This article is COOL.
The article seems to suggest that repairing the calcium channels would negate or even prevent the damage done by the enzymes. But what would happen if the channels were repaired shortly after they began leaking when there would be some active enzymes in the muscles?
The channels take time to be replaced. You don’t magically bake up new proteins, that’s why the article says it takes days.
Enzymes would keep doing their thing as long as calcium is present, as enzymes are catalysts. The calcium doesn’t get used up as they do their actions. Odds are, what you’re saying , there would simply be less damage done but there would still be damage until the enzymes pooped out.
My understanding is that most unpleasant “symptoms” are actually defense mechanisms against more serious problems. Otherwise, there’s no reason they would have evolved. E.g. A fever kills or slows the reproduction of bacteria. Excess mucus catches germs that would be inhaled. Sleepiness prevents death due to lack of sleep (a phenomenon that is not very well understood). The article alludes to a concern, which I instinctively share, that preventing muscles from growing tired and continuing to strain them may lead to something worse than muscle fatigue.
Nonetheless, I imagine that soon every energy drink will claim to eliminate muscle fatigue, beyond the brain fatigue that caffeine already eliminates.
I agree, we have to wonder if the pain and soreness is a byproduct of another pathway. In general, my guess is that the muscle cells should die from excess calcium intake because calcium makes cells go spastic, to use lay men’s terms. I’m a bit surprised they haven’t seen any side effects to their drugs. I’m going to look for the actual research paper on the subject tomorrow at my lab when I get a minute to see what they specifically did. It is still a possibility that its just a product of biological imperfection, although I really would be surprised there is NO side effects.
In regards to sleep, sleep isn’t made to prevent death, though it is a bad side effect of not sleeping. Sleep has been found to be essential in the process of synaptic pruning and rewiring your brain after a given set of experiences. You need sleep to function and process information over time.
Well, we’ll have to wait for stage 2 trial results if they manage to synthesize a drug successfully
my guess is that making the drug probably isn’t that hard from the sound of it. But you’re right. For now, the world is a safer place for mice.
That’s interesting. I wouldn’t bet on seeing a more permanent anti-fatigue drug soon (or ever), but understanding how the tiring mechanism works is good. I suppose understanding the biological use of tiring is the next step or do we already have this?
If they do produce an antifatigue drug for humans -even if only an unsafe one- you can bet that, sadly, it will get used in sport competitions. Just look at all the doping scandals last year, in Major League baseball and even the Tour de France. 
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So does calcium still release when under the influence of cocaine or amphetamines? What makes those drugs let you experience less fatigue?
That’s the lesser of the evils. What if they use it on soldiers? If the Russians, Chinese, or the North Koreans get it too we could face a new problem in world politics that no one could prepare for.
I think that the effects of those drugs have to do with the subjective experience / perception of fatigue and not the cause of fatigue.
As for the military, I don’t think that the Russians or Chinese or North Koreans would be helped by it significantly.
In regards to sports, it would undoubtedly be easy to detect via a blood or urine test.
The U.S. military has already looked into energy supplements for soldiers. E.g., I’ve read about patches that (I think by absorption, rather than injection) leak nutrients into the bloodstream. As soon as a muscle-fatigue eliminator is developed, and reasonably priced, I imagine it’ll be in every American soldier’s emergency supply kit, never mind what more socialistic countries are doing.
Also, I think these drugs would have made a bigger difference for, say, Napoleon’s infantry, being forced to travel vast distances on foot, than for the average modern soldier who rides around in a transport vehicle.
You know if this thing works Viagra will become a thing of the past.
In a way, yes. Most of those drugs alter perception, which includes external and internal (if that makes sense). Your body would “perceive” a stimuli differently than normal so yeah it is a subjective experience. Your body is still going through strain and fatigue, but your mind is overdriven to keep you going.
My gym teachers always called it a buildup of lactic acid.
Which was disproven a while ago.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it true that sleep is much more for mental health than physical? I read somewhere(or thought I did) that your body actually does not need sleep to heal or rest; it can do that just as well by sitting or laying down while you’re conscious.
Sinistral mentioned the function of sleep further up the thread, I quote:
“Sleep has been found to be essential in the process of synaptic pruning and rewiring your brain after a given set of experiences. You need sleep to function and process information over time.”
As regards the use of any anti-fatigue drug in the military, I have to agree that if it’s shown to be effective it will be part of every soldiers medical kit. Even in a modern, highly mechanized army fatigue (both mental and physical) are huge problems.
After all, in WW2 soldiers and airmen used Meth to fight fatigue and enhance performance. All is fair in war.
My main concern is in the sports arena. We’ve already had so many performance-enhancing chemical problems. If this drug does prove effective. I’d like to see the sports authorities take an early position on exactly where it falls on the legal/illegal drug scale.
Also, I can’t spell today.