Posted by gary (208.133.217.58) on November 15, 1999 at 01:38:07:
In Reply to: Once again Ritalin...Linda please read posted by Jamy on November 15, 1999 at 00:50:35:
as you know from your background,jamy,
LSD was another drug that was going to be a "miracle", solve everybody's pysch problems, etc
uh huh
so what does that have to do with CH ?
stick with me close here.......
one of our old standby meds (as Carl has fortunately discovered) is Cafergot, in a couple different forms, (generic= Ercaf)
usually works well on CH attacks if taken in time
serious side effects after only moderate usage keep it from being our #1 weapon against CH -
(if we used it as frequently as we get attacks, we'd all end up quadraplegics from gangrene, if we didn't stroke out first)
ercaf/caferot is ergotamine & caffiene
ergotamine is derived from ergot,
a wheat fungus,
the principal active agent of which is lysergic acid
that's right - as used as the base of LSD !!!
but OH what a different effect
and by the way - why not go herbally natural and just let some wheat get moldy, and chow down for CH ? it'd be "natural", right?
natural - yes, right - NOT
in 1951 a whole village in Provencal went completely nuts, with many, many dying from ergot poisoning - literally a whole town on a godawful bad trip from moldy homebaked
this had been so common during medieval times when grain handling was primitive, that it was commonly recognized as "St Anthony's Fire", believed to be demonic possession of whole communities, to be relieved by praying to that saint
to my weird mind, that is real interesting irony-
the "natural" form of ergot brings fatal "demonic" death to whole villages,
but the carefully chemically controlled ergotamine form, from those evil, nasty, corporate drug companies - helps us drive out our demon headaches
I think we ought to petition the Vatican to have "Saint Sandoz" elevated, ole St Anthony just don't cut it