Addiction and Neurodegenerative Diseases

     Autism is a neurodegenerative disease, a class of afflictions which includes Asperger's, Tourette's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. A common cause of neurodegenerative disorders is the phosphorylization of the tau protein, which agglomerates in neuronal cells, causing links between cells to tangle and clump-up.

     A recent article said that autism may be triggered by low levels of anti-depressant medications in our drinking water. Drinking water often contains sodium fluoride.

     Fluoride causes calcium deposits to build up in the pineal gland, which is the gland in the brain that secretes melatonin and can be stimulated by psychedelic drugs, which cause hallucinations.

     Hallucinations are also experienced by people with psychotic symptoms, treatment for which often includes anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications, both of which often contain fluoride or fluorine.

     Symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases include communication disorders; immobility and impaired mobility; and repetitive patterns of behavior such as tics, highly structured play in children, and ritualistic behavior.

     Delta-9-THC - the psychoactive chemical in marijuana - has been shown to help prevent the agglomeration of the tau protein which causes neurodegenerative disorders. It has also been shown to facilitate the growth of adult stem cells into working neurons, and to promote the growth of connections between neurons.

     Marijuana has a reputation among its users as aiding in communication, promoting social cohesion, and increasing capacity for sympathy, which would seem to sugest that it could be prescribed to treat the social aspects of autism and Asperger's. It has been shown to ameliorate the kinds of tics associated with Parkinson's and Tourette's.

     In "The Doors of Perception", Aldous Huxley made reference to D.C. Broad's description of "the mind as a reducing valve". This refers to the idea that the mind must filter-out all unnecessary and superfluous information, so that our consciousnesses are not overwhelmed with vivid sensory information associated with the memory of everything we have ever experienced.

     Ideas like this have been construed to suggest that forgetting has its advantages. Perhaps the short-term memory-loss problems associated with marijuana use are not as disadvantageous to our minds as the long-term memory effects associated with Alzheimer's, some symptoms of which THC has been shown to treat.

     Alcohol and psychoactive drugs such as marijuana and LSD have reputations for improving communication skills, and removing inhibitions, leading to novel and varied behavior. Not that alcohol promotes neuronal development, but these types of behavior seem to be the opposite of symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, such as delayed onset of communication skills in childhood, and ritualistic behavior.

     There seem to be two paradoxes here.

     The first paradox is that hallucinations, behaviors which societal norms cast as too experimental and disordered, and lack of ritual and regularity in everyday living are all things which can be cited in order to support diagnoses of “psychosis” or “neurosis”, which are both vague, overused, practically meaningless medical terms. Psychosis and similar “afflictions” are often treated with anti-psychotic or anti-depression medications, which often contain fluoride or fluorine.

     The second paradox is that people who use marijuana - a drug which often causes experimental behaviors, decreases ritualistic behaviors, and ameliorates nervous tics - can get addicted to it, addiction itself being a ritualistic behavior.

For more entries on food and drugs, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-opposition-to-hypothetical-excise.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/bwiti-religion-nganga-and-tabernanthe.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/10/speech-at-great-midwest-marijuana.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/lonny-shavelsons-hooked-from.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-war-on-drugs.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/conversation-with-liberal-on-taxing.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-legalizing-heroin.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/15-reasons-to-legalize-marijuana.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-policies-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-food-and-drug-administration.html