Advertisement
Scientists may have discovered a way to turn fat cells into active, energy-burning cells, the same thing that exercise does, without having to do any actual exercise.
According to the Science of Us, "Scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have managed to trick white fat cells into behaving as if they were brown fat cells. For those who have not been closely following the last decade of obesity research: White fat cells are the ones that store excess energy (a function that can result in obesity), while brown fat cells, on the other hand, burn excess energy (which means weight loss)."
“What our study shows is that it’s possible to find a drug that would make your bad fat cells get up off the couch and do something good for you,” Chad Cowan, one of the paper's co-authors, told Science of Us.
Does this pill actully replace your time on the treadmill, though? Yes and no, according to Cowan.
“I think that people like the fact that pill and treadmill rhyme,” he explained. “So that kind of caught on.”
It does, in essence, do the same to your body as exercise. "What we know is that when animals and humans exercise, you get fat that becomes more metabolically active—your fat cells begin to burn off excess calories instead of storing them," Cowan said. “So it is sort of replacing the effect of exercise on fat.”
It will never be able to truly replace exercise and all the amazing mental and physical benefits that tag along with it such as better sleep, sharper memory, and reduced stress and depression, to name only a few. To get those benefits, you'll still have to hop over to the gym for a workout.
So how does it work, exactly? They tested a small library of 1,000 molecular compounds, and found two that, once applied to the white fat cells, "taught" them to become metabolically active. Cowan likes to use Spider-Man to explain what happens. “It’s like Peter Parker — it isn’t like he isn’t still Peter Parker when he becomes Spider-Man. It’s just that now he can also do all these new and different things."
His research also sugests that you wouldn't have to take this long-term to continue to get the benefits. "But the other thing here [with our findings] is that this was a stable conversion: Once these cells were treated, they were always more metabolically active,” Cowan said. "Your fat tissue is constantly replenishing itself … over the course of your lifetime, you’re getting all new cells and adipose tissue," Cowan explained. "So you take the drug until you have enough metabolic cells so you can now burn X amount of calories in your sleep. But then you stop for a while, until maybe a year later, when your tissues have flipped over." In other words, when your white fat cells have replenished.
The downside? This compound does lower your immune system, meaning you'll get sick more often and be more susceptible to sickness. Still, it isn't entirely clear what this compound could do to people who take this regularly, but Cowan and his team expect that this could lead to weight loss without the effort of exercise.
According to reports, this pill is a ways off from hitting the market--about 10 years. “Science, unfortunately, is full of these long-term investments and ideas,” he said.
Still, within a mere decade, you might be able to ditch the treadmill and enjoy more time doing the things you love while still losing weight.
Would you take this pill? Let us know what you think of this exercise pill in the comments!
Photo Copyright © 2012 _robson_/Flickr
