Rants N’ Jibes

Albert Hoffman is a swiss chemist. He invented the hallucinogenic drug LSD. He died of a heart attack at his Basel home at the age of 102.

He first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal properties of a plant fungus (ergot fungus). He ingested some of it by accident and felt its hallucinogenic effects. On which, he commented saying “Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror”. It was soon used as a common street drug by 1960. LSD is not addictive which makes it very different from other drugs.

The continued abuse of this drug forced countries to make it illegal. LSD is claimed by many researchers to be aiding as a psychotherapeutic drug. However, none of these claims have been officially accepted and this still remains a schedule 1 drug with no medical use.

It came as a shock to me too… But, scientists say that excessive usage of drinking water can ultimately result in serious effects and even death. It is known that our body fluids need various salts to maintain the flow. For example, blood cells have salts and they use this water to maintain concentration. In a situation where water enters the body in huge quantities, the body is no longer able to maintain its stability and the cells get filled up with water due to a process called osmosis. This halts the functioning of the cells. Same is the case for brain cells as well. in such a situation, water stops all the functions of the vital organs by this imbalance. If this state continues, the body goes into COMA and eventually leads to death. This situation is called water intoxication.

So, the next time you exercise and need to drink water bear this in mind and drink a more isotonic solution, so that it helps balance the salts in your body meanwhile quenching your thirst.

photo credit: Mllerustad

Anarchic Hand Syndrome or Alien Hand Syndrome or Dr. Strangelove Syndrome is a rare neurological disorder. It is a type of apraxia where the hand’s control. Found generally in people who have had the two hemisperes of the brain separated surgically to relieve symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy.

The disorder is often described as hands “arguing” with each other, or with the person, making it seem as if the person has two different wills competing with each other.

More information on this topic can be obtained here.