oilman_15106

Saw a tv report on this study and the potential is quite interesting. Let alone the impact it might have on pro cyclists!

https://www.als.net/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&m=335530

The report makes no conclusions or promises but there is hope. If this works on mice it might be the ticket to finishing that century without bonking.

BikeWNC

To finish a century without bonking, train more and eat better on the ride.

bobbycorno

I'm at a loss to see how any of that applies to the bonk. It's not an issue of weak muscles - it's an issue of no gas in the tank.

SP
Bend, OR

chasm54

This has nothing whatever to do with bonking. Bonking is not a result of lack of muscle, but of running out of fuel. If you want to finish the century without bonking, you need to ride at a pace you can handle, eat properly and hydrate.

As for there being hope, the article acknowledges that the only thing that currently works in terms of slowing the ageing process is to take exercise. Resistance exercise helps maintain bone density and muscle mass. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a drug, if I were you.

jim hughes

I'd read about this earlier. It's going to happen, and it's going to be huge. Not likely to arrive in time to make a big difference for us, because the big drug companies won't invest in it anytime soon, and the development/approval pipeline in the U.S. is about 15 years long. It might turn out that this particular drug has problems, and something else will replace it.

But future generations' lives will be very different from ours.

Banded Krait

I disagree completely with this statement. If this proves to be a viable technology, the large drug companies will be falling over each other trying to get in on this action. Something like this would be worth many tens-of-billions of dollars a year in sales.

stonefree

Big Pharma will do anything to try to make a buck off of the drug culture, including promising partial immortality, at least for the next few minutes or until the side effects kick in, or until the commercial is over and the lawsuits start. That's just another drug treadmill that this particular mouse is going to avoid, if possible. But any of you other guinea pigs out there can go ahead and give it a try if you want to. I doubt if pro cyclists will be old enough to need anything like this.

PatW

Well, the drug looks interesting. But it takes quite some time to test a new drug and a considerable amount of money. Since it costs so much to develop a drug, the drug company has to be pretty sure that if successful, the drug has a decent prospect of finding a large market and making big bucks. Remember, there have been a bunch of drugs that looked decent in mice that never panned out for human use.

jim hughes

I don't think some of you realize how big this would be. It's about aging, not athletics or competition or riding centuries. It's about being functional when you're 90, able to easily get out of a chair and up a flight of stairs. It's about remaining independent. Exercise slows down sarcopenia but can't stop it.

DX-MAN

A drug......

A DRUG!

Damn, people, better living through chemistry is a LIE! Don't all the recalled drugs and the lawsuits, the side effects from hell with every new product, give anyone pause?

MY 'drug', if you will, is 85-100 rpms, knees in the breeze.

BengeBoy 

The study is authored by a Dr. Marks who is identified as: "a consultant for a start-up company, ARMGO Pharma, Inc., which is targeting ryanodine receptors to improve exercise capacity in muscle diseases."

I don't think we need to worry about big pharma finding a way into this market if it's proven to be effective.

tcs

Who was that guy who promised everything would be different in the pill-taking future?

Oh yeah, Timothy Leary.

Elmog

+1!

Garfield Cat

Growth hormone is the key ingredient in anti aging medicine. Yet anti aging is not recognized as a specialty by the AMA.

OldsCOOL

Think: side effects


And you know there will be that.

Wogster

The question as always though, is how functional, slowing down or preventing sarcopenia will not affect everything to do with aging, as long as everything works reasonably well, I like being on this sod, when nothing wants to work anymore, then maybe it's time to end up under this sod. So far for me, everything is working reasonably well, and with a baby on the way, I want to be here for quite a while yet, got to see her through college

velocycling

As another poster pointed out ARMGO Pharma, Inc. is the one $$ this research. But the paper is titled, "Ryanodine Receptor Oxidation Causes Intracellular Calcium Leak and Muscle Weakness in Aging."

In other words, antioxidants, eat your blueberries. Oh we can not patents those.

bikepro

This could be the next "Viagra" -- good or bad.

on the path

Any doctor will tell you that no drug is single acting, i.e. it may do what you want it to but it will do a whole bunch of things you don't want it to...

oilman_15106

I guess I made a leap that if the mice could last 3x times longer with the drug on the treadmill vs. the non drugged mice it would translate to being able to last longer in the saddle with the drug. All you would have to do is keep feeding those muscles to do the work. Just thought the thing would be interesting and it could be a game changer for elderly folks and daily function.

To those sharp knives - take a pill.

bigbadwullf

Almost as bad as this Body by Vi crap

Terex

Brilliant post in the 50+ forum, where most of us are on some form of beneficial medication.

SaiKaiTai

With side effects, I might add.

on the path

I agree. Although I admit that there is an element of luck that I'm not on daily Rx medicine, there are also choices I've made that help to keep that status, at least for now.

My Dr wants me on lipitor and so far I've refused. My solution was to lose 45 lbs and do daily cardio exercising. Now I'm to the point where I typically do 15 miles per day on the bike. When I can't, I still get my 5-7 days of cardio in every week. I feel pretty good, and pretty lucky.

stonefree

Bingo bango...the 60's was just on the job training for the drug culture.

Go to the head of the class and get your gold star.