I’m on Viagra, Early in Da Mornin Befo’ I Eats My Breakfast I Gotta Get Down
Viagra used in combination with light aid jetlag recovery, animal research suggests.
A team of Argentine scientists found the drug helped hamsters recover up to 50% faster from forward shifts in their daily time cycles. However, the drug only worked in conjunction with light therapy, and only in one time direction - the equivalent to flying eastbound.
In mammals, the light-dark cycle regulates the body’s biological clock, which promotes activity during the daytime, when it is light, and sleep at night.
The researchers from the National University of Quilmes shifted the light-dark cycle of hamsters six hours forwards, by switching on lights six hours earlier than usual. They then monitored the hamsters’ running wheel activity to assess when their body clocks had adjusted to the new time cycle - the hamsters are active in the day but stop running when the lights go out.
Injection of Viagra before the time shift meant the hamsters adjusted to the new time cycle faster, even when low doses of the drug, which did not cause penile erections, were used. When used without the shifts in light, the drug did not induce changes in the hamsters’ activity, so it seems to work by enhancing the light-induced response. { BBC | Continue reading }
image { Thanks Buzzman }
