I'm curious if nutmeg improves your cognitive impairment while in POIS, goingcrazy.
The main effect it has for me is a reduction of physical pain and also brings about a barely noticeable reduction in anxiety. In addition it makes me sleepy and somewhat unmotivated. Keep in mind that the hallucinogenic and other recreational effects of nutmeg usually only occur at doses upwards of about 25 grams(about 2 tablespoons of powder or 2 to 5 whole nutmeg nuts).
The concern of nutmeg being fatal might be overstated(although it is better to err on the safe side)
"In literature, cases of nutmeg abuse have been described repeatedly, but
only one fatal case of poisoning was reported [1]. In the present case, myristicin (4 microg/ml) was detected for the first time in the postmortal serum of a 55-year-old woman. Identification was achieved with the aid of UV-VIS spectroscopy and TLC; for quantification, HPLC was used.
Because also flunitrazepam (0.072 microg/ml) was found, death had probably been due to the combined toxic effect of both substances. From 1996 to 1998, in a series of cases, seven poisonings with nutmeg were recorded by the Erfurt Poison Information Centre. Even where higher doses (20-80 g of powder) had been ingested, a life-threatening situation was never observed. In one of these cases, a myristicin blood level of 2 microg/ml was measured 8h after ingestion of two to three tablespoonful of nutmeg powder (approx. 14-21 g, or 280-420 mg/kg)."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11343860Flunitrazepam is a very serious benzodiazapine drug similar to xanax and has gained a reputatation as a "date rape" drug. It's easy to wind up in a coma from an overdose of it.
There does seem to be another reported case of a nutmeg fatality, but I couldn't find a reliable source to verify it. It doesn't seem all that detailed so I'm skeptical about whether nutmeg was the only actual cause of death:
"The only fatality ever attributed to the spice occurred when an eight-yearold boy ate two whole nutmegs, became comatose, and died less than 24 hours later."
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1966-01-01_4_page003.html#s005One of our members did seem to have a bad reaction after eating only one whole nutmeg nut, but he didn't mention if he had a pre-existing condition or whether he was taking any medications: "after 4 hrs I started to feel very weird, totally high, my eyes were very red, I felt like my head is exploding from the pressure and it became worse, I had strong heartbeats, BP and the worst was an ongoing weird feeling of Anxiety.
On that day my wife and I went for a dinner at my parents house; having a conversation with my uncle I realize that he talks and I am totally out, I do not have a clue what he was talking about and I do not remember even the sentence before, I was totally blackout. I told him that I am can't follow him and I feel bad, then we went to hospital, all checks were good and it took me 2 days to totally recover."
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6576.msg345996#msg345996A while back I ate 3 whole nutmegs which I guessed was around 20 to 25 grams and it just made me really nauseous for the afternoon into the night. However I have no problems with blood pressure or heart disease. Seems like blood pressure or heart issues would be the main reason to avoid nutmeg. I'd imagine that 1/2 a teaspoon would be safe for the vast majority of people assuming no serious pre-existing health conditions or drug interactions.
I'm not saying that we're exercising too much caution about nutmeg. I just wanted to give an accurate picture of the available data.