Drugs can help ‘lazy’ people exercise
An endurance expert from the University of Kent says that psychoactive drugs can help “lazy” people get exercise.
Professor Samuele Marcora suggests that reducing perception of effort during exercise using caffeine or other psychoactive drugs (e.g. methylphenidate and modafinil) could help many people stick to their fitness plans.
While Marcora acknowledges that using drugs seem a bit drastic, he points out that perception of effort is one of the main reasons why people choose watching TV to exercising. He says finding a way that makes people with very low motivation to do even moderate exercise, like walking, could be particularly useful.
Similarly, a reduction in perception of effort would be very helpful to the many people who find exercise difficult because they are overweight and/or exercise after work in a state of mental fatigue.
Professor Marcora also states that whilst there is no strong ethical opposition to the use of psychoactive drugs to help quit smoking (nicotine) or treat obesity (appetite suppressants), the negative perception of doping in sport may prevent the use of stimulants and other psychoactive drugs to treat physical inactivity.
Given that physical inactivity is responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity, he hopes that psychopharmacological treatment for physical inactivity will be considered fairly and seriously rather than immediately rejected on the basis of unrelated ethical considerations about doping in sport.
Professor Samuele Marcora is Director of Research at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. His paper Can Doping be a Good Thing? Using Psychoactive Drugs to Facilitate Physical Activity Behaviour has been published in the journal Sports Medicine.
Category: Features, Pharmaceuticals
