The Root from Issyk-Kul Revisited

[tagoregrtst]

https://undark.org/2016/03/31/did-solzhenitsyn-cure-his-own-testicular-cancer/

[munduz]

Was skeptical about Issyk-Kul Root, until understood it's same as chemotherapy.

Here in Kyrgyzstan, some people consume the Root regularly, with long delays in between (multiple years). Guess, this kills starting cancer.

[tagoregrtst → munduz]

You’re in Kyrgyzstan? Thats awesome! I want to visit the central stans and Mongolia so much.

[awinter-py]

this cancer drug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoposide is derived from a toxin in mandrake root

seems to have been in a clinical trial in the 80s https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6277188/

[riskycodes]

Excellent article - narratively compelling but also very interesting!

[ggm]

"cancer ward" is well worth reading. A tale of hope tempered by realism in the political springtime of the post Stalin period.

[tagoregrtst → ggm]

Have you read “In the first circle”? Great read, and they made a mini series out of it that I believe Solzhenitsyn himself narrates.

[ggm → tagoregrtst]

Yes, And I enjoyed it a bit .. less? I can't really say why. The writing is lyrical, wonderful. "Gulag Archipelago" is hard going. Ivan Denisovitch is set as a kids reading book in the UK (or was)

"Cancer Ward" is my favourite. Perhaps it's because it has inside it a simple-but-its-complicated, love story? I know thats a bit asinine, but I like romance.

[tagoregrtst → ggm]

I enjoyed CW more than FC. I think FC was more depressing. I like Ivan Denisovich most though - theres a message of hope in it that that the others lack.

I agree about the romanticism of CW. Why dismiss love as asinine?