GRATUITOUS RAVEMONKEY POST
Bad news for ravers. From New Scientist - Ecstasy and loud music are a bad mix:
Partygoers who take the recreational drug ecstasy may face a greater risk of long-term brain damage if they bombard themselves with loud music all night long.Someone needs to take a look at the brain belonging to Mr C (of The Shamen fame).
The warning follows experiments in rats that were simultaneously exposed to loud noise and MDMA, aka ecstasy. The noise both intensified and prolonged the effects of the drug on the animals' brains.
Michelangelo Iannone of Italy's Institute of Neurological Science in Catanzaro and his colleagues gave rats varying doses of MDMA while bombarding them with white noise for 3 hours at the maximum volume permitted in Italian nightclubs.
Those given the highest dose of ecstasy, equivalent to the average amount taken by a partygoer on a night out, experienced a slump in electrical power of the cerebral cortex for up to five days after the noise was switched off. Previous studies suggest that such loss of power is related to brain hyperactivity and can ultimately lead to depression.
In an interview I read with him about 5 years ago, I'm sure I recall him claiming to have taken ecstasy several times a week since the early days of rave and never had a come-down. He's also managed to run one of London's best clubs for a decade and two record labels. His grey matter must be made of sterner stuff than these rats'.
posted by Dan @ 5:05 pm
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