Pill-popping your way to fitness?

Wired has an interesting story about "exercise in a pill". The article outlines ongoing research into drugs that can mimic the effects of exercise, including, in one study, improving stamina 44 percent in "couch potato" lab mice.

Today, researchers are reporting that an experimental drug can mimic the results of an exercise regimen -- with no exercise required. After four weeks of taking the pill, mice who hadn't worked out displayed a 44 percent increase in their running endurance.

"It’s tricking the muscle into ‘believing’ it’s been exercised daily," said the study's lead researcher, Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute, in a release. "It’s basically the couch potato experiment, and it proves you can have a pharmacologic equivalent to exercise."
Link (Wired.com)

Perhaps this is just the thing for today's modern American, young and old alike: No need to get up off the sofa -- just pop the pills and keep on surfing.