Thin

I want some of this:

Scientists have discovered what could be the ultimate workout for couch potatoes: exercise in a pill.

In experiments on mice that did no exercise, the chemical compound, known as AICAR, allowed them to run 44% farther on a treadmill than those that did not receive the drug.

The drug appeared to change the physical composition of muscle, essentially transforming the tissue from sugar-burning fast-twitch fibers to fat-burning slow-twitch ones, the same change that occurs in distance runners and cyclists through training, according to research released Thursday.

"You're getting the benefits of exercise without having to do any work," said David Mangelsdorf, a pharmacologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who was not connected with the research.

On second thought… maybe not:

With more research, scientists said, the drug's fat-burning properties could also help reduce weight, ward off diabetes, prevent heart disease and restore the fitness of bedridden patients.

The last thing I need to do is lose weight… the very last thing. That one lil drawback aside, the development does look remarkable. I saw an interview with the lead scientist on this project on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer this past Friday evening and was impressed (I also looked for a transcript to quote, but there isn’t one). There were a couple of items in the News Hour interview that didn’t make the LA Times article, most specifically the scientist’s opinion the drug should be made available to lazy people. The man’s rationale is that “exercise in a pill” would be good preventive medicine, even for lazy folks. Or…words to the effect of “anything that can reduce the nation’s general health crisis (ed: think obesity)” shouldn’t be ignored or withheld from anyone…couch potatoes included.

I’m down with that.

―:☺:―

Speaking of obesity, exercise, being skinny, and such… I guess I’ll put any political aspirations I may have had on ice:

"Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough," Sen. Obama said.

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

[…]

"He's too new ... and he needs to put some meat on his bones," says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

"I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, "you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln" in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most presidents were sort of in the middle."

Well, OK. It looks like fat people won’t vote for skinny guys, so there goes my dream of being P-Ville’s Animal Control Czar. But… but… that’s discrimination! We can’t have that! I’m a victim! I PROTEST! I’m gonna start a MOVEMENT! “Thin is IN!” “Don’t Be A Ninny! C’mon…Get SKINNY!”

Or maybe I’ll just keep trying to gain weight. There are too many skeletons (heh) in my closet to run for anything, anyway.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Speaking of couch potatoes… Here’s SN3 and I on the couch. Perinton, NY. June, 1998.