Man’s furry friend joins in the fight against jet lag in Argentina…

When I read this story last week, I couldn’t help but laugh. The whole thing just seems a little surreal to me.

In short, scientists at the Quilmes National University in Buenos Aires found that small doses of sildenafil (i.e. Viagra) helped hamsters adapt to a simulated 6 hour time zone change 50% faster than usual. The idea is that Viagra could have the same helpful side-effect for jet-lagged humans, in addition to its other more obvious side-effect.

Hamsters to thank for Rocketing Mile High Club Membership?

I was going to post about it last week, but soon forgot, only to be reminded upon reading Maya’s blog, where she noted that the Mile High Club could soon see membership rocket as a result, along with the more serious observation that this method could only work for eastward flights. And now I’m blogging about it, mainly because I really wanted to post a picture of a hamster followed directly by the Buenos Aires Obelisk

The thing that gets me, is how did this experiment come about in the first place? (OK, I’m sure there is an excellent, serious, scientifically rigourous explanation behind its genesis, but bear with me here…)

Did the Buenos Aires based scientists behind this experiment get bored one night, have a few too many litros of Quilmes lager (how appropriate), and think: “I know, lets buy a few hamsters from the local pet shop, feed them some Viagra and see what happens”?

I doubt it very much, but if they did, it would surely be followed by… “yeah, and let’s really mess ‘em up by turning their lights on and off at weird times of the day and night. That’ll teach the furry beggars”.
Hey presto, one jetlag buster of an experiment is produced.

Let’s just hope that none of the hamsters had the same fate as Mozart, the Iguana who had to have one of his penises amputed after a week-long Viagra fuelled erection.

Fortunately for Mozart, male Iguanas have two penises…

I doubt that hamsters are so lucky