Small Steps Towards Exercise Mimetics

 

Just as scientists are attempting to build calorie restriction mimetics to recapture the well-studied benefits of eating fewer calories, so too some research groups are in search of ways to replicate the benefits of exercise. These efforts are nowhere near as far along as calorie restriction mimetic studies, but I expect that the field will grow in the years ahead. Here is an example of present work, which is still very much at the stage of discovering important mechanisms that might later be manipulated:

Quote:

In the last few years, the benefits of short, intense workouts have been extolled by both researchers and exercise fans as something of a metabolic panacea. In a new study, [scientists] confirm that there is something molecularly unique about intense exercise: the activation of a single protein. The study revealed the effects of a protein known as CRTC2. The scientists were able to show that following high-intensity exercise, which enlists the sympathetic nervous system's "fight or flight" response, CRTC2 integrates signals from two different pathways - the adrenaline pathway and the calcium pathway, to direct muscle adaptation and growth only in the contracting muscle.

Link: http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2014/20140605conkright.html