X-Message-Number: 762
Date: 23 Apr 92 06:04:58 EDT
From: "Steven B. Harris" <>
Subject: Alcor Nevada Minutes Errors
Greetings to Alcor Nevada,
Nevada's a great name for a cryonics state, eh? Maybe the
storage facility is destined to be there after all. And I'm glad
you folks are going great guns on the training. I do have some
negative comments on your minutes, however.
Regarding the story of French Doctors pretreating people
with Hydergine against the possibility of brain ischemia, Jack Z.
Yetiv, M.D., Ph.D. wrote a book several years ago called _Popular
Nutrition Practices_, in which he devotes a chapter to _Pearson
and Shaw's Life Extension_. One of the things he attempted to do
there was substantiate some of Pearson and Shaw's claims about
Hydergine, but he was unable to. According to Sandoz, the
makers and marketers of Hydergine, Hydergine has NEVER been used
in human resuscitation, and is NOT used as a pre-op. Actually,
Hydergine is hardly the magic drug that Pearson and Shaw claim,
and Sandoz is not that excited about it. For instance, Pearson
and Shaw claim that Sandoz spends 40% of its research budget on
Hydergine, and that it is the fifth most popular drug in the
world, and number one in France. Sandoz, however, says the
research figure is more like 3% (and that mainly to look at
different delivery systems) and that the other figures about
popularity are ridiculous (which with a little thought one might
have realized). And so on.
From my own experience, let me reinforce this: do not trust
Pearson and Shaw about food supplement advice. These are well-
meaning people with an appealing philosophical stance, but they
are neither physicians nor scientists (definition: a scientist is
one who does scientific studies and publishes them in peer-
reviewed scientific journals). Instead, Pearson and Shaw are the
kind of people who lack detailed knowledge in an area where it is
critical. I've seen them confuse inosine with inositol in the
explanation of how Valium works (another story). Nor are they
able to interpret experimental results: they will tell their
readers that Hydergine slows lipofuscin accumulation in "mam-
malian neurons," but fail to add that this result is for rodent
neuroblastoma in vitro [Say what? -- you take those pills because
they worked on cancerous rat neurons in a dish?] Actually, in
vivo experiments in intact animals have failed to show an
anti-lipofuscin accumulation effect for Hydergine. In any case,
with Pearson and Shaw I'm reminded of Twain's aphorism about
health books: watch that you don't die of a misprint. Or as the
famous gerontologist Ed Schneider says about the pair: "They're
fun. I just wish they weren't in aging."
---
In the matter of the Pilgeram case, I am a bit shocked that
Eric would post something to the net indirectly critical of
Alcor, without doing his homework. It's fine to criticize Alcor,
but get the facts right first! I'll relay directly what Mike
Darwin has to say on this:
"I am rarely moved to comment on issue political these days.
However, some errors of fact are so egregious and so without
basis on reality that they cannot be left uncorrected. I am
referring here to comments by Eric Klien to the effect that Mrs.
Laurence Pilgeram, the Alcor patient whose continued suspension
is in jeopardy, was frozen against her wishes, and that "no one
testified differently." This is untrue. Mrs. Pilgeram ex-
pressed her desire for cryonic suspension personally to both
Carlos Mondragon (Alcor CEO) and me. I have testified to this
effect under oath on several occasions. While it is fair to say
that Mrs. Pilgeram was not a wild enthusiast about cryonics, she
seemed at ease with her decision in favor of cryonic suspension.
I would caution Mr. Klien and others to be very careful of their
facts where human lives hang in the balance. A simple phone call
to Alcor or to me would have resolved the factual matter in this
issue." -- Mike Darwin
I have to agree with Mike on this one. Talk to a few people
closer to the facts before making factual assertions, folks! If
you've heard second-hand rumors, post them as such and ask for
the truth. See also Cryonics Magazine Oct., 1990, p 22. for more
on this particular conflict (I trust I'm not giving away
anything here, since Eric has already posted quite enough detail
for anyone with a triple digit IQ to figure out which case out of
Alcor's relatively few is being described there).
-- Steve Harris
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