Beta Block Your Bad Memories

Beta Blockers. Most people have heard of them but not many people really know what they are and what they do. They are often used for cardiologic management for hypertension and after heart attacks. In simple terms they basically keep you from getting too anxious, excited or nervous. Beta blockers are made up of various different drugs and can have numerous side effect. One of the positive things that Beta Blockers have been found to do is block the stress effect from bad memories.

Bad memories may be caused by traumatic experiences, witnessing one, being abused, etc.. If you suffer from stressful memories, there may be hope in beta blocking drugs.

Such findings could one day help individuals suffering from pathological anxiety disorders from the debilitating physiological effects of their fears. Yet many questions remain, experts note, such as how permanent the effect is, and whether it can affect traumatic memories that may be decades old.

Some musicians use beta blockers to curb stage fright or nervousness before concerts. This was one of those arguments in the Documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” about steroid use. The argument was a rather silly but relevant one. They looked at Steroids as performance enhancing drugs, but then looked at beta blockers in the same way because musicians using them were getting an edge so as to perform better. Of course the documentary also talked about Porn stars using Viagra to enhance their “Performance” and keep them going. Anyway, I’ve trailed off here.

You can read the full story on Beta Blocking bad Memories at MSN.Com.

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