Slashdot Mirror
The Medical Benefits of Carbon Monoxide
tugfoigel writes with this excerpt from the Boston Globe:
"For more than a century, carbon monoxide has been known as a deadly toxin. In an 1839 story, Edgar Allan Poe wrote of 'miraculous lustre of the eye' and 'nervous agitation' in what some believe are descriptions of carbon monoxide poisoning, and today, cigarette cartons warn of its health dangers. But a growing body of research, much of it by local scientists, is revealing a paradox: the gas often called a silent killer could also be a medical treatment. It seems like a radical contradiction, but animal studies show that in small, extremely controlled doses the gas has benefits in everything from infections to organ transplantation."
Paracelsus, sometimes called the father of toxicology, wrote:
German: Alle Ding' sind Gift, und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist.
"All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."
That is to say, substances often considered toxic can be benign or beneficial in small doses, and conversely an ordinarily benign substance can be deadly if over-consumed. Even water can be deadly if overconsumed.
(Ripped right from Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus ] )
So, 500 years ago, this would have been news?
Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.
Actually, Homeopathy often dilutes the "dose" until it is improbable that there is a single molecule of the original substance remaining
$ make available
Maybe not cigarettes, but tobacco sure. Heroin also has huge medical benefits, but we can't touch that, can we?
In much of the world, heroin is recognized as being a safe and effective pain killer. It is used regularly in hospitals in the UK.
The reason heroin is an effective recreational drug is due to its safety compared to other opiates.
The situation is similar (although much more extreme) with methamphetamine. Enough caffeine to keep you awake for a week would have a high chance of killing you outright.
Considering the low cost of making heroin from morphine, the use of morphine instead is essentially a deliberate waste in order to satisfy political considerations.