How to build new muscles without doing any exercise? Well, practically impossible, let’s start with that. However, it is true that there may be substances that help regenerate and differentiate new muscle cells without so much training. It will be useful for those who cannot stand in the gym, but especially for those who are on rest due to some illness or cannot do physical exercise. It is above all for them that science has been searching for that perfect pill for years. So far nothing insubstantial has been found; But, according to a new study, a drug in the Viagra family may be quite effective.
NOTE: In mouse cells only. This research has not been conducted in humans. Not even in live laboratory animals. The drug in question has been tested in laboratory-grown mouse cells. Its authors, a team of scientists from the University of Rome, chose to test tadalafil, also known as Viagra, a drug from the same family of compounds as sildenafil. As such, it is used to treat both pulmonary hypertension and erectile dysfunction, but there are already some athletes who use it to promote blood flow to muscles and promote growth. Although the evidence that it actually works isn’t strong, these scientists wanted to see if it had a role in muscle stem cells.
These are cells that have not yet been differentiated, but which, through various steps, can transform into muscle fibers. Broadly speaking, the more muscle stem cells there are, the more efficiently the muscles grow. More processes are involved, but this is a very important one.
what happened. By exposing this drug to laboratory-grown mouse muscle stem cells, several interesting phenomena were observed. First, there were fewer stem cells differentiating into muscle fibers after one week. This may seem bad, but it is not, because if they do not separate, they accumulate, so there is a lot of reserve to build new muscles. In fact, more new cells were formed and fewer of the existing ones died. On the other hand, when a scratch was made to the cell, the wound closed quickly without tadalafil. This means that not only new cells grow, but regeneration is also improved.
reasons. Nitric oxide is known to activate muscle regeneration through a molecule called cGMP. On the other hand, there is an enzyme known as PDE5 that is able to “turn off” cGMP when it is done. These scientists found that tadalafil blocks this enzyme, so that the regeneration signal remains active for longer.
A long way to go. As a next step, the study authors want to conduct the same research in live animals, possibly laboratory animals. The time for humans will come later, but it’s still a long way off, so for now we have to take the results with caution.
Doping? If it is proven that it also works in humans, tadalafil may be considered doping. Currently, although some athletes consume it to increase blood flow to the muscles, it is not considered as such, mainly because there is not much evidence of its effectiveness. But this will be something else. In any case, science doesn’t want to dope athletes or make things easy for the lazy. These drugs are being studied to help people who can’t exercise. Building new muscle is good for your health for many reasons. Finding ways to help those who cannot is a noble cause.
Picture | Anastase Maragos (Unsplash)
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