Scientists have made a pill to replace exercise – but don’t hang up the trainers yet

The Metro says Two mice lived in a research facility in San Diego. One was called Couch Potato Mouse, the other Lance Armstrong Mouse.

Both ate high-fat diets and had little exercise, yet while Couch Potato Mouse looked as the name might suggest – overweight and unhealthy – Lance Armstrong Mouse was a shining beacon of health.

Lance Armstrong Mouse had a secret. A drug. This drug, named GW501516, or 516 for short, mimicked the effect of exercise on the body without the body in question having to move a muscle.

That was 2017, 15 years after 516 was first developed. Last year researchers at Stanford also made a similar breakthrough. This month, another group of scientists have achieved the feat with another drug. 

So when will exercise finally be available as a pill – and should we take it?

Here in the UK, we’re not all as active as we should be. The latest figures show that 61.4% of people in England aged 16 or over were deemed ‘physically active’, the definition of which is taking part in 150 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity a week.