Could a Pill Replace Exercise?

Could this be the couch potato's dream?

Good news for couch potatoes. There may be a pill that lets them watch their TV and get their exercise, too—without moving a muscle. Scientists have found a drug that mimics the effects of a workout by, among other things, increasing the body's ability to burn fat.


The study shows the pill can also increase endurance..."It's tricking the muscle into 'believing' it's been exercised daily," says Ronald Evans, a developmental biologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif., and co-author of a study published in Cell. "It proves you can have a pharmacologic equivalent to exercise."

I'm certainly not a luddite but this just doesn't sound right. In addition to the muscular benefits derived from exercise, there are also cardiovascular and mental benefits. Perhaps the muscular benefit can be replaced by a pill but the other two...I doubt it. Even though something is possible must we always go down the road. When life gets taken out of life what is life?

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