Laziness runs in the family, a new study says

[Still Waters]

Researchers discovered that the love of wanting to keep fit is in your genes and can be passed on from generation to generation.

Conversely, the same is true about being a couch potato.

In the future, people who suffer from laziness could be treated with medicine that targets the genes that specifically promote activity.

Scientists from the University of California found that on laboratory mice activity levels could be enhanced by selective breeding – the process of breeding animals for particular genetic traits.

Their study showed that mice bred to enjoy running produce offspring that also like it, showing that the baby mice had inherited the trait of high activity.

Professor Theodore Garland Jr, a biologist and lead author, said: "Our findings have implications for human health.

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[Guest]

Shouldn't that be "Laziness crawls in the family, or laziness cant be bothere to get up in this family"

Br Cornelius

[questionmark]

Genes that promote activity?

I don't know, but I get this feeling that the Prof. is out for some research money.... without any warranty of returns.

[Siara]

Yikes! The Protestant work ethic has been elevated to science. Working and working out is "normal", hanging out watching TV, chugging down a beer, and joking with your friends is a "genetic defect".

[Siara]

I don't know, but I get this feeling that the Prof. is out for some research money.... without any warranty of returns.

This is the professor's way of defending the fact that he is a compulsive work-o-holic with no interest in popular culture and no friends

[Eldorado]

Noses run in our family.

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

These are all habits. If your family are fitness savvy, your interests might lean towards going with them as a family thing and it becomes a part of your daily routine. Same thing if you have a family full of couch potatoes, these are influencial tendencies and not genetic.

Saying we can cure someone who suffers from laziness with medications but yet compared couch potatoes as a gene thing for a fitness nut, then is that person suffering from being fit?

This just sounds like another excuse for the pharmacutical companies to get another drug out in the market.

[amodedoma]

No really, so you mean certain characteristics of human personality are hereditary? Did this guy really have to study to come up with this? Get to know a couple of large-ish families, should be sufficient.

I am a lazy person, I prefer lazy people, and according to my experience the world would be a better place if everyone were a little more lazy. There are lots of ways of dealing with anxiety, keeping yourself too busy to suffer it won't free you from it. Those ambitious, productive, go-getters, they dedicate their lives on the wheel of service, obssesed with and motivated by desires which are nothing more than fantasies and illusions. When their life is summed up and the meaning of their exsistence has coalesced at the moment of death will it be any better than that of a hedonistic lay-about? It's all about the meaning and/or purpose of life, for me I'm here to learn, and I've had no lack of opportunities regardless of (or perhaps thanks to) my lazy, sensualistic, and heddonistic tendencies. Don't get me wrong, I work plenty hard when there's no alternative, like packing sides of beef into refer trucks at the slaughter house. But I'm always on the look out for a means of survival that provides more and demands less.

Sorry for the rant, just tired of hearing people dis on us lazy folk all the time.

Edited September 6, 2010 by amodedoma

[Siara]

This just sounds like another excuse for the pharmacutical companies to get another drug out in the market.

They've already got some off the market. Caffeine and speed.

I think you're right though. Soon everyone over 60 is going to be urged to take a new and expensive prescription drug. Good thing there are countries out there in which medicine isn't so linked with financial gain. We Americans can observe the difference in prescription patterns.

[Salami Swami]

Noses run in our family.

As they do in mine...

[Gwynbleidd]

Seems like they want us to pop a pill for just about anything these days..

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

They've already got some off the market. Caffeine and speed.

LOL! Caffeine doesn't make people more productive, it allowed them to stay awake longer. So another words, a couch potato can watch more TV with caffeine than without

Isn't speed illegal or are we refering to the "market"? Haha.

[The Unseen]

SOOOO thats whats wrong with me.LOL