Italian researchers have invented a new electrical treatment they say boosts stamina and helps people beat fatigue.
The Milan University team has applied for a patent for the device, a box that applies very-low intensity current to certain parts of the brain.
In lab tests on human volunteers, researchers led by Alberto Priori found "a significant increase in the body's capacity to sustain prolonged effort".
Priori stresses that the current is applied to the brain for only a few minutes and claims volunteers "can't even feel it".
"There are no perceptible side effects," he says in the online edition of the European Journal of Neuroscience.
The most obvious application for the invention is to enhance performance in sport, especially in endurance events like marathon running, cycling and cross-country skiing.
Use would have to be controlled, Priori admitted, "to prevent it becoming a new form of doping".
Priori says the device could also combat the physical and psychological weakness associated with a range of serious diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative conditions.
In everyday life, it could give people the energy to work as hard as they need to, the researchers think.
Again, caution would be needed to prevent abuses, the team said.
