Yes, 50 grams of pure licorice free to 500 people with CFS! But first read what I have to say. Some of you seem to think that licorice is a big joke and will not help people with CFS/FM, while others are trying to scare people by saying that taking a few grams of licorice in milk every morning will kill them. And, many are critical of my motives and behavior. I read most of the comments and a few of the jokes floating around. These messages all seem to be aimed at making ridicule of licorice and myself. Those of you who are making a joke of licorice and who are trying to scare sick people are unaware of how much damage you are doing. The licorice treatment discovered by Dr. Baschetti is the greatest thing to ever happen to people with CFS/FM. I know! I have suffered with this disease since 1977. Most of those years I spent going from one doctor to another and being told that it was all in my head. Now after twenty years of mental and physical hell, by listening to an Italian doctor that no one else wanted to listen to, I find out that my severe fatigue is due to a cortisol insufficiency and can be corrected with a 3500 year old herb. "That's all there is to it?" I asked myself. All those funking years of suffering and loosing love relationships and not being able to hold down a regular job and having all sorts of difficulty and nobody believing I was sick and the pain and loneliness and all simply because I have a slight cortisol insufficiency and none of the stupid doctors I went to begging for help knew enough to check my adrenal hormones? Damn! Damn! Damn! Twenty years of my life wasted!!!!!! When I realized I was getting better and that the licorice treatment was really working my first thoughts were about how I could tell others and help end their suffering. That's when I started researching licorice and talking to my doctors about it. It wasn't my idea to sell licorice. Professor Marilyn Cox suggested that I import enough so that plenty of people can try it. She even suggested that I call it "Capt. Dave's Cure All," or something similar. I thought why not! Maybe I import 100 kilos, especially since I could not find any pure, SOLID EXTRACT of licorice in this country that was controlled for the active ingredient, Glycyrrhizin. Dr. Baschetti and I spent a lot of time looking for the right product. We also discussed a business arrangement. I offered to share with him in the "licorice profits" if he would serve as a medical advisor and answer people's questions. He said it was a bit unethical for him to profit from licorice and that he was too busy with other research not dealing with CFS to be of much service and suggested I get another doctor which I did. But at the last minute, the "Other Doctor" back out saying that there was not enough incentive for him to become involved. Other doctors said they were to busy. That's when I emailed Dr. Nye and asked for his help. But he said he would wait until there was evidence of clinical trails. Now I'm not trying to put Dr Nye down by saying this, that's the way good doctor's act. But waiting on clinical trails could take 2-3 years and would mean that many of you who could benefit from licorice would have to suffer that much longer. And what happens if no one did any clinical trails? The fact that the adrenal glands might play a key role in recovering from fatigue is not something recently discovered. Scientists at the National Institute of Health have been aware of the adrenal insufficiency in CFS since prior to 1993 and no one has yet called for clinical trails. The following appeared in "Neurohormones in Depression and Anxiety" by M Altemas with the Laboratory of Clinical Science and P. Gold with the Clinical Neuroendocrinology Branch, both divisions of the National Institute of Mental Health: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "We have advanced several lines of evidence suggesting a subtle central Adrenal insufficiency in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome. First, patients with this disorder show significant reduction in 24-hr urinary free cortisol (UFC) excretion, as well as an evening basal total and free cortisol concentrations. In associated with these finding patients with chronic fatigue syndrome show an exaggerated plasma cortisol response to low doses of ACTH, but a blunted response to high doses of ACTH." The paragraph goes on to talk about all the evidence for an adrenal insufficiency in PWCs. My point here is that the above research statement from scientists with the National Institute of Health was published in 1993, yet we who have this DD have not heard any results from any clinical trails about adrenal gland involvement in chronic fatigue. Yes, my experience with the medical profession as related to this damn disease has been all negative. If I only had back what I have payed out to doctors for nothing I could probably retire. Most of you could say the same, I imagine. Dr. Baschetti's inexpensive treatment of CFS with Licorice was first published in a medical journal in April 1995, but did any of your doctors write Dr. Baschetti a letter and find out if his licorice treatment really worked? His writings about licorice and CFS was published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Society, still I bet none of your doctors wrote to get more information, did they? Supposedly, Nurse Camilla knows all about licorice, but did she tell PWCs about the benefits? No! So, now I'm trying to bring you something that will help you more than anything else so far and many of you think I nuts or trying to rip you off. Sure, there has been a lot of negative comments and I got drunk said "fuck" a couple times, but still what really matters to me is that the topic "licorice" is out in front of you and now you are getting the message. I probably get drunk many more times in my life and say "fuck". That's the way it is with me. Although I am not one to apologize for my actions, I will tell everyone how sorry I am that negativity got into the picture. Even though I don't give a rat's ass about anyone's opinion of me, I'll still try to explain: When I had my third TTT a few days ago, they injected me with lots of Isuprel. This drug makes you wacky as hell and effects your emotional stability, especailly if you are a bit wacky normally. It don't take much to push me over the edge. I knew about these side-effects from my last two test, but this time I forgot about what the drug could do. Anyway, on the way home from the hospital, still under some influence of the isuprel, I got aggravated with myself for getting involved in this damn licorice thing and went to the local pub and got plastered to let off some steam and told myself that I was finished with trying to help PWCs. When I got back to my office and read the scare messages, I fired off a few dumb answers hoping to piss everybody off and not really giving two shits about what anybody thought. That was anger and booze and isuprel and many years of suffering but not really I how felt inside. But there's no point in going into my emotions. Let me tell you about the TTT. As many of you know I have been off all medications, but licorice, for some time now. I felt fine until 1 stupid minute before the test was over when my blood pressure dropped to 80/40 and I almost passed out. Damn, was I disappointed. I though for sure that I would ace that test on licorice alone. At least I "felt" like I could pass it. I sure didn't think I would not. But (and this is a big but) I forgot to take my lactase. I am lactose intolerant and cannot digest milk sugar without this enzyme. I had spent the night at a friends and had my licorice/milk breakfast with her, but did not have my lactase with me. I swung by my office on the way to the hospital intending to take my lactase enzyme and check for messages, but the phone started ringing the minute I walked in the door and I received one call after another and ended up behind schedule and rushed out and completely forgot to take the lactase. Baschetti makes a big point that licorice must be taken with lots of calories so, since my gut cannot digest the milk sugar without the enzyme, the 3rd test would seem to be invalidated also. Darn it. I faxed Professor Cox a message telling her about forgetting the lactase but I have not heard back from her yet. I know what Dr. Baschetti would say. He would say that his licorice/milk protocol was violated and the test should be redone. In my first TTT in December 95, without licorice, my blood pressure dropped to 66/32 six minutes into the final phase and the test was stopped so even though I didn't make it all the way through the 3rd test, there was still a giant improvement on licorice alone. In the 2nd test, conducted while I was taking licorice and 3 other medications, my blood pressure was 110/67 at the end of the final phase and I felt fine. Here's the BP data on the final stages of the TTTs. The "final stage" is when they inject you with 5 mcg/min of Isuprel to push you heart as hard as possible. Notice the big improvement between #1 and #3. Test #1 #2 #3 Minute 1 BP 115/58 BP 164/61 BP 137/45 Minute 2 BP 111/49 BP 137/57 BP 131/54 Minute 3 BP 91/44 BP 143/53 BP 127/51 Minute 4 BP 92/42 BP 131/62 BP 146/56 Minute 5 BP 98/45 BP 154/57 BP 133/58 Minute 6 BP 66/32 BP 160/60 BP 115/58 Minute 7 Test ended BP 153/70 BP 120/53 Minute 8 - BP 155/53 BP 117/44 Minute 9 - BP 136/54 BP 80/40 Minute 10 - BP 110/67 Test ended So, now what? This could mean that licorice works for NMH in combination with one of the 3 other drugs which I was taking during test #2. Or, it may mean that the milk sugar is a vital ingredient in Baschetti's treatment. We will have to wait and see. Either way, Licorice, even if it has to be taken with another drug to be 100% effective, will treat NMH in a patient who is also a long term sufferer (since 1977). And, all the hoopla about licorice being dangerous is crap. Sure if you take 30-40 grams per day for 6 months you might suffer some ill effects, but we're talking about 2-4 grams per day of extract which equals about 300mg of Glycyrrhizin per day. If you have CFS and low blood pressure, licorice will correct your adrenal gland output and bring you into a salt/potassium balance so supplementing with potassium is not necessary but why not take potassium along with the licorice so that no one needs to worry about you falling over dead. Of course, as long as only a few are trying licorice then it's going to take a long time for others to get the word and start getting well so I have decided to give the jokers and my other critics something to really talk about. I am going to give 50 grams of pure licorice to the first 500 people (US only) who send me $5.00 to cover postage and handling. Let the clinical trails begin now. Let those who want to try licorice report their results and everybody else shut up until then. Nothing could be more fair. If those who send for the free licorice report good results, then some of you will owe me an apology. If they report negative results, then those of you who have been warning everybody and trying to scare people away from licorice and making jokes can all gloat and brag about how right you were. Maybe you can fire off a letter to the FDA and get licorice controlled and suggest they arrest me for mail fraud and trying to kill people with CFS. But until more PWCs have a chance to give licorice a try, then I see no reason for any more negative crap about licorice and suggest that those who have nothing constructive to say simple keep quite and wait till the results are in. To receive 50 grams of pure licorice ready to mix in whole milk, including directions on how to use it, mail $5.00 along with a note saying that you have CFS and low blood pressure and are not pregnant and want to try licorice to: Captain David Williams Moby Dick Society, Inc. PO Box 10771 Pompano Beach, FL 33061-6771 Office 954-946-5551 Fax 954-946-1807 davidwms@ix.netcom.com PS: NO ONE WHO IS PREGNANT OR WHO HAS HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SHOULD TRY LICORICE WITHOUT A DOCTORS SUPERVISION!!!!!!!!!!!