One of the most difficult things for many people today is exercise. Everyone may know that it provides multiple benefits, but often these are simply not tangible enough to provide the motivation needed to get out of the house. Many people hope instead for a pill that will eventually be able to provide them the benefits of exercise while allowing them to go about their busy lives. Scientists may soon be able to grant this wish. On July 31, Cell published an online article by Dr. Vihang Narkar and other scientists regarding the very real possibility of such a pill.

For thousands of years, the only way to become fit and healthy was to eat properly and exercise regularly. Now, however, Narkar and his associates have pin-pointed the proteins and genes triggered through exercise. The main protein involved, PPARδ, acts as a trigger which turns on genes that control fat burning and endurance.

In 2007, Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and his team engineered mice that naturally produced more of this PPARδ protein, hoping to see a difference in their endurance. Interestingly, they found the engineered mice were indeed able to run almost twice as long as mice with normal levels of this protein. This, however, required genetic manipulation of the mice on a cellular level at conception. For people, a pill would be ideal. Therefore, Evans and his team created a pill for their mice which would increase production of PPARδ. When this pill and exercise were combined for four weeks, mice taking the pill were able to run 68% longer and 70% farther than mice without the pill. By five weeks, endurance had increased by 100% when compared to levels prior to taking the pill. For this pill to offer any benefits, however, the mice were required to exercise.

Instead of this, Evans wanted to create a pill that would offer benefits without any exercise at all. To do this, he and his team gave the mice a different drug, AICAR, which increased the levels of a specific enzyme used during exercise. The increased levels of this enzyme fooled the body into believing it was exercising even though it was not. The combination of these two drugs allowed the mice to be sedentary, yet run 44% farther and 23% longer than before they took the pills. After four weeks on these drugs, the mice acted as if they had been exercising every day.

Fighting Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases

Drugs such as these could offer more than simply allowing people to run farther; they could significantly help those with diseases that prevent them from exercising. For those with diabetes or obesity, these drugs could offer hope. Although these drugs won’t mysteriously melt unwanted fat or shrink one’s waistline overnight, they do offer the ability for someone to do these things much easier. Rather than walking or running a short distance and becoming overcome by exhaustion, someone on these pills could go farther with less stress and burn an increased amount of fat while they do it.

With obesity and cardiovascular diseases on the rise, a pill such as this could allow someone to increase the benefits they obtain from only a minimum amount of exercise. Narkar says this could help those with “respiratory disorders, cardiovascular abnormalities, type 2 diabetes and cancer…muscle diseases such as wasting and frailty as well as obesity…” This comprises a large group of people. According to the American Health Association, American adults stricken with cardiovascular disease (CVD) reached 79.4 million in 2004. Of those, 871,500 died. It is also estimated that 140 million, 66% of the population, is overweight and 66 million are obese, costing $117 billion in 2001 and $3.9 billion in lost productivity. Furthermore, 78.2 million either have diabetes or are on the verge, with 72,800 dying from it in 2004. One in three people now have at least one type of CVD. If all CVDs were eliminated, the life expectancy would increase by seven years. Not only that, but we could have saved the $431.8 billion in direct and indirect costs associated with cardiovascular diseases in 2007.

With a pill that could help people gain more from exercise and increase the body’s ability to burn fat even without exercising, these groups of people could gain more than simple satisfaction at having done something good for their body; they could increase the quality and length of their life. The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2004 published a study that showed people aged 70-90 who ate a Mediterranean diet and exercised decreased their risk of death from CVD, coronary heart disease and cancer by 65%-73%. If just a portion of these results could be gained by simply taking a pill, millions of lives could be improved and possibly saved every year.

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