There’s a wonderfully ridiculous shop in Brighton that takes this one step further by selling a mixture of health food, supplements and ‘Legal highs’. I’m not sure how anyone thought this was a good idea—perhaps some people think that the anti-oxidants from a blueberry smoothie can counteract the damage done by fly agaric mushrooms?
Funnily enough I’ve seen that study before, in fact I used to give my friends vitamin C + 5-htp when they did MDMA.
Which makes my previous comment rather weird now I look back on it. While fly agaric mushrooms are an exceptionally dangerous drug (but still legal, while the competitively safer psilocybin ones are illegal. Go figure.) it does seem somewhat plausible that vitamins could reduce the damage done. I think what I meant was that it won’t completely eliminate the damage from a drug that dangerous.
Moreover, while some people are aware of studies like that, it seems a little odd that there are enough health freaks who aren’t put off by the drugs the keep the shop in business.
It makes a bit more sense when you look at the rest of their behavior. People who take drugs (especially psychedelics) tend to look down on people who don’t as being prudes, unenlightened, or just ignorant. When you look at it that way, drug-users and health nuts have something in common; they like to use their way of life to feel superior to other people.
(oh, and make sure to only give 5-htp after the high wears off. Otherwise, you increase the risk of serotonin syndrome.)
Moreover, while some people are aware of studies like that, it seems a little odd that there are enough health freaks who aren’t put off by the drugs the keep the shop in business.
“it seems a little odd” should lead to noticing confusion and then updating your view of the world so that the world doesn’t seem odd anymore.
In cases like this your models likely aren’t build on peer reviewed research about the behavior of health freaks. Humans are very often overconfident. There no good reason to assume that your model is perfect.
There’s a wonderfully ridiculous shop in Brighton that takes this one step further by selling a mixture of health food, supplements and ‘Legal highs’. I’m not sure how anyone thought this was a good idea—perhaps some people think that the anti-oxidants from a blueberry smoothie can counteract the damage done by fly agaric mushrooms?
The funny thing is, they DO.
Study showing vitamin C reduces most problems with MDMA: Sharankar 2001
Graph of free radical levels in brain from MDMA + Vitamin C, MDMA alone, and controls from the study above (Sharankar 2001).
Funnily enough I’ve seen that study before, in fact I used to give my friends vitamin C + 5-htp when they did MDMA.
Which makes my previous comment rather weird now I look back on it. While fly agaric mushrooms are an exceptionally dangerous drug (but still legal, while the competitively safer psilocybin ones are illegal. Go figure.) it does seem somewhat plausible that vitamins could reduce the damage done. I think what I meant was that it won’t completely eliminate the damage from a drug that dangerous.
Moreover, while some people are aware of studies like that, it seems a little odd that there are enough health freaks who aren’t put off by the drugs the keep the shop in business.
It makes a bit more sense when you look at the rest of their behavior. People who take drugs (especially psychedelics) tend to look down on people who don’t as being prudes, unenlightened, or just ignorant. When you look at it that way, drug-users and health nuts have something in common; they like to use their way of life to feel superior to other people.
(oh, and make sure to only give 5-htp after the high wears off. Otherwise, you increase the risk of serotonin syndrome.)
“it seems a little odd” should lead to noticing confusion and then updating your view of the world so that the world doesn’t seem odd anymore.
Things being odd certainly should lead to updating models, however, unless the models are perfect, things may continue to be odd.
In cases like this your models likely aren’t build on peer reviewed research about the behavior of health freaks. Humans are very often overconfident. There no good reason to assume that your model is perfect.