Exercise pill could help fight obesity. A pill could someday duplicate the results you get by exercising. While new research suggests that drugs could enhance or even mimic the effects of exercise, many researchers say that the notion that you could skip the treadmill and pop a pill is premature. A team of scientists led by Ronald M. Evans, an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at the Salk Institute’s Gene Expression Laboratory, studied two drugs that trigger genetic changes in the body – changes that are typically stimulated by exercise and can ultimately lead to improved muscle functioning and energy-burning abilities. And in mice, at least, the drugs seem to show some positive results. When given to exercise-trained mice, the first drug, known as GW1516, increased their running time by 68 percent and distance by 70 percent. The second, called AICAR, increased running time by 23 percent and distance by 44 percent – but in mice that were “couch potato[es],” Evans says. It was as if, he says, the mice had achieved the “impossible goal” of gaining muscle tone and endurance without having exercised. The research was published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Cell. “Perhaps the most significant finding is that one can actually develop a pill that can confer exercise,” Evans says. But scientists are sure they can duplicate the same results in humans. At best, the study shows some promise that a new drug could be developed to fight obesity, some day.

Mexican farm linked to Salmonella outbreak. Laboratory testing by the Food and Drug Administration has linked a Mexican farm to the salmonella outbreak in the United States, the agency said yesterday. A sample of serrano peppers and irrigation water taken from the farm, in Nuevo León, Mexico, contained the same strain of salmonella that caused the U.S. outbreak. A contaminated jalapeño pepper had been identified two weeks ago at another farm in a different part of Mexico. Until further notice, the FDA advises consumers to avoid eating raw serrano or jalapeño peppers from Mexico or any foods that contain them.

Vital Signs: When Black America is shortchanged in the fight for HIV/AIDS funds it has a terrible consequence: fewer Black women get the help the need. Read more at Vital Signs.

TAGS: AIDS, black, exercise, HIV, obesity, pill, Salmonela, women

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