Staying Healthy

MDMA - How to X properly

Seems like allot of sick ravers lately so here's some advice on tripping, Xing and staying healthy gleaned from my 15 odd years of experience. No these aren't cast in concrete, yes you don't have to follow them exactly, but at 35 I'm still in good shape, hardly ever get sick and can still party all night. Something to think about. :)

• Frequency and dose - It really takes about a week for you to completely return to baseline after X or L. This means if you are doing it more often than that your body is being stressed, which lowers your immune system. Also, the higher the dose, the harder it is on your body. While X is easier mentally than L, it is much harder on the body. Doing just enough to get off will not only keep you healthy, it saves money too. :)
  
  
• Food - Both X and L surpress your appitite while increasing your level of activity. (X is worse because the surpression lasts longer than the trip.) This means that you are burning up your body's researve energy when you are dancing and not eating. When the body's reserves are gone, you then begin burning muscle tissue, this is bad. Of course, all of this adds to your physical stress levels and lowers your immune system. The bottom line is that you must force yourself to eat correctly before, during and after X or L. This is complicated by the fact that both X and L slow down the movment of your bowels, making it harder to digest food.
  
  

• Before a trip - eat fruits, vegitables and starches, avoid oils and heavy protiens, don't eat anything heavier than fruit an hour before dropping, especially if you are prone to nausia.
• During the trip - drink juice, eat simple starches (bread, crackers) and nibble fruit (eating food is much easier on X than L), set a schedule for eating and stick to it (remember, you won't feel hungry) avoid candy, pop and anything with alcohol or caffiene. (These may seem nice, but they do bad things to your blood sugar and hydration.)
• After the trip - eat fruits, vegitables and starches, avoid oils and heavy protiens, eat several small meals rather than trying to eat a few large ones, remember you won't *feel* hugery but your body needs the food.
• Take a good look at yourself, are you just skin and bone? If you are, up your calories from starches and good fats (esp. olive/canola and fish). Your body needs a slight layer of fat to stay healthy, men and women.

• Vitamins and herbs - Vitamins are NOT a replacment for eating right! However, when you stress your body vitamins can help keep any negative impact to a minimum. X in particular (especially when raving and drinking lots of water) removes water souluable vitamins from the body. Also, certain vitamins are used up a higher rates when you're understress or over exerting.

Here are some of my favorites: