C&P from somewhere
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22
Re: Dostinex
05/25
After looking into the matter a bit more, and finding pills for sale at the rate of 8 for $135, I decided to check into prolactin inhibition in general.
Prolactin is interesting stuff. The only time when it's very useful is when a woman is lactating, it causes milk to be produced. It also appears to be responsible for decreased libido and decreased fertility during that time. When people have pituitary gland tumors, they may have very high prolactin levels (it is produced by the pituitary). If they are female, they will stop ovulating, and will produce milk. If they are male they may produce milk as well.
Prolactin's natural limit in the body is dopamine. Dopamine is kind of the flipside of seratonin, and is a vital part of our nervous system's chemistry. As we age, the levels of dopamine we produce will decline, particularly after age 40. Eventually the decline may become severe enough to cause one to get Parkinson's Disease, get shaky hands and so on, which gradually leads to debility and death.
The antagonistic relationship between prolactin and dopamine is why a prolactin-killing drug is used both for pituitary tumors and for parkinsonism.
A couple of things which you can do to lower your prolactin levels in a safe way is to keep zinc and vitamin B6 in your bloodstream. 30-50 milligrams of each a day should do. If you take an antidepressant, an antipsychotic or an antihistamine for stomach problems (loraditine, etc.), all of which raise prolactin levels, B6 and zinc will not work very well, but they should not interfere with your meds.
A more heavyhanded approach is to raise your dopamine level, and let the dopamine drop your prolactin level. L-dopa is the drug (long used to treat parkinsonism) usually used to do this, and increased libido is one of its side effects. It is simply dopamine with a carboxyl group stuck onto the molecule, and it decarboxylates after it's in your system. L-dopa is an expensive prescription drug.
A plant grown through much of the world, velvet bean, contains very high levels of natural l-dopa, and has been used as an aphrodesiac in Ayurvedic medicine. Because heat will quickly decarboxylate most things, cooking is required for them to be safely used as food, otherwise one can OD on l-dopa, which is a very bad thing -- potentially fatal in severe cases. However, if you don't want them as food, but rather as a medication, raw is ideal. You can buy powdered velvet bean (usually sold as mucuna pruriens), or you can, with some hunting, buy whole beans. A teaspoon a day should be sufficient to try this idea out, or in the case of whole beans, you can sprout them and increase the l-dopa level by 10 times. At that rate, you'd only need to eat maybe 1/3-1/2 a bean sprout a day!
However, there is an even easier and cheaper way to go. A close relative of the velvet bean is the fava bean. It contains significantly less l-dopa, but 2-3 fava bean sprouts would probably be plenty. Just remember, more is not better. Overdosing on l-dopa can make you feel nauseated, lethargic, depressed and generally crappy. A severe overdose can interfere with heart function. So if you plan on trying this, don't think that upping the dose will make for more fun. It might only make you feel lousy, but if you got totally carried away you could end up dead, having a psychotic reaction, or any number of bad things. This is a powerful substance we're talking about. Long-term recreational use, particularly without a break every few weeks, would also seem like a risky idea, as things like diskenisia (uncontrollable movement) can happen with overuse.
For the ultra-lazy: 4-16 oz. of canned fava beans per day would also do. Most of the l-dopa would have been decarboxylated, but a little bit usually survives.
Note: a very small number of people, primarily of Middle Eastern descent, are extremely allergic to fava beans, and very likely to velvet beans as well. If you have never eaten fava beans and found out that way, you might want to find out. A drop of extract made from the beans and applied to your skin should tell you pretty quickly.
Under no circumstances should a woman play with l-dopa if she might be pregnant, or if she is breastfeeding. You should not combine l-dopa with vitamin B6, the B6 will cause it to decarboxylate prematurely and not work. You should not take l-dopa if you've taken a monoamine oxidase inhibitor within the last couple of weeks. You should not take it if you have heart, liver or kidney problems, high blood pressure, or any sort of psychiatric issues (including depression). For the usual list of precautions, see www.drugs.com/MTM/D/Dopar.html
So there you have it, an alternate route to Dostinex, which could cost as little as a penny or two a day, instead of $135 for 8 tablets, and which requires no prescription. If you use l-dopa instead of the safe zinc/B6 route, you are, of course, still taking chances with your health for recreational purposes.
CYA clause: I am not an MD, and I am especially not *your* MD. Look into things for yourself, and do anything mentioned above at your own risk!
X
Re: Dostinex
05/25
After looking into the matter a bit more, and finding pills for sale at the rate of 8 for $135, I decided to check into prolactin inhibition in general.
Prolactin is interesting stuff. The only time when it's very useful is when a woman is lactating, it causes milk to be produced. It also appears to be responsible for decreased libido and decreased fertility during that time. When people have pituitary gland tumors, they may have very high prolactin levels (it is produced by the pituitary). If they are female, they will stop ovulating, and will produce milk. If they are male they may produce milk as well.
Prolactin's natural limit in the body is dopamine. Dopamine is kind of the flipside of seratonin, and is a vital part of our nervous system's chemistry. As we age, the levels of dopamine we produce will decline, particularly after age 40. Eventually the decline may become severe enough to cause one to get Parkinson's Disease, get shaky hands and so on, which gradually leads to debility and death.
The antagonistic relationship between prolactin and dopamine is why a prolactin-killing drug is used both for pituitary tumors and for parkinsonism.
A couple of things which you can do to lower your prolactin levels in a safe way is to keep zinc and vitamin B6 in your bloodstream. 30-50 milligrams of each a day should do. If you take an antidepressant, an antipsychotic or an antihistamine for stomach problems (loraditine, etc.), all of which raise prolactin levels, B6 and zinc will not work very well, but they should not interfere with your meds.
A more heavyhanded approach is to raise your dopamine level, and let the dopamine drop your prolactin level. L-dopa is the drug (long used to treat parkinsonism) usually used to do this, and increased libido is one of its side effects. It is simply dopamine with a carboxyl group stuck onto the molecule, and it decarboxylates after it's in your system. L-dopa is an expensive prescription drug.
A plant grown through much of the world, velvet bean, contains very high levels of natural l-dopa, and has been used as an aphrodesiac in Ayurvedic medicine. Because heat will quickly decarboxylate most things, cooking is required for them to be safely used as food, otherwise one can OD on l-dopa, which is a very bad thing -- potentially fatal in severe cases. However, if you don't want them as food, but rather as a medication, raw is ideal. You can buy powdered velvet bean (usually sold as mucuna pruriens), or you can, with some hunting, buy whole beans. A teaspoon a day should be sufficient to try this idea out, or in the case of whole beans, you can sprout them and increase the l-dopa level by 10 times. At that rate, you'd only need to eat maybe 1/3-1/2 a bean sprout a day!
However, there is an even easier and cheaper way to go. A close relative of the velvet bean is the fava bean. It contains significantly less l-dopa, but 2-3 fava bean sprouts would probably be plenty. Just remember, more is not better. Overdosing on l-dopa can make you feel nauseated, lethargic, depressed and generally crappy. A severe overdose can interfere with heart function. So if you plan on trying this, don't think that upping the dose will make for more fun. It might only make you feel lousy, but if you got totally carried away you could end up dead, having a psychotic reaction, or any number of bad things. This is a powerful substance we're talking about. Long-term recreational use, particularly without a break every few weeks, would also seem like a risky idea, as things like diskenisia (uncontrollable movement) can happen with overuse.
For the ultra-lazy: 4-16 oz. of canned fava beans per day would also do. Most of the l-dopa would have been decarboxylated, but a little bit usually survives.
Note: a very small number of people, primarily of Middle Eastern descent, are extremely allergic to fava beans, and very likely to velvet beans as well. If you have never eaten fava beans and found out that way, you might want to find out. A drop of extract made from the beans and applied to your skin should tell you pretty quickly.
Under no circumstances should a woman play with l-dopa if she might be pregnant, or if she is breastfeeding. You should not combine l-dopa with vitamin B6, the B6 will cause it to decarboxylate prematurely and not work. You should not take l-dopa if you've taken a monoamine oxidase inhibitor within the last couple of weeks. You should not take it if you have heart, liver or kidney problems, high blood pressure, or any sort of psychiatric issues (including depression). For the usual list of precautions, see www.drugs.com/MTM/D/Dopar.html
So there you have it, an alternate route to Dostinex, which could cost as little as a penny or two a day, instead of $135 for 8 tablets, and which requires no prescription. If you use l-dopa instead of the safe zinc/B6 route, you are, of course, still taking chances with your health for recreational purposes.
CYA clause: I am not an MD, and I am especially not *your* MD. Look into things for yourself, and do anything mentioned above at your own risk!
evelopment_of_the_neural_tube.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Development_of_the_neural_tube.png/220px-Development_of_the_neural_tube.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/4/4c/Development_of_the_neural_tube.png/220px-Development_of_the_neural_tube.png[/ame] (CNS), it is metabolized to dopamine by 
