The Cure for Depression

Is Puppies.

If treatment facilities were filled with puppies instead of psychs, I'm pretty sure you would get a much happier, motivated and cooperative group of patients.  Suicidal people might actually make an effort to come in...

The World we have Created

A Plateful of Penitence

Nutraloaf appears in prisons across the nation; recipes differ across states. The idea is to create a food product that fulfills an inmate’s caloric and nutritional needs but does not require utensils. The goal is not to create a food product that tastes good. In fact, prisoners around the country have filed multiple lawsuits claiming nutraloaf violates their eighth amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Eastern State gave visitors small portions of the same nutraloaf served in Pennsylvania’s prisons. Cooked white rice, grated raw potatoes, grated carrots, shredded cabbage, dry oatmeal, mashed garbanzo beans, 2% milk, and margarine are mixed together, put into a loaf pan, and baked at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half.

That is not penitence.   That is not nutritious.  
That is neurotoxin.   Low protein, Low fat,  High Carb  psychoactive poison.
"Behavior Modification Food" indeed.

This is the ward of the state version of the  Fruit Loop Protocol.

Mine is Scarier

Video game offers first (semi-)plausible zombie apocalypse 

In The Last of Us, Cordyceps adds humans to the list of hosts. The apocalypse starts when the fungus makes a jump from their typical hosts to humans in presumably the same way some diseases like “swine flu” can jump between species. The new, unidentified species of Cordyceps turns humans first into violent “infected” and then into blind “clickers,” complete with fruiting bodies sprouting from their faces. Like traditional zombie canon, a zombie bite is death. However, the inhalation of Cordyceps spores is the un-death sentence.

The game draws even more inspiration from science than just the name of the fungus. Once a “clicker” completes its cycle, the fungus forces the human into a dark and secluded corner. It is where the human finally dies. Bleeding back into the environment, spores effuse from the corpse to infect again.

(Well actually, in real life it's a bacteria and there's no obvious disfiguration other than tooth decay and they commit violence and go to jail and infect other susceptible individuals who go back into society.)

Enjoy your Weekend.

Bwa ha ha ha ha

Suffer from social anxiety? Try this “anti-social media” app

The app "Hell Is Other People" tracks your friends' movements via FourSquare -- so you can avoid them.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Lionel Shriver  (and Time Magazine for providing the platform.)

The Best Cure for Obesity?  Personal Responsibility

Yo skinny bitch. STFU.
You really think being hundreds of pounds overweight is something anyone chooses? 
Fuck you very much, Miss Obviously Manic Self-Righteous Compulsive Opinionator.
I grieve for your tormented brother.

What I See

Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Justice Anthony Kennedy

How about that

Brain Scans Suggest 'Food Addiction' Might Be Real

Twelve overweight or obese men consumed test meals designed as milkshakes with the same calories, taste and sweetness. The two milkshakes were essentially the same; the only difference was that one contained rapidly digesting (high-glycemic index) carbohydrates and the other slowly digesting (low-glycemic index) carbohydrates.
After participants consumed the high-glycemic index milkshake, they experienced an initial surge in blood sugar levels, followed by sharp crash four hours later.
This decrease in blood glucose was associated with excessive hunger and intense activation of the nucleus accumbens, a critical brain region involved in addictive behaviors.
Prior studies of food addiction have compared patient reactions to drastically different types of foods, such as high-calorie cheesecake versus boiled vegetables.
Another novel aspect of this study is how a specific dietary factor that is distinct from calories or sweetness, could alter brain function and promote overeating.
"These findings suggest that limiting high-glycemic index carbohydrates like white bread and potatoes could help obese individuals reduce cravings and control the urge to overeat," says Ludwig.

Post-prandial hypoglycemia.
Sounds like they were orexin deficient to me.

Cause and Effect

Big Weight Loss For Diabetics, But No Drop In Heart Risk

Maintaining a healthful weight is an important way to prevent and manage diabetes. It's also helps reduce heart disease risk. So the researchers were surprised to find that even though the study participants lost weight and kept it off, they didn't reduce their risk of heart attacks, stroke and chest pain. 

This is not surprising.
Heart disease is caused by oral microbes.  Not fat. 

By George I think I've got it

I have figured out how Xyrem works.   I was right, it's a coma diet.   Shocking the liver for glucose control.

I'm gonna take a little time to write it up.
Just wanted to give you fair warning-   if you have stock from Jazz Pharma-  you really should divest.  I'm hoping to take them down.

Off Topic

Search Engine Privacy 

DuckDuckGo does not track its users.

Sounds nice.   I haven't used it.  Doesn't matter much, Prism surely has me in the archives by now.
Google seems to be quite sure I want or need some psychoactive medication.

Things that should sound familiar

I don't know why I've never linked to this before-
Wikipedia article on Hyperinsulinemia

Good explanation.

They don't cover this symptom though-
Get Your Hands Off My Doughnut: The Joys of Hypoglycemic Rage 
Heh.

Hoo De Hoo

I love Armin Alaedini!!

IgG gluten antibodies found in children with autism but no link to celiac disease

I forgive you for the disclaimer.   We know you're right.   Rooting for you.  Go team!

(by the way, I know this other group of people you could test... )

State of the Hypothesis

The current General Mechanisms of Narcolepsy swirling in my head.

1.  Infection with a strep bacteria causes an immune response in the gastrointestinal tract.
The documented streptococcal autoimmune disorders are triggered by Strep pyogenes.  Although that microbe is common in narcoleptics-  I get the feeling Strep pneumonia also contributes somehow.   Too many of us report chronic respiratory infections.

2.  The infection interacts directly or indirectly with gluten immunity.
Either it mimics gluten and triggers antigliadin production,  alters the microbe balance of the intestines, or the inflammation exacerbates existing gluten antibody activity in genetically susceptible people.

3.  This combination of strep and antigliadin somehow disables the orexin producing cells resulting in orexin depletion.


Low orexin levels-

• Reduce production of brown fat.  
• Increase levels of insulin.

Both of those things drastically alter metabolism and lead to obesity.

High insulin levels also amplify the effect of GABA.

• Increased GABA response suppresses the central nervous system. 
• This may be the actual cause of the sleep attacks but I can't really say yet.
• it definitely contributes to central apnea, daytime sleepiness, negative affect.

High insulin levels are also associated with cognitive problems.

In addition-  Infection and obesity contribute to obstructive apnea. 

That's how the dataset makes the most sense to me. 

Rerun

Speaking of obesity treatment.
It's that time of year again.
Last week the compliance Nazi called my husband and asked him about his fnv intake.

Correlation Games

Testosterone Keeps Women's Brains Sharp

A testosterone gel applied daily may improve cognitive performance in postmenopausal women, a randomized trial suggested. 

Testosterone Raises Insulin Sensitivity

Giving testosterone to men with type 2 diabetes who are deficient in the hormone improved their insulin sensitivity, researchers reported here.

see the link?

Heh

Dunkin' Donuts to offer gluten-free donuts and muffins

They aren't low carb, but there you go.  Your new coffee shop.

Showing their Hand

AMA declares obesity a disease

The move by the American Medical Assn. board means that one-third of adults and 17% of children in the U.S. have a medical condition that requires treatment.

Obesity can be caused by many things.  It's clearly a symptom, not an illness.  Basic classification.

This definition however, is being made by the group of people who make their money off treating illness.

Considering the skyrocketing rate of obesity- they certainly haven't had much success with the symptom.
But now they can get more insurance money to tell more fat people to eat more carbs.

Profiting off their own incompetence.
See how that works?

Real Quiz

High-Fat Diet May Increase Alzheimer's Risk

Participants were randomly assigned to follow a high saturated fat, high glycemic index diet or a low saturated fat, low glycemic index diet for four weeks. Both groups ate the same number of total calories. Samples of cerebral spinal fluid were collected at the beginning and end of the study through a lumbar puncture.
After four weeks, those on the high saturated fat diet saw an increase in LD amyloid-beta levels, while those on the low saturated fat diet saw a decrease in LD amyloid-beta.

Please explain what is wrong with the experimental design and why this study should be soundly ignored.

Impulse Control Problems

Go both ways, don't they?

Vice Published a Fashion Spread of Female Writer Suicides [Updated]

Vice's Women in Fiction issue is an interesting package. There's a short story by Mary Gaitskill here, an interview with Marilynne Robinson there, and a short story by Joyce Carol Oates over yonder. And then...there's the fashion spread. Featuring models styled and posed as famous female writers who have killed themselves. At their times of death.

UPDATE: Vice has disappeared the post from its Web site. The magazine's editors say they "apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended."

Behold the power of dopamine.

Good Stuff

Okay people. Despite the fact that it's 450 pages of geekspeak and I have puppy-on-the-brain, I went out and looked through the abstracts from the Sleep conference (link).
Ironically, I scrolled randomly and this is the first study I landed on:

0015  Absence of the hypocretin peptide increases serum insulin without altering blood glucose or serum leptin levels in aged male mice.      Ramanathan L, Siegel J
Introduction: We previously reported that both male and female Hcrt deficient mice showed increased body fat, although only the female mice showed increased body weight, compared to gender and genotype matched wildtype (WT) controls. In this study we compared blood glucose and serum leptin and insulin levels in male Hcrt deficient and WT mice. We also analyzed changes in the weight of the brain, heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, thymus, lungs, testes, bladder and stomach of these mice.
Results: Blood glucose levels were not significantly different between male Hcrt deficient and WT mice. However, male Hcrt deficient mice had significantly higher serum insulin levels compared to WT controls (129%, p= 0.02). Although serum leptin levels were higher in male Hcrt deficient mice compared to WT mice, this difference was not significant (. Furthermore, the pancreas was significantly heavier in male Hcrt deficient mice compared to male WT mice. There were no changes in the size of any of the other internal organs studied here.
Conclusion: We conclude that aged male mice lacking the hypocretin peptide have decreased insulin sensitivity. Hence, they require higher insulin levels to maintain normal fasting glucose levels. 

I do not think he used female mice.  Nonetheless- very nice.  Confirmation that sugar and insulin metabolism is messed up.

I really like this study, too.  

0720  Clarithromycin for the treatment of hypersomnia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial
Introduction: Recent work has demonstrated that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with primary hypersomnias enhances activity at the GABA-A receptor, and this may be causal to hypersomnia symptoms. Oral GABA-A receptor antagonists, such as the macrolide antibiotic clarithromycin, may therefore be effective hypersomnia treatment.
Results: Twenty subjects (15 women) completed the trial and were included in analyses, with mean age 33.0 years. Two subjects dropped out due to side effects. Diagnoses included idiopathic hypersomnia (n = 11), narcolepsy without cataplexy (n = 4), and hypersomnia with long sleep but normal MSLT (n = 5). Median reaction times on the PVT (primary outcome) were not different with clarithromycin. In contrast, significant improvements with clarithromycin were seen for Epworth at week two. Differences between clarithromycin and the baseline and placebo conditions were confirmed with pairwise tests. 
Conclusion: In this pilot study, clarithromycin improved subjective sleepiness in GABA-related hypersomnia. Larger trials of longer duration are warranted

Although the authors chose it because of its effect on GABA, Clarithromycin has a couple other properties that are way more interesting to me.

• It is an antibiotic.   It is used to treat pharyngitis, tonsillitis, acute maxillary sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, periodontitis and skin infections.   Uh huh.
• It also affects sugar-insulin metabolism. Careful monitoring of glucose is recommended.  The inhibition of CYP3A enzyme by clarithromycin may cause hypolgycemia when used concurrently with insulin.   That may be how it affects the GABA response.  

Okay, that's all for now.   I have a doc started with the other abstracts I found interesting,  will try to finish it up and add it on here in a little while.

Pop Quiz

What's short and wide and kind of sleepy?

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic

Eastside woman eschews food to live on sunlight

Naveena Shine says she’s testing out living on light and no food. She’s now on Day 43.

This lady is freaking me out.   Somebody get her to a dentist, stat.
Honestly- if you think this is a good idea, you need to have your head examined.  You're sick.   Probably in the nosey or mouthy parts of your head.

Play the Lightning Round

It's a mystery.

It's Friday

Old Song of the Day

A Moment of Sanity

Supreme Court Strikes Down BRCA Gene Patent 

 The Supreme Court ruled today that isolated human genes cannot be patented, a partial defeat for Myriad Genetics, a company that had been awarded patents on the so-called BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in the 1990s.

"Myriad did not create anything," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a unanimous court.  "To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention." 

Whew.  I was worried.
The unanimous decision is even better.

Nightmare Scenario

Sleep Mechanism Identified That Plays Role in Emotional Memory

Sleep researchers from University of California campuses in Riverside and San Diego have identified the sleep mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate emotional memory and found that a popular prescription sleep aid (Ambien) heightens the recollection of and response to negative memories.

"I was surprised by the specificity of the results, that the emotional memory improvement was specifically for the negative and high-arousal memories, and the ramifications of these results for people with anxiety disorders and PTSD," Mednick said. "These are people who already have heightened memory for negative and high-arousal memories. Sleep drugs might be improving their memories for things they don't want to remember."

The U.S. Air Force uses zolpidem (Ambien) as one of the prescribed "no-go pills" to help flight crews calm down after taking stimulants to stay awake during long missions, the researchers noted in the study.

Fascinating.   A mechanism that, via selective memory, produces a bad attitude.  Ironically, that makes me really happy.

Explains a lot. 

One Step Forward

Infection, Autoimmune Diseases Risk Factors for Mood Disorders

Severe infections requiring hospitalization and autoimmune diseases have been linked to an increased risk for subsequent mood disorders, new research shows.
Results of a large, longitudinal study showed that autoimmune disease increased the subsequent risk for a mood disorder diagnosis by 45%, and any history of hospitalization due to infection was associated with a 62% increased risk.
Furthermore, these 2 risk factors had a synergistic effect so that the risk for a subsequent mood disorder in individuals with an autoimmune disease and an infection more than doubled the risk for a subsequent mood disorder — an effect that was larger than predicted by the combination of the single effects of the 2 disease groups.

Oh Yeah.   Tell me about it.

Zzzzzzzzzzz is for Zombie

German banker falls asleep on keyboard and accidentally transfers $300-million

The man was in the middle of transferring 62.40 euros from a customer bank account when he fell asleep and mashed the number 2 key, turning it into a transfer worth 222,222,222.22 euros, a German labour court heard on Monday. 

Quote of the Day

From an email I received recently:

"I would get up to use the bathroom and eat cereal then immediately go back to bed."

Uh huh.

Been There, Done That

High sugar intake linked to low dopamine release in insulin-resistant patients

"A better understanding of the cerebral mechanisms underlying abnormal eating behaviors with insulin resistance would help in the development of interventions to counteract the deterioration caused by overeating and subsequent obesity. We suggest that insulin resistance and its association with less dopamine release in a central brain reward region might promote overeating to compensate for this deficit." 

Nice Data.   Erroneous Conclusion.
If sugar causes lower dopamine- which is the primary reward neurotransmitter- it should extinguish sugar eating behavior.

High insulin levels lead to overeating via post-meal hypoglycemia.   Low blood sugar triggers eating behavior.
Low dopamine levels lead to demotivation and depression and dementia.

Reality Based Medicine

Rethinking the Twice-Yearly Dentist Visit 

Almost half of adults age 30 and older, about 65 million, have a form of chronic inflammatory gum disease that can ultimately lead to tooth loss. The new study, published Monday in The Journal of Dental Research, suggests that the frequency of dental visits for cleanings and other preventive services should be tailored to each person’s risk factors for periodontal disease.“The findings suggest that for low-risk patients, a yearly prophylactic visit does prevent tooth loss over a protracted period of 16 years, and there’s no significant difference in an added visit,” said Dr. Robert J. Genco, a periodontist and SUNY distinguished professor of oral biology at the University at Buffalo, who was not involved in the study. “They found if you had more than one risk factor, that maybe two visits isn’t optimal.”
“If you are high risk, it is much more important for you to be seen frequently, but for the low-risk people it’s not,” said Dr. William V. Giannobile, the study’s lead author and the chairman of the department of periodontics at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

“The take-away is not that you don’t need to see the dentist, it’s that each patient needs to be treated in their own individual way,” he added.

Yes, well, we thought you were doing that.   We thought you were experts and professionals.
Live and Learn.

This and That

Frequent Binge Drinking Is Associated With Insomnia Symptoms in Older Adults
Yes that makes sense. It's also associated with periodontal disease and UTI's in older adults.

Treatment of Mental Illness Lowers Arrest Rates
Imagine the possibilities if the treatments were truly effective...

Conflict-Of-Interest Restrictions Needed to Ensure Strong FDA Review
Yes please.

What I See

"I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."

-Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance.

Righteous Mania vs. Righteous Mania
Nobody Wins.
Same as it ever was.

On a Lighter Note

Humor is a science

University of Colorado's Peter McGraw and his "Humor Research Lab" may have cracked the code to what makes us laugh.

Meanwhile in Russia

Middle Aged White Guy is divorcing his wife.

Good grief, this is going to get creepy and weird.
He's going into a full-throttle Burlusconi phase.

The American Nightmare

In the battle between sanity and insanity-  crazy is kicking ass.

Big Brother is Watching Everyone

This is what happens when a few of us are sick and twisted, and we can't figure out which ones....

Shocking

Surgery on Adenoid, Tonsils Improves Outcomes in Children with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

That Time of Year

It looks like the Sleep Conference is on this week.   I will try to avoid the internet for a few days so my head doesn't explode.   But I have impulse control problems.   Ha.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Jed Black, MD et al.   Stanford Sleep Center

Narcolepsy Tied to Many More Illnesses

Compared with controls, patients identified as having narcolepsy, with or without cataplexy, were 3.7 times more likely to have nervous system complications, 3.8 times more likely to have a mental illness, and 2.7 times more likely to have a digestive illness.  They were also 3.5 times more likely to have a musculoskeletal problem and 2.2 times more likely to have a genitourinary illness.

 "The question people ask us is why this should be, and we have the same question," he said. "We don't know. We have hypothesized: Does it have something to do with sleep fragmentation?

Yes, after all the evidence pointing to diet and autoimmunity (from your own institution!), sleep fragmentation (and Xyrem)  is surely the answer.

All your patients are telling you they are sick and this is what you come up with:

"Frankly, we are scratching our heads. It is a big question mark," Black said. "We need to find out."

Thanks Stanford.

Here's the correlation studies you should do-
Narcolepsy vs. rear molar loss/periodontal disease.
Narcolepsy vs. respiratory infection, including asthma and sinuses.

I think if you do that, and add those results to these, you will notice ALL of us have a chronic recurring infection. 

But I'm guessing you won't.   Because if this is an infection, and Not caused by sleep behavior, well then there's probably not going to be an ongoing need for giant sleep study labs, much less the huge increase in patients you guys keep hoping to create.

A girl can dream...

(be sure to check out the blue box at the bottom of the page)

Round and Round

Gut Bacteria Play Key Role in Vaccination

I don't know who they got to write this press release, but it sounds like a public relations announcement not a scientific article. Anyhow, the first study boils down to this-

The scientists found that more diversity in the human gut microbiota may enable more robust immune responses to the Typhoid vaccine.

In the second study-

The scientists found that those macaques that showed high diversity in their gut microbiota were more resistant to Shigella infection than those with lower diversity.

And their conclusion:

These studies find that higher diversity in the gut microbiota, i.e., more types of bacteria in the gut, affect the characteristics and magnitude of immune responses to vaccines and infections.

They don't say this, but I'm assuming this means antibiotics contribute to this adverse effect, and there is quite a bit of evidence for that.

Their solutions to acute disease causes chronic disease.  

Predictable, really.

Paris Jackson attempts suicide

Her father was tightly in the grip of mania his entire life, and her mother looks narcoleptic.

Self Injury is the hallmark behavior of a person with a psychoactive immune response.

Considering the call for help, I think this is cutting vs. a real suicide attempt. The Kurt Cobain t-shirt is also signalling behavior, though.  This girl is troubled.  And wants people to take her seriously.

Ironically, it surely made her feel quite a bit better.
But antibiotics wouldn't have left those scary scars.

The Guinea Pig Generation

The Darkest Year of Medical School

One would think that the third year of medical school would be a crowning achievement—the donning of the white coat, the grasping of the golden ring after many years of striving. And in some ways it is. The learning curve is voraciously steep as students soak up clinical knowledge at an impressive rate.
However, there is a darker side of this transition to clinical medicine. Many of the qualities that students entered medical school with—altruism, empathy, generosity of spirit, love of learning, high ethical standards—are eroded by the end of medical training. Newly minted doctors can begin their careers jaded, self-doubting, even embittered (not to mention six figures in debt).

Yes, take a bunch of manic perfectionists who have clearly always succeeded because otherwise they wouldn't be there and put them into a situation where they are bound to fail.  Excellent plan.

It's supposed to weed out the ones who can't handle the stress.   The maniacs on the edge.

Using real people- sick vulnerable people- as their "curriculum".

Despite the carefully crafted official medical curriculum, it is the “hidden curriculum” that drives the take-home messages. The students astutely note how their superiors comport themselves, how they interact with patients, how they treat other staff members. The students are keen observers of how their supervisors dress—and how they may dress down those around them. They figure out which groups of patients can be the object of sarcasm or humor, and which cannot.

Obese?  Yes.  Mentally Ill?  Yes.   Herpes?  Yes.   AIDS?  No.   Cancer of the mouth?  Yes.   Cancer of the prostate?  Oh definitely not.

It's a system set up by self-righteous, self-serving sadists.  And that's what it selects and produces.
And the rejects become psychs.

Living on the Edge

My favorite maniac.   In the brave new world they will show his videos in medical school as case studies.

Glenn Beck interviews Glenn Beck about Glenn Beck

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Once Reviled And Vilified, Psychosurgery Makes A Comeback For Debillitating Mental Illnesses

Canadian researchers found one brain surgery technique as safe and effective for sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Umm, no they didn't.

The study, conducted by researchers at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, involved 19 patients who underwent a type of psychosurgery called bilateral capsulotomy between 1997 and 2009. The surgery damages tissue (by creating lesions) in a part of the brain called the internal capsule.

Before the surgery, patients scored an average of 34 out of 40 points (extreme OCD) on a test designed to measure the severity of the condition.
After surgery, the average score decreased to 23, which is considered moderate OCD.

About 37 percent of patients responded fully to the surgery, meaning their score improved by at least 35 percent, and about 10 percent partially responded to the surgery, meaning their score improved by 25 percent.

You fried a portion of their brains and one-third of them had one-third improvement in their symptoms.
And you permanently disabled 2 of them.  That's 10%.  
And you call this a success for psychosurgery?  You need to have your head examined.

Apparently while you were practicing your quackery and painting that pretty face on your frightening data, you failed to notice that current research shows OCD is caused by bacteria and treatable with antibiotics .
Your surgery addresses that problem as effectively as the SSRI's and antipsychotics and psychotherapy (ha!). And it's expensive and invasive and the inevitable "unintended consequences" are still unknown.

Here at this blog- your techniques will continue to be vilified.

Because I Must

Rise of the Zombie Wheat

When an Oregon farmer recently found wheat growing in a fallow field, he did what most farmers do with unwelcome plants: blasted them with the weed-killer Roundup. And that should have been the end of the story.  Except the plants didn’t die.

That they survived weed killer was by design, in one sense: Monsanto spent years developing and testing Roundup-resistant wheat, a similar product to its dominant weed-killer-resistant corn and soybean hybrids. The problem is, the wheat was never put into commercial production, since the project was shelved back in 2004—but not before the FDA approved it for human consumption. The last Oregon field trail was in 2001. 

Scientists at Oregon State University and the USDA have confirmed that the wheat was genetically engineered, but no one can account for where the seeds came from.

 It had zombie and wheat in the title. Nothing really to see here.  Carry on.

BYOP

Pod.

I think if you combine that with the whopper holder, and 3D sugar printer you get a Matrix prototype.
And an endless stream of volunteers.

Yesssssss.

An Altered Gut Microbiota Can Predict Diabetes

Three Swedish, Gothenburg-based research groups ... compared the metagenome of 145 women with diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance and healthy controls, and showed that women with type 2 diabetes have an altered gut microbiota.
Furthermore, healthy women have higher numbers of gut bacteria known to be producers of butyrate, a fatty acid that has previously been linked to beneficial health effect.
On the basis of these findings, the researchers developed a new model that can distinguish between patients with type 2 diabetes and healthy women by analysis of the metagenome. This model has better predictive value than the classical predictive markers used today, such as body-mass index and waist-hip ratio.

All hail the resurrection of the Germ Theory of Disease.
Thanks Sweden. 

Well Mercy Me

Michael Douglas Says Oral Sex Caused His Throat Cancer

The Guardian asked Douglas, now 68, whether he regretted his years of smoking and drinking for causing his throat cancer. Douglas gave a "surprisingly frank" answer to the British paper: "No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus]..."

Notice the underlying assumption and shaming behavior of the questioner.  This my friends, is the battle.  Speak the truth.


(I think this works the other way too.  I'm pretty sure prostate and breast cancer are caused by oral microbes.)

Fun Facts for the Day

Everything old is new again.

3D-printed sugar could be icing on the cake 

Kyle and Liz von Hasseln have adapted the technology to design, digitally model and print original sugar sculptures – frosting – for confectionary, turning their company, The Sugar Lab, into a thriving business.
"It's such an exciting intersection between technology, food, and art. We've been getting excited reactions from all over the world," Liz von Hasseln said on Thursday. "When you see a 3D-printed sugar sculpture that's unlike any food you've seen before, its immediately clear that a whole new set of possibilities has opened up."

 A little historical perspective:

 "The important feature of these recipes is that the resulting pastes were used to sculpture forms- forms having an aesthetic aspect but also preservable and edible.   The eleventh-century caliph al-Zahir, we are told, in spite of famine, inflation, and plague, celbrated the Islamic feast days with "art works from the sugar baker, which included 157 figures and seven large (table sized!) palaces, all made of sugar.  Nasir-i-Chosran, a Persian visitor who traveled in Egypt in 1040 AD, reports that the sultan used up to 73,300 kilos of sugar for Ramadan,- upon his festive table, we are told, there stood and entire tree made of sugar, and other large displays.  And al-Guzuli (1412) gives a remarkable account of the caliph's celebration, at which a mosque was built entirely of sugar and beggars were invited in at the close of the festivities to eat it."

-Sidney W. Mintz-  Sweetness and Power (1985), p.88.

I suppose the structural uses of sugar are less harmful than the metabolic ones.  Maybe we can use it for recyclable party decorations.  Dissolve them when you're done and make new ones.   I'd like a tree, please.

Something you should know

High doses of common painkillers increase heart attack risks

Long-term high-dose use of painkillers such as ibuprofen or diclofenac is "equally hazardous" in terms of heart attack risk as use of the drug Vioxx, which was withdrawn due to its potential dangers, researchers said on Thursday.
Presenting the results of a large international study into a class of painkillers called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the researchers said high doses of them increase the risk of a major vascular event - a heart attack, stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease - by around a third.

Narcoleptics seem to experience chronic pain.   I took tons of ibuprophen for decades.

Aspirin reduces the long term risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer.  I believe this is because of some unknown effect on streptococcal immune response.  It has been known since the eighteenth century to relieve rheumatoid arthritis.
It's actually a wonder drug.  But it can't be patented.  So they keep producing new pain relievers to sell to us.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Anorexic Individuals' Disturbed Body Image Influences Unconscious Movements

Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa perceive their bodies as being larger than they are and this disturbed body representation affects their movements, according to ... Anouk Keizer and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. 

So?

Keizer adds, "This is why we believe that current therapeutic interventions should not only focus on changing how patients think about their body and how they look at it, but also target the body in action, in other words, treatment should aim to improve the experience of body size as a whole."

And what the hell does that mean?   And how will it help?   Exactly, please.
Sorry to pick on you, but this whole "body image" thing has annoyed me for a long time...

Anorexia is a metabolic problem and the longer you study stupid shit like this, the longer people will suffer from it.

It seems to work like this-   when your insulin level is too high your tissues swell up.   Your nerves get more sensitive and you don't want anyone or anything to touch you.   You are sick and feel avoidant.  Especially of food.   Not to mention- YOU ACTUALLY DO FEEL LARGER.  No matter how little you weigh.

And when you are in ketosis, you feel thin.    Your tissues shrink and your muscles tighten and you feel skinny on the inside, no matter how wide you are.

Been there.  Done that.  Over and over.

Theory and Practice

See Atomic Bonds Before and After Molecular Reaction

For the first time, scientists have visually captured a molecule at single-atom resolution in the act of rearranging its bonds. The images look startlingly similar to the stick diagrams in chemistry textbooks.

Wow.  I never expected that.