Muscle fatigue

[ppscat]

In New Scientist they wrote about a muscle-fatigue blocker drug. The interesting point of the article is that fatigue is related to some receptors which behave erratically loosing control of 'calcium ions' in muscle cells due to excessive exercise. It remainds me about zhan zhuang, using Yi to drive fatigue down to the ground. Maybe doctors could add more to the subject.

http://technology.newscientist.com/arti ... ocker.html

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Invention: Muscle-fatigue blocker

Fatigue occurs when muscles become weaker with repeated or intense exercise, or as a result of an illness. Researchers have long thought that fatigue is caused by a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles, but in the past decade, a number of teams have shown that this process does not cause fatigue (and may in fact prevent it). Muscle-fibre cells contract when calcium ions are released inside them, under the control of ion channels called ryanodine receptors.

Now, a growing body of evidence suggests that fatigue is actually related to how these calcium ions are released and processed. It seems that the ryanodine receptors can behave erratically after excessive exercise or due to disease, allowing calcium ions to leak out inappropriately and leading to fatigue.

So Andrew Marks at Columbia University, New York, has developed a drug that can switch those receptors back to their stable state, making it harder for fatigue to set in. His invention may make it possible for athletes, soldiers, or anyone else doing strenuous exercise, to stave off muscle fatigue for longer. Victims of diseases such as HIV, muscular dystrophy and cancer, in which fatigue is major side effect of the condition or its treatment, could also benefit, he says.

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[mixjourneyman]

That is extremely interesting.
I'm just imagining giving that to grapplers, so you end up with super grapplers who don't tire out when they roll for five hours straight.

SUPER GRAPPLERS OF THE FUTURE!!!!!

[Brady]

I can only imagine the side effects . . . but sounds cool

[shawnsegler]

I imagine they'd probably be the same as grappling with a few oxycodone in ya...lots of performance enhancement and lots of injuries from not feeling your body properly.

S

[Dmitri]

I don't like drugs, -- I don't believe in their use unless there is simply no other solution to a problem.

Nature put in the feeling of fatigue there for a reason, as a "status report" from the body to the mind...

I think it's a terrible idea to use any drugs like this and this is completely opposite of the principle of "eating bitter" in general, and IMA training in particular.
If you need a drug for that sort of thing instead of using your mind, you shouldn't be doing MA at all, you're likely wasting your time.

For illness -- maybe; I dunno I'm not a doctor.

[Ron Panunto]

Just another performance enhancing drug that they have to test for in competition.

[Brady]

It'd be interesting if someone who actually knew the science/reasoning for fatigue had something to say (is jafc still around?). And I question the article's supposition that calcium channels inappropriately leak calcium. Maybe there is some mechanism there the researchers don't understand so they dismiss it as malfunction. Seems worth looking into, but the research in the area is so damned hard to read with all the chemical jargon.