Welcome to Ellis Toussier-Ades Bigio-Antebi's Ritalin... A Mind Enhancing Drug ? From Posts to Rejuvenation Testimonials from Two Users Introduction: The first testimonial below was written to me by a person who I asked to tell me about ritalin (methylphenidate, "meth-ill-FEN-i-date"). The second person wrote a few hours after I posted the first testimonial on Rejuvenation, a board that I moderate. I paste both posts here for your benefit because I found the discussion very interesting. 1. Subject: Regarding Ritalin I am a very smart intuitive fellow, but I have problems with school. When the big math equations start I get lost easily, because I cannot hold my concentration long enough to relate big equations to the physical things described by them. I have been taking about 1 hour to read one page of my textbooks. Comprehension is high, but there are not enough hours in a day to meet the need. Work life is too easy, because there is nothing new to learn after a short time. School life is too hard because I cannot concentrate well on things not yet understood. I can concentrate well on things I understand or mostly understand. It has been like this my whole life. I recall in high school, experimenting with black market amphetamines. My grades and social skill improved remarkably. I was getting A's and was well liked by my teachers for a change. When the supply ran out, it was back to being an impulsive obnoxious boy with a learning disability. I guess my parents put me on ritalin for a couple of weeks when I was 6 or 7 years old, but they didn't think it worked or couldn't take some aspect of it. Ritalin is an amphetamine which stimulates the central nervous system much better than caffeine, but less than a black market methanphetamine. It is often compared to cocaine. When I am using ritalin I type faster, I talk faster, and I think faster. I am better able to process thoughts. So the difficult new concepts are easier to "walk" through without distraction. On Ritalin I can tell when a distraction is calling for my attention, and make a concious choice to put it aside, and finish the master thought at hand, or turn attention to the distraction. I'm so lost without it that now I won't even try to study if the effect wears off. That is to say, I am so aware of my performance difference, that attempting to study without it is a waste of time. I can read 6 to 7 pages in an hour with the ritalin, maybe more, soon. My dose The classic (old) style Ritalin capsules would last about 4 hours (11 A.M. for school children. The children then needed to visit the school nurse for another dose. This arrangement created a disclosure to the school regarding the child's treatment. Sometimes this disclosure is not in the best interests of the child or child's family, especially for a younger sibling. I am using a time release tablet called "Concerta". The 18 mg tablet lasts me until 4 PM. The 36 mg tablet does not produce a greater effect, but lasts me until 9 PM. I like the 36 mg tablet. Both Concerta and Ritalin have the same active ingredient: "Methelphenidate". The manufacturer suggests a limit of maybe 54 mg/day, with a ramp up week by week, beginning at 18 mg. Side effects: Suppression of appetite. I really must force myself to eat. I get no desire for food at all. When it wears off, appetite returns. Sleep disturbance I don't feel as rested from my sleep. At first it was a "boost". Without proper sleep, it is like a tired but on-coffee feeling. Not comfortable. If you don't need the concentration I think it could be annoying to your rest and relaxation. Upset Stomach I'll relate the rest to you as I live it. My doctor has only one other patient on Ritalin. He gets many requests for it, but says he determines that those people have other problems such as depression. He usually gives zoloft instead. The zoloft really helped me this spring, and I am off it for some time. Zoloft does stimulate a bit. Zoloft does disturb sleep and sex function a bit. Ritalin stimulates much more. Sex is good, perhaps similar to cocain use (which I have no experience with.) I hope this helps you, Ellis. Take care, Michael (anonymous) 2. I too have had a great experience with Ritalin. Because of it I have done a complete 180 degree change in my life, all of it for the good. I also have a great interest in nootropics, including substances you mentioned. Ritalin is by far the most powerful and effective of them all, and thankfully has helped combat depression and alcohol abuse. Due mainly to Ritalin, I have since returned to college at 37 years of age, to finally finish what I started 15 years ago. Frankly, getting my degree would be absolutely impossible without it. Feel free to ask as much about Ritalin and my experience as you wish, I would be more than happy to be able to share this with anybody that is curious. Regards, Simon From a post to Rejuvenation: "Some of the literature compares Ritalin to cocaine, but I think that's because it's chemically similar. The effects are also similar (I went to college in the sixties and seventies, so, yes, I tried coke.) but Ritalin is much "smoother." With coke you almost immediately want more and coke has much more of a nervous, edgy feeling. Coke also has a very bad crash and you feel terrible the next day, but Ritalin does not have that effect at all, at least for me. Ritalin also does not interrupt my sleep cycle. I go to sleep at my usual time even if I have taken some in the late afternoon. The effects may vary with other people, of course." A parent whose children use Ritalin writes: My children have had experience with Ritalin and other stimulants for the last 9 years. There is a very interesting 2 sided argument for stimulant use for ADA/ADHD kids. On the one hand are the stimulants Ritalin, Adderall and their longer lasting - slower releasing derivatives. There are also some natural things like fish oils, and some less disruptive ones like amantadine. These stimulants allow kids who need them to focus, and to participate in activities that they normally would not be able to do. On the other hand there is the downside of taking these meds: Loss of appetite afternoon crashes and violent mood swings Sever sleep interruption. growth retardation In short, my kids hate taking them, but realize it is necessary. They beg not to take them on weekends or anytime they are not in school. In my 9 years experience with these stimulants I have had a chance to talk to doctors about what other are experiancing, and the results are pretty constant from family to family. My over all opinion about stimulates (as opposed to the popular Tom Cruise perceptions) are: 1. They are widely UNDERUSED to get kids to focus in life (class) - Parents hate the thought of their kids being on medications... - doctors are very leery about over-prescribing them... (one of my kids helped expand the range of accepted dosage in children by 75%) - with all the negative effects described above, kids hate taking them... 2. Kids who are not using these medicines but could use them are not getting well educated. 3. Kids who are not using these medicines but could use them are preventing many other kids from getting an education, because of their disruptive behaviour. (Disruptive behavior is a huge problem in our educational system.) The variety and derivatives of stimulants keep changing. I would be happy to discuss these with other parents and steer folks to very good research doctors at Massachussets General Hospital. - Glenn Frequently Asked Questions about Ritalin I asked the questions, a subscriber to the Rejuvenation discussion forum answers: Q: What is the dose that you find most effective for you? How long does the effect last? I take from 30 mg to 50 mg per day in two or three doses, letting the tabs melt under my tongue. That's within the usual prescibed dosage. I think most people take about 40 mg. Q: Can you actually "feel" this? YES, you can feel it. It gives you more energy. Boring tasks are easier to handle, and things in general become lots more interesting. Q: Is it good, or bad, (or neutral) for sex... does it affect sex in any way, positive or negative? YES, it sure does make sex better, in my opinion. Q: Why do doctors NOT want to prescribe Ritalin to people, as described in "Michael's" post? Is it habit forming, or addictive? I haven't needed to increase my dosage over the year although there is some tolerance that builds up. Q: Have you had any side effects, for example, the same side effects that "Michael" describes, ie, loss of appetite, sleep disturbance, and upset stomach? As for the downside, I really dont' see any. My health has not suffered, and I still work out. I think people who are very excitable or who suffer from depression should tell their doctors about that. Ritalin is used as treatment for depression but it could make matters worse, in my opinion. While it's not physically addictive there is a psychological aspect. That is, people really like it and maybe some will abuse it. Information about Ritalin found on the internet: = = = = from: NIDA, NIH, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/ritalin.html Methylphenidate is a medication prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have an abnormally high level of activity or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 3 to 5 percent of the general population has the disorder, which is characterized by agitated behavior and an inability to focus on tasks. Methylphenidate also is occasionally prescribed for treating narcolepsy. Health Effects Methylphenidate is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. It has effects similar to, but more potent than, caffeine and less potent than amphetamines. It has a notably calming effect on hyperactive children and a "focusing" effect on those with ADHD. Recent research1 at Brookhaven National Laboratory may begin to explain how methylphenidate helps people with ADHD. The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET - a noninvasive brain scan) to confirm that administering normal therapeutic doses of methylphenidate to healthy, adult men increased their dopamine levels. The researchers speculate that methylphenidate amplifies the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, thereby improving attention and focus in individuals who have dopamine signals that are weak, such as individuals with ADHD. When taken as prescribed, methylphenidate is a valuable medicine. Research shows that people with ADHD do not become addicted to stimulant medications when taken in the form prescribed and at treatment dosages. Another study found that ADHD boys treated with stimulants such as methylphenidate are significantly less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol when they are older than are non-treated ADHD boys. Because of its stimulant properties, however, in recent years there have been reports of abuse of methylphenidate by people for whom it is not a medication. Some individuals abuse it for its stimulant effects: appetite suppression, wakefulness, increased focus/attentiveness, and euphoria. When abused, the tablets are either taken orally or crushed and snorted. Some abusers dissolve the tablets in water and inject the mixture - complications can arise from this because insoluble fillers in the tablets can block small blood vessels. (snip) Because stimulant medicines such as methylphenidate do have potential for abuse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has placed stringent, Schedule II controls on their manufacture, distribution, and prescription. From: a description of the medicine at an online pharmacy: Ritalin (Tablets) Chemical Name: METHYLPHENIDATE This medicine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant used to treat narcolepsy (sudden and uncontrollable attacks of drowsiness and sleep) and attention-deficit disorders. It may also be used to treat other conditions as determined by your doctor. WARNING: Methylphenidate should be given cautiously to emotionally unstable patients such as those with a history of alcohol or drug abuse. Such patients may be more likely to increase their doses unnecessarily. Abuse of this medicine can lead to abnormal behavior. If methylphenidate must be stopped, it should be stopped gradually over time. Do not suddenly stop this medicine because severe depression or hidden overactivity may occur. In some people, long-term monitoring may be required after the medicine is stopped. DO NOT TAKE THIS MEDICINE if you are also taking a MAO inhibitor (e.g., furazolidone, phenelzine, selegiline, linezolid, tranylcypromine) or have stopped taking a MAO inhibitor within the last 2 weeks. ADDITIONAL MONITORING OF YOUR DOSE OR CONDITION may be needed if you are taking guanadrel or guanethidine. USE OF THIS MEDICINE IS NOT RECOMMENDED if you have anxiety, tension, agitation, glaucoma, motor tics, or a history of Tourette's syndrome. Contact your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions or concerns about using this medicine. CHILDREN: Take your dose exactly at the times indicated by your doctor. ADULTS: Take your dose 30 to 45 minutes before meals or as directed by your doctor. TO PREVENT THIS MEDICINE FROM AFFECTING SLEEP: try not to take a dose later than 6 pm. STORE THIS MEDICINE at room temperature, away from heat and light. DO NOT EXCEED THE RECOMMENDED DOSE or take this medicine for longer than prescribed without checking with your doctor. DO NOT STOP TAKING THIS MEDICINE without first checking with your doctor. DO NOT DRIVE, OPERATE MACHINERY, OR DO ANYTHING ELSE THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS until you know how you react to this medicine. Using this medicine alone, with other medicines, or with alcohol may lessen your ability to drive or to perform other potentially dangerous tasks. SIDE EFFECTS that may occur while taking this medicine include decreased appetite (more severe in children), stomach upset, difficulty falling asleep, headache, nervousness, or dizziness. Symptoms of overdose may include dilated pupils, vomiting, nervousness, twitching, tremors, flushing, sweating, headache, seizures, and loss of consciousness. Please read this review by a social worker specializing in troubled children. (It's a review of an anti-Ritalin book written Dr. Peter Breggin): Reviewer: Peter C. Dwyer (Baltimore, Maryland United States) I am a licensed clinical social worker with seven years' experience working with troubled children, and am now director of a large therapeutic foster care program. From my practical experience, and from my reading, the negative reviews of this book, calling Breggin unscientific, ranting, etc. have got it exactly wrong. The "literature" supporting Ritalin and other stimulants is biased and only intermittently scientific - more like ad copy than fact. It is easy to see why stimulants dominate the treatment of ADHD. Drug companies spend over $20 billion a year on promotion - more than they spend on research. What does this money buy them? David Healy, internationally known psychiatric researcher and writer, claims about 50 percent of all psychiatric journal articles are ghost written by employees of drug companies, and that 30% of The American Psychiatric Association's income comes from drug company subsidies, grants and advertising. Around 70 percent of all drug research is funded by the drug companies themselves, and most of the rest, funded by the government, is heavily influenced by drug companies' extensive lobbying machinery. Major journals (including The New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet) have lamented the control of research and publishing by drug company money: The New England Journal of Medicine editorialized, stating they could hardly find reviewers for their psychiatric drug articles who did not have conflicts of interest due to financial ties with drug companies. Studies funded by drug companies, that don't support the companies' drugs, are rarely published. The bottom line: professionals and the public are bombarded with a stream of "research" and "information" financed and spun by the people who make and sell these drugs. The conflict of interest is palpable. Many people lack access to effective non-drug ways to deal with "ADHD." But this is no proof that the drugs are especially effective and safe - it just shows the advantage of having billions of dollars to finance and promote the drugs. I have a challenge for readers who dismiss Breggin's book: Read half a dozen responsible critiques of biopsychiatry and psychiatric drugs. Try David Healy's The Creation of Psychopharmacology, also Healy's Let Them Eat Prozac (soon to come out in the U.S.), Robert Whitaker's Mad in America, Glenmullen's Prozac Backlash, Fisher and Greenberg's From Placebo to Panacea - Putting Psychiatric Drugs to the Test, and Elliott Valenstein's Blaming the Brain - The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health. These are not works by new agers who think crystals heal schizophrenia. They are by respected academics, researchers and clinicians (and not all of them, especially Healy and Glenmullen, are against psychiatric drugs). But read these books, and note the claims and evidence they cite about the drugs. Now, here's the challenge: Look in mainstream psychiatric literature for any serious attempt to address these claims. I've read over forty books, pro and con, on psychiatric drugs - and I've yet to find pro-drug literature that addresses 98% of these arguments, not in general, and not point by point. This is a matter of informed consent. See if Peter Breggin's words in Toxic Psychiatry are not at least very plausible: "In the world of modern psychiatry claims can become truth, hopes can become achievements and propaganda is taken as science". Yes, Breggin is angry. He pulls no punches and gives no quarter. But he deserves serious consideration - he has been qualified as an expert witness in numerous product liability cases against drug companies around the country. Try to find, anywhere, point by point refutations of the specific claims he makes in this book. Except for a few points, biopsychiatry's silence on Breggin's claims is deafening. Ask an "authority" on ADHD whether, as Breggin claims, the pannel of experts at the NIH Consensus Conference on ADHD DID or DID NOT conclude in their final report, "..there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction," and ask the "authority" who it was that later took it upon himself to edit that statement to muddle the wording, but without changing its bottom line. And ask if it is true that the conference organizer, Peter Jensen, later admitted in a 2000 article that the experts at this conference found NO proof that "ADHD reflects a disordered state." (See Breggin, page 16). If, after looking into the issue, you decide to give your child Ritalin, so be it. But each parent, child and professional deserves to know the whole story - something you will not get reading standard psychiatric literature. I am a distributor of Serono de Mexico, and Humatrope by Eli Lilly, and other excellent brands of growth growth hormone in Mexico. If you come to Mexico I will help you to get a legal prescription and you can buy Humatrope, Saizen, or Norditropin at excellent prices. If you are not coming to Mexico, I can help you to buy growth hormone legally in the United States. See my page, and write to me: You Too can Buy Growth Hormone in Mexico Table of Contents of all my Rejuvenation Pages Don't miss my 25 or more excellent pages. Bookmark this page. Many people say they learned a lot from my pages. Buying Growth Hormone in Mexico" Note: I am not a doctor, and I do not give medical advice or treatment of any kind. My advice is limited to a discussion of nutrition and a general discussion of anti-aging hormones and available blood tests and therapies, etc. Please consult with an anti-aging doctor of your choice after you have consulted with me. I invite you to subscribe to Rejuvenation, a discussion list (moderated by me) for persons taking rHGH by sub-cutaneous injection, also open to anybody who wishes to monitor the discussion, or read the archives. Discussion centers on any issue related to the rHGH experience, or rejuvenation techniques in general, except amino acids and merits or demerits of multi-level marketing. Read a full description here: Click to subscribe to Rejuvenation It is like an award to receive a letter from a medical doctor that finds my pages to be useful for him and his patients. "I am a plastic surgeon in Shreveport, Louisiana. I just found your two sites on the Internet. I've read your personal experience site twice and have read much of the Message board that contains over 6,000 messages. They are excellent. I became interested in growth hormone and antiaging three years ago and have been taking growth hormone at bedtime for over two years. Like you, my results have been impressive. I'm 57 years old. I am 6 ft 1 in and weight 202 pounds with 9% body fat. I exercise regularly ( 5 times a week) and do moderate weight training. My diet is good, high protein, moderate complex carbs and low fat. After reading your page I certainly need to improve it some. Due to my personal results, I started offering anti-aging and growth hormone replacement to my patients 8 months ago. I've read much of the literature and have attended two meetings of the American Academy of AntiAging Medicine. Although it only been a few months my patients are THRILLED about the therapy and almost all are reporting specific areas of improvement. Thanks so much for your work in this area. I want to return to Puebla for more Spanish education. Possibly I could include some time in Mexice City also. I would love to meet you. Gracias, Dr. Jim McDonald Every anti-aging doctor that I know, and most serious anti-aging persons that I know, all belong to THE LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION. If you are interested in anti-aging therapies, I highly recommend that you should see their website and subscribe to their magazine. A search for "DHEA" or "testosterone" or "growth hormone" will turn up more than 20 superb, basic articles, protocols, and discussion lists. Life Extension has the single best anti-aging website on the internet, (including this one, which I think is the second best) with thousands of superb pages and articles, and it is constantly growing. Note: For whatever it is worth, I am a very well-known in anti-aging circles. I will give you the chance to earn a Diploma in Anti-Aging Therapies, signed by me. This diploma may not be worth very much to Health Authorities anywhere, but I hope it will be worth a lot to you, for what you will learn. Read my personal program below, then read all my pages in my Table of Contents. Then e-mail me and I will send you a long examination. If you pass my test with a 95% or better, I will send you a Diploma in Anti-Aging Therapies, signed by me, at cost, plus whatever you wish to add. No Bull. Just learning, and good ideas. - Ellis If you liked this page, and if you have a website related to health, anti-aging, diabetes, or diet, and if you would like other people to learn some of the good ideas which are on my pages and pretty unique on the internet, I would appreciate if you would add a link to any of my pages. Let me know, and I will be glad to reciprocate with an appropriate link somewhere on my site (usually, my links pages). Thanks. For comments about this page: etoussier@hotmail.com Ellis Toussier Horacio 1729-5 Colonia Los Morales Mexico City, D. F. 11510 Mexico From the U.S.: Tel. 011-(52-55) 5-280-36-44 Within Mexico: Tel (01-55) 5280-36-44 In Mexico City: Tel 5-280-36-44 THANKS FOR VISITING. You are visitor number