We are all familiar by now with the numerous, incredible benefits of exercise.
Not only does moderate, consistent exercise help to keep your body in tip-top condition, keeping your muscles – yes, your biceps, but also your heart and lungs – functioning well, but it also does wonders for your mental health. In fact, doctors around the world have been prescribing exercise, particularly in the outdoors, to people suffering with mental health conditions for quite some time, to great success.
At the same time, exercise can boost your immune system and encourage cell growth and regeneration. When it comes to many illnesses – both short- and long-term, temporary and serious – exercise can be one factor that helps to prevent, or even beat it.
But what happens if you aren’t able to exercise?
Up until now, a lack of ability to exercise has simply meant missing out on the multitude of benefits that come from a good old workout.
But now USC researchers think they have found the answer.
New research recently published in the academic journal GeroScience suggests the possibility of a pill that can deliver all the benefits of exercise without the user having to move their bodies at all.
Suggested as a treatment for Alzheimers patients, the pill will help to fight dementia by stimulating the brain and body in the same way as exercise – which has a proven preventative effect.
In a USC statement, Constanza Cortes – lead author on the study – explains how this ‘exercise-in-a-pill’ treatment could be used by people who are unable to exercise. Like exercise, it will activate the ‘muscle-brain axis’, a network in the brain whose consistent stimulation can prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and could be life-saving for those who, through no fault of their own, can’t simply get up and go for a walk:
“This is specifically to activate these brain pathways that respond to exercise in the context of populations that can’t exercise. It’s for people who cannot get on the treadmill and exercise to the level that they need to.”
In their testing, the scientists observed Alzheimer’s traits in mice, stimulating the muscle-brain axis in the mice in the same way that exercise would.
Rather than being allowed to exercise, the mice were instead injected with the chemicals. In their experiments, the team discovered that the Alzheimer’s mice whose muscle-brain axis had been adapted showed healthy cognition levels:
“We looked at a bunch of Alzheimer’s-related pathologies — accumulation of plaques in the brain, inflammation in the brain and synapse communication, which is how neurons talk to each other. All of these things are completely awry in Alzheimer’s. So, we examined a group of Alzheimer’s mice, and then the same Alzheimer’s mice but with this muscle modification, and we showed that we could ‘rescue’ a lot of these symptoms.”
Though this potential “exercise-in-a-pill” is still in its early stages, it offers hope for those who are less mobile in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
But don’t be fooled: it might keep your brain healthy, but it will do nothing for your abs.
If you found that story interesting, learn more about why people often wake up around 3 AM and keep doing it for life.