The drug tested by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies worked on the one gene in mice which controls muscular endurance. Human beings gain benefit from physical activity not in just muscular endurance but also in cardiovascular fitness and strength, as well as lowering their risk of chronic disease and illness, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and some forms of cancer.
Elderly people also benefit from physical activity through retaining brain performance for longer periods of time. Critics of the research have pointed to the fact that the drug currently being tested does not provide a benefit in either cardiovascular fitness or strength and therefore cannot be considered an exercise panacea.
The critics have also pointed out the fact that the "exercise pill" has not been tested in relation to its efficacy in providing the beneficial effect that physical activity provides in relation to chronic disease prevention, such as those listed above.
Improving stamina through the use of drugs can be considered to be a form of genetic engineering and the long-term implications for humanity are an unknown. Whether the mice in the study will die at a younger age than mice that are normally active or even inactive has not been reported. This poses a problem for human transfer effects . Would you eliminate exercise by popping a pill if the lack of physical activity put you at risk for coronary artery disease?
