AICAR – GW1516 – What is AICAR?

What is AICAR?

Basically AICAR is one of the first drugs that point towards the future of fitness and dieting.

It is not just a stimulant as some sources have claimed – unlike diet amphetamines which only last while you take them (as well as destroying you!) or caffine (or other stimulants) used to produce better exercise results, AICAR type drugs will make you leaner and fitter without you doing any work outs and the effects are persistant (they last even months and years after taking the drugs).

It’s really worth pointing out that the drugs will work even better in combination with exercise and diet.

Sedentary mice that took the drug for four weeks burned more calories and had less fat than untreated mice. And when tested on a treadmill, they could run about 44 percent farther and 23 percent longer than untreated mice.

Just how well those results might translate to people is an open question. But someday, researchers say, such a drug might help treat obesity, diabetes and people with medical conditions that keep them from exercising.

“We have exercise in a pill,” said Ron Evans, an author of the study. “With no exercise, you can take a drug and chemically mimic it.”

Evans, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute reports the work with colleagues in a paper published online Thursday by the journal Cell.

They also report that in mice that did exercise training, a second drug made their workout much more effective at boosting endurance. After a month of taking that drug and exercising, mice could run 68 percent longer and 70 percent farther than other mice that exercised but didn’t get the drug. Read more