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(Note - I put this here, because this could be something new that the CF could also latch onto if it actually works. 
)
U.S. military research could allow people to go without food for five days
Pill would burn up fat stores during starvation, without affecting vital fuel supplies to brain
CanWest News Service
Saturday, February 28, 2004
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 war fighters 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."
But Dent cautioned 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," Wired magazine reported. 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 people and obesity have more than doubled for Canadian adults in the last two decades and nearly tripled among Canadian children.
DARPA‘s goals aren‘t far-fetched at all, said Dr. David Katz, director of medical studies in public health at the Yale University School of Medicine. Humans, he said, are fairly well designed to withstand extended periods of food deprivation.
When the body enters starvation mode, our metabolism slows, "which makes sense, because you want to be burning fewer calories if you have no calories to take in," Katz said. The body switches over to burning fat as a form of self-preservation, because humans have to burn calories constantly for the cells in our body to keep functioning.
But, if the scientists deliver new anti-food pills or potions, the danger is that everyone would want them.
"Every drug has side effects," Katz warned. "If enough people take a drug - including people who don‘t really need it - you‘re much more likely to see harm rather than benefit.
"We‘ll never find an ultimate solution to weight control in a pill bottle."
http://www.canada.com/montreal/mont...38-A6083ADCCF41
)U.S. military research could allow people to go without food for five days
Pill would burn up fat stores during starvation, without affecting vital fuel supplies to brain
CanWest News Service
Saturday, February 28, 2004
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 war fighters 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."
But Dent cautioned 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," Wired magazine reported. 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 people and obesity have more than doubled for Canadian adults in the last two decades and nearly tripled among Canadian children.
DARPA‘s goals aren‘t far-fetched at all, said Dr. David Katz, director of medical studies in public health at the Yale University School of Medicine. Humans, he said, are fairly well designed to withstand extended periods of food deprivation.
When the body enters starvation mode, our metabolism slows, "which makes sense, because you want to be burning fewer calories if you have no calories to take in," Katz said. The body switches over to burning fat as a form of self-preservation, because humans have to burn calories constantly for the cells in our body to keep functioning.
But, if the scientists deliver new anti-food pills or potions, the danger is that everyone would want them.
"Every drug has side effects," Katz warned. "If enough people take a drug - including people who don‘t really need it - you‘re much more likely to see harm rather than benefit.
"We‘ll never find an ultimate solution to weight control in a pill bottle."
http://www.canada.com/montreal/mont...38-A6083ADCCF41
