With AICAR, Can You Buy Exercise in a Pill?

New Study Finds Strong Results for Muscle Endurance Drug

The ability to buy exercise in a pill form is near -- relatively speaking. Despite short notice, Olympics' no-doping committees are preparing to test athletes for AICAR, a chemical shown to increase muscle endurance, even without exercise. Published in the July 31 online issue of Cell, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that AICAR, administered daily for four weeks, increased the endurance of sedentary mice by 44 percent. While it may be several years before average consumers can buy AICAR commercially, non-FDA approved access is expected.

Study co-author and developmental biologist Ronald Evans tells Scientific American that AICAR is "tricking the muscle into 'believing' it's been exercised daily," and that the study "proves you can have a pharmacologic equivalent to exercise."

How is exercise in a pill form possible?

In summary, endurance training produces metabolic and structural changes in the muscles. This study shows that AICAR can produce muscle reformation --a state influenced by gene expression (or activation), increased cellular energy and muscle fiber composition.

Two types of muscle exist: Type 1 (slow-twitch) and Type 2 (fast-twitch). Type 1 burns more fat (oxidizes fatty acids), is more resistant to fatigue -- due to an abundance of mitrochondria producing cellular energy -- and increases with endurance training.

Type 2 muscle fibers contain fewer mitrochondria, fatigues more easily, burns glucose and is commonly found in obese and sedentary individuals.

Science Daily, among other sources provided, provides a digestible in-depth explanation of the way AICAR further works at the cellular and metabolic level to achieve increased muscle endurance.

How much will the exercise pill cost?

The so-called "exercise pill" will, at least initially, be out-of-reach for most exercise-challenged individuals.