In today’s New York Times, there is an interesting article about drugs offering fitness. The two drugs are Aicar and GW1516 which activate the muscle remodeling system in mice. In studies of mice running on a treadmill, Aicar increased endurance by 44% after 4 weeks of treatment. This is without any type of training. GW156 which must be combined with exercise for efficacy, improved endurance performance by 75%.
This obviously has the sports world alarmed as athletes could think about using these substances to gain a performance edge over their competitors. However, that is unlikely to happen since a test has already been made and the Worldwide Anti-Doping agency notified.
There are other uses for these drugs as well. Since both obesity and diabetes are issues in this country, these could help combat these conditions.
So what do you think? Would you take something like this? Or consider it when your body is unable to function like it once did?
There was a good essay on why the answer is “no” in the book Running & Philosophy, which I’m currently enjoying, and you probably would too.
For me, at lease, the purpose of running isn’t to achieve some arbitrary goal time or distance, but to challenge your mind and body and train them and test them. A pill would take away all the fun! Professional runners I’m sure have other goals…
As for it being used for obesity problems…. I guess it could be all right. But I don’t really see how it would help… they might get hurt if they suddenly had 44% more endurance then they should, right? Curious…
But it really isn’t so clear I guess… have you seen the recent pain medicine commercial on TV (I want to say Advil) with the golfer? The actor/golfer actually SAYS that taking Advil (or whatever) helps him play better. Performance enhancing drug?
Elle, I’ll have to look into that book. It sound sound interesting. Right now, I’m reading the Paradox of Choice.
I agree with you about running. Testing and training your body to reach a goal is an ultimate feeling that a pill would take away. I mean how could you really ever achieve that elusive runner’s high?
Yes, I think I know the commercial you’re talking about. To me, it’s probably more of a placebo effect.
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