Rather -pressed for time, insomnia mouldering my nervous system also, but a review of The Rabbit Skinners I received this morning made me want to comment on a matter that has been troubling me for some time.
“This was well written with great description especially the protagonists illness. My sister is suffering something similar and I kept hoping to know what the Japanese M.D.was providing him with in the Chinese medication or herbs but alas it is fictional. I adored Dr wannabe and many well defined characters. The bigotry and hate have me terrible feelings knowing how true these feelings are all over the world. This is well worth a few hours to read. Many emotions were stirred. Thank you for writing this novel!”
It’s a very nice review, of course, but it mentioned something that has also been brought up in other reviews; that is, that the medicine Dr. Watanabe prescribes (or just gives) James Strait to treat his Meniere’s disease is “fictional.” Actually, the medicine is real. I took it myself for a while, which is the reason I wrote about it. It is a Chinese medicine (by which, I mean, medicine from the Chinese tradition, called 漢方- kanpou- in Japan ) called seireitou (say-ray-tow). I have a picture of it somewhere that I’ll post later when I can find it, but suffice to say, it is real. It was prescibed by a Japanese ENT (in Japan, where I live). It has a bundle of ingredients (I looked it up online a long time ago), and its main effects are diuretic and tranquilizing. It was very effective and prevented Meniere’s attacks as well as anything I had taken at that time. Unfortunately, the side effects were pretty harsh, thanks to the diuretic effect. I was left very dried out and fatigued (and probably my potassium levels were quite low because of the diuretic effect). I eventually found that Dramamine worked as well if not better. Lately, I’ve tapered my medicine to nothing more than a fourth of a Dramamine during moments of urgency, which only come every month or so, and the rest I maintain with diet, exercise, and meditation. But the medicine in the book is real, and its effects are described exactly as depicted. I don’t know if the medicine can be obtained in the U.S. If it’s available, it would be through a Chinese medicine doctor.
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All author profits during Black History Month (February) from The Rabbit Skinners will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center to help this fine organization continue to fight against white supremacists and other extremists in America.
Past the Isle of Dogs 
Like with most herbal medicine, it’s a kind of difficult to get the dosages of the active molecules right or to avoid ingredients that can cause nasty side effects. Hence modern pharmacology has developed techniques to circumvent these backlashes.
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