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Pick-up up pill to boost brain
20 APRIL 2008 - By Simon Usborne - iol.co.za
Do you face a mid-afternoon lull a double espresso cannot break? Is
jet lag the bane of your life? Or perhaps you're just fed up yawning
your way out of the pub at 9.30pm.
Whether modern life leaves you struggling to keep up or just
exhausted, the answer could be as simple as popping a pill.
Using drugs to improve performance in sport is nothing new, but what
about pills that do nothing to enhance biceps or abs and instead
target the body's most powerful "muscle" - the brain?
The idea that pills could boost memory or allow weary workers to put
in 24-hour shifts evokes the dystopia of Aldous Huxley's 1932 science
fiction novel Brave New World, in which humanity depends on a
government-prescribed "happy" drug called Soma.
Some scientists are warning that a generation of artificially
enhanced thinkers could soon become science-fact, as an
increasing number of people, from stockbrokers and soldiers to
students and shelf stackers, look for something more effective than
caffeine to boost performance.
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Comment: Unfortunately, you are not being told there are
many things that will help you, such as music, having a small
garden to tend, and many other normal everyday activities that
kill the machine brain being developed for you. Last chance to
wake up. Look around, and anyone with a clear noggin can see
disaster on the horizon, so how on Earth is anyone going to deal
with a serious problem while on drug pusher products that are
carefully designed for profits only? |
The medicines they use are called cognitive or brain-enhancing
drugs. But you won't find them in your local chemist's. Instead,
healthy people are popping prescription pills designed to treat
conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
narcolepsy or even Alzheimer's.
The drugs of choice are Ritalin and Modafinil. Prescribed to ADHD
sufferers to help calm them down, Ritalin, dubbed "kiddie coke" by
some, can boost concentration and alertness in healthy people.
Modafinil is designed to combat narcolepsy but can also stave off
tiredness in those without a diagnosed sleep disorder.
The British Medical Association believes this kind of drug abuse is
growing rapidly as healthy pill poppers dupe doctors into
writing prescriptions, or buy medicines from unlicensed online
pharmacies.
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Comment: Healthy is an assumption, as psychologically, you
are spewing nonsense. |
Studies in America suggest brain-boosting drug use is rife. A
2005 survey of more than 10 000 US university students found that 4
percent to 7 percent of them had tried ADHD drugs at least once to
pull pre-exam all-nighters.
At some institutions, more than one in four students said they'd
sampled the pills.
Anecdotal evidence suggests as many as three in four classical
musicians in the US take beta blockers such as Inderal, which block
adrenalin receptors in the brain, helping to control high blood
pressure or stage fright.
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Comment: Clever promotions using surveys designated by
pushers. Most people listen to music, they don't make it. |
Philip Harvey, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, says
he takes Modafinil to combat jet lag.
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Comment: He should link up with the radio nuts. |
American doctors can prescribe the drug to night shift workers as
well as to narcoleptics.
He says he has no urge to take the drug more frequently, but many
do. And it's not difficult to understand why.
In 2003, scientists at Cambridge University found a single dose of
Modafinil helped healthy male university students perform better at
mental planning tests, complete puzzles more accurately and remember
longer chains of digits.
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Comment: Again, more nonsense. There are many conditions in
life that would allow such improvements besides man-made
chemicals. |
The drug has also been tested by British and American armed
forces, where it has been shown to help soldiers stay alert during
night-time operations.
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Comment: Soldiers are horribly mistreated and provide
slavery for murderers, and clearly does not provide useful data
for any reader. |
Scientists say the drug allows 48 hours of continuous wakefulness
with few side effects, mild headaches being the most common.
Concern
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Modafinil is that users
don't have to pay back sleep "debt"; a standard eight hours is
apparently enough to make up for no sleep the night before.
Such impressive results have led some
scientists to predict a world with little or no need for sleep,
where drugs will allow us to put in 22-hour days.
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Comment: Again, the nightmare is beginning to become real. |
Drug companies are reportedly racing to develop the world's first
marketed brain-enhancing drugs.
"It could change society as we know it," says Barbara Sahakian, a
psychiatrist at Cambridge University, who has studied
cognitive-enhancing drugs.
"The drive for the self-enhancement of brain power is likely to be
as strong if not stronger as enhancement of beauty or sexual
function.
"One concern is the lack of regulation when people buy these drugs
on the internet, where they can't be absolutely certain what they
are getting or whether they should be taking them," she warns.
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Comment: They always act like they are concerned while
telling you at the same time what a wonderful line of bull shit
they sell you. |
But brain enhancers look set to challenge caffeine as the
pick-me-up of choice in the world's offices, classrooms and
war zones. But Sahakian cautions, "Some
worry that we are working towards a 24-hour-a-day society pushed to
the limits of human endurance." - The Independent
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Comment: Evidently, no one even cares. Just give me my pill.
It is all allusion for the last days. It is well known that DNA
is being altered, which is in effect, genetic pollution at the
highest level. |
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