Exercise in a pill

If you could replace exercise with a pill, would you?

Think about it, because even if you don’t love to exercise you may be improving your health without realizing it. The current recommendations for exercise are 150 minutes per week. 

More is better. 

Up to 7 hours of exercise a week will improve your health. After 7 hours the benefits level off and the risk of illness or injury increase, but only slightly. 

What if you could skip exercise altogether?

If you currently walk, take the stairs, do regular housework, garden or any other activity you may be improving your health without knowing it. In fact, research has shown that hotel attendants get more than the recommended 150 minutes without doing any structured exercise. 

Maybe you are doing more than you think.

Maybe not.

We can easily do as little as possible. Automatic everything, computers, door to door delivery, all the modern conveniences have reduced our need to move dramatically.

Even though we are born to run. Really. Our elastic Achilles tendons, our ability to sweat, our nuchal ligament all make running easier for us than many other mammals. 

There is a pill that mimics the benefits of running.

There really is.

It has only been tested on mice, but the benefits are amazing. 75% increase in endurance, reduced insulin resistance and improved body composition, more lean muscle and less fat. 

This drug mimics the effects of training for a marathon.

Except it doesn’t.

Researchers studying the changes in muscle protein before and after exercise have found 1000 changes after 10 minutes of exercise. Currently, science can explain about 10% of these changes.

Sedentary living is a modern problem.

For most of human history, moving was standard practice. Now sitting is the new normal.

80% of North Americans do not get the recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week. Cardio-respiratory fitness is being considered to be a new vital sign. Metabolic syndrome, a collection of symptoms including, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and abdominal obesity, increases your risk of heart attacks by 2.5 times and the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes by 5 times affects 20 – 25% of the developed world.

Exercise in a pill might be a great invention.

But, what about the side effects?

The benefits of exercise are numerous.

Improved bone density, increased immunity, greater lung capacity, improved neuron development, improved memory, reduced risk of cancer, reduced dementia, reduced risk of diabetes and heart failure, improved weight control, improved mood, improved balance, increased focus, reduced anxiety, improved creativity, improved self-confidence, better sex.

Those are a few of the benefits of exercise.

The negative effects of too much exercise, well you have to exercise regularly for more than 7 hours per week and apparently, most people don’t need to worry about that.

The exercise pill, like so many things, can be ordered on the internet, but buyer beware, it causes cancer. Mice given the drug developed cancer at a much higher rate than the “clean” mice and the tumours were everywhere on their body. The researchers who developed the pill won’t take it.

You can take a pill instead of exercising, but the cost is high. I think I will stick with exercise. It is one of the few things that your return on investment is guaranteed.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla