British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:862-863
Editorials
Are "exercise pills" the answer to the growing problem of physical inactivity?
Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Dr Warden, Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indiana University, 1140 W. Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN, CF-326 USA; stwarden@iupui.edu
Accepted 10 September 2008
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Physical inactivity is an important and growing major health concern and is defined as not engaging in any regular pattern of physical activity beyond that associated with daily functioning.1 The many consequences of inactivity include reductions in insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscle and expansion of fat storage, factors associated with the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.2 Exercise is often performed with the goal of counteracting these changes and enhancing health and life expectancy. Imagine if the health benefits of exercise could be produced simply by taking a so-called "exercise pill". This would be every couch potato’s dream and may be a reality if a paper recently published in the prestigious journal Cell is any indication.
DISCOVERING THE "MAGIC BULLET"?
Narkar et al3 investigated the benefits of two orally active compounds on exercise endurance in mice. The first compound, known simply as GW1516, did not enhance endurance when given to
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Debating transversus abdominis, the "exercise pill" and whether flying limits athletes’ performance on arrival
- Karim M Khan
Br. J. Sports Med. 2008 42: 861.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
bjsm.2008.053512v1
42/11/862 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
