Health - Flu and MDMA

[Cake]

Hi all,

Swim has been a bit poorly over Christmas, bad chesty cough, aches and pains and a bit of a temperature. Despite lots of rest and remedys swim can't seem to shake it. As Swim is sure you are aware, tomorrow is new years eve and swim has bought a gram of MDMA, some base and a load of Nitros canisters...Swim is also sure there will be some pills knocking about too. I guess swim is in a bit of a dilemma between early night or to stop being a pussy and getting on with it! What would swiy do? Thanks for swiy opinions! Xxx

[Readux]

swim would just go with it, but maybe only take one or two doses. Also he would stay away from the nitros because they sometimes screw with the lungs, and being sick won't help

[FrogEye]

taking any drug including alcohol while your not well makes the sickness last longer no matter what. But if you think its worth doing it anyway then you should. Unless you are running a fever and stuff because then things start to go very wrong when you take MDMA in particular.

[Milk man]

If swiy remembers correctly, MDMA lowers the immune system. Whenever swim catches a cold or something similar, it was probably because he rolled the night before.

Immune System

Some users of MDMA report an apparent decrease in resistance to disease, especially with frequent MDMA use. It is unknown how much of this may be due to the pharmacological "body load" of MDMA, to staying up all night and dancing, to increased physical contact with people with colds, to suppressed appetite and poor nutrition, etc. Preventive Measures

A fundamental precaution is to stay well hydrated. Drink water frequently during the MDMA session, and moreso if you're physically active. Under the influence, time can pass surprisingly quickly. It is useful if trip guides or trip buddies remind each other to drink water often.

For those who are concerned about the possibility of serotonin level or serotonin system changes in humans with therapeutic doses of MDMA, some researchers reckon changes can be lessened or prevented by taking antioxidants. In an article titled "Phenethylamines, Free Radicals, and Antioxidants" (MAPS Newsletter, Volume IV Number 1), author Brian Leibovitz suggests in Table 1 taking as a preventive measure the following: 5 mg B-Carotene; 2 grams Bioflavonoids; 100 mg Coenzyme Q10; 2-4 grams L-Ascorbic acid; 1 gram L-Carnitine; 2 grams N-Acetylcysteine (NAC); 250 ug Selenium, and 1,000 IU Vitamin E. "There is nothing magic about the doses listed; it is my best estimate based on present knowledge in nutrition." If you don't feel like buying out the local vitamin store, taking a subset of these (even just the ascorbic acid - vitamin C) could well be helpful.

And, if you're really concerned, recent non-human animal research suggests that most or all of the serotonin system reduction may be prevented by taking Prozac (fluoxetine) 0-6 hours after taking the MDMA (see McCann and Ricuarte in J. Clinical Psychopharmacology, 13 (3)p. 214-217, 1993). One might speculate that other SSRI drugs (Zoloft, Paxil) may work too. Note, however, that some people report that Prozac taken before or in the early part of an MDMA session lessens some of the desirable effects of the MDMA. Conclusion?

One take on all this information is that there are a great many questions unanswered by research as yet. Thus a conservative, prudent assumption is that the risk of some kind of subtle neurological "damage" in humans from MDMA use is not zero. Yet there is no behavioral evidence of neurological harm in humans (and there is considerable evidence of psychological benefits) - this in many years of legal use (before 1985 in the US), and quite widespread illegal use since then.

Given any non-zero risk, it makes sense to examine the benefit side of the equation, and take the drug only when you expect to get some tangible positive outcome from it that you feel makes taking the risk worthwhile.

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma...q.shtml#immune


Swim did not realize that he wanted to do this a few days ago. Oh well, how is swiCake feeling today?