Friday, August 1, 2008

Pop a Pill

This subject has been covered many times, but I thought I would add something new to it.

The relationship between Brave New World and our world when it comes to dependency on pills. Soma is the all-cure pill in Brave New World. We have a pill for every illness and have many placebos that cure absolutely nothing, but still take them anyway.

I was inspired to write this post by an article on Yahoo at http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/sci_exercise_pill.html The first line of this article is "Here's a couch potato's dream: What if a drug could help you gain some of the benefits of exercise without working up a sweat?" This is an example of how our society is becoming increasingly sedentary.

I agree that this could be beneficiary for a small fraction of the society that are in desperate need of this drug because they are physically unable to perform physical activity.
However, I believe that the majority of the population would abuse this drug if it readily available to the public. Wouldn't you think that most people would choose to pop a pill over running a mile? Our society has become accustomed to popping pills, but protest at the sound of regular physical activity.

What are your thoughts about this drug called AICAR?
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3 comments:

Kayla said...

I agree with Matt. Its nice and wonderful that the drug will be able to treat obesity and diabetes, but it won't end there. It will provide a short cut for the people who want to exercise without actually doing the work. Though the article states that a drug test will detect the usage of the drug, I can still hear the scandals of athletes who took the drug to aid them. If this becomes a prescription drug, the public will be able to reach it the same way the public is able to get other prescription drugs without actually having the prescription. Don't get me wrong, I think it would be great to treat obesity and diabetes since my grandmother has diabetes, but one has to balance the pros and the cons. The drug will somehow get in the hands of the undeserving people who are just looking for a short cut. Also, the drug would give people an excuse to eat unhealthy foods since the drug will solve the problem of the weight gained. I am not sure whether ALICAR is more harmful or beneficial.

August 1, 2008 at 4:02 PM
NC Foodies said...

AICAR is definitely a good idea if we learn to control it properly because there are some individuals in need of extra assistance when it comes to exercising and increasing their strength. This would definitely be beneficial to those who may not be able to exercise regularly because of a medical condition like joint pain or heart failure (as mentioned in the article). It might also help treat obesity, diabetes, and people with medical conditions that keep them from exercising.

On the other hand, this development appears to support an unhealthy lifestyle. After all, (as you mentioned, Matt) many of us would definitely prefer taking a pill to physically exercising as a shortcut; therefore, the pill should only be used for special health situations. The majority should continue exercising since it provides us with more benefits. Overall, I believe that having this pill is helpful as long as we control its usage. The pill should only be available to those who cannot exercise due to physical limitations or other medical problems.

August 1, 2008 at 6:42 PM
Tomato said...

I feel that AICAR is like soma, we are willing to get the benefit of hard exercise by doing nothing. I agree with Caroline that this pill isn't unnecessarily a bad thing. However, if it is used by some snotty little kids who feel they can "beat the system," and stay healthy without necessary exercise, who will mostly likely develop addiction to the drug, it could develop some unwanted controversy.

Tomas Castro

August 4, 2008 at 11:55 AM

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