Several mechanisms of action have been proposed to explain the neuroprotective effects of MgSO4 (Figure 2). Magnesium is a calcium antagonist that acts both intracellularly and extracellularly,68 and may act directly on cerebral endothelial cells.
The claim that Hassan Rouhani, the new president of Iran, is a âmoderate,â with whom Western leaders can do business on the basis of mutual self-interest, brings to mind an earlier fantasy common among elites in the West after the death of the Soviet dictator, Leonid Brezhnev, in 1982: that his successor as General Secretary, Yuri Andropov, was a closet liberal eager to reduce the tensions of the Cold War, then nearly four decades old, and thereby make nuclear war less likely.
Rouhani, a Shiâa cleric, has learned his lessons well from Khomeini. When Carter entered the political fray in 1976, America was still riding the liberal wave of anti-Vietnam War emotion. Carter was persuaded that the Shah was not fit to rule Iran. In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Iraq, was preparing Iran for revolution. His weapon of choice was not the sword but the media.