HW: Cold Turkey

[Nick Medford]

In message <3.0.6.32.20001102130624.0099b6f0 at pop.sirius.com>, Doug
Pearson <ceres at SIRIUS.COM> writes
>On Thu, 2 Nov 2000 15:23:15 -0500, Rik Rx <hw at CY-B.ORG> wrote:
>>in ref to all the recent drugz talk can i be the first to point out that
>>most of the audience will be on cold turkey at the next gig??
>>
>>......................(leaves quietly)
>
>Actually, this is serious (well, not THAT serious)!  Turkey is an excellent
>source of Tryptophan (as are, I believe, bananas), an amino acid that has
>several neurological effects including stimulation of seretonin (a
>neurotransmitter) production in the brain.  And one of the neurological
>effects of LSD is to *reduce* seretonin levels in the brain (part of the
>reason why it's difficult to sleep under the influence of that substance -
>and why, for the opposite reason, you get sleepy after eating one of those
>big turkey dinners!).
>
>So be careful not to blow your trip forever if you're attending holiday
>dinners ... (people on-list who actually know something about neuroscience
>please feel free to clarify/correct anything I've written) ...

Well there are lots of physiological reasons why one feels sleepy after a big
meal, but otherwise what you say is correct. Although if I'm really pedantic I
suppose I should point out that the correct spelling is serotonin (otherwise
known as 5-hydroxytryptamine).

As an aside, I once read an article by someone who claimed to have
identified the tree under which Buddha had his enlightenment, and to have
analysed the fruit, and that it had an unusually high serotonin content.
However I cannot vouch for the truth of this!

Struggling to work Hawkwind content into this post but I guess
psychopharmacology and cosmic illumination have their place on this list...
--
Nick Medford