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 ...
Churchill used Claret.
So how long until we hear about the great College Bowl doping scandal? Mandatory drug testing for the debate team? Contestants on “Jeopardy” having to give their prizes back because they were found to have beta blockers in their system?
}:-)4
So much more civilized.
Smart pills. Yes! Tell me we don’t need those as a species, as a society.
So adderall increases attention AND DECREASES APPETITE? Where do I get it????
A poor door-to-door salesman had no products to sell and no money to buy stock. As he was walking along, he saw a pile of deer droppings and decided to sell them as ‘Smart Pills’. The first person he came to tried one and said “Yuck that tastes like shit.” "See", the salesman replied, "the’re working already.”
I’m guessing NBA and the NFL won’t be testing for this stuff any time soon.
"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo.
And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine! That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers........."
That “Mental Boosters” list is bogus, it does not include beer?
This is an article from the UK, but Ritalin use is also rampant in US colleges. No more using caffeine to get an edge for “cramming for exams”...just pop a Ritalin.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6766847.stm
Years ago I read about “Diapid” a nasal spray that worked like that.
Also, choline and lecithin.
I understand that it is reported in Iowa that Hillary was spotted taking some round soft green steaming pills the other day just before a campaign stop.
Could these be the same Deer pills you speak of?
She certainly has been very Shiite(y) with her audiences especially when it comes to taking questions.
Courtesy comment:
Nor did it include money.
Where’s Viagra on this list?
I used Modafinil in Iraq. Worked well for alertness and concentration during the 14+ hr. shifts.
Being serious, this sounds like something I should try.
We need to confiscate the entire stock of intelligence enhancing drugs just to get the current crop of Repubs and Dhimmicrats presidential candidates up to normal IQ. Gads, what have we wrought with these clowns? (Fred excepted, of course.)
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