"Exercise in a pill" - potential for ME/CFS?

This (mostly paywalled) New Scientist article says:

I've read the whole article and it's interesting. I'm very sorry but I'm too tired to summarise it properly! But basically, scientists have used drugs on mice that give them the health benefits of exercise. There are concerns about impacts on the mice from long-term use and no apparent claim that a single pill would give all the varied benefits in humans, but still!

Two obvious questions in relation to ME/CFS:

(1) Could such a pill(s) have the potential for making us more functional?

(2) Long-term lack of exercise puts PwME at risk of bad things as we get old, including osteoporosis, heart issues, etc. Could such a pill(s) help protect us?

Here's a older (2017), non-paywalled article on the same topic but obviously not as up-to-date.

Discuss!

 

It could be an easy and convenient way to induce PEM.

Based on the 'free' bit it doesn't appear to do anything other than make mice exercise more - for all we know it could be causing them to hallucinate cats.

This approach may not be ideal for the bedbound (unless they like cats)

 

The pill doesn't enable you to exercise more - it enables you to have the physiological benefits of exercise without moving.

Hence my interest!

 

This

does not say it improved any health markers - what it says is that after taking the pill the mice could do more exercise.

 

I cannot get beyond the snippet but:

It seems that the drug they started with stimulates muscle bulk growth. I don't see that as being a particularly useful health benefit unless you want to do sport.

It is carcinogenic.

It has been around for twenty years and is banned in sport.

My guess is that having bulkier more powerful muscles must have an important health downside otherwise we would have evolved to have big muscles without needing to train (like crocodiles that spend 99% of their time doing nothing).

The only health benefits of exercise that interest me are better life expectancy in terms of cardiovascular risk and maybe preserved bone density, although I am doubtful that that is such a big issue for most people.

 

Can anyone find this article in the print edition? I can’t so far - the date of the piece doesn’t correspond with magazine publication dates. If it’s in the magazine, then one could access the article with a library app.

 

In the longer article, there was rather more to it than that (apologies again, I'm too tired to summarise, which must be very frustrating for everybody!).

 

The article talks about a variety of drugs (I shouldn't have posted this when I'm so tired and can't summarise - so sorry!).

I think it's a massive concern for PwME because so many of us can barely move and are going into old age having had zero exercise, for decades. There's lots of research on the huge disbenefits of lack of exercise.

 

It's in the 24 April edition, pp. 46-49.

Tagging @Simon M, in case you're interested!

 

I was reading about Sestrin a while back. Is this the same idea?

 

I'm looking at the print edition and it doesn't provide references.

 

The mention GW1516, irisin, Compound 14, and cathepsin b, but I can't see Sestrin.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13442-5

 

I wonder if a pathway like sestrin is malfunctioning in ME/CFS.

 

Discussion here

 

Thanks, I found it! It’s coming up at page 48-51 in UK edition, viewing on the Libby app. The Libby app is available for Apple or Android devices, all you need is a library card number to make it work, and it’s free.

 

If that's what it did, it could be remarketed as "Pet cat in a pill. No litter box to clean!".

Regarding the pill in question, I really don't think that it offers health benefits to bedbound people. Larger unexercised muscles might even be detrimental.

 

If that is true, then a key question would be whether what translates into benefits for non-ME/CFS people might potentially translate into harms for people with ME/CFS.

 

Maybe, but that's why I'm interested in people's views. I was wondering if it was worth putting it forward for that research prioritising thing.