U.S. military's pill would replace food, burn fat
U.S. military researchers are working on a powerful new weapon that could soon fall into civilian hands: a drug that would allow people to go safely without food for nearly a week at a time.
The metabolic dominance program's vision is to help those fighting a war to operate at "superior" levels of physical and mental performance for three to five days, 24 hours a day, "without the need for calories."
DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, has given scientists until the end of March to submit proposals for new ways to make food dispensable. The most ambitious goal for this "operational dominance" is to artificially manipulate the human body's metabolism and find ways to better access energy-rich fat stores.
In other words, a potential pill that would burn up fat -- without gobbling up muscle as an energy source -- during prolonged periods of self-starvation, without affecting vital fuel supplies to the brain.
Obesity expert Dr. Robert Dent thinks it will be possible in the not-too-distant future.
"That's the fascinating thing about this: What would be the ramifications for peaceful uses, or medical uses? The ramifications might be that we could help people reduce their body fat in a better way."
People have to work exceedingly hard to get into their fat stores. Even male athletes who want to get their percentage of body fat down from, for example, 21 per cent to 18 per cent, "have to exercise aerobically for at least half an hour before you start accessing fat stores," says Dent, medical director of the Ottawa Hospital's Weight Management Clinic. And while humans can go a month without food, "we don't function at peak performance."
But Dent cautions that any experiments must proceed "with the utmost respect of ethics.
"When it comes to military secrets about how you distort a human body, that doesn't ride real well with me."
Numerous drugs have been developed in conjunction with U.S. army researchers, including "wake-promoting" agents, pills that essentially eliminate the need for sleep for days.
Now, the Pentagon's quest to make soldiers function without food could lead to "grunts who are pretty much immune to normal human demands," reports Wired magazine. If successful, there's every chance an anti-food pill could become the latest "lifestyle" drug, a quick fix to puncture North America's ever-expanding girth. Just this week, the Canadian population health initiative, a program of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, reported that rates of overweight and obesity have more than doubled for Canadian adults in the last two decades.
---> http://www.canada.com/OwenSound/story.html?id=e8ee9d45-3930-49b6-b297-d5c9ab4aa6a4
U.S. military researchers are working on a powerful new weapon that could soon fall into civilian hands: a drug that would allow people to go safely without food for nearly a week at a time.
The metabolic dominance program's vision is to help those fighting a war to operate at "superior" levels of physical and mental performance for three to five days, 24 hours a day, "without the need for calories."
DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, has given scientists until the end of March to submit proposals for new ways to make food dispensable. The most ambitious goal for this "operational dominance" is to artificially manipulate the human body's metabolism and find ways to better access energy-rich fat stores.
In other words, a potential pill that would burn up fat -- without gobbling up muscle as an energy source -- during prolonged periods of self-starvation, without affecting vital fuel supplies to the brain.
Obesity expert Dr. Robert Dent thinks it will be possible in the not-too-distant future.
"That's the fascinating thing about this: What would be the ramifications for peaceful uses, or medical uses? The ramifications might be that we could help people reduce their body fat in a better way."
People have to work exceedingly hard to get into their fat stores. Even male athletes who want to get their percentage of body fat down from, for example, 21 per cent to 18 per cent, "have to exercise aerobically for at least half an hour before you start accessing fat stores," says Dent, medical director of the Ottawa Hospital's Weight Management Clinic. And while humans can go a month without food, "we don't function at peak performance."
But Dent cautions that any experiments must proceed "with the utmost respect of ethics.
"When it comes to military secrets about how you distort a human body, that doesn't ride real well with me."
Numerous drugs have been developed in conjunction with U.S. army researchers, including "wake-promoting" agents, pills that essentially eliminate the need for sleep for days.
Now, the Pentagon's quest to make soldiers function without food could lead to "grunts who are pretty much immune to normal human demands," reports Wired magazine. If successful, there's every chance an anti-food pill could become the latest "lifestyle" drug, a quick fix to puncture North America's ever-expanding girth. Just this week, the Canadian population health initiative, a program of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, reported that rates of overweight and obesity have more than doubled for Canadian adults in the last two decades.
---> http://www.canada.com/OwenSound/story.html?id=e8ee9d45-3930-49b6-b297-d5c9ab4aa6a4
uke How many of you have had to live on those for for 10 or 12 days? I guarantee weight loss! I will remain skeptical of this achievement. The news story should start out with: "Brought to you by the makers of......LSD." :hehe