Pat
Registered on
Feb-20-2000
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Message #2947 posted by Pat (Info) July 02, 2000 10:06:08 ET
In Reply to: Re: Thanks,*FoM*, info on Dilantin.- Dr. answers ? posted by Christopher Reeves July 01, 2000 14:43:51 ET
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your helpful post, that is in reference to this post: http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/medical/messages/158.shtml . I've heard that Dilantin is ~ the World's best anti-seizure drug and that it can be a very effective, fast-acting anti-depressant. Also, as I recall, one animal study was done with Dilantin and it ~ significantly extended the average lifespan of the animals.
I've seen TV shows where patients who have a severe problem with seizures have their two brain hemispheres surgically separated to stop their seizures. (I think I actually saw one case where the doctor removed one full half of one patients brain, as a "cure" to stop the patient's seizures. OUCH!)
[IF I had bad seizures, I would MUCH prefer to use Cannabis to stop my seizures rather than have some doc slice and dice me. However, I suspect that because of our War on Drugs, these severe seizure patients never get a chance to try cannabis to see if it can stop their seizures before their docs slice up their brains....]
On the other hand, I've read that the full suite of Cannabinoids from the Cannabis Plant perform together as the World's most effective anti-seizure "agent" or combination. Also, this herbal extract blend of Cannabinoids is a very safe and effective anti-depressant medicine, from what I have read.
Certainly, the naturally blended Cannabinoids from the Cannabis Plant are far, FAR safer to use (with less chance of having an adverse reaction and far, far less chance of dying) than are just about All, (if indeed, not all...) p-Harmaceutical Drugs - this includes both the Over the Counter kind such as aspirin, etc., AND the more expensive prescription pharmaceutical drugs.
For instance, some drugs have a Safety Ratio or Therapeutic Index of just 10:1 or 20:1 or so (while some chemo therapy drugs only have a "safety" ratio of about 1.5:1!) Alcohol's Safety Ratio is as low as ~ 4:1. So, if you drink about 4 times as much as you "need" you may well kill yourself....
On the other hand... THC, which is sometimes considered the "most toxic" component in Cannabis (by some people) has a Safety Ratio or Therapeutic Index that is much higher than 40,000:1. [The T.I. or S.I. tells you how many normal doses of something you can take before you reach the LD-50% level for this material.] [LD-50% = Lethal Dose for 50% of the test subjects for a given substance.]
I feel that folks should be able to use pharmaceutical drugs if they feel that they will benefit from their use. I also feel that folks should be legally able to use the (often far, far safer) herbs, such as Cannabis, etc.
BTW, Larry Stevens has a very nice site called:
Cannabis Prevents Seizures.
http://www.fgi.net/~lstevens/cannabis/page.htm
(Chris, by any chance, are you the famous actor who played Superman in the movie?)
Thank you for your helpful post and best luck and good wishes.
Pat
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