lesliebraddock.com

    Although I am a month late, I just finished reading an article in the April 2009 Discover Magazine (http://discovermagazine.com/) that I absolutely have to respond to. 
    "Building a better brain" by Sherry Baker ( http://sherrywritepro.newsvine.com/) touches on some scary territory.  I read the article last Thursday and have been swirling around all of the ideas in my head over the weekend.  First let me explain what the article discusses.
    There are currently pharmaceutical companies that are developing drugs or neuropharmaceuticals that enhance the productivity and attention span of the brain.  Some of the medicines even open the pathways that encourage not just memory, but creativity.
    Sherry Baker does an excellent job at presenting both sides of the argument of this idea.  She brings up such points as, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Salvador Dali were all suggested to have ADHD.  If we had given them medications to help them control their ADHD; would they have met their full potential?  Are we suppressing the future Einstein with Ritilin? 
    Another point Sherry Baker touches on is the ability to take an attention enhancer.  If those able to afford these medications partake and use them to give them a competitive edge, are the less able to afford thus put in a position of disadvantage at their job or work?

    Like I said earlier, my mind was swirling with this all weekend and several questions occurred to me.  
    The first is the environment.  If the current level of anti-depressants and medications that the world consumes is polluting our waters and poisoning the sea life that is forced to digest these things after we release them, then what effect would the sudden increase of mind enhancers have on the waterways and our food supply?
    The second is moral.  We are born with certain gifts and abilities.  We can encourage these by learning and exposing ourselves to situations that help strengthen these character traits.  If we become dependant on medications to give us an edge or give us a false mental ability, then will we lose our true identity?  Who would we be?  Would we become the result of the drug?  Because we certainly would not be ourselves anymore, and thus with the identity crisis in tow, another bought of anti-depressants might be necessary.  Who would the winner of that situation be?  The pharmaceutical companies.
    I think that the use of memory enhancers for those suffering with Alzheimers or dementia, possibly even mental Illness would be a productive thing, but to allow the healthy mind to be distorted by medications, even in a positive direction is questionable at best.

    We all want to be at our peak performance.  We take vitamins, exercise, eat healthy and even have vanity procedures done to lift our aging bodies.  With all of the previously stated being abused by someone or another, we know that any mind enhancing medications would have the potential to be abused as well.  What would the effects of that be? 

Just a thought:  The Swine Flu Pandemic that has been forced upon us by the media has created a run on medications that help prevent the flu.  Over 36,000 people die each year from the standard flu.  More people died in car accidents since we have learned about Swine Flu, than have actually died from Swine Flu.  This media fear mongering has been very helpful..... to the pharmaceutical companies.

Any responses to this blog that are thought out and cognitive will happily be posted.