A junior asked me about acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, saying he wanted to boost his brain.
Hearing that question, only one thought crossed my mind.
“This bastard is considering whether or not to pour sarin gas into his own brain right now.”
Wake the hell up.
This isn’t on the level of messing around with simple supplements.
This is about dangerously potent poisons that straddle the line between warfare agents and medicine.
Every movement of your body, every single thought, is governed by a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
This guy is the basic force responsible for contracting your muscles and storing memories.
But once this force completes its mission, it must be immediately dismantled to keep the battlefield clean.
The one that handles this cleanup work is an enzyme called “acetylcholinesterase,” a kind of janitor.
This janitor breaks down acetylcholine into acetate and choline, returning the system to normal.
But there are assholes that grab this janitor by the ankles.
Those are the “acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.”
The problem is, there are two types of these inhibitors.
One is the reversible kind, the other is the irreversible kind.
Reversible inhibitors are controllable tools that temporarily grab the janitor’s arm and then let go.
Since Alzheimer’s patients have a shortage of acetylcholine in their brains, this drug is used to briefly slow down the janitor’s activity, increasing acetylcholine levels to support cognitive function.
This falls within the realm of prescription medicine.
The real problem is with irreversible inhibitors.
These sons of bitches don’t just grab the janitor’s arm; they permanently alter its molecular structure, effectively destroying the enzyme itself.
This is an assassin.
Once it acts, it cannot be undone.
What do you think happens then?
The acetylcholine forces pile up like crazy on the battlefield.
It becomes a state of total chaos.
That’s called a cholinergic crisis, but forget that polite term.
It means all your muscles contract spasmodically against your will, eventually leading to paralysis, and when your respiratory muscles stop, you suffocate and die.
Why the hell was this insane poison created?
For exactly two reasons.
First, to kill bugs.
This is the very reason people look for organic vegetables.
Pesticides like malathion and diazinon belong to this irreversible inhibitor family.
Second, to kill people.
VX gas, sarin gas.
These are the worst murder weapons ever developed for humans.
Sarin Gas
During World War II, the Nazi bastards stockpiled this stuff in insane quantities.
You know why they didn’t use it?
Because Hitler, that bizarre fucker, refused to authorize its use.
Even though his military command begged him relentlessly to use it, he blocked it until the end.
Historians believe the reason was Hitler’s own experience in WWI, where he was hit by chemical weapons used by the British and temporarily blinded.
Having personally tasted that hell, he understood the terror more accurately than his theorizing staff officers.
The one with real experience is always right.
But there are real morons who actually used this weapon from hell.
A Japanese cult called Aum Shinrikyo.
In 1995, a nutjob leader named Shoko Asahara released sarin gas on civilians in the Tokyo subway.
Thousands were injured, and over ten people died.
This is the catastrophe that happens when powerful chemicals fall into the hands of the ignorant.
Reversible inhibitors can be medicines used to prevent cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients, or to reduce tics in Tourette’s syndrome.
I’ve heard some people get excited about using them to induce lucid dreams.
But the moment you recklessly try to use them to enhance brain function without understanding the system, it’s only a matter of time before they turn into poison.
Irreversible inhibitors?
This is not medicine.
It’s pesticide and a weapon of war.
It’s something terrorists use.
The very idea of using this for cognitive enhancement is proof that your brain has melted.
The conclusion is simple.
Poison and medicine are separated by a razor-thin line.
What defines the difference is not the substance itself, but the knowledge and control of the one using it.
Engrave this into your very bones: what you’re dealing with might not be a simple nutrient, but a chemical weapon that can paralyze your nervous system in an instant.
Power in the hands of an ignorant fool always becomes a gun pointed at themselves.
Reference Papers
1. The Complete Guide to Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors
This single paper perfectly summarizes how acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are divided into reversible (medicine) and irreversible (poison), and how each either destroys or saves the nervous system.
It’s the starting point for all discussion and the most fundamental basics.
Colovic, M. B., et al. (2013). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors: pharmacology and toxicology. Current neuropharmacology, 11(3), 315-335.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3648782/
2. Evolution from Lethal Poison to Therapeutic Agent
This paper thoroughly reviews the history of development, showing how a medicine like an Alzheimer’s treatment was born from a highly toxic nerve agent like sarin gas.
It’s a resource that clearly shows how poison and medicine came from the same root and where the boundary lies.
Singh, M., et al. (2013). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as Alzheimer therapy: from nerve toxins to neuroprotection. European journal of medicinal chemistry, 70, 165-188.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24184281/
3. Sarin Gas: A Real-World Clinical Report
This paper is a deep dive into the nerve gas sarin alone.
It analyzes how the Nazis developed it, and the horrific clinical outcomes from the 1995 Tokyo subway terror attack, detailing the specific symptoms people exhibited as they died.
This is the reality of irreversible inhibitors.
Yanagisawa, N. (2014). The nerve agent sarin: history, clinical manifestations, and treatment. Brain and nerve= Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo, 66(5), 561-569.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24828114/
