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5 comments about A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked: Including an Autobiography and the Clinical Section of the Broad Range of Use of Phenytoin.

1. I continually was fighting suicidal feelings and had gained 60 lbs in just over a year on prescription anti-depressants when I saw this book, A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked, by Jack Dreyfus, in Barnes and Noble and bought it in March 1998. I had just turned 48 years old.
   
   After reading the book I gave it to my psychiatrist, who read it and agreed to let me give low-dose Dilantin a try. I take low-dose Dilantin to this day, and by the time the first script needed renewal my family doctor agreed to prescribe it as I no longer was seeing a psychiatrist.
   
   Without Dilantin I don't know where I'd be today. Low-dose Dilantin has had only side-benefits for me. For instance, in addition to brightening my outlook with no other medications, it cured me of cold hands and feet, a lifelong problem, and I lost 50 of those 60 extra pounds easily. It also allows me to sleep a normal 7 to 9 hours a night instead of the 14-16 hours I had been sleeping for nearly a decade prior to finding out about low-dose Dilantin.
   
   Jack Dreyfus is one of my heroes. Thanks, Jack.



2. I find it interesting that Jack Dreyfus had his own severe anxiety / depression / insomnia cured almost immediately by use of Dilantin. I find it even more interesting that Mr. Dreyfus is STILL going strong at age 92 (yes, he turned 92 this year).
   
   It seems apparent that this particular reviewer did not fully read the book - or didn't understand it??? (In fact sounds like one of those in the "medical profession" whose very attitude has stonewalled legitimate extensive testing and education regarding this clearly remarkable medication). I say this as the doses recommended for use in this book are far below that used by epileptics and side effects at those levels have been very minimal. In fact, Dilantin is beginning to be thought of (in low dose formulas) as a component of antiaging medicine.
   
   I also find it amazing that there's an admission that "proven nothing short of miraculous for millions"... and yet is then immediately described as a very unsafe medication (???).
   
   Hmmm... who now seems to have a specific agenda here?
   
   Did this particular reviewer even bother to check out the huge number of studies and trials done on PHT (Dilantin)? Or was this more a matter of "don't confuse me with the facts"?
   
   A pharmacist specifically should have known that the fact is that PHT (Dilantin) has considerably fewer side effects and less serious ones than most of the more "modern" medicinces being pushed today. And at the doses recommended for non epileptic uses, those side effects are even much less of a problem. (At a well-looking age 92, it doesn't seem that the PHT / Dilantin has hurt Mr. Dreyfus to any noticeable degree)....
   
   What is even more ironic is that most educated people today know that most people in the medical profession obtain a significant amount of their "education" of pharmaceuticals from drug company sales reps (whose agenda is clearly to push the latest patented versions of whatever the "flavor-of-the-month" happens to be).
   
   Finally, Jack Dreyfus - nor ANY of his organizations - have ANY financial interest in Dilantin (PHT) in any form whatsoever. And his ongoing foundation (the Dreyfus Medical Foundation)? It is strictly a charitable medical organization.



3. This is a remarkable story, a remarkable man, and a remarkable medicine. A Dr. first gave this book to me 14 years ago - it changed my life. Like Jack Dreyfus I lost interest in things I once enjoyed and like Jack Dreyfus I lost perspective and couldn't watch the news which is full of so much horror and sadness. People would tell me I needed to keep well informed, but it created panic attacks and I couldn't get it out of my mind. Drs. experimented with all kinds of medications that made me very ill and some that are habit forming nightmares. ONE INFORMED Dr. gave me this book and with Dilantin helped me get off all the "expensive, helpful medicines" that were making me worse. This book is written from the heart - just as the research was conducted. Thanks Dr. Roberts - Thanks Jack!!!



4. As a pharmacist, I found the book to be very inaccurate. Dilantin has proven nothing short of miraculous for millions of epileptics for the past 65 years, and has proven useful for peripheral neuropathy and (to a very minor extent) bipolar disorder, but it has side effects that are often very unpleasant and is notorious for producing drug interactions.

   I believe that many alternative and off-label therapies have legitimate use, but this is a vanity publication that has about as much merit as supermarket tabloid advertising.

   I am grateful that people have not bombarded their doctors with requests for this "miracle" drug.




5. As a pharmacist, I found the book to be very inaccurate. Dilantin has proven nothing short of miraculous for millions of epileptics for the past 65 years, and has proven useful for peripheral neuropathy and (to a very minor extent) bipolar disorder, but it has side effects that are often very unpleasant and is notorious for producing drug interactions.

   I believe that many alternative and off-label therapies have legitimate use, but this is a vanity publication that has about as much merit as supermarket tabloid advertising.

   I am grateful that people have not bombarded their doctors with requests for this "miracle" drug.

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5 comments about Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.

1. Although covering the same story this was a good companion read to Disney War by James B. Stewart. Disney War covered the Disney board revolt, animation under Katzenberg and ABC in much more detail than this book. However, The Keys to the Kingdom added much more detail on Eisners years at ABC and Paramount in much more detail which provided greater evidence of Eisner's success when completely focused on the creative aspects of television/movies. This success was contrasted with his failures when he had to take on leadership and operational roles while dangerously dabbling/micromanaging in the creative aspects during his last 10 years at Disney. This book also provides a good look at the downfall of Eisner just like Disney War due to his isolation and fear of strong leadership reporting to him. Anyone interested in Disney, Eisner, and the television/movie industry should read both!



2. A very well written account of the movie business--detailing a lot of the major players. Discussion how decisions are made and how grown men act like little boys most of the time. This industry is ruthless and this book gives the reader on all the inside scoop about how that happens. A fascinating read. The pictures stink but thats ok.



3. Keys to the Kingdom predicted the current situation at Disney with remarkable accuracy. The insights about Michael Eisner turned out to be right on the mark.



4. Oh Lord, this book is so unbelievably frustrating....more than any book I've ever read. Eisner, his life and his actions are so completely fascinating and Masters somehow manages to take all this great material and make it mind-numbingly boring...what was she thinking? That you could write a "nuanced" portrait of someone by throwing in hot gossip, sound bites, bits of articles from Time and Newsweek, as well as a bunch of stories that don't remotely relate to the main subject but are "dishy"? There was so much I wanted to know as I read this book, so many questions I had and she didn't answer any of them. Masters discusses Eisner's charm vs. his ruthlessness, she brings up provacative examples of his relationship to his family, his friends and his colleagues, and then steamrolls all of them by emphasizing how "aloof" he is and "imperial." Doesn't she know that when sketching a complicated portrait of someone, you can't just throw a bunch of facts around but you have to maintain interest by putting them TOGETHER to form a PERSPECTIVE, a CONTEXT. Much more time should have been spent on Eisner's days at Disney (rather than the completely gratuitous tales of his time at Paramount, and Star Trek, and Nimoy, and Gene Roddenberry, and Don Simpson, and Barry Diller, and...well you get the picture). I liked the parts about his childhood and his relationship to his parents, they should have been given much more space...but the biggest flaw of this book is the lack of info on the Eisner-Katzenberg relationship. Sure, Masters give plenty of space to financial issues about Katzenberg's bonus, but aside from Wall Street enthusiasts, who the hell cares? She COMPLETELY glosses over the roots of the Eisner-Katzenberg bond, and we never get an idea of WHY IN THE WORLD DID THESE TWO PEOPLE REMAIN TOGETHER FOR 19 YEARS IF THEY WERE SUCH ENEMIES? What held them together? How exactly did they meet? She talks about how Katzenberg was won over, like others, by Eisner's self-deprecating charm and his (Eisner's) confidence in him, about Katzenberg's not-so-great childhood and his problems with his own parents (very vague descriptions there as well) and how Katzenberg constantly "sought Eisner's approval". Why? What did Eisner offer him that no one else did? Why did Katzenberg follow Eisner from Paramount to Disney? She spends a whole lot of time talking (in a dry, Variety-kind-of-way) about the break-up, but the real question she (and other writers) have often missed is NOT why this relationship crashed and burned but why it was born in the first place. Why did Eisner need Katzenberg? Why did Katzenberg become so enamoured with animation, with his role at Disney, with a potential role as Eisner's number 2? These people are not carbon cut-outs, they are people. They are fascinating, complex characters and Masters gives them with about as much focus as subjects of an obituary. She seems more interested in how much money Captain EO lost, how much money Eisner allegedly cheated certain people out of, how much money Eisner paid Michael Ovitz, how much money Katzenberg wanted, how pissed Leonard Nimoy was at Paramount, what a disaster Star Trek: The Motion Picture was to produce. I don't know about you, but I didn't pick that book up to learn about this stuff. It's SO DIFFICULT to really learn about these people (Eisner and Katzenberg) despite their famous "relationship" or "feud" extremely little is really written about their interactions together as people...you have to research a ton of articles to even find out anything...this is such an interesting subject but whatever Master's knows that the rest of us don't, she isn't sharing. Her book (like many articles) unfortunately is pervaded with the "Everyone knows this" kind of tone that drives me nuts...well, I'm not a Hollywood producer, or director, or actor. I've never met either of these people, but that's why I'm interested! People buy books on Spielberg because they're interested, why the hypocricy? Masters book is slanted, glib, gossipy, disorganized, unfocused,and worst of all, insulting to the reader.



5. Some may say that Masters' book is biased against Eisner, but she does nothing except reiterate the feelings about him that have been voiced by many others in other forums. Maybe you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the duplicity, wishy-washiness, undercutting, second-guessing, micro-management and all around malevolence that is evidenced shows that's pretty much impossible. What we can't figure out is just why he is the way he is? Why does he casually cast aside decades-long friendships? Why doesn't he cultivate relationships with valuable talent instead of alienating them? What is most important to him that would cause him to make some the decisions he does? Eisner seems to be capable of cutting off his nose to spite his face--he fails to do things that would be beneficial to the company's bottom line which is what he claims to be most interested in. It doesn't add up. Still, it is fun reading about the Paramount years, the Katzenberg trial, etc. At this point in time (summer of 2002) when many believe Eisner is in danger of losing his job, this book gives us as much insight as possible as to the inner workings of Eisner's brain.
   instead of burning

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