Protein Provides Exercise Health Benefits without the Pain
Regular exercise is good for your health, but what if you could get the same benefits without the effort? Researchers at Michigan Medicine have discovered that a class of conserved proteins called Sestrins mimics many of the benefits of exercise for metabolism and physical endurance in mice and flies. Scientists could use the findings to develop strategies to combat muscle loss due to disease or aging. These results show that Sestrin plays a major role in integrating the benefits of physical exercise on metabolism and endurance. Sestrin could be a promising therapeutic drug to improve mobility and metabolism.
The number of older people in the population is increasing, and so are the concerns over keeping them healthy and mobile. The authors state that mobility is the biggest concern for older people. Mobility is important for both direct health reasons (e.g. preventing falls and retaining access to family members and health care providers), and for psychological reasons. It is highly correlated with personal satisfaction and morale.
They noted that endurance exercise is a promising therapeutic intervention which can help slow down age-related decline in functional abilities. However, endurance exercise may not be suitable for all. Although endurance exercise is shown to have a significant protective effect on healthspan in humans and animals, not everyone has the ability to train at the required level to reap the benefits. This could be due to illness, injury or age. Researchers suggested that the creation of therapeutic mimetic drugs to mimic the effects of exercise would be beneficial to the medical profession.
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