Friday, October 31, 2014

Bread and Circuses

Halloween: America’s No. 1 holiday for wasting money on garbage

And she's just talking about the costumes.
Doesn't even mention the toxic, addictive treats.

I think about this a lot since I gave up celebrating most of them- Holiday junk spending seems to be the only thing holding the retail economy together.
That "seasonal" section in the stores keeps getting bigger.   Aisles of candy, and aisles of decorations that change monthly.

Tweet of the Day

@pourmecoffee
"To be safe, we must quarantine anyone who even might get sick. Now let's go door-to-door and accept food from total strangers!"

How to Make Little Zombies

Boo!

As Scary as it Gets

1 in 6 hospitals struggles to stop infections

Invincible Bacteria in the Middle East
And as health systems deteriorate in surrounding countries, war-injured patients with complicated wounds are flocking to Jordan, the Middle East's top destination for medical tourism, for treatment, bringing fierce infections with them.
"We think that the Middle East is one of the hotspots globally for antibiotic resistance," said Richard Murphy, an infectious-disease specialist with Doctors Without Borders.

Oh oh oh oh oh...  Holds head with hands.

Angry young men with untreatable infections, and guns.
Mercy on us all.

The Walking Bread

Why do Zombies Lumber?
Two neuroscientists explain why zombies have so much trouble walking.

Silly Rabbits.   It's those Pre-Motor areas.... like the glucose sensitive lateral hypothalamus.   Which activate the basal ganglia and frontal cortex... 

Slow walkers are poisoned.
Feed us protein.   Seriously.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Fun with Medical History

 Why Did Our Ancestors Have Better Teeth?  (2 min video with mandatory ad...)
New research suggests the British had better teeth under the Romans 1,800 years ago than they do now. On a larger scale, did our ancestors all have better teeth? The video above explores the rise of tooth decay and gum disease, which were uncommon among early people.  

Yo Doctors

Overweight Crash Test Dummies Developed in Response to Rising U.S. Obesity Levels

This is on you.  100%.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Puppies Want You to Think Twice

The Internet celebrates National Cat Day

Penn vet professor investigates parasite-schizophrenia connection


Zombie Swag

From the conference...  the tote bags Christina made for us.

And the Zombie Survival Kit (omg another conference, another lunchbox- how awesome is that!) and Wheat Life magazine Kimberly brought for me.




This sounds familiar

Uncontrolled hypertension highest among patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis

The amount of hypertension was directly proportional to the amount of immune activity.
Yep.

The Lie behind the Theater

Most People With Addiction Simply Grow Out of It: Why Is This Widely Denied?

Umm, because putting us "in treatment" and making us chronically ill validates their assumption?   Cognitively impaired customers are the very best kind...

The same thing is known about depression.   Most depressions resolve spontaneously within nine months.  Thats why treatment used to start at 6 months.   Now I think it's six weeks.   They give you drugs that don't work because you will probably get better anyway.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Drive By

MS drug candidate also shows promise for ulcerative colitis
Because it's in the guts, people...

Metformin beats other type 2 diabetes drugs for first treatment: study

Study finds asthmatics with Vitamin D deficiency are 25 percent more likely to experience acute attacks

The Problem with Geniuses

They think they're always right.

Google tells me it is Jonas Salk's 100th birthday.
Salk's work on influenza viruses has been associated with ethical controversy. The Associated Press reported that Salk authored a research paper describing a federally funded study that began in 1942. Salk injected patients in a state insane asylum in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with an experimental influenza vaccine, then exposed them to influenza virus months later to check the vaccine's efficacy. It is questionable at best whether any of these patients could have understood what was being done to them, or why.
Especially after that.  Huh.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Dear "Sleep Specialists"

One of the most fundamental things about narcolepsy that you don't understand is how sleepy we really are.
We are twice as tired as you realize   Because underneath those slack faces and paralyzed bodies-  we are obsessed and manic as hell...
That's how we survive your incompetence.
And that's how we will overcome it, with or without you.

We are the people we have been looking for.
The sleep experts.
And we know that now.

Correlation Games

Researchers find facial width-to-height ratio predicts self-reported dominance and aggression
The researchers enlisted the assistance of 54 male and 49 female volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30—each was asked to fill out a questionnaire designed to elicit responses regarding self assessment of anger, aggression, dominance and hostility. Each also had their face measured from cheek to cheek and from just above the upper lip to the top of their eyelids. When the researchers compared the facial ratios to the answers that were given, they found that on average, both male and female volunteers with wider faces reported being more aggressive, having worse tempers and being more dominant than did those with less wide faces. They did not, however, report feeling more hostile.
The researchers suggest there could be an evolutionary reason for what they found, reasoning that people with a wider face tend to have stronger cheekbones which could more easily withstand a punch from someone they'd angered.

Hmmm.   Cranky, righteous, swollen heads?
Sounds like maybe those people have a facial infection to me

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Public Service Announcement

32000 Lbs of Gluten Free Breaded Chicken Recalled for High Risk of Contamination
Murry’s, a Pennsyvania based company, has issued a recall on Gluten Free breaded chicken after the Colorado Department of Agriculture discovered there was high risk that the chicken was contaminated. The Federal Emergency Response Network lab discovered the toxins during a routine inspection. The Gluten Free Breaded Chicken Nuggets from Bell and Evans have been officially recalled for staphylcoccal enterotoxoins.

Happy Haunting

A Victorian lunatic asylum begins to reveal its secrets
The “castellated mansion” of Merivale’s nightmarish recollection was Ticehurst House, an 18th-century pile in the depths of the Weald of Sussex, that had by Merivale’s day been in operation for about eighty years as a private madhouse run by a local family of medical practitioners, the Newingtons.
Merivale’s records are among those of some one thousand or so patients, treated at Ticehurst between 1793 and 1925, that have been digitised by the Wellcome Library and are freely available through the Library catalogue.
Ooh. So much better than fiction.

The Circle of Insanity

Sleep difficulties common among toddlers with psychiatric disorders
"Essentially, these young children might be caught in a cycle, with sleep disruption affecting their psychiatric symptoms and psychiatric symptoms affecting their sleep-wake organization," said Boekamp.
Or maybe it's just that chronically sick, over-sugared kids are irritable and don't sleep well.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Things that make my head screech

Ebola Vaccine, Ready for Test, Sat on the Shelf
Almost a decade ago, scientists from Canada and the United States reported that they had created a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against the Ebola virus. The results were published in a respected journal, and health officials called them exciting. The researchers said tests in people might start within two years, and a product could potentially be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011.

It never happened. The vaccine sat on a shelf. Only now is it undergoing the most basic safety tests in humans — with nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola and an epidemic raging out of control in West Africa.
Nobody could have predicted.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Sam Gandy and WebMD for not doing their homework.

Studies Link Cold Sore Virus to Alzheimer's Risk
The virus that causes common cold sores -- herpes simplex -- might increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, two studies by Swedish researchers suggest.
In fact, being a carrier of certain antibodies to the virus can double the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers found.
...
Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, doubts that herpes and Alzheimer's disease are connected.
"From time to time data such as these appear in the literature, but they do not address causality or mechanism. The new data are likewise not definitive, and they do not say anything new about the association," he said.
"I do not disbelieve the data. I simply do not know whether the association has anything to do with the cause of Alzheimer's disease," Gandy added.
You are director of a Neurological department and you can't imagine a cumulative neuropathology caused by herpesviruses?  Listen asshole- If you haven't put herpes and beta amyloid into a Pubmed search and found that information -you should not be allowed to participate or comment on any research of any kind.
And WebMD- You could have just mentioned this is a correlative study.  There are direct studies.  There is no controversy.  What exactly is your agenda here?

edit- hey I figured it out.   Cognitively impaired customers are the very best kind.   Creating confusion is probably the underlying purpose of WebMd...

For the Newbies

Old Song of the Day

(it's a rerun for you oldsters)

Friday, October 24, 2014

Zombie Liberation Front

Here we are after the conference...
Gina, Christina, Me and Kimberly
Twice as many zombie hunters as before!


Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

See Jason Blame His Patients.

Overweight kids misinterpret asthma symptoms, potentially overuse medication
New research shows obese children with asthma may mistake symptoms of breathlessness for loss of asthma control leading to high and unnecessary use of rescue medications. The study was published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), the official scientific journal of the American Association of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"Obese children with asthma need to develop a greater understanding of the distinct feeling of breathlessness in order to avoid not just unnecessary medication use, but also the anxiety, reduced quality of life and health care utilization that come along with this misunderstood symptom," said Jason Lang.
Ummmm no.
DOCTORS need to understand that obesity reduces brown fat and mitochondrial function and causes symtoms of fatigue in their patients.

Oh, and that a frakking lung infection causes both asthma and obesity.    That would be kinda helpful...   

Pop Quiz

Sunshine may slow weight gain and diabetes onset

Hmmmm, whatever could it be?

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Conference Debrief

I am still waiting for people to send me the pics I want to post.

Gina, Christina and I met on Thursday and just talked and talked and talked.   Mostly at the same time.
Friday we took some time during the day to do some gluten-free carb-free shopping and pick up some people from the airport.  We were a little late to the cake reception, but were pleased to see some cheese and veggies on the table too.   Met a few people and tried to talk them into going to Christina's presentation.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Swick,  was really good.  The topic was Narcolepsy 101 and he had a good rundown of the history of research for N.   He also talked about the FDA meeting and observed that PWN know more about narcolepsy than their doctors, which made me happy.   At least one of them realizes it.
However- he did mention that the "next step in the plan" is to find out if Xyrem could be given to even younger children, down to age 7.     That nearly gave me a stroke.

I went to a couple more sessions on Saturday morning.   I really didn't find them helpful, wanted to scream most of the time, but I managed not to.   It's amazing the glaring assumptions and errors non-narco people make about sleep and dreaming...
So I decided I probably should refrain from any more lectures.

That's when I found the dental hygienist's table.
Her husband is one of us and when they attended the conference last year she noticed how many people were discussing the insidious dry mouth caused by the drugs.   She collected information and samples and was hoping to educate us that it is a real problem.   I briefly explained my hypothesis about periodontal disease and gave her some of my information.   I told her we need some dental professionals on our side and I really hope she will read my stuff and join our "team". 

Kimberly lives in the area and came and gave me an awesome Zombie Survival Kit filled with gluten-free food and some local vegetation.   I have only known her and Gina from the internet, so it was great to meet them.   They are so healthy I would never have suspected they ever had narcolepsy.

Saturday evening we retreated to our suite and watched the South Park Gluten-Free Ebola episode.   If you haven't seen it, you really should -  It's hilarious.   We had to pass around tissues because we were laughing so hard.   

Christina's presentation was Sunday morning and it was great.
She covered her story of how she improved using a gluten free diet, and then introduced some of the research she is now doing in school with intestinal immunity and diabetes and how it may apply to narcolepsy.
She then presented results from the Survey they did over on the Facebook groups.   It was really interesting, but I don't have the slides right now.
Then she covered the basics of all the food allergy diets we tend to adopt.
We had about 95 people attend, including a few we met at previous conferences (Charlie, Andrew, yay) who were already on board.    It was great to see so many GF people raise their hands when we asked!  It was a rousing success, and many people complimented and thanked her for the information.

I'd also like to make a shout-out to Wendy, Kristin,  Atila, the lovely Canadians and the Irish guy with the great accent-  I really hope you all read our research and it helps you out.

There was coffee available the entire time, a nice change from previous gatherings.
Had I attended more sessions, I'm sure I'd be more irritated and inclined to bitch about all the erroneous information that was disseminated.  But that wasn't why I was there.   I just wanted to see Christina be her bad genius self.

Overall, it was a positive experience for me.   Despite the constant headache, and seeing so many people with obvious undiagnosed periodontal and metabolic problems, I managed not to cry.  And the last part is what I have been living for.   My dream come true.


However- I would like to share this observation with the crew over at Narcolepsy Network-
If narcolepsy is caused by respiratory infections as the research suggests...
Having a meeting in a high altitude city where it is difficult to breathe
and
Having a nap room with a bunch of the sickest people sleeping in close quarters
and
Serving food buffet style with no sneeze guard...
Seem like pretty bad ideas to me.

Monday, October 20, 2014

I'm Sorry

I had a headache the entire time I was in Denver.   And more social activity in four days than I have for the past year put together.   My ears are ringing and I still haven't slept properly.
I must recover before I write.

But I didn't scream or cry.   Mission Accomplished.

Friday, October 17, 2014

So far So good

We are here and have a big suite and hope to meet enough zombies to have a party sometime this weekend.

Christina has a new post up and it's great.
She will be practicing her presentation on us later.

More soon....

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Zombie Liberation Front

Gina, Christina and I are arriving in Denver tomorrow, a day early.   We will be at the hotel sometime early afternoon, so if you want to meet up with us, shoot me an email in my profile account and we'll figure it out.

Otherwise, we will be attending the Cake Party on friday night.   We'll be the ones not eating cake.  Ha.

Well looky there, they finally put up the actual schedule

And there is the best thing I have ever seen in my life.
Sunday 10-11am    Christina Graves -  Gluten Free PWN
"Improving Narcolepsy with Dietary Changes" 
I wouldn't believe it til I saw it published.
Now I must go cry.

Bad Stuff

The Science of Why Toothpaste Makes Food Taste Funny

Because it's a floor cleaner.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Good Stuff

Disputed theory on Parkinson's origin strengthened
Does Parkinson's disease actually start in the gut? The so-called Braak's hypothesis proposes that the disease process begins in the digestive tract and in the brain's center of smell. The theory is supported by the fact that symptoms associated with digestion and smell occur very early on in the disease.
...
Researchers at Lund University have previously mapped the spread of Parkinson's in the brain. The disease progression is believed to be driven by a misfolded protein that clumps together and "infects" neighboring cells. Professor Jia-Yi Li's research team has now been able to track this process further, from the gut to the brain in rat models. The experiment shows how the toxic protein, alpha-synuclein, is transported from one cell to another before ultimately reaching the brain's movement center, giving rise to the characteristic movement disorders in Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Braak is the one who gave me the ideas about gluten and narcolepsy.
My current belief is that Parkinson's is caused by an oropharyngeal fungal infection.
Exacerbated by exposure to other volatile aromatics like pesticides, petroleum products, and beer.

Setting a Bad Example

The Worst Person in the World

Monday, October 13, 2014

Big Doins in the Trailer Park

Going to the Narcolepsy Network conference on Friday.
Have to take care of a few things this week.
Probably light posting until afterwards.  

Brain Eating Zombies of the Week

Frakkin Stanford.

This is from last year, but I want y'all to see this research again-

Comorbidities Common in Narcolepsy
"We found that 27% of persons with narcolepsy had a mood disorder, 37% were taking an antidepressant — 3 times higher than the general population — and anxiety disorders were also prevalent,"

A high proportion of narcoleptic patients reported psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder and social anxiety disorder, which affected nearly 20% of these individuals, Dr. Ohayon reported.

"In addition, 34% of narcoleptics were obese, and this was with matching for body mass index in the study, and they are more likely to have hypercholesterolemia and hypertension than the general population," Dr. Ohayon added.

He further noted that several comorbid conditions were autoimmune disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and allergies.

Five medical diseases were also more frequently observed among narcoleptic participants: hypercholesterolemia, digestive diseases, heart disease, upper respiratory tract disease, and hypertension. The highest odds ratios were for diseases of the digestive system, which were noted in 16.3% of the narcoleptic population vs 5.0% of the controls, a 3-times-increased risk (P < 0.001), and for upper respiratory tract diseases, which were noted for 27.5% and 10.9%, respectively, for an odds ratio of 2.5 (P < 0.001).

Here's the poster from the conference
Zoom in on the charts on the right side.

Please Note:   They did not survey DENTAL disease.

We have Apnea like frakkin crazy.  Look at that.
And stroke, kidney failure and heart failure have been documented to be caused by strep infections for over a century.
And all five of those are accelerated by Stimulant Drugs.


Here's what the lead researchers had  to say about it-
"Dr. Ohayon concluded,   "We don't know how to interpret these data. These are just facts, but we don't know what they mean."

"Frankly, we are scratching our heads. It is a big question mark,"
Black said.

Yep, it's a medical mystery how illness could cause these symptoms. 
(previous research from Mignot's minions.)

Sunday, October 12, 2014

As I was Saying

2nd Ebola case in Texas caused by breach in protocol, CDC chief says

Thanks for all that great preparedness training, CDC...
Oh and finding that smallpox and stuff.

Just saw this

Ebola in the U.S.—Politics and Public Health Don’t Mix

See the Technicolor Nightmare brought on by people unwilling to provide healthcare to others.

Maniac of the Day

 Dr. Elizabeth Hohmann- for following up on her crazy idea.
 
Fecal pills could help fight fatal infections

Twenty people with recurrent C. diff infections took 15 pills a day, about the size of a large multivitamin, for two days. Fourteen of them were free of diarrhea almost immediately, with no recurrences. The other six tried the treatment again; that did the trick for four of them. The two people who failed to get results were in poorer health overall, the study found. But the treatment worked for people from age 11 to age 89.
The Mass General group has since treated another 21 people with the pills, with similar success. The results were announced Saturday at the IDWeek meeting in Philadelphia andpublished in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.
“We’re really jazzed that a journal of this stature has picked this up,” Hohmann says. “I’ve been a microbiology researcher for 25 years and this is the biggest thing we’ve done.”
Yoo hoo, all you pharmas that have stopped making antipsychotics and and antidepressants and antibiotics because all the "unintended consequences" are affecting your risk profile...
Here's something to put in your pipeline.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic

Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests
The inactivated flu vaccine does not appear to be effective in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma. In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than their peers who do not get the vaccine, according to new research. While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations, according to researchers.

School Flu Preparation

"We are encouraging families to get the flu vaccination for their kids." And they are offering care that is convenient for parents through the school district Wellness Program.

Repeat after me...
Vitamin D.  Vitamin D.   Vitamin D.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Hip-hop therapy is new route to mental health, say psychiatrists

STFU.   If anything, the urge to rap is probably a symptom of subclinical Tourettes.
It's similar to musical theater.  And cheerleading.
A ritualized form of hyperactivity...

Joseph Lister is Weeping

Before Ebola, Western Doctors Foolishly Believed the Age of Epidemics Was Over—It Wasn't
An earlier response might have stopped both diseases in their tracks, but in each case WHO denied the gravity of the situation for months. Even then, it emphasized the responsibility of each government to address its own public-health threat, although the state’s lack of health infrastructure was a major reason for the outbreaks in the first place. Indeed, in the case of Syria, it was the government that destroyed the hospitals and attacked the doctors in the opposition-held areas where polio broke out. Small wonder both of these global threats moved quickly across borders.
Part of the reason for this complacency is a “been there, done that” attitude toward infectious disease. Western doctors tend to believe we have discovered, isolated and conquered germs, and have moved on to more difficult non-communicable diseases like diabetes and dementia.

Medical records reveal deceased Texas Ebola patient sent home with high fever
Thomas Duncan was released from hospital with 103F degree fever, despite telling nurse about recent travels.

Western hospitals are the LEAST prepared because they have become complacent with antiseptic protocols by relying on antibiotics for decades.   Not only have they created a lot of untreatable infections- Nobody remembers how to deal with contagion anymore.  They don't even know their precious "non communicable diseases" are actually extensively documented infections.

Welcome to their nightmare.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Because it does

92% of patients say medical marijuana works
A 2013 survey in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly 8-in-10 doctors approved the use of medical marijuana. Now, a wide-ranging survey in California finds that medical marijuana patients agree: 92 percent said that medical marijuana alleviated symptoms of their serious medical conditions, including chronic pain, arthritis, migraine, and cancer.

Maybe Next Year

Happy World Mental Health Day.

40,000 suicides annually, yet America simply shrugs
There's a suicide in the USA every 13 minutes.
And there's been one death from Ebola.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

As I was Saying

Well Looky There-

The successful treatment of hypercapnic respiratory failure with oral modafinil.
Hypercapnic respiratory failure is common in advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is usually treated by nasal ventilation. Not all patients requiring such ventilation can tolerate it, with anxiety and phobia influencing their reaction, along with treatment failure. We report the case histories of six patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure who were at risk of death due to refusal of nasal ventilation or its failure despite ongoing treatment. We report their improvement with oral modafinil 200 mg tablets used as a respiratory stimulant, which led to discharge, improved arterial blood gases, and offset further admissions with hypercapnic respiratory failure. This drug is licensed for narcolepsy and is said to stimulate the respiratory system via the central nervous system. Its use in respiratory failure is an unlicensed indication, and there are no case reports or studies of such use in the literature. Its respiratory stimulant effects appear better than those with protriptyline, which was a drug previously used until its production was discontinued. Our findings suggest that a study of modafinil in hypercapnic respiratory failure would be warranted, especially for patients with treatment failure or intolerance to nasal ventilation. This may offer a way of shortening hospital stay, improving outcome and quality of life, and reducing death and readmissions.
Modafinil improves lung function.  Go figure.

Microbial Whak-a-Mole

Influenza A potentiates pneumococcal co-infection: New details emerge
Influenza infection can enhance the ability of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae to cause ear and throat infections, according to research published ahead of print in the journal Infection and Immunity.
In the study, the investigators infected mice with either influenza alone, pneumococci alone, or both at once, and then monitored the populations of bacteria and virus over time. They also monitored the mice for development of middle ear infection.
Influenza infection enhanced the bacterium's ability to colonize the nasopharynx, and to infect the normally sterile middle ear.
"As with most pneumococcal infections, it should be appreciated that localized nonlethal infections are much more common than the rapidly lethal presentations," says Swords.
Heh.  Yes it should.
Workin on it...

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Zombie Snake Oil

It looks like the OrexinDiet charlatans are making the rounds again.

I posted about this a couple years ago.   It's completely fraudulent.   Dr. Dev probably doesn't even know they are using his image.

First of all, orexin is not bioavailable via ingestion.  That's why they inject it into brains or abdominal spaces or spray it up the nose.

Secondly, this is a homeopathic product.   They take a drop or two of orexin (maybe), put it in water then dilute it to like a billionth percent.    There is no detectable orexin left.  It is water.  

Brain Damage on a Plate

Nathan Shields' Zombie Pancakes

Yeah they Do

Robert Reich: We let Big Pharma rip us off

Monday, October 6, 2014

Now That's Somethin'

Excellent Review Article.

Orexin A Controls Glucose Metabolism

It regulates insulin.
And liver functions.
And Brown Fat.
And energy to your muscles.

This is interesting-  orexin functions differently if you're bingeing or fasting...
If you're starving, it releases glucose from your liver to your muscles.
If you're not, it stimulates insulin to store the glucose as fat.

It's all there.  So Pretty.

I got nothin

Here.  Says it all.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Further Adventures

Charlie Sheen under investigation for dentist bust-up
Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating claims the “Anger Management” star scuffled with his personal dentist and an oral surgeon while he was in the chair receiving treatment for an abscess.
Dammit Charlie.  You were so close...

Zombie Shopping

Texas groom gives new wife his brain in a jar as a wedding gift

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Silliness

South Park goes gluten free.     (yes it's raunchy)

I usually don't watch this show anymore, but it was funny.
Gotta love the dream sequence.

Simple Answers

Facebook may be eyeing your health data. Should you trust it?

Absolutely NOT.

Sensory Integration

Study shows human ear impacted by low frequency noises
Testing was done by using a sensitive microphone that picks up sounds (known as spontaneous otoacoustic emissions or SOAEs) that actually emanate from the ear—a normal byproduct of inner ear mechanics. Normally SOAEs are quite stable over a short period of time. With the volunteers, however, the researchers found the SOAEs began to oscillate after the low frequency exposure, between stronger and weaker emissions until eventually subsiding after about 3 minutes. These findings are troubling because prior research has shown that changes to SOAEs can be tied to hearing damage and they disappear completely when hearing is lost altogether.
I am becoming more and more interested in the cognitive effects of disordered hearing.  Hearing loss is associated with paranoia. 
I have incredible sensitivity to low frequencies, especially fans and motors.   The air conditioning here has been making me nervous all summer,  I'm so glad we can turn it off now.  Those boom box cars make me nauseous.   And there was a natural gas powered bus in Seattle that would paralyze me when it went by.   Scared the living shit out of me one day when I was driving ...

Shocking Results

Energy drinks cause insomnia and nervousness in athletes

Free, long-acting birth control cuts teen pregnancy, abortions

Vitamin D significantly improves symptoms of winter-related atopic dermatitis in children

Friday, October 3, 2014

No medical benefits indeed

Marijuana use associated with lower death rates in patients with traumatic brain injuries
The findings, published in the October edition of The American Surgeon, suggest THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, may help protect the brain in cases of traumatic brain injury, the researchers said. The study included 446 patients who suffered traumatic brain injuries and underwent a urine test for the presence of THC in their system. The researchers found 82 of the patients had THC in their system. Of those, only 2.4% died. Of the remaining patients who didn't have THC in their system, 11.5% died.
Hmmm... since pneumonia is the most common complication of hospitalization, I'll go with some kind of improved lung immunity.

Nonetheless, no toking and driving.  Have a nice weekend.

Correlation Games

Jealous, Moody Women and Alzheimer's Risk
Chronic stress, neuroticism in midlife linked to doubled odds of dementia, researchers suggest.
Sick ladies get stressed and cranky.
Sick ladies are hyperinsulinemic.

Pop Quiz

A weakening sense of smell could mean death is near

What oh what could it possibly be...

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Self Medication

Making old lungs look young again: Animal research suggests ibuprofen can reduce lung inflammation in elderly
New research shows that the lungs become more inflammatory with age and that ibuprofen can lower that inflammation.
In fact, immune cells from old mouse lungs fought tuberculosis bacteria as effectively as cells from young mice after lung inflammation was reduced by ibuprofen. The ibuprofen had no effect on the immune response to TB in young mice.
This was a rare look at inflammation in the aging lung environment by Ohio State University scientists who study the immune response to TB. The researchers already knew that old mice had a harder time clearing TB from the lungs than young mice, but had not investigated the role of lung inflammation.
It's so fascinating to me that we gravitate to drugs that actually are effective...  

Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha

Study finds Portal 2 better at improving cognitive skills than Lumosity

Their Vision of Your Future

Poke even more holes in your intestine...

Pill coated with tiny needles can deliver drugs directly into the lining of the digestive tract

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Yo Psychs

Behold the actual results of your advice-

Depression increasing across the United States
A study by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean M. Twenge shows Americans are more depressed now than they have been in decades.
Analyzing data from 6.9 million adolescents and adults from all over the country, Twenge found that Americans now report more psychosomatic symptoms of depression, such as trouble sleeping and trouble concentrating, than their counterparts in the 1980s.
"Previous studies found that more people have been treated for depression in recent years, but that could be due to more awareness and less stigma," said Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable than Ever Before." "This study shows an increase in symptoms most people don't even know are connected to depression, which suggests adolescents and adults really are suffering more."
You aren't addressing the cause.   It's as simple as that.

This is pretty hilarious though...   Puts her in brain-eating territory-
Twenge believes Generation Me would benefit from a heavy dose of realism.
Yes, that's predictable.  Blame everyone else.

I suggest she investigate some reality based mechanisms herself.   Like all those high doses of antibiotics and sugar.

Oh Really

Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's reversed
As one example, in the case of the patient with the demanding job who was forgetting her way home, her therapeutic program consisted of some, but not all of the components involved with Bredesen's therapeutic program, and included:

(1) eliminating all simple carbohydrates, leading to a weight loss of 20 pounds;
(2) eliminating gluten and processed food from her diet, with increased vegetables, fruits, and non-farmed fish;
(3) to reduce stress, she began yoga;
(4) as a second measure to reduce the stress of her job, she began to meditate for 20 minutes twice per day;
(5) she took melatonin each night;
(6) she increased her sleep from 4-5 hours per night to 7-8 hours per night;
(7) she took methylcobalamin each day;
(8) she took vitamin D3 each day;
(9) fish oil each day;
(10) CoQ10 each day;
(11) she optimized her oral hygiene using an electric flosser and electric toothbrush;
(12) following discussion with her primary care provider, she reinstated hormone replacement therapy that had been discontinued;
(13) she fasted for a minimum of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and for a minimum of three hours between dinner and bedtime;
(14) she exercised for a minimum of 30 minutes, 4-6 days per week.
Uh Huh.
Been there done that.

Update:  Here's the full text.   I don't see anything about HSV1 or acyclovir.