Night Music: Rocker

Exercise For the Lazy

A couple of weeks ago I had to undergo some tests on my heart.  Part of the examination took place while I was “at rest” and a second part involved a “stress” test to see how my heart was working after exercise.  In my case, probably because I am an old fart, I didn’t have to do any real exercise (such as using a treadmill); instead, they inject you with a drug that apparently simulates the effects of exercise. It certainly felt odd.  Anyway, I joked with the technician that they should market the drug to lazy non-exercisers.

Today, I was looking up something else and happened to find that scientists are actually working on a drug to do that very thing.

“Michigan Medicine researchers studying a class of naturally occurring protein called Sestrin have found that it can mimic many of exercise’s effects in flies and mice …  [W]hen they overexpressed Sestrin in the muscles of normal flies, essentially maxing out their Sestrin levels, they found those flies had abilities above and beyond the trained flies, even without exercise … The beneficial effects of Sestrin include more than just improved endurance. Mice without Sestrin lacked the improved aerobic capacity, improved respiration and fat burning typically associated with exercise.”

A different “independent study again highlights that Sestrin alone is sufficient to produce many benefits of physical movement and exercise,” says [professor Jun Hee] Lee.”

Ain’t science wonderful?  I can see a huge black market potential for beefing up couch exercisers like myself!