RE: Performance enhancement with selegiline

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Feb 04 2003 - 18:13:38 MST

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    Rafal wrote:

    >gts wrote:
    >> MAOI's don't "suck." Were it not for the risks of hypertensive crises
    >> from tyramine rich foods then MAOI's would still reign supreme as the
    >> best and safest antidepressants in existence. It is only because of
    >> those hypertensive risks associated with certain foods that the
    >> tricyclics and SSRI's and others were developed.
    >
    > ### Actually, MAOI's have all kinds of other side effects, such as
    > palpitations, somnolence, agitation, hypertension, headache,
    > hepatotoxicity, and a very, very long list of drug interactions.

    Yes, well, other antidepressants also have rare side effects, including
    (possibly) homicide and suicide in the case of SSRI's.

    But again this is not a discussion of the merits of different classes of
    antidepressants.

    >> Okay I will offer a few abstracts below on that subject, but as I
    >> wrote above this is really beside the point. I'm not interested in
    >> defending selegiline only as an antidepressant. Its key value to
    >> transhumanists and others here is that it is a potent
    >> neuroprotectant, a cognitive aid, and a potential agent of life
    >> extension.
    >
    > ### "Potential" is the key word here. So far there is no proof of life
    > extension in humans, and no proof of neuroprotection in PD.

    Excuse me? There is EXCELLENT proof that selegiline offers
    neuroprotection in Parkinson's Disease (PD). That is the sole reason it
    is prescribed for the disease, Rafal. It most definitely increases
    life-span in PD patients by protecting dopaminergic neurons.

    Its use for life-extension in healthy humans is admittedly still
    untested and speculative, despite it's proven value for this purpose in
    lab animals, but then the same can be said of CR and everything else in
    the field.

    It's notable that we are all ultimately destined to become PD patients
    if we live long enough (after about age 40 we lose about 13% of our
    dopaminergic neurons per decade, even without PD). In these terms
    selegiline/deprenyl is clearly an aid to life extension.

    -gts



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