Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The State of Awareness

Portraits of Narcolepsy in New York City

Long article in the Atlantic.  I could spend the rest of the day commenting, so I won't even start.

Smoking pot while eating cookies.... sheesh.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Everything old is new again

Link found between poor dental health and depression
"The relationship between dental health and depression is not well understood, with previous studies investigating poor dental health as a by-product of depression, rather than a precursor," Dr O'Neil said.
"Although the results of this study provide only a snapshot of this association, they add to emerging theories around the importance of oral health and bacteria in mental health.
"This is an exciting area of research Deakin is exploring further with longitudinal data collected here in Australia. Specifically, we are currently conducting a study of how microbiota and the bacteria in the mouth, as well as the gut, may be related to inflammatory disease, including depression.
"If poor dental health is a risk factor for depression, this may have implications for depression management, as well as depression prevention from a public health perspective."
Ya think?
Doctors noticed this association over a century ago, but your buddy Freud took the illness out of mental illness and is responsible for the ensuing century of bullshit and magical thinking in this field of research.

And FWIW-  Depression is not an inflammatory disease.  It is an immune reaction.
I am working out the details in my head.   Literally.  Ha. 

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

A. Janet Tomiyama
and Jeffrey Hunger, go figure

Simply being called 'fat' makes young girls more likely to become obese
OMG. STFU.
Overall, the girls labeled fat were 1.66 times more likely than the other girls to be obese at 19, the researchers found. They also found that as the number people who told a girl she was fat increased, so did the likelihood that she would be obese nine years later.
That's just stupid. If they are told they are fat by age 10, they probably are prone to obesity.

"Even after we statistically removed the effects of their actual weight, their income, their race and when they reached puberty, the effect remained.

"That means it's not just that heavier girls are called too fat and are still heavy years later; being labeled as too fat is creating an additional likelihood of being obese."Co-author Jeffrey Hunger, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara, said that simply being called fat may lead to behaviors that later result in obesity.
"Being labeled as too fat may lead people to worry about personally experiencing the stigma and discrimination faced by overweight individuals, and recent research suggests that experiencing or anticipating weight stigma increases stress and can lead to overeating," he said.
NO, dumbass, this is not the magical stress effect you psychs so love to conjure up.
Girls who are told they are fat go on DIETS, and current diet protocols cause obesity.
LOW FAT DIETING CAUSES WEIGHT GAIN in hyperinsulinemic individuals.

The answer is in front of your face.
Under your nose.

The rest of the article covers a couple other studies...
The research findings also confirmed the results of a 2007 study in which Tomiyama, Mann and colleagues analyzed 31 long-term studies and found that people can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of their weight on any number of diets, but the majority regain all the weight, plus more. Only a small minority, they discovered, sustain their weight loss.
"If dieting worked, it wouldn't be a $60 billion dollar industry," said Tomiyama, who noted that trying to be thin is similar to trying to be taller.
"The genetic power over weight is about the same as the power of genes over your height," she said. "People who say it's your fault if you're fat underappreciate the role of genes."
Yeah, you're right,  the dieting industry is worthless.   Maybe you underappreciate the role of their erroneous dieting advice.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Calling in my Markers

Okay people, I've tried to do my best by y'all, so now I am hoping you will do something for me.

If you are in the U.S. and have the resources, please come to the Narcolepsy Network conference in Denver this year.  It freaks me out, but it's target rich for Zombie Liberation. 

We are trying to get a decent gluten-free contingent to make an impact.   Those banquet tables seat 10-12, so I am hoping for one entire gluten-free table this time. 
I think we've got 5 yesses so far.   I still need to contact a couple people.   Anyhow, if you're planning to go, let me know, or post over on GFPWN.

If we get that many, I will probably get us an hospitality suite for us to hang out and cook.
And I think I will want you to dance with me.
Heh.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Fun with Obsession

This is the best show I have watched in months.  Outstanding achievement in oppositional defiance.  Exquisite symmetrical pile management.  Behold the power of dopamine.

Great Cathedral Mystery     (52 min Nova episode)
Master craftsmen explore how Florence’s monumental dome was built nearly 600 years ago.
The dome that crowns Florence’s great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore—the Duomo—is a towering masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. Still the largest masonry dome on earth after more than six centuries, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs as much as an average cruise ship. Historians and engineers have long debated how its secretive architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, managed to keep the dome perfectly aligned and symmetrical as the sides rose and converged toward the center, 40 stories above the cathedral floor. His laborers toiled without safety nets, applying novel, untried methods. Over 4 million bricks might collapse at any moment—and we still don’t understand how Brunelleschi prevented it. To test the latest theories, a team of U.S. master bricklayers will help build a unique experimental model Duomo using period techniques. Will it stay intact during the final precarious stages of closing over the top of the dome?
Their stream was slow, here's the youtube version.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Bwa ha ha ha ha

So funny in so many ways.
Statin Users Eating More Bad Food Than a Decade Ago, Study Shows
Many Americans who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs seem to believe they can eat plenty of unhealthy foods without suffering any consequences, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that people who took statins in 2009-2010 consumed more fat and calories than those who took the drugs 10 years earlier. There was no similar increase in fat and calorie intake among people who didn't take statins, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers said.
...
""We believe that, when physicians prescribe statins, the goal is to decrease patients' cardiovascular risks that cannot be achieved without medications, not to empower them to put butter on steaks," Sugiyama added."
The centripetal force is high in this circle of insanity...

Magically Delicious

Increasing Your Coffee Consumption Could Prevent Diabetes
The study, which observed more than 120,000 health professionals over a four year span, tracked the dietary habits of its subjects and compared the effects of both increased and decreased coffee consumption. Measurements were not based off the total number of cups drunk per day, but rather the relative rise or fall in consumption for each subject compared with when the study began.
Those who upped their intake by at least one cup per day were found to have reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by 11% when compared with those who maintained a steady level of java ingestion. Conversely, those who decreased their intake by at least a cup per day were 17% more liable to contract the disorder.
Nice.   A large prospective study using health professionals.  Mmmmmmmm, tasty.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Sounds Familiar

Low Blood Sugar and Heartbeat in People With Diabetes
Study found abnormal rhythms when blood sugar dipped at night in people with type 2 disease
"This study noted that spontaneous insulin-induced episodes of hypoglycemia were associated with asymptomatic mild heart arrhythmias. We have performed similar studies in animals, and noted similar arrhythmias during insulin-induced hypoglycemia," Fisher said.
"However, in animal studies, when blood sugar became severely low, more severe abnormal cardiac rhythms -- in other words, fatal heart rhythms -- were noted. So, based on existing animal and human data, we speculate that severe hypoglycemia-induced arrhythmias may contribute to sudden death in patients with insulin-treated diabetes," Fisher said.

From my website:
"In full attacks, I have raging REM, sleep paralysis, high heart rate and very hot breath. "  (Me)

"The rest of the evening was wasted, because of the rapid heartbeats and horrific headache that accompanies me when I wake from these "sleep comas" as I call them.  (Anna V)

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Raising hand. Call on Me!

Sleep behavior disorder linked to brain disease
A sleep disorder that causes people to act out their dreams is the best current predictor of brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, research suggests.
Yes, well both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are associated with Orexin cell loss.   I'll guess it's something they're eating.

You Don't Say

Eye-Opener: Naps Linked with Higher Risk of Death
In the study, people ages 40 to 79 who napped daily, for less than an hour, were 14 percent more likely to die over a 13-year period, compared to those who did not nap. Longer naps were linked with a higher risk: people whose daily naps lasted an hour or more were 32 percent more likely to die over the study period.
...In particular, naps were linked with an increased risk of dying from respiratory diseases. And the link between napping and risk of dying was highest among the younger people in the study, those between ages 40 and 65, who were nearly twice as likely to die during the study period if they napped for an hour or more, compared to those who did not nap.
The reason for the link is not known. It may not be napping per se that's unhealthy, but rather, that those who tend to nap also have undiagnosed medical conditions that affect their risk of dying, the researchers said.
Yep Yep Yep.

Monday, April 21, 2014

I got nothin

Here, have some Zombies.

That last video is way fun.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

You're the One

Odds your doctor has misdiagnosed you? Frighteningly high.
Roughly 12 million adults who visit US doctors’ offices and other outpatient settings, or one in
20, are misdiagnosed every year, a new study has found, and half of those errors could lead to serious harm.
To explore the issue, researchers combined data from three past studies to generate a sample pool of about 3,000 medical records. Their analysis found a misdiagnoses rate of just over 5 percent, which when extrapolated to the 80 percent of U.S. adults that receive outpatient care every year, comes to 12 million people.
... Researchers added that faulty medical records and other potential flaws in the data could mean the error rate is even higher. Previous research done by Singh has suggested that many of these misdiagnoses could lead to serious problems, such as delayed cancer treatments or, conversely, unnecessary treatment of nonexistent problems.
Well considering they don't know what causes most of the things they are treating, you can be sure this rate is much, much higher.
So far I have been nothing but misdiagnosed...   still hoping...

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Maniac of the Day

Behold the power of dopamine.

Memory, creativity, motivation, perseverance, motor neuron stimulation, and world class oppositional defiance.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tell me about it

Gene variant gives women higher risk for Alzheimer's
After analyzing health data on many older people who were followed for years, Stanford researchers in the US concluded that carrying a copy of the ApoE4 gene variant gives women a much higher risk for developing Alzheimer's than it does men.
Yeah, go effin figure.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Michael Grandner
A "sleep expert" who has obviously never studied orexin.   Like most of them.

To get better sleep, which foods should you seek and which should you avoid?

Monday, April 14, 2014

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Brad Bushman
Study: Snack Might Help Avoid Fight With Spouse
A quick candy bar may stave off more than hunger. It could prevent major fights between husbands and wives, at least if a new study that used voodoo dolls is right.
That's because low blood sugar can make spouses touchy, researchers propose.
In fact, it can make them "hangry," a combination of hungry and angry, said Ohio State University psychology researcher Brad Bushman.
"We need glucose for self-control," said Bushman, lead author of the study, which was released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Anger is the emotion that most people have difficulty controlling."
The researchers studied 107 married couples for three weeks. Each night, they measured their levels of the blood sugar glucose and asked each participant to stick pins in a voodoo doll representing his or her spouse. That indicated levels of aggressive feelings.
The researchers found that the lower the blood sugar levels, the more pins were pushed into the doll.
Gawd I love this study.   Brilliant.
It would be perfect if their advice were correct-  if sugar actually alleviated hypoglycemia...instead of making it worse...
Thisclose.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Follow the Money

Tamiflu: Millions wasted on flu drug, claims major report
Hundreds of millions of pounds may have been wasted on a drug for flu that works no better than paracetamol, a landmark analysis has said.
The UK has spent £473m on Tamiflu, which is stockpiled by governments globally to prepare for flu pandemics.
The Cochrane Collaboration claimed the drug did not prevent the spread of flu or reduce dangerous complications, and only slightly helped symptoms.
Do you know what actually does help prevent and ease flu infection?
See previous post.

Pay No Attention

Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Disease in Two Big Studies
New research has found that lower vitamin D levels were associated with illness, but didn’t show whether they were a cause.  People with low vitamin D levels are more likely to die from cancer and heart disease and to suffer from other illnesses, scientists reported in two large studies published on Tuesday.
And yet their recommendation is "Never Mind".
Poor Vitamin D.   No big multinational corporation with a patent and a financial motivation to "advise" everyone to take some and the government to stockpile it...

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Zombie Spotting

Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster allowed to register as religion in Poland
“Yesterday was filled with signs indicating the Monster’s goodwill,” the Polish group wrote, according to a translation obtained by Patheos. “The Monster’s followers spread out a banner on the stairs of the Court bearing the uplifting words “Do not fear the Monster!” and — following a tradition sanctified over centuries — repaired to a nearby restaurant for a bowl of spaghetti and a small beer.”
Gluten washed down with gluten.  A sacred ritual.  Ha.

The Guinea Pig Generation

Levels of sodium intake recommended by CDC associated with harmful health outcomes
A new study published in the American Journal of Hypertension finds evidence that the average daily sodium intake of most Americans is actually associated with better health outcomes than intake levels currently recommended by the CDC and major health departments, which are now being viewed by many in the scientific community as excessively and unrealistically low.

It's called Mania

And it can be induced by bacteremia as a result of surgical procedures. 

'Breatharian' Barbie Valeria Lukyanova Says She Wants To Live Off Light And Air Alone
"In recent weeks I have not been hungry at all," Lukyanova said, according to the International Business Times. "I'm hoping it's the final stage before I can subsist on air and light alone."
The website linked that dietary desire to a New Age practice known as Breatharianism, in which followers neither eat nor drink, believing they can exist solely on "cosmic micro-food."
Self Injury is the hallmark behavior of autoimmune OCD. 
I'm guessing her teeth are all fake too...

related post

Never mind

Men who started smoking before age 11 had fatter sons
Men who started smoking regularly before the age of 11 had sons who, on average, had 5-10kg more body fat than their peers by the time they were in their teens, according to new research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol. The researchers say this could indicate that exposure to tobacco smoke before the start of puberty may lead to metabolic changes in the next generation.
Well, since smoking is well known to reduce weight and documented to reduce insulin resistance, maybe the fathers transmit that trait directly to their sons...

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

But of Course

Is Antibacterial Soap Increasing Your Chances Of A Nasal Infection?
Previous research has shown that the overuse of antibiotics has a hand in promoting an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria and now a new study published in the journal mBio has found that an antibiotic common to soaps and hand sanitizers actually promotes the growth of Staphylococcus aureus inside the human nose.
The new study, from researchers at the University of Michigan, found that the antibacterial additive triclosan could actually increase the risk of nasal infection.
This irony courtesy of Christina.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Your Money or your Life

$1,000-a-day miracle drug shocks U.S. health care system
Sovaldi, a new hepatitis C treatment, can cure up to 90 percent of patients within three months. There's just one problem: The drug costs $1,000 a day. That price tag has thrown the biotechnology world into turmoil, as lawmakers and insurance companies complain that Sovaldi's maker is trying to milk desperate patients.
Now insurers are getting worried about this strategy.  About fking time.

There you go

New study shows how junk food diets prompt laziness
Observing changes over 3 months, the team noticed the rats on the junk food diet became obese, whereas the group that ate a normal, unprocessed diet did not.

These results are hardly surprising, but when the researchers gave the rats a task of pressing a lever in order to receive a reward of food or water, they found that rats on the junk food diet took much longer breaks than the lean rats. In a 30-minute session, the obese rats took breaks nearly twice as long as the lean ones.

Lead researcher Aaron Blaisdell says their findings suggest that lethargy may arise from consuming a junk food diet.

"Overweight people often get stigmatized as lazy and lacking discipline. We interpret our results as suggesting that the idea commonly portrayed in the media that people become fat because they are lazy is wrong. Our data suggest that diet-induced obesity is a cause, rather than an effect, of laziness."

He adds that either "the highly processed diet causes fatigue or the diet causes obesity, which causes fatigue."
Well, both, actually.   Low orexin levels cause both.  And sugar lowers orexin production.

This is really a groundbreaking study.   How freaking pathetic is that?

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Protect Yourself 2

How risky is oral sex? 

She covers the common STD's.  I would like to add that numerous other periodontal infections cause long term problems, like ductile inflammation and cancers.   Possibly not just in the mouth...

Making it Worse

Can antibiotics cause autoimmunity?
"A number of autoimmune diseases are thought to be triggered by infections," says Eisenlohr. "The results of this study suggest that certain antibiotics used to treat those infections may also contribute to that trigger."
It's complicated, but basically their idea is the antibiotics cause altered proteins that the body identifies as 'foreign" and then attacks them. 

I have always assumed that the antibiotics kill off most, but not all of the infection, leaving a residual population of resistant bacteria that although not clinically detected, triggers the autoimmune reaction.

Either way, the solution seems to be part of the problem.

All over the News

Ketamine Can Treat Severe Depression
The first UK study of the use of ketamine intravenous infusions in people with treatment-resistant depression has been carried out in an NHS clinic by researchers at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford.
...
The researchers confirmed that ketamine has a rapid antidepressant effect in some patients with severe depression who have not responded to other treatments. These are patients suffering from severe depression which may have lasted years despite multiple antidepressants and talking therapies. Although many patients relapsed within a day or two, 29% had benefit which lasted at least three weeks and 15% took over two months to relapse.
Yes, well ketamine has a couple interesting effects-
It's antibacterial.
And it also seems to lower insulin production.

Maybe if they understood that, and targeted those problems, those patients wouldn't relapse.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Dr David Conway

Study identifies 'new risks' for mouth and throat cancers
Poor oral health and irregular dental checks can increase the risk of oral cancer, a new study has found.
Yes, so have many old studies.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer report also found excessive use of mouthwash - more than three times a day - can also increase risk.
Yes, that's because most of them contain alcohol.   Alcohol does not "kill the germs".  See next quote.

Smoking, heavy drinking and "low socio-economic status" are established risk indicators of mouth and throat cancers.
That's because smoke particulates and alcohol deteriorate the gums over time.  Allows infection.

"All that's necessary in general is good regular brushing with a fluoride toothpaste and flossing combined with regular check-ups by a dentist”
Now that may be an improvement in behavior for your target audience (English people), but it's not true.  That is definitely not adequate advice to prevent periodontal infection and the cancers you are discussing.
 
SSDD.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Hoo de Freakin Hoo!!!!

Germs Rule the World
In the last decade, several diseases understood as strictly noninfectious have, in fact, been found to have significant infectious components. Several forms of cancer, gastrointenstinal diseases, autoimmune illnesses including diabetes, and even some categories of heart disease are all being reconsidered in light of new research. Together, this research amounts to nothing less than a new germ theory, one that could once again alter contemporary definitions of medicine.

Almost everything I talk about is in there.  His atherosclerosis explanation is indirect and ignores direct microbial processes that have been documented for decades, but it's a good start...

(I do have one "small" quibble though- this is not a new Germ Theory of disease, it's the same old theory.   Do not give doctors a pass on that-  they have been negligent, working off flying-ass-monkey assumptions, and ignoring their terrible results for half a century.)

A Light in the Darkness

Homework Assignment:  Read. This. Book.

The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine
Like many physicians, Dr. Terry Wahls focused on treating her patients’ ailments with drugs or surgical procedures—until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000. Within three years, her back and stomach muscles had weakened to the point where she needed a tilt-recline wheelchair. Conventional medical treatments were failing her, and she feared that she would be bedridden for the rest of her life.
Dr. Wahls began studying the latest research on autoimmune disease and brain biology, and decided to get her vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids from the food she ate rather than pills and supplements. Dr. Wahl’s adopted the nutrient-rich paleo diet, gradually refining and integrating it into a regimen of neuromuscular stimulation. First, she walked slowly, then steadily, and then she biked eighteen miles in a single day. In November 2011, Dr. Wahls shared her remarkable recovery in a TEDx talk that immediately went viral. Now, in The Wahls Protocol, she shares the details of the protocol that allowed her to reverse many of her symptoms, get back to her life, and embark on a new mission: to share the Wahls Protocol with others suffering from the ravages of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune conditions.
Yes, she has MS instead of narcolepsy, but they are very similar, and MS patients often have low orexin levels.  Almost everything she writes about applies to us too.
It's a great read-  her story is amazing, her credentials are impeccable, her research is thorough, and she writes for regular people, not like a doctor.  
She covers almost everything I rant and rave about- the broken medical/pharma system, dietary fallacies, basic nutrition and immunity, and has a whole diet plan spelled out simply.   Some of it may not apply, and she doesn't really cover infection,  but she explains a lot of things that I am not qualified to write about.

And she's calm.   Not a spaz like me.

If anyone can break through the matrix, it's her.
Read the book.

ps,  Thanks to Sara for recommending this!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Never underestimate

the power of microbes...

Methane-spewing microbe blamed in Earth's worst mass extinction

They don't care.   They just don't.

Protect Yourself

We have pubic hair for a reason
The shaving craze leaves us vulnerable to all manner of physical ailments.
In the exact place you don't want to have them...  

As I was saying

Goodbye Truth and Justice.

Supreme Court lifts overall limits on congressional campaign donations

I haven't felt this sense of dread since 9-12-2001 when Dick Cheney started talking about Iraq.

Nothing good will come of this.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

This is not a joke

The Republican Plan To Invalidate Scientific Research
How are Republicans attempting to squash scientific facts that challenge their own agendas? By funding and generating alternate research that backs up their claims instead. More than a dozen conservative senators are currently calling for an end to disclosure rules so that biased scientific studies can be presented as fact without having to acknowledge who paid for the research, writes The Daily Beast.
...
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, is leading the charge to rescind disclosure requirements. According to a member of Alexander’s staff, “the chilling effect the financial disclosure could have seems counter to the idea of robust inclusion of a diverse set of ideas and views to inform the rule-making.”
Ah, yes. The old “both sides of the story need to be presented” argument. While that’s good in principle, when the “other” side of the story is a fabricated, biased one, why does that deserve comparable consideration? If private interests can pay to make “fake science” indiscernible from and on equal footing with real science in the eyes of lawmakers, then there’s no hope for real science at all.

Pay no attention to the old white men behind the curtain.