After Popeye the Sailor Man eats a can of spinach, he can grow strong muscles. Can the rest of us now also take a pill that does the job of exercise?
In the June issue of the journal Nature, a discovery caught people’s attention. It has made many people who do not like exercising or cannot exercise daydream about the possibilities.
Researchers from Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine, and their collaborating institutions found a molecule in the blood of lab rats that had undergone vigorous exercise. The substance, Lac-Phe, is an amino acid produced during exercise and is synthesized intracellularly from lactic acid (a byproduct of intense exercise that causes soreness and burning in muscles) and phenylalanine (an amino acid obtained from the breakdown of proteins)….