51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Try it before you speak, November 20, 2004
This review is from: A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked (Paperback)
I've read a few reviews of this book, many laudatory, and a few nasty attacks from medical professionals (see:"davidb321us" and "kohoutekdriver8").
Most of the reviews, save one, fail a crucial test: did the reviewer have a positive experience with dilantin from which they could base their assessment of the usefulness of Dreyfuss' work?
I pass that test. I can feel my chronic, endogenous depression lifting within 15 minutes of taking 100mg of dilantin. Others can see me sitting blankly staring off into space, and then cheerfully talking and moving about the business of my life. This is the first drug that has had this effect on me. I love it, from first-hand knowledge.
In an advertising culture, personal testimonials are always suspect. And in medicine, the true causes for life-changing healings are frequently dismissed as "anecdotal evidence" by the heavy-handed dogmatism of doctors when those reporting the changes are few in number or doing things that aren't within the "medical church of acceptibility".
My answer to such skepticism if to offer the best scientific explanation (that I have been able to piece together from my own readings) to explain how dilantin "cures" endogenous depression. SPECT brain scans show that a lot of depression can be visualized as inflammation and increased blood flow in the deep limbic system of the brain. This means that neurons are being overstimulated there. Dilantin is an electrical membrane stabilizer. It stops excessive firing of neurons, via sodium and calcium channel blocking, which is why it is effective in epilepsy. Adding these two facts together makes it is easy to see how dilantin can cure depression by "calming down" the deep limbic system. While I haven't seen before and after SPECT brain scans to prove this, it is a very good rational explanation supported by many known facts.
Point being, there is a lot of evidence to support Dreyfuss' contention that dilantin is useful for deep depression: a plausible neurobiological explanation exists, twenty first-hand case reports of cures -- Dreyfuss' positive experience with himself, six other friends, 11 prison inmates, and my positive response to dilantin along with one other Amazon reviewer's.
Given this, a careful reader can conclude that Dreyfuss' book is a charitable piece of brilliance.
He lucked out bigtime.
It seems to me that medical professionals who take pot shots at Dreyfuss aren't reviewing the data (see: "davidb321us"). And if you want to denigrate the man, call him obsessive, not egotistical.
Why would an egoist spend hundreds of thousands of his own dollars to bring potentially life-saving (and CHEAP) therapeutic information to millions of health professionals and suffering humans?
Medicine is all about money and ego in America. I suspect that the medical reviewers who poo-pooed Dreyfuss' account prefer to prescribe more expensive drugs whose patents haven't expired for the multitudinous ailments dilantin has been shown effective for.
They are also likely threatened by someone "not in the club" offering useful additions to the human fund of medical knowledge.
Beware the fountain of knowledge that you drink from.
This is one fountain that springs pure, though.
Use your independent judgement, drink deep and see for yourself.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Book by a Passionate Believer!, August 25, 2005
This review is from: A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked (Paperback)
Jack Dreyfus is clearly a true believer in Dilantin. Americans have unfortunately been following the advice of the AMA and taking pharmaceutical company's money making drugs. No country is more overmedicated while at the same time improperly medicated. Jack's book addresses these issues.
Interesting and passionate, he gives endless examples of Dilantin improving the quality of people's lives. It is a great example of experiencing the benefits of something, researching it further, and then trying to tell the world of its benefits.
Interesting and worth reading!
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