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For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch
rtphokie writes "The U.S. Army has created a Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System which works similarly to to nicotine or birth control patches but delivers vitamins and other micronutrients. It was developed to help "warfighters sustain their physical and mental performance" during high intensity conflict. Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions."
Actually, you could use nicotine patches. Nicotine is a stimulant, and when you first start using the patches, you can really tell. When I first started using patches to quit smoking, I was racing around and away much later than usual, but always full of energy. I stopped taking them abruptly one day, and I crashed, just like what happens after any other stimulant binge.
I am an avid cyclist, and I can tell you this:
It takes more than just nutrients to get the job done. They don't say exactly what chemicals will be delivered by this system, but a cyclist would need:
Carbohydrates, and lots of them. This is the body's main source of fuel during aerobic exercise.
Electrolytes, to maintain the proper chemical balances in your body. This helps muscles perform at peak efficiency and staves off cramps.
Water, because buckets of it are lost from sweating. Dehydration is perhaps the easiest way to ensure a poor performance.
IANAN (nutritionist), but I've been cycling in both recreation and competition for about 10 years, and the things mentioned above are common knowledge to most cyclists.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Yes, carbohydrates, protein, and fatty acids are macronutrients, that is, nutrients your body needs in fairly large amounts (protein 30g/day, carbohydrates 250g/day, fatty acids 100g/day or thereabouts). These patches only contain micronutrients, that is, nutrients we only need in sub gram amounts (e.g., vitamin C 65mg/day - 500mg/day depending on which authotity you believe, and what stresses you're under).
So I really don't see how these patches could be a complete solution, although they might be useful for replacing lost electrolytes like potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium. When you're engaged in physical exertion for long periods of time though, you really need macronutrients. This is why marathon runners and triathletes drink sports beverages and/or eat power bars. In addition to the electrolyes in, lets say gatorade, you also get a load of sugar (carbohydrates) for energy. These patches would only help with half the problem, and the smaller half at that.
Maybe they just expect that with the right micronutrient balance and some hormones the field soldiers will burn their own body fat for energy. Then when they do get some down time, they eat a meal rich in protein (for muscle/tissue repair), carbohydrate (to replace muscle and liver glycogen stores), and fatty acids (to replenish body fat stores, for repair and growth of nerves/neurons, and for various hormone precursors, etc.)
Going long-term without eating cannot happen... big problems if you don't feed the gut.
Critically ill hospitalized patients with long-term abdominal pathology that prevent them from eating (severe Pancreatitis, shotgun wound to the abdomen, Gastric Outlet Obstruction from cancer, Crohns Disease, etc) are at high risk for all kinds of problems. It can even happen with anorexics. They often end up on TPN (total parenteral nutrition)... AKA Intravenous feedings. Long term TPN puts you at risk for some nasty complications (see below), even aside from the risk of TPN itself (you have to have the electrolytes, osmolality, etc just right).
The current theory is that the intestinal wall needs to be "fed" by absorbing food. Like many things in the body, the gut needs exercise. If it doesn't get it, you get atrophy of the viscera, and bacterial translocation across the gut wall. This results in severe gram-negative sepsis from enteric organisms (think about intravenously injecting feces... it's about the same effect). Overwhelming gram-negative sepsis has a tremendous mortality rate... most don't survive.
Even without the above complication of not eating, the amount of material (think in terms of simple mass of nutrients) you could get from a transdermal patch is miniscule. There is no way you could absorb enough nutrients to stay alive. Even TPN requires that huge volumes be infused, since it can only be concentrated so much. Some components are not even water soluble (lipids), and have to be given as a suspension. Even worse, TPN has to be given through a central IV line (subclavian, jugular, femoral, PICC), since peripheral veins quickly become unusable from the irritation and osmotic load.
Honestly, I can't see this satisfying anyone's caloric needs.
I suspect this will be used primarily to deliver drugs... something we already do.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Of course, Zoloft, Xanthax, Prozac, Lithium and other popular happy pills which are regularly consumed by a third of americans are considered to be a normal way of life
What you say is more true than you know. When I started taking Prozac, my life turned around. My life became normal again. So yes, a lot of people probably shouldn't be taking the drugs they do. But a lot of other people should. Please don't associate scientifically tested and proven useful medical drugs with common street drugs. Anybody who scoffs at the use of medications such as SSRIs and thinks of them as nothing more than "happy pills" probably hasn't been or known someone in their life who has suffered from and been diagnosed with major depression.
Before you jump on the what-about...-train, I'll admit that drugs like marijuana do have ligitimate medical uses. However, recent research has isolated the elements of the plant that work for pain relief from the other elements, such as those that cause the "high" that can permanently damage the brain's pleasure receptors after frequent use. If that first element can be administered seperately in a refined form, say in a pill, shot or nasal spray, it can be safely taken. Heck, even a patch (strangely, sounds almost on-topic). That is the difference between street drugs and prescription drugs.
Now if advocates put half the energy into fighting the medical industry as they did getting their pet stoner-drug legalized, these prescriptions would be cheap enough for anyone (who needs them) to afford. But prescription drugs make a nice scapegoat (mischaracterise, scream "me too!") for anyone who is cranky that they can't get their daily high.
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh