Ecstasy, Neurotoxity and Green Tea

[Lecester]

This is just some thoughts and opinions that SWIM would like to share with the rest of the community.

SWIM hasn't taken Ecstasy in a long long time (3-years). SWIM decided to experience that wonderfull feeling after being dissapointed with the quality of coke around at the moment.

Anyway, SWIM has read that the active compound in Green Tea, that acts as an anti-oxidant against the free radicals produced as a by-product of mdma, is much much much more powerful than vitamin c or e. The by-products during mdma ingestion and metabolism almost certianly produces free radicals but if and how they damage any lipid cell is not well known yet.

So what SWIM did last weekend was to take half a pill and drink green tea before and after the effects. SWIM then took another half in the night, drinking plenty of green tea before and after.

RESULTS:

SWIM felt no come-down
SWIM had none of the stuttering associated with the day after taking pills- verbal memory?
SWIM can focus much more on complex tasks (before SWIM would have been confused for a couple of days)

SWIM also takes full vitamins regularly.

Prior to this when SWIM dropped half a pill SWIM often had problems getting his words out the day after and also was a bit 'down' and couldn't not focus.

Any thoughts, opinions or expereinces welcomed.

Lecester

[Ori]

The active constituents in green tea are a family of polyphenols (catechins) and flavonols which possess potent antioxidant activity. Tannins, large polyphenol molecules, form the bulk of the active compounds in green tea, with catechins comprising nearly 90%. Several catechins are present in significant quantities; epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG makes up about 10-50% of the total catechin content and appears to be the most powerful of the catechins � with antioxidant activity about 25-100 times more potent than vitamins C and E. A cup of green tea may provide 10-40mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant activity greater than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots or strawberries. A number of commercial green tea extracts are standardized to total polyphenol content and/or EGCG content.

from
http://www.hoslink.com/diet/suppl_weight.htm

Cannot find any infomation on how it interacts with serotonin.

[Stiney]

One of the leading theories on how MDMA causes neurotoxicity is that the dopamine released when on mdma escapes back into the serotonin axon through the serotonin re-uptake transporters, it is then broken down by the enzyme monoamine oxidase and converted into hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach) which, as you can imagine is a bad thing and causes damage. Dopamine is not a free radical and therefore is not neutralised by antioxidants. It is thought that ssri's such a prozac, taken a period after using MDMA are somewhat effective at counter acting the damage done by the breakdown of dopamine in the serotonin axon by "plugging up" the re-uptake transporters and so not allowing any dopamine in where its not supposed to be. Having said that excess free radicals are almost certainly produced and anti-oxidants such as those found in green tea will combat this, but that doesn't mean you are significantly reducing neurotoxicity.

I'm no expert on any of this but I believe all the info above is correct or believed to be correct by the people that study these things. If thier are any neurobiologists on here I'm sure one of them will be kind enough to contradict or varify the above, as appropriate.

[Nagognog2]

A common, though harmless, example, of this is having an itchiness on a finger or toe. It subsides in a day, generally. Take your vitamins. Eat. Sleep. And give your body a break for awhile. A month or more is best.