As a side note:
The US military won’t accept people who are or were on Ritalin (Concerta, Medikinet, Equasym).
“Ritalin uncouples the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain.” (This information was given to me on a lecture by a German brain researcher that is a good friend of the source of this information, a German Prof. of Neuroscience)
The frontal lobe is the crowning achievement of humanity. You are a zombie without it, but that is not the reason that the US military won’t accept people who are or were once on Ritalin.
The effect of Ritalin (Concerta, Medikinet, Equasym) on the brain is like that of several harmful drugs combined and this will limit your combat capability a lot. Ritalin destroys the brain.
(PS: Obesity is in 99% of the cases so easy to cure.)
Study to show that when all factors are considered, 75% of military-age youth are not eligible to serve.
(USA TODAY) More than a third of American youth of military age are unfit for service, mainly because they are too fat or sickly, the Army Times reports, quoting the latest Pentagon figures.
Most of the rest are too dumb or have used too many drugs to qualify, the study shows.
The report says 35% of the 31 million Americans aged 17 to 24 are unqualified because of physical and medical issues.
“The major component of this is obesity,” Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon’s director of accessions, tells the Times. “We have an obesity crisis in the country. There’s no question about it.”
He also said young people, by and large, can’t do push-ups.
“And they can’t do pull-ups,” Gilroy says. ” And they can’t run.”
The Times says the Pentagon gets its data from the Centers for Disease Control, which has found that the percentage of youth 18 to 34 who are considered obese has jumped from 6% in 1987 to 23% now.
Here’s the Pentagon’s breakdown of the ineligible population, according to the Times:
* Medical/physical problems, 35%.
* Illegal drug use, 18%.
* Mental Category V (the lowest 10% of the population), 9%.
* Too many dependents under age 18, 6%.
* Criminal record, 5%.
Update at 1:06 p.m. ET: The Times reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a group of retired military officers will issue a report on Thursday warning that the situation is so dire it amounts to a threat to national security.