Science comes a step closer to a workout in a pill

	Tweet

Ever wished you could wash down that pizza, cheesecake and beer with a magic pill to make it all vanish from your waistline?

The prospect may be only a few years away, say Australian scientists doing research on a drug to simulate the effect of exercise, a move sure to excite couch potatoes the world over.

“I’ve loosely called it the vanity drug,” said Bruce Kemp, senior research fellow at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. “A lot of pharmaceutical companies are now working on this very actively,” he said.

St Vincent’s and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have identified and unlocked the structure of an enzyme—a protein that kicks off chemical reactions—that turns off the synthesis of fat and cholesterol.

“This enzyme is activated during exercise and it accelerates your metabolism to make up for the energy deficit in your muscle that’s been created by exercise,” Kemp said.

“There’s been international interest in the enzyme,” he said.

Scientists believe the enzyme, technically known as AMP-activated protein kinase, plays a role in regulating appetite and body weight.

But those seeking six-pack abdominals would still have to pump iron as any future pill would not tone muscles, Kemp said.

“You have to do some work. There are no miracles. (The pill) will do a number of the metabolic and gene transcription events that are caused by exercise but it doesn’t do everything.”

Despite Australia’s reputation as a heavyweight performer in international sport, around half its adults, and a quarter of its children, are overweight or obese. 

RELATED STORIES:
Kids need help staying slim, Congress told   Strokes strike younger adults as diabetes and obesity raise the risks   Understanding causes of obesity in Aboriginal children   Flow of empty calories into children’s food supply must be reduced   Game Designers Target Child Obesity   Obesity ‘could cost us £3 billion a year’   Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say   New insight into links between obesity and activity in the brain   Obesity takes heavy toll on knee arthritis   Obesity Associated With Depression and Vice Versa   Overweight people eat fewer meals than others   California lawmaker plans hearings on soda-obesity link

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]