Side effects? Not being dead?
Actually -
Dichloroacetate safety (see http://www.stanford.edu/group/hopes/treatmts/ebuffer/j4.html)
There is some concern about the toxicity of dichloroacetate. Accumulations of dichloroacetate in groundwater have been described by some reports as a potential health hazard. However, concern about dichloroacetate toxicity is mainly based on data obtained in rats who were administered dichloroacetate at doses thousands of times higher than those to which humans are usually exposed. In these animals, chronic administration of dichloroacetate was found to cause liver problems and tumors. (Stacpoole, 1998.) In contrast, the dosage given to most humans is much lower than that administered to the rats. In clinical trials where dichloroacetate is used as a medical drug, no major side effects have been reported. Dichloroacetate is currently the most effective treatment for a disease known as congenital lactic acidosis (CLA). People with CLA have defective PDC enzymes and are thus unable to efficiently produce energy. In one study, patients with CLA were treated with 25-50 mg of dichloroacetate per 1 kg of body weight. No major complications were observed in the participants. (Stacpoole, 1997.) However, more research is currently being done to study the possible toxicity of dichlororacetate.
It's a carcinogen, lol.
I thought not being dead was the objective, not a side effect.
Interesting ... one of the tests was to "cure" mice by giving them DCA via their drinking water. Potentially, areas with contaminated groundwater might actually be the anthesis of cancer clusters like the one in Woburn, Mass. featured in that John Travolta movie or, of course, Erin Brockovitch. I wonder if anyone is doing the research to find the cancer voids as well as the clusters.
"For decades, researchers largely assumed that a poison's effects increase as the dose rises and diminish as it falls. However, scientists are increasingly documenting unexpected effects—sometimes disproportionately adverse, sometimes beneficial—at extremely low doses of radiation and toxic chemicals."
Read it at Counterintuitive Toxicity .