We'll all be doping before too long.

[akelman]

No, really, I think it's only a matter of time before performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals ("drugs" is such a nasty word) become the norm rather than the exception (see below*). I'm not saying it's a good thing, but I do think it's nearly inevitable. I mean, what happens you realize that the new kid, the kid who just got hired, can concentrate for hours and hours and hours without a break? What happens when he or she is promoted over you? What happens when you learn that the secret to her or his success is methylphenidate? What are you going to do about it? For me, I'll probably go out for a bike ride and then take a nap. But that's because I'm old and pretty much past my prime regardless. But if I could still be a contender -- whatever being a contender means -- I wonder if I'd think twice.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/03/human-grown-hormone-hollywood-201203

* Why can't I embed links anymore?

[goonster]

Age-old ethical and health considerations remain.

It is not ethical for a physician to prescribe the meds if they are for "doping". Virtually all of these meds have side effects of varying severity. In almost no case does the "doping" result in improved health, happiness and long-term "success" without tradeoffs.

[Joachim]

Just wait until Hollywood gets on the SARMS (selective androgen receptor modulators), AICAR and myostatin inhibitors. Makes HGH looks like Malibu Barbie next to G.I. Joe.

[MattTuck]

Probably true. We are at or very near to the end of evolution by means of natural selection. Human directed evolution and enhanced humans are coming, whether we like it or not.

[PQJ]

Gattaca was an excellent film but portends a scary future to contemplate.

[norcalbiker]

But that's because I'm old and pretty much past my prime regardless.

Old is all about MIND over MATTER.

If you don't MIND being old, then it doesn't MATTER.

[alexstar]

It's coming. Having every one of us take one or more pills every day is Big Pharma's wet dream. Imagine the profits!

I've always been wary of "better living through chemistry". It has its benefits, to be sure - I have hypothyroidism and take a pill every day - but I don't believe, for example, that all the kids who have been prescribed Ritalin really need it.

The ethical implications are astonishing, though. Is it really wrong to improve oneself with pharmaceuticals? Shouldn't "Life Doping" be prosecuted, just like doping in athletic contests? Should we all have to contend with our own faults and shortcomings? Is cosmetic plastic surgery also "doping" in that sense? What about wearing makeup or getting a nice haircut? We (my lazy self excluded) always strive to look nicer or perform better than others - where is the line?

[MattTuck]

It's coming. Having every one of us take one or more pills every day is Big Pharma's wet dream. Imagine the profits!

I've always been wary of "better living through chemistry". It has its benefits, to be sure - I have hypothyroidism and take a pill every day - but I don't believe, for example, that all the kids who have been prescribed Ritalin really need it.

The ethical implications are astonishing, though. Is it really wrong to improve oneself with pharmaceuticals? Shouldn't "Life Doping" be prosecuted, just like doping in athletic contests? Should we all have to contend with our own faults and shortcomings? Is cosmetic plastic surgery also "doping" in that sense?

A pill every day is probably what we need to counteract the crap we (as society in general, not you or me in particular, though I like cookies and ice cream as much as Jan Ullrich) put into our bodies. Compared to the stuff we ate during most of our species' development, we need to offset it some how. if people won't offset it with the choices they make, pills are another solution.

[zap]

Sooooo............what's new.

[spamjoshua]

Fish Oil
Glucosamine
Chondroitin
Multi-vitamin
Aspirn
Occasional Advil
Fluorinated Water
Listerine
Rogaine. :)

I am only 40, but I snowboard ~ 120 days a year, I have screws in both my shoulders, my knees hurt. I believe science has the power to help as well as to poison.

Choose carefully.

[Louis]

Who says we haven't already been? Ari, get with the program.

Just say the word and I can sent you some "nutritional supplements."

[phcollard]

Who says we haven't already been? Ari, get with the program.

Just say the word and I can sent you some "nutritional supplements."

Looks like you're a supplier of suspicious material today Louis :D

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?p=1113769&highlight=methadone#post1113769

[Viper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdCx0K1wvfQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcHhJD9bh0

America is the most pill-popping, high, stoned, numb, fat, lazy culture. The movie Limitless was too long and at times, simply cheesy. It could've been done much, much better. There are shortcuts, but don't they always turn out to be longcuts? Nothing is free. Not even Spanish beef.

It's high time we find, create our own Force and follow it.

There is no such thing as a perfect Warrior:

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

:beer:

[Jaq]

I've known a few executives and weekend warriors who dabbled. After a few years watching them, I've realized how true is the saying "the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

[Germany_chris]

My body is my playground :p

[Viper]

I've known a few executives and weekend warriors who dabbled. After a few years watching them, I've realized how true is the saying "the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOW4QiOD-oc

Quote from "Bladerunner". Roy was a synthetic human, replicant. When he met his maker, Dr. Tyrell, Roy told him he wanted, "More life". Roy knew that his time was ending, he was a robot with an end-date, death which was soon approaching.

Dr. Tyrell replied, "You were made as well as we could make you. The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you burned very, very brightly Roy."

My knees were my gift, as an athlete. Five knee operations later, I'll have another ACL recon this winter, using a cadaver ligament this time. Oh yes, my knee burned very brightly. Perhaps twenty winter's worth of time and I'll have the knee replaced. Or grow a new one in a test tube.

There's a pill for everything, they say. Sadly, just look at Whitney Houston's toxicology report. For a time there, Britney Spears was on heroin and ecstasy...so she took Ambien to help her sleep.

Oxygen, fresh water, protein, sugar and some other stuff. We don't need much. Humans are fairly good machines. Humanity screws it up.

PS: One of the replicants in Blade Runner had my birthday and Ripple, my favorite Grateful Dead song, it's time from start/finish is also, my birthday.

On topic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbK_sGcz4_I

PSS: It would make my day if Fixed would dance with Mrs. Fixed to this song and let us know they did so. If not dancing, then maybe just that they sat there, listened to Ripple and hummed, tapped their feet, bobbed their heads and maybe sang a little chorus. If they made out during the song, well even better.

:beer: :beer:

[verticaldoug]

That concept of doping is passe in American culture. It is already accepted practice in many circles. Everything from athletes getting lasik to see better, women/men wanting to look younger, to parents getting their teenagers prescriptions for ADHD drugs to take the SAT/ACT exams. Check out this paper from way back in 2003. The euphemism is Beyond Therapy - not doping.

http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/beyondtherapy/

Chapter 2: Better Children
Chapter 3: Superior Performance
Chapter 4: Ageless Bodies

I also have a good friend who is well connected in the pharmaceutical industry. We talk about this stuff all the time. His 'vision' of the future direction of medicine is simultaneously really exciting and really scary . . .

[Fixed]

thanks viper
:)
cheers

[Elefantino]

I'm high on life.

http://www.unwacky.com/images/risk.jpg

[Jaq]

Quote from "Bladerunner".

Laozi, actually.

[rab]

Over the past year I have grown really tired of the downpour of ads persuading aging males to look at testosterone as a potential fix to their ails. I suspect that this is becoming the new chic thing to counter the effects of aging and wonder how readily it is really being distributed and how many being "treated" actually need it.

Somewhere a while back I heard a quote, something to the effect of Americans having the most expensive urine on the planet...

[54ny77]

come on, it's totally normal for masters riders twice their age to go as fast as 25 year old pros.

[velotel]

I’ve been saying for years that people who get all excited about cyclists who dope and calling them cheaters are total hypocrites. We live in a drug culture. The drug might be cocaine, EPO, HGH, money, religion, shopping, whatever it is it’s written all over our culture. Feeling bad, take this; feeling slow, take this; kids dumb in school, give ‘em this; feeling lost, buy this; orgasm not quite what it used to be, here put this plastic bag over your head; not winning, take this and this and this. A society in which 1% or even less controls the world’s wealth is a culture that encourages doing whatever it takes to come out on top. If HGH is the new have-to drug, so what. Some people like to get high naturally, some need an adrenalin rush to get there, some need to mainline religion, hell, some need to buy lots of bikes. Me, I just like to smoke a wee bit of home-grown then ride my bike. Mainlining speed, the kind generated by going downhill on a bike, yea, I like that. Used to be able to mainline a bit of speed in the uphill too but there’s been a serious diminishing in that lately. Been combining a wee bit of herb with skiing and biking for over 40 years now, works for me. Sure is cheaper than HGH apparently. Sadly those same people who are injecting HGH into themselves will then walk outside and condemn all sorts of other people for drugs, poverty, religion, etc. All rather crazy. They’re sneaking into the bathrooms on the Titanic and pumping themselves up with good feelings. Maybe it’ll help when they discover there are no lifeboats.

[chwupper]

Thanks for the morning laugh, velotel!