The headline for an express.co.uk article was Hate exercise? There’s a pill for that: Scientists invent drug that REPLACES working out
Yeah, sure. Inside the article it says,
It might be used as a substitute for exercise in the elderly, or as an aid to get people into an exercise program.
“But what we really don’t see is this drug providing an alternative for those people who just can’t be bothered exercising.”
Even the well-researched New Yorker article on the subject overpromised with the headline,
A Pill to Make Exercise Obsolete —
What if a drug could give you all the benefits of a workout?
The article was full of information, and the parts I liked best were
Mice love to run, Evans told me, and when he puts an exercise wheel in their cage they typically log several miles a night. These nocturnal drills are not simply a way of dealing with the stress of laboratory life, as scientists from Leiden University, in the Netherlands, demonstrated in a charming experiment conducted a few years ago. They left a small cagelike structure containing a training wheel in a quiet corner of an urban park, under the surveillance of a motion-activated night-vision camera. The resulting footage showed that the wheel was in near-constant use by wild mice. Despite the fact that their daily activities—foraging for food, searching for mates, avoiding predators—provided a more than adequate workout, the mice voluntarily chose to run, spending up to eighteen minutes at a time on the wheel, and returning for repeat sessions. (Several frogs and slugs also made use of the amenity, possibly by accident.)
and, later in the article,
Instead of designing a pill to replace exercise in humans, Garland favors a different pharmaceutical solution. “Personally, I’ve been more interested in the possibility of drugs that would make us more motivated to exercise,” he said.
The Guardian’s headline was less sensational and closer to the truth:
‘Exercise pill’ could deliver benefits of fitness in tablet form — Drug could transform lives of those who are unable to exercise because of obesity or serious physical disability, mouse study suggests
This headline would have been more accurate if it had said “some of the benefits” rather than just “benefits”, but at least it was pointing out the pill isn’t for everyone, and the article does mention potential problems with the pill.
So, as usual, we have to keep our brains plugged in, especially when reading headlines designed to grab our attention.
is that “fake news” – ’cause it seems like it might be…
of course, the drug could be used to have us mimic mice behaviour and all get out of bed in the middle of the night to rush out to a human sized ‘training wheel’ in the middle of a park!
there would be a call out for designers to create these “wheels” and then whole roads, motorways and said spaces would be obsolete as they would need more and more wheels to stop “wheel rage” at the limited “wheels provided at parks”…
oh where will it all end!
humans will be “micro-chipped” which then means you need to go to your designated “training wheel” due to so many people all wanting to use said wheel close to their homes…
no need for cars but there will be public transport available to assist you to get to your designation “wheel” and in the end it will not just be at night…due to population explosion etc.
The part about a drug to get humans to exercise more was a joke. The drug giving people some of the benefits of exercise isn’t. Apparently it hasn’t been approved by our FDA (Food and Drug Administration) yet — the question is whether the benefits outweigh the risks. So the company working on it now will try to get it approved for a serious illness where it might help, then other people can try it for off-label use.
OMG! LOL!!!
The image of these little creatures hopping on a wheel and running for the sheer joy of it warms my heart! Yep, a pill to make humans do that would be good!
That experiment warmed my heart too. Good for the Dutch researchers! Who would have guessed?
… “for the sheer joy of it warms my heart! ” oh it does mine too.
I would love to see that video footage. but then I love mice anyway!
kind of like otters playing and sliding in the snow for the joy of it! and dolphins.
so many animals just love to play. maybe the little mice think it’s a ferris wheel.
or some other fair ride!
and if it could help wheelchair bound people… wouldn’t that be wonderful!
I agree!
I am surprised that you even bothered to read it!
Why would you be surprised? You know I believe in lifelong learning and of my background in science. The New Yorker article was packed with information, including the fact researchers are trying to find out exactly how exercise is so beneficial. You can’t judge an article by its headline.