From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rafal@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Wed Feb 19 2003 - 08:25:31 MST
gts wrote:
> Rafal,
>
>> ### Good for you! I really have no problem with the promotion of
>> deprenyl as a nootropic, since here you present evidence of better
>> quality, a double-blind randomized trial.
>
> Well that's certainly a refreshing change of tune from you, Rafal.
### Responding to a change of focus from hypothesizing about PD to
description of practical benefits proven in controlled studies.
-----------------
>
> A few messages ago you were telling me that this drug was a waste of
> time and money. You even suggested indirectly that my way of thinking
> could kill people (re: my comparison of DATATOP to the recent halted
> study of female HRT).
### If you hope for a longer survival in PD, it is a waste. If all you hope
for is hearing music better, etc., you are apparently getting your money's
worth.
--------------------
>
> Is it likely to enhance cognitive ability in normal healthy humans?
> Is it likely to enhance sex drive in normal healthy humans?
> Is it likely to improve mood in normal healthy humans?
> Is it likely to protect neurons from neurotoxins and excitotoxins in
> normal healthy humans?
> Is it likely to improve life-expectancy in normal healthy humans?
### My answers: yes, don't know, yes, unknown, unknown.
------------------
>
> Unfortunately drug companies do not spend R&D money in an effort to
> improve the lives of normal healthy humans, so we are forced to base
> our opinions on indirect data and personal experience.
>
### That drug companies do not address the life-enhancement and
life-extension issues is indeed quite bad. I think it is due to drug
prescription laws, and the over-reliance of customers on health insurance.
If citizens used health insurance only for catastrophic spending (surgery,
etc.), paid for routine medications cash, and could buy it without
prescription, the prices of drugs would be lower, and the incentive to prove
their efficacy beyond medical situations would be much higher - cash paid
for deprenyl taken for depression would be the same if it was taken for
life-extension. All we would need would be an independent authority (perhaps
derived from the FDA) verifying the claims of drug makers, but not
restricting their sale.
Well, just dreaming.
Rafal
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