New pill could offer the health boost of exercise (without having to do any)

In the near future, a pill could offer dieters the weight-loss effects of exercise - without the tricky part where you have to get up and go to the gym.

A trial of a new hormone treatment (MOT-c) found that users were able to eat a high fat diet without putting on any weight.

At present, the University of Southern California research focused on lab mice, but the researchers hope to move to human trials within three years.

The mice were fed a diet which would normally make them put on weight - but those dosed with the hormone did not put on any weight.

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The finding hints that the chemical could be used to treat human obesity, and also reverse early symptoms of diabetes.

The molecular mechanisms which make the hormone work are the same in mice and humans, the researchers say.

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Perhaps even more importantly, the drug could reverse insulin resistance in mice who had developed the health issue (which precedes diabetes) due to age, rather than lifestyle.

The study's senior author Pinchas Cohen saiid 'This represents a major advance in the identification of new treatments for age-related diseases such as diabetes."