Posted on 12/28/2007 6:51:24 AM PST by BGHater
Academics, musicians, even poker champs use pills to sharpen their minds, legally. Labs race to develop even more.
Forget sports doping. The next frontier is brain doping.
As Major League Baseball struggles to rid itself of performance-enhancing drugs, people in a range of other fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in modern life.
Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians, corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration or control their emotions.
"There isn't any question about it -- they made me a much better player," said Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the attention deficit drug Adderall and the narcolepsy pill Provigil with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.
The medicine cabinet of so-called cognitive enhancers also includes Ritalin, commonly given to schoolchildren for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and beta blockers, such as the heart drug Inderal. Researchers have been investigating the drug Aricept, which is normally used to slow the decline of Alzheimer's patients.
The drugs haven't been tested extensively in healthy people, but their physiological effects in the brain are well understood.
They are all just precursors to the blockbuster drug that labs are racing to develop.
"Whatever company comes out with the first memory pill is going to put Viagra to shame," said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe.
Unlike the anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and blood-oxygen boosters that plague athletic competitions, the brain drugs haven't provoked similar outrage. People who take them say the drugs aren't giving them an unfair advantage but merely allow them to make the most of their hard-earned skills.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
To be successful, they will have to be taken together. That way the next morning you will be able to remember what the previous night was like........and the reason for the erection thats lasting over 4 hours.
:)
I’ve tried Hydergine for a month at a time, 4mg/day, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. What’s an effective dose supposed to be?
and port and champagne and brandy and scotch
Does coffee count as a drug anymore?
Vick’s inhalers were supposedly somewhat popular until they were taken off the market.
Probably the anticoagulent effect causing mini strokes.
Although you can definately overdose on caffeine, scientists have not been able to pin any problems to long term use of caffeine.
I have seen the results of long term amphetamine use.
You really can’t compare the two.
It’s not as if all amphetamines are the same. I’m not aware of any documented evidence of long term problems resulting from use of methylphenidate (though presumably massively excessive doses could cause harm similar to caffeine). Ritalin is not meth.
I’ve used most of those (except the Diapid)in the past and they were effective for me. Financial issues led to my discontinuing them
Are you saying Ritalin is not meth but caffeine is?
I’ve seen profound addiction to a number of the prescribed stimulants. Stimulants by mouth are not absorbed as quickly as smoking or injecting meth but the physiological response is similar. It’s basically the same as the old argument that power cocaine was not addictive while crack cocaine is. Both are addictive and can cause harm. Crack is more likely to cause addiction because it’s rapid uptake affects the pleasure centers more than the same cocaine does when taken up slowly. But we have seen over the years that powder cocaine is addictive and can be destructive to the user.
I still don’t understand your concern about caffeine. It is safer than aspirin, minimally addictive, and has proven over the years to be a very safe substance.
BTW, this was the first listing for google search “Ritalin deaths”
“Between 1990 and 2000 there were 186 deaths from methylphenidate reported to the FDA MedWatch program, a voluntary reporting scheme, the numbers of which represent no more than 10 to 20% of the actual incidence. “
Yeah but by the time you get enough smoke in the room to block out the noise, you can't see what you're reading ;-)
Nor did it include money.
Money also makes one much more attractive. Beer also has been known to improve the appearance of anyone of the opposite sex that the beer drinker looks at.
http://www.wired.com/print/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/sleep_deprivation
Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep
A nasal spray of a key brain hormone cures sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys. With no apparent side effects, the hormone might be a promising sleep-replacement drug.
In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery’s first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.
The treatment is “a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign,” said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. “It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess.”
.....
I’ve done a version of this with great success. I have a terrible time getting up in the morning, and used to have a class with quizzes given at 7:50 a.m. So I’d have a coffee or black tea and some Sudafed with breakfast. Worked like a charm.
Cool, but I doubt it will work as more than the brain is at rest during sleep. The major organs like heart, liver, etc. all rest and recover during sleep. Sleep apnia keeps the CO2 levels elevated preventing organs from the recuperative benefits of sleep. I use Breath Rights for this reason; i.e., to allow full exhale/expulsion of CO2 to allow the body to rest.
Breath-Right is excellent enhancement for natural / essential breathing mechanism, not just for sleep apnea. I use them whenever my nasal passages feel blocked, especially during the colds or sinusitis.
You mentioned Modafinil, which is also described in this article, along with orexin A, as new, less harmful substances to organism and with fewer other side effects than older, better known ones.
Of course, as you said, biology and organic chemistry being as they are, all these are just temporary solutions to temporary problems or circumstances.
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