Exercise Pill Is No Replacement For Exercise

Say it ain't so.

"Recently, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a research organization focused on biology and its relation to health, published a study in the journal Cell on the results of a substance that increased exercise endurance without daily exertion when tested in mice. Media reports have described this substance as an "exercise pill," potentially eliminating the need for exercise. Frank Booth, a University of Missouri expert on the science of inactivity, says the "exercise pill" study did not test all of the commonly known benefits of exercise and taking the pill cannot be considered a replacement for exercise."

Boo-hoo. So sad for the hopeful mice.

"In the Cell paper "Exercise Mimetics" the researchers demonstrated that AMPK-PPARδ pathways, which is a cellular messenger system, can be targeted by orally active drugs to enhance training adaptation or even to increase endurance without exercise. However, Booth cautions that some of the commonly known benefits of exercise were not tested in the Cell paper including:

- Decreased resting and submaximal exercise heart rate
- Increased heart stroke volume at all exercise work loads
- Increased maximal exercise cardiac output
- Lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness
- Increased aerobic capacity...

The prevention of the increased risk of chronic disease produced by lifelong physical inactivity also was not tested in the Cell paper. According to Katzmarzyk & Janssen (Can J Appl Physiol 29:90, 2004), human physical activity decreases the risk of:

- Coronary artery disease (decreases risk by 45 percent)
- Stroke (decreases risk by 60 percent)
- Hypertension (decreases risk by 30 percent)
- Colon cancer (decreases risk by 41 percent)
- Breast cancer (decreases risk by 30 percent)
- Type 2 diabetes (decreases risk by 50 percent)
- Osteoporosis (decreases risk by 59 percent)"

Here is the complete list of the aforementioned 26 benefits that were untested:

"Commonly known benefits of exercise not tested in the Cell paper were:

- Decreased resting and submaximal exercise heart rate
- Increased heart stroke volume at all exercise work loads
- Increased maximal exercise cardiac output
- Lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness
- Increased aerobic capacity
- Increased strength and cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle
- Delayed loss of muscle mass and strength with aging and physical frailty
- Improved balance and coordination
- Improved flexibility
- Reduced osteoporosis
- Reduced joint stress and back pain
- Decreased gallstone disease
- Improved endothelial function
- Decreased incidence of myocardial ischemia
- Less myocardial damage from ischemia
- Decreased oxidative stress
- Decreased inflammation
- Improved immune function
- Decreased liver steatosis and fatty liver disease
- Improved insulin sensitivity and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
- Less likelihood of depression, anxiety, stress and poor psychological well-being
- Ameliorating hyperlipidemia: lower total cholesterol, higher HDL, and decreased blood triglycerides
- Improved cognitive function in the elderly
- Increased blood flow and neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hypothalamus
- Prevention of the loss of brain volume in the elderly
- Delay in decline of physiological reserve in organ systems with aging"

Bummer.