Should Couch Potatoes Be Encouraged to Use Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Should Couch Potatoes Be Encouraged to Use Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation? Francesca Minerva
Received: 17 March 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract A very high percentage of the world population doesn’t exercise enough and, as a consequence, is at high risk of developing serious health conditions. Physical inactivity paired with a poor diet is the second cause of death in high income countries. In this paper, I suggest that transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) holds promise for “couch potatoes” because it could be used to make them more active, without causing any major side-effect. I also argue that other, less safe, tools could be used to achieve the goal of decreasing physical inactivity, insofar as they have overall fewer side-effects than physical inactivity. Keywords tDCS . Neurodoping . Doping . Sport
Modern Sedentary Life Style Kills People and Imposes Huge Economic Costs Over the last century, the lifestyle of people in Western countries has become increasingly sedentary. Most people have a desk job that requires them to spend long hours sitting in front of a computer, allowing very little time to exercise. Even those jobs that were once active, such as in agriculture or farming, have become considF. Minerva (*) PAIS (Politics and Intenational Studies), University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK e-mail: [email protected] F. Minerva Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, University of Gent, Gent, Belgium
erably less physically demanding thanks to the increased use of machines. Moreover, many people use a car on a daily basis, and therefore don’t take the recommended minimum 10,000 steps a day. We also spend more time indoors than we used to, and this is especially true of young people and children who often play indoor with electronic devices rather than playing outdoors [1]. Although the advantages of modern western life are undeniable—we enjoy wealth, healthcare, and comfort that our grandparents couldn’t have even dreamt of— sedentary lifestyles poses serious health risks that we need to tackle with urgency.1 According to the WHO, 26% of men and 35% of women in high-income countries are not active enough.2 According to a meta-study published in 2018, one in four adults in high-income countries performs less than 150 min of moderate exercise per week [2]. These data are rather alarming when we consider that a sedentary life-style has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, dementia and some types of cancers, and that when paired with a poor diet, it is the second leading cause of death in high-income countries [3]. It has been estimated that physical inactivity alone is responsible for 9% of premature deaths worldwide [4], and that 2.8 million people die every year because they are overweight or obese. Not only does a sedentary life-style cause disability, illness, and premature death (i.e. a conspicuous loss in 1 WHO, Global NCD Action Plan 2013–2020 https://www.who. int/nmh/events/acti
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