your couch and become Ronnie Coleman, but it will accelerate things.
Oops, sorry. Because we must protect the "integrity" of sports (and the money they bring in) we decided Steroids should be scheduled drugs
They'd probably do the same thing if something like this actually worked.
Considering all the pressure on athletes to break records, I would expect a Juice League to earn much more than their non-steroid counterpart, as it would be more exciting for the fans.
Re:Would probably be outlawed... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Would probably be outlawed... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Would probably be outlawed... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've never understood why you can't get them (perhaps with a doctor's prescription) if you're NOT participating in anything where they are banned. I'm not a pro athlete, I'm not looking to cheat anyone, I'm just a man over 55 who would like my workouts and cycling to be as effective as they were 20 years ago.
You can. Go to a doctor and get your testosterone level checked. Most men over 55 have low testosterone and can get their doctor to prescribe some testosterone supplements. I used to work out with a guy in his 50s that was on it. He could bench press over 300lbs. It seemed to work for him. It's not steroids, but its the same idea.
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Yes, it's terrible to think that professional sports players should actually be rewarded for training and talent rather than drugs.
except the roids only work if you use them in combination with training and have tallent. roids don't magically make you have the coordination to catch the baseball or throw a football.
Re: (Score:3)
You mean, like the old timers? Good ol' Babe Ruth, he didn't need any steroids! Oh, wait [npr.org], yes he did (ctrl-F "sheep's testicles").
Let 'em use whatever the hell they want, and get the FDA the hell out of moralizing our biological mediocrity.
Re:Would probably be outlawed... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, it's terrible to think that professional sports players should actually be rewarded for training and talent rather than drugs.
I'm so sick of people lecturing me about how bad steroids are, so why don't you SHUT UP! I've got half a mind to come over there and RIP YOUR HEAD OFF just for saying that! What? You gonna look at me like that? THAT'S IT!
This one won't work either (Score:2)
Ethyl-3-(((4-chlorobenzyl)((5-nitrothiophen-2-yl)m (Score:5, Interesting)
I always thought exercise mimicked the beneficial effects of drugs.
Oops (Score:2)
I guess that money I shelled out for an exercise bike to slouch on while I watch Food Network shows was wasted, huh?
Re:Oops (Score:4, Funny)
I guess that money I shelled out for an exercise bike to slouch on while I watch Food Network shows was wasted, huh?
Turn your exercise bike to face away from the TV, turn on Fox and Friends and pretend they're chasing you. Those extra pounds will come off in no time. :-)
[ Ahhhhh... Steve Doocy is right behind me .... Must... peddle... faster... ]
Re:Oops (Score:4, Funny)
Or, depending on your politics, try MSNBC: "Rachel Maddow is after me! Peddle for your life!"
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With no evidence to support this whatsoever ... I'll say 90-95% of all home exercise equipment eventually becomes a place to stack clothes or something like that. Probably within the first 3-6 months.
Make it a beer additive (Score:5, Funny)
That way I can work on my 6-pack
Re: (Score:2)
Bah, why have a six pack when you can have an entire keg? ;-)
Impacts all muscles (Score:5, Insightful)
A drug that tricks the body to respond as if it has been exercising will work on all muscles. Real exercise only works on the muscles that you use. Overuse of this drug would be expected to cause muscle growth where you don't want it. Bulk up those facial muscles.
Sure, in limited cases, this could be great. I'm thinking of cases where people can't exercise, using this in low doses to reduce the length of rehabilitation. Stuck in bed for a month or two due to a car accident? This is for you.
Of course, if it works, it will be abused. Need to get that extra edge for the Tour de France?
Re:Impacts all muscles (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like something perfect for extended periods of space flight.
Re:Impacts all muscles (Score:5, Funny)
A drug that tricks the body to respond as if it has been exercising will work on all muscles. Real exercise only works on the muscles that you use. Overuse of this drug would be expected to cause muscle growth where you don't want it. Bulk up those facial muscles.
Why yes I would like to lift a car by wiggling my ear.
How about a drug that cures laziness? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about a drug that cures laziness? (Score:4, Insightful)
Dude...I've built up my laziness carefully over the years. Nurturing it and giving it the freedom to breath and achieve its potential. Why...oh why would I want to take something to destroy all my patience?
Drumroll... (Score:4, Funny)
Gravity pills (Score:5, Informative)
One of the problems facing astronauts: long periods of microgravity cause bone and muscle loss [howstuffworks.com]. I've read science fiction stories where people had to take pills to maintain their bones and muscles; they called them "gravity pills".
If this drug really works, I'm wondering if the astronauts in the space station, future Mars missions, etc. might wind up taking it drug routinely.
Probably a Mars mission will need to have some sort of rotating crew module to produce a gravity-like acceleration [wikipedia.org], as it will likely require at least seven months [wikipedia.org] for the trip.
Re: (Score:2)
I've heard that most of the muscle and bone loss in space has been due to astronauts failing to keep up with exercise programs while in space, so the problem isn't as bad as it is perceived to be. Still, you're probably correct that something like this would still be useful for the space program.
Re: (Score:2)
> astronauts failing to keep up with exercise programs
This is absolutely not true.
Might not work for healthy people (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA:
Previous studies on mice lacking Rev-ErbA showed decreased skeletal muscles, metabolic rate, and running capacity. Such mice appeared fated by their genetics to live as couch potatoes.
When Burris' group administered SR9009 to these mice to activate the Rev-Erb protein, the results were remarkable. The metabolic rate in the skeletal muscles of the mice increased significantly. The treated mice were not allowed to exercise, but despite this they developed the ability to run about 50 percent further before being stopped by exhaustion.
So they created some broken mice and then treated them with a drug that reversed what they broke. And, what do you know? The effects were reversed too.
I'd like to see a followup on unmodified mice to see if they also benefit. If Rev-ErbA is already present and active at normal levels, the drug may not do anything.
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> I'd like to see a followup on unmodified mice to see if they also benefit
Bingo!
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Actually, the Nature paper addresses this. They found that while underexpression of Rev-ErbA weakens muscles, overexpression of it gave the increased benefits over normal.
Granted, this was in the defective mouse and needs to be followed up with wild type, but it looks like it's not just the replacement.
sex pills (Score:3)
Go humans!
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
Oh, right...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine
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Hmmm ... (Score:2)
Sounds like how I've heard meth described. I've also heard it's awesome for weight loss too.
Do the mice feel the need to take apart their exercise wheel?
Promising Mice Test != Great New Discovery .. yet (Score:2)
It's great they've had promising tests in mice, but journalists always go on to make some fabulous claim for how the future wonder cure/thing is right around the corner.
Yes, this is interesting, and maybe there is some good science/medicine that will come out of it - but we're FAR down the road from an exercise pill. I know the article isn't saying it's right around the corner either but it just feels like a lot of speculation and hyperbole at this point.
I know, I know - total Debbie Downer - sorry.
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I'd blame it more on the scientists (and their organizations). There are all kinds of self-serving reasons for a lab to convince people they're on the verge of some great breakthrough. I've been hearing about cancer cures 5 years down the road for about 20 years now.
Interesting for other reasons: (Score:3)
According to the Nature paper referenced, they think part of the way it works is increased creation of working mitochondria, and increased recycling of nonworking mitochondria.
That's a useful thing to be able to modify. There are a number of diseases that seem to involve increasing mitochondrial disfunction or decreased numbers of them.
In fact, one of the theories of aging is that the mitochondria stop working so well contributing to senescence because there's less energy for the cell to do routine things like take out the trash (buildup of nonworking protein and other remnants). That's certainly not the whole story on aging, but it's likely a part of it.
This may not work in humans, or even if it does might not lead to an exercise pill, but this is certainly interesting work.
Only body affected though?? (Score:3)
Re:I call bullshit. (Score:5, Funny)
Soon, there will be two kinds of nerds: Those on SR9009 and those they beat up.
Re:I call bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I call bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)
It must be comforting to "know" that a study must be false by virtue of the fact that you disagree with its conclusion.
Why not? It works for politics.
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If this actually did something medically beneficial, I don't see why they shouldn't also use it for the diet industry and make a profit on it too.
The problem is, like many drugs, there's going to be side effects. There's a very slight chance it won't, but something like this is very likely to have serious health effects unless they got incredibly lucky. Screwing with metabolism is not a simple process. Needless to say, this is not something I would use without both trials, and a number of early adopters
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You do all realize that muscles are not the whole story? You need parallel development of capillaries, veins, ligaments, joints, lungs, and bones.
If it doesn't do those, you might end up with huge muscles that tear away from their connections the first time you exert them.
For the average person, muscles are just there to look good, not actually to climb mountains or run farther.