Pharmaceutical companies have been pursuing the elusive ‘exercise pill’ for decades. One potential candidate, known as compound 516, was originally developed in the 1990s by GlaxoSmithKline as a treatment for metabolic syndrome. The drug was abandoned in 2007 after test results showed it could increase cancer risks.
Other companies have picked up where GlaxoSmithKline left off. They are developing compound 516 along with other drugs that reportedly offer all the benefits of exercise without actually requiring physical effort. But is this a wise approach to good health? More importantly, what does the pursuit of an exercise pill say about modern society?
The Need for Exercise Is Real
Few of us would dispute the fact that the body needs exercise. The need is very real. Regular exercise is critical to maintaining physical and mental health. Exercise is good for the heart, the lungs, the muscles, and on and on. Conversely, a lack of exercise is bad for all those things.
Prior to the industrial era, physical exercise was part of daily life. It was hard work to raise animals and produce crops. Everything from chopping firewood to getting water from the well required physical exertion. Today, machinery has replaced much of the manual labor our ancestors did. As such, we have to make time for exercise rather than just living lives filled with plenty of manual labor.
The exercise pill is a panacea for all the problems of modern laziness. Just the fact that we want an exercise pill says something important about our willingness to be healthy. We say we want good health, but we are not willing to invest the effort in maintaining it.
A Pill Worse Than the Disease
Let us assume the exercise pill eventually makes it to market. People will be able to avoid exercise altogether by running down to the pharmacy and picking up a month’s supply. Will the pill be worse than the lack of exercise it is intended to combat?
GlaxoSmithKline abandoned compound 516 because they determined it was toxic. Other pharmaceutical companies now working on their own exercise pills are running into some of the same problems. They are discovering that it is not so easy to alter human DNA and get away with it.
What society has to decide is whether an exercise pill is worth the risk. We already know that a lack of exercise leads to all sorts of health problems. If an exercise pill can solve some of those problems, fine. But what if it creates even bigger problems of its own? Therein lies the real risk.
Real Exercise Always Works
The sad part of this entire discussion is the fact that real exercise works. Just 30 minutes of vigorous walking or indoor cycling, five days per week, can do wonders for your health. Coupling regular exercise with a healthy diet and adequate sleep is the best way to ensure physical and mental health.
Unfortunately, people are very adept at finding reasons to not exercise. According to the good folks at Mcycle Studios in Salt Lake City, Utah, the two most common reasons people do not exercise are a perceived lack of time and the fact that exercise is uncomfortable.
If the exercise pill makes it to market and is successful, it will demonstrate that society doesn’t care enough about physical health to make time for exercise and withstand a bit of discomfort. Both are issues bigger than the exercise pill itself. The day we stop caring about our collective health is the day when no amount of modern medicine will help.