Revive Reviews: The Exercise Pill

You may have heard the buzz recently…

Researchers are working to create eight novel exercise pills that have the potential to illicit the same beneficial effect on the body as exercise. This will be done by triggering different molecular targets at various organ levels in the body (e.g. skeletal muscle, adipose (fat) tissue and cardiac (heart) tissues). At the moment, proposed improvements include: muscle and blood vessel growth, body fat reduction, potential restoration of insulin sensitivity and improved mitochondrial production – all key physiological outcomes of exercise.

So what does this mean?

Could we one day be able to “exercise” from the comforts of our bed?! Are we taking a whole new low when it comes to convenience and getting out of doing the things that require us to push ourselves out of our comfort zone?

This day in age it’s understandable; everything is about ease and convenience, but how far are we going to push that? Take a hard look at the mirror – no matter how promising this pill may sound, there’s no pill that will correct our poor dietary habits, excessive intake and poor lifestyle choices. It is important to keep in mind that these pills were originally developed for those impacted by severe amputations, spinal injuries or debilitating musculoskeletal/cardiovascular conditions.

Don’t be fooled!

If reasons preventing you from incorporating beneficial lifestyle habits include lack of time, poor motivation, stress or fatigue following a long workday, there may be other lifestyle factors you need to get redialed! No exercise pill is going to fix this or the stresses that come with these types of behaviours.

Even with this miraculous exercise pill, the benefits aren’t as promising as they sound. Recent research has found that while the stimulus and activation of certain key signalling proteins in the body by way of these exercise pills may illicit positive outcomes in the short-term, they may have detrimental and harmful outcomes to the body with time (e.g. if chronically activated, certain molecular targets of these exercise pills may result in excessive muscle breakdown). There is a plethora of physiological and psychological benefits from getting off the couch and simply moving. None of these pills can fully mimic the physiological and psychological benefits of exercise, nor can they create mindfulness towards nutrition.

Instead of waiting for a miracle pill…

Why not take the first step at improving your life as a whole? (Without having to worry about the side effects of an exercise pill!) It won’t be long before the holiday season rolls along.

Start small! Come check out our Beat the Holiday Bulge campaign:

• Come create some manageable and realistic nutrition goals for you and your family and learn effective strategies to maintain your weight through the holidays – Workshops run throughout the month of October.

• Check out our friends over at Body by Bennett and challenge yourself to a fun and exciting workout! To our Revive clients, each of you will receive one complimentary workout a week during the months of November and December (call the Revive office to sign up). Take this on with family and friends – or even better, challenge your favourite Revive Nutritionist to a workout!

What are your thoughts on these exercise pills? Would you take them?
Comment below and let us know what you think.