Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Next year will be even better

Back when I first recovered, I thought this would be so easy and I wouldn't have to do anything.   I took my idea to Dr. Mignot, and figured he would be glad to take credit for it, and that the gluten effects would be proven and big news within six months.  He haughtily dismissed me.
After I found others who told him the same thing before me, I realized this was a feature not a bug, and the enormity of the battle ahead.   It triggered a panic attack of unprecedented proportion.  We were on our own.   And despite my manic determination, I was certainly too fragile to do it myself.  We would have to find each other and work together to overcome our impediments.
It's been seven years.  I never imagined it would work this quickly.   I really thought it would kill me first...

You are the most awesome people on the planet.  Thank you all so much.   All of you who have benefited by and contributed to our understanding over all these years.  I have learned something from every one of you.    You people have truly improved my quality of life in countless undefinable dimensions. 

This year I would especially like to mention:
Zia, for being there first and giving me the confidence to believe in my own experience.   And for keeping up the good fight.
Nikki, for attending the FDA meeting.
Christina, for your years of intense scholarly dedication to finding the truth, and months of preparation for your presentation at the conference.   You Rock Our World.
Gina,  Kimberly, and Lydia,  for making the trip, evangelizing like angels,  and being in the backup band with me.
Annie and my buddy Jamie.   for their inspirational success and optimism.
And Sarah.   I can never thank you enough. I wanted to run a forum, but I just couldn't... You are a brave researcher and GFPWN is an invaluable resource.   The only sane place we have. 
(I know you guys think I am unaware of all your progress, but you are wrong.   I did used to worry people weren't listening, but now there are so many of you I just can't handle the crowd.  It pains me that I can't contribute more.  #ZombieIrony.)

Thanks to all of you, I believe we are ready for Stage Three of the Zombie Liberation.
     1.  Figure out what causes zombies.
     2.  Find and reanimate zombies.
     3.  Activate the Zombie Army.  

Now that we have reached a critical mass...  I think it's time to start the Revolution.
We have collected enough data from ourselves and the literature to counteract any arguments that this is a figment of our imaginations.

We need to get some real press.  That's your assignment for this year-  tell your story.   Not just blogging-  we need to get in some newspapers or magazines.    Local and specialty presses like health or fitness mags might be interested.
And drum up any other publicity you can. 
Make a point to go over to NN and post reality based information on their forum.  I will hold my nose and pester them too.
Countertweet their bullshit Nchats with facts.
Attend a local support group if there is one.
Do what you can.  Pay it forward.  That's what I do.
Gina is setting up a new website to consolidate a lot of resources.  We also have some preliminary ideas about setting up a non-profit and hiring an administrator to coordinate future gatherings and funding some research.
I am going to write this article:  How Sleep Medicine Creates Sleep Disorders.    I have a couple ideas of science journalists who might be interested, but if you have publishing advice... I really could use some...

After that I really am going to purge my brain and write a book on the more general aspects of chronic infection.  The insane history of insanity.  How the spectrum really works.  How psychs create mental illness.  Uh huh.

In the meantime-  our medical madness has gone on long enough.

It's time to give the Doctor-Pharma Cartel a taste of their own medicine.
Crank up their cognitive dissonance and disable their reflexes.
Start the information barrage, my dear friends.
Let's induce some bureaucratic cataplexy.

Yo Sleep Medicine Industry


This is your warning.   Your days are numbered.   Get on board or get out of the way.

 Tick Tock.

Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha

Startling benefit of cardiology meetings: Outcomes better when cardiologists away?
High-risk patients with certain acute heart conditions are more likely to survive than other similar patients if they are admitted to the hospital during national cardiology meetings, when many cardiologists are away from their regular practices.
Now that is some amazing data.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Brain Eating Zombies of the Year

Sarah Knapton and the whole Science News industry.

It might seem like a tired cliché, but feeling young at heart really can make people live longer.
Scientists have proven that people with a youthful spring in their step and an unswerving optimism about the future seem able to cheat death.
...
The researchers believe that people who feel younger are more likely to take care of themselves, maintain a healthy weight, eat sensibly and follow medical advice.
They were also more likely to have younger friends and therefore engaged in activities of younger people which helped their positive outlook.
In contrast, those who felt older were more likely to be socially isolated and have poor personal care.
Dr Steptoe added: "Self-perceived age has the potential to change, so interventions may be possible. Individuals who feel older than their actual age could be targeted with health messages promoting positive health behaviours and attitudes toward ageing." 
Really?  Seriously?   What, are you twelve?
It is 2014, you work as a science editor for a national newspaper, there is all kinds of actual medical research being done, and you write this shit?

This is absolute content-free nonsense.   The only reason it exists at all is that numerous people got to take a slice of the revenue along the way.

I indict all of you.  All the way up and down the line:
- The researchers who actually dreamed up and did this "analysis".
- Their "supervisors" and the committees who approved and funded this crap.
- The publicity tool who wrote the vapid press release.
- This author, who took that fluff and puffed it up even more.
- The Telegraph for approving the copy, publishing and promoting it.
- And all the other wire feed outlets that did the same.

This is a total hack job and you should be ashamed that you took money to write it.
You are the biggest part of the problem.

People need, and actually do want, useful information dammit.
Like maybe this study...

Media Coverage of Medical Journals: Do the Best Articles Make the News? 
Newspapers were more likely to cover observational studies and less likely to cover randomized controlled trials than high impact journals. Additionally, when the media does cover observational studies, they select articles of inferior quality. Newspapers preferentially cover medical research with weaker methodology.
You could be (and most people sort of assume you are) filtering the available articles for innovative and compelling research, but no- you take the most glorious abundance of high quality technical information in the history of mankind and pick the stupidest stuff and make it stupider.

I don't even buy the argument that newsworthiness is different than scienceworthiness.
This article is not even clickworthy.
This IS a tired cliché, and they piled on useless dogma.
Feeling good does not make you healthy.
Being healthy makes you feel good.
What is so frakkin hard to understand about that???

Just because you assume people aren't sick doesn't mean they are healthy.
If they could think beyond one level of complexity, they might consider the option that feeling frail and fatigued IS A SYMPTOM OF SUBCLINICAL ILLNESS.   That maybe all the other diagnostics are inadequate and excluding mild cases.

These writers and their publishers would like to think that by choosing such weak evidence and arguments this article is unserious and benign, but it's not.  
There is plenty of data detailing the metabolic effects of subclinical infection that indicates these conclusions are patently wrong, and that the asinine and undefinable recommendation to "try to feel younger" will only delay real diagnoses and treatment and result in worse outcomes.

Disseminating "Health Information" like this is worse than not writing any at all.

Zombie of the Year

Robin Williams.
The vortex made flesh.
His amygdala died for yours.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Sorry Again

I received a lovely package of letters, and I would really like to read them, but your testimonials always break my heart and make me cry, and I have done that all day.
Thank you all so much for thinking of me.
I will get back to you when I can.

The best girl in the world























RIP Sophie
Always a Perfect Lady.

Maniacs of the Year

James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen

The opposite end of the arrogance spectrum from last year's winner.
Somebody please pull all their teeth out.  Without anesthesia .

Sunday, December 28, 2014

State of the Art

2014: Our year in trendy diets
From top-secret military nutritionists to butter coffee, Americans proved we have no idea how to eat.
I gotta check into that military diet... looks like they are actively inducing bipolar in those hyperactive guys...  geez louise... that would explain a lot...

Anyhow, the point is, I don't care how fcking scientific you say your diet is,  if you haven't explicitly accounted for the glucose sensitive effects of Orexin, you are full of shit.

(And I am not even considering the complete absence of any mention of illness.  Ever.)

Just a Reminder

2014 is the year thousands of people filmed themselves pouring ice water over their heads to "contribute" to "medical research".

This is where we are.
Sheer unmitigated insanity.

Zombie Caterpillars

Study suggests virus impacts caterpillar's phototactic response causing them to climb
A small team of researchers with Wageningen University in The Netherlands has found evidence that suggests that a type of virus that causes a species of caterpillar to climb higher up a plant, does so by causing a change to the victim's phototactic response. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they studied baculovirus infections in caterpillars and the experiments they conducted in attempting to show that changes in behavior attributed to the viral infection were likely due to changes in how light was perceived.
Run to the light Carol Anne.
A small team of researchers with Wageningen University in The Netherlands has found evidence that suggests that a type of virus that causes a species of caterpillar to climb higher up a plant, does so by causing a change to the victim's phototactic response. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they studied baculovirus infections in caterpillars and the experiments they conducted in attempting to show that changes in behavior attributed to the viral infection were likely due to changes in how light was perceived.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-virus-impacts-caterpillar-phototactic-response.html#jCp
A small team of researchers with Wageningen University in The Netherlands has found evidence that suggests that a type of virus that causes a species of caterpillar to climb higher up a plant, does so by causing a change to the victim's phototactic response. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they studied baculovirus infections in caterpillars and the experiments they conducted in attempting to show that changes in behavior attributed to the viral infection were likely due to changes in how light was perceived.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-virus-impacts-caterpillar-phototactic-response.html#jCp
A small team of researchers with Wageningen University in The Netherlands has found evidence that suggests that a type of virus that causes a species of caterpillar to climb higher up a plant, does so by causing a change to the victim's phototactic response. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they studied baculovirus infections in caterpillars and the experiments they conducted in attempting to show that changes in behavior attributed to the viral infection were likely due to changes in how light was perceived.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-virus-impacts-caterpillar-phototactic-response.html#jCp
A small team of researchers with Wageningen University in The Netherlands has found evidence that suggests that a type of virus that causes a species of caterpillar to climb higher up a plant, does so by causing a change to the victim's phototactic response. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they studied baculovirus infections in caterpillars and the experiments they conducted in attempting to show that changes in behavior attributed to the viral infection were likely due to changes in how light was perceived.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-virus-impacts-caterpillar-phototactic-response.html#jCp

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Reality based Behavior

Light-emitting e-readers detrimentally shift circadian clock, study shows
You may think your e-reader is helping you get to sleep at night, but it might actually be harming your quality of sleep, according to researchers. Exposure to light during evening and early nighttime hours suppresses release of the sleep-facilitating hormone melatonin and shifts the circadian clock, making it harder to fall asleep at bedtime.
Ummmm.... this is probably facilitated a lot by orexin too.   Orexin production is stimulated by the same optical neurons as melatonin.

So... "internet addiction" may not be a reward system malfunction as psychologists would like you to believe... but some sort of intuitional self therapy for sugar poisoning?  
I'm shocked.  Shocked I tell you.

(Rummages around in cerebral closet... oh here it is... )

Good Article

Microbiology: Ditch the term pathogen
The term pathogen started to be used in the late 1880s to mean a microbe that can cause disease. Ever since, scientists have been searching for properties in bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites that account for their ability to make us ill. Some seminal discoveries have resulted — such as the roles of various bacterial and fungal toxins in disease. Indeed, our oldest and most reliable vaccines, such as those for diphtheria and tetanus, work by prompting the body to produce antibodies that neutralize bacterial toxins.

Yet a microbe cannot cause disease without a host. What actually kills people with diphtheria, for example, is the strong inflammatory response that the diphtheria toxin triggers, including a thick grey coating on the throat that can obstruct breathing. Likewise, it is the massive activation of white blood cells triggered by certain strains of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus bacteria that can lead to toxic-shock syndrome.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Oh My

Such a lovely gift for me...  just what I wanted!

Central and Peripheral Metabolic Changes Induced by Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate.
Study Objectives:
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) was originally introduced as an anesthetic but was first abused by bodybuilders and then became a recreational or club drug.1 Sodium salt of GHB is currently used for the treatment of cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy. The mode of action and metabolism of GHB is not well understood. GHB stimulates growth hormone release in humans and induces weight loss in treated patients, suggesting an unexplored metabolic effect. In different experiments the effect of GHB administration on central (cerebral cortex) and peripheral (liver) biochemical processes involved in the metabolism of the drug, as well as the effects of the drug on metabolism, were evaluated in mice.
Design:
C57BL/6J, gamma-aminobutyric acid B (GABAB) knockout and obese (ob/ob) mice were acutely or chronically treated with GHB at 300 mg/kg.
Measurements and Results:
Respiratory ratio decreased under GHB treatment, independent of food intake, suggesting a shift in energy substrate from carbohydrates to lipids. GHB-treated C57BL/6J and GABAB null mice but not ob/ob mice gained less weight than matched controls. GHB dramatically increased the corticosterone level but did not affect growth hormone or prolactin. Metabolome profiling showed that an acute high dose of GHB did not increase the brain GABA level. In the brain and the liver, GHB was metabolized into succinic semialdehyde by hydroxyacid-oxoacid transhydrogenase. Chronic administration decreased glutamate, s-adenosylhomocysteine, and oxidized gluthathione, and increased omega-3 fatty acids.
Conclusions:
Our findings indicate large central and peripheral metabolic changes induced by GHB with important relevance to its therapeutic use.
More evidence that Xyrem induces ketosis.   It's the Coma Diet.
Jazz charges about $5000 a month- not to mention all the doctor visits and expensive tests and insurance nightmare- to create a metabolic state that all people can experience for free by doing nothing. 

(cross posted at NN just for spite.   Man, I gotta stay away from there.   Makes me want to scream.)

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Merry






















My Gift to You.  From the old lady who never ceases to be amazed by the Circle of Insanity.

I loved that stuff so much when I was a kid.   It was psychoactive.   Makes my nose clog up just thinking about it.  Go figure.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Everything Old is New Again

Rudolph is my favorite movie.   It has lots of useful life lessons.
  • Old white guys like to make arbitrary rules and drive wicked fast red vehicles.
  • Weird people are common and do extraordinary things.
  • Poor dental health causes antisocial behavior.

If Rudolph Took Place Today
Heh.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Sorry

I forgot to put up a song for Solstice.

This is the first time in 20 years I slept during the longest night.
I usually stay up and worry about you creatures of the darkness.

I guess this is progress.   I will assume you made it through the night.
Here's what I picked before I nodded off...

Update.  Damn.  Should have picked this.
RIP Joe Cocker...  one of our kind.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Bwa Ha Ha Ha

This is hilarious.  

Tree Talk with the Late Night Tree
video... skip to 1:45

I am pretty sure people think I am that absurd.   Especially my doctors.
Let my treeple go!

Merry Solstice

The Dangers of Winter Darkness: Weak Bones, Depression and Heart Trouble
Long periods without sunshine can play a role in a surprising variety of physical and mental disorders

It's a good discussion of vitamin D and infection control.
But don't forget that orexin production is stimulated by sunlight on the retinas. And orexin deficiency also leads to immune problems.
I think this shift is actually an adaptation to northern latitudes  but it's not really advantageous if you don't stay inside and drink all winter.   It's a Viking thing, it does not seem to be helpful if you have to work year-round.
Don't just take supplements.  Go outside. Get sun on your face. It will help heal your guts and skin.
Wear warm clothes, but breathe cold air. It stimulates the lungs to fight infection and increases brown fat production.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Viva La Vagus

The Year of Outrage
Slate tracked what everyone was outraged about every day in 2014. Explore by clicking the tiles below, and then scroll down to read about how outrage has taken over our lives.

The Circle of Sanity

Scientists prove that you shouldn’t trust anything Dr. Oz says 

Heh.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Okay People

I have always wanted to start a new dance craze like the Hustle or Macarena...
but I'm at that point in life that it looks like it's never going to happen.

So, I've got another idea.
Brothing.

Yeah, that juicing craze is really annoying, and definitely bad for teeth and pancreases.
I think people should drink broth instead.

When there are brotharistas making arty designs in your cup, I will be vindicated.

Glutamine reduces intestinal permeability from infection.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Fun With Obsession


Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel …
The classic Hannukah game is painfully slow. It’s time to speed it up.

...Ultimately, I ran 50,000 simulations of 171 different starting conditions, for a grand total of 8.5 million simulated dreidel games. Here’s what I mean by starting conditions: one starting condition was a game of six players with 10 tokens each. Another was a game of three people with 15 pieces each. All assumed eight seconds per spin, and, again out of generosity to dreidel, I assumed there was no delay between player turns.
Based on my calculations, if four players start with 10 pieces each, the game will last more than 1 hour and 54 minutes to complete. Perhaps if you were waiting out a siege by the Seleucid Empire this would be ideal, but two hours is excessive if you’re just trying to kill 30 minutes before the latkes are ready.

Breakfast of Champions

Latest coffee trend is to put butter in your coffee

I'm old-school. I use milk products.
Butter is nice too, but if you're sensitive to dairy, use coconut oil or ghee.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sick Sick Sick

This is the man who ordered sleep deprivation for prisoners.
This is the man whose heart was so petrified it had to be removed.
This is the twisted man who doesn't believe his illness affected his head.

Speaking of Impulse Control Problems

Stewart Lee Interviews Ben Stiller
Stiller elects to meet at a Soho pancake joint. The comedian is, it turns out, obsessed with pancakes, confessing, “It’s the one vice I have left. As soon as I get to a new city I say to the runner, ‘Show me the pancakes’. I like to go to a new pancake store and sniff each of the pancakes in turn before I choose one. If I could die and come back as a pancake I would. I wish my nutsack was full of pancake mix so I could make my own on demand. Christine made undershorts out of pancakes at Thanksgiving. I felt really happy wearing them but in the end they just weren’t practical and after a few days they rotted away. C’est la vie, my friend, c’est la fucking vie already.”
Stiller, dressed casually in trousers, socks, shoes, underpants, shirt, jumper and jacket, orders a large plain pancake with no syrup, and a mug of pancake mix, which he downs in one, slamming the mug hard on the table afterwards like a shot glass. “Hoo hah!” he shouts, sweating and suddenly agitated, “Bisquick!” Stiller wipes stray mix off his lips using his uneaten pancake as a napkin, and clicks his fingers to the waitress for more mix. “Do you think maybe you could warm it up this time, honey, if it’s not too much trouble?”, he barks, Hollywood style, before turning his ire on me.
Read his righteous rant.  See the pathology.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Dear Young Ladies

Here's a compelling reason for you to go into the STEM careers-

There's a lot to do.  Men have gotten a lot of things wrong. 
We really need you obsessive, detail-oriented girls to get out there and fix some shit.

Thanks.

This is Why

The CIA's Torture Program Would Not Have Existed Without Psychologists
Thanks to revelations in the newly released report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, it is now widely known that the CIA’s torture program was created, supervised, and implemented by two licensed clinical psychologists—James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen—who were paid millions of dollars for their efforts. Less widely known is that the Bush administration’s torture operation, at both the CIA and the Pentagon—at “black sites” and at Guantanamo—was devised and supervised largely by clinical psychologists. These psychologists used their knowledge of the workings of the human mind and psychological “mind-control” research to induce “learned helplessness” and “debility, dependency, and dread,” aiming to destroy the minds of detainees in the hope that “actionable intelligence” and “critical threat information” could be sifted from the wreckage.

The psychologists were vital to the torture program for one additional reason: The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel had determined that the presence of psychologists and physicians, monitoring the state and condition of the prisoner being tortured, afforded protection for the CIA leadership and the Bush administration from liability and potential prosecution for the torture. Later, the OLC applied the same rules to the Defense Department’s “enhanced interrogation program,” which, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee, was created and overseen by a team led by a clinical psychologist, and eventually overseen exclusively by clinical psychologists.
That is not medicine. 
That is leveraging buzzwords to restrain and violate people and escape responsibility.
But that's what they do.   Professionally sanctioned tyranny.

This is why Evidence Based Science is Crucial.
Because Plausible Deniability is the refuge of Sociopaths.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

This is annoying the crap out of me:

Cigna- my health insurance provider, the one that pushes the food pyramid for diabetics and universally tries to get everyone to lower their fat intake and eat more carbs...

Yeah, they've taken that show on the road.
They are using my money to broadcast that bullshit on TV.

They are financing this program that uses those same erroneous assumptions to humiliate sick people into compliance.

See the Matrix.

Can't... Stop... Myself...

'Men are idiots and idiots do stupid things,' study finds

Ahhhh... impulse control problems...

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Humane Research Council

STUDY: 86% Of Vegetarians Go Back To Eating Meat
Some of the results are:
10% of Americans try a vegetarian diet.
2% are still vegetarians.
Over 80% of people who try the diet go off it in a few months.

The major reason for attempting a vegetarian diet is to improve health.

Most vegetarians are young women.

The authors of this study have decided that this information will be useful to devise a strategy to get us all to eat less meat.

Frankly, their conclusions are backwards.

A 2% adoption rate indicates there is something fundamentally wrong with their protocol.

Maybe it's this:
The Primary reason people believe vegetarianism is healthy is because saturated fats are found in meat.  And we have been told that saturated fats cause heart disease.

THAT IS NOT TRUE.   THAT IS FALSE.
And there has never been any direct evidence that showed otherwise.

As a matter of fact, rigorous research shows the exact opposite:
A new controlled diet study has found that increasing the levels of saturated fat in the diet does not lead to increased levels of saturated fat in the blood. However, increasing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet was found to raise the levels of a fatty acid associated with diabetes and heart disease.
Maybe that's the reason their success rate is so low.   Not because their Marketing isn't good enough, but because their premise is wrong.  People Are Not Stupid- and when they don't get healthier, they go back to eating protein, which is critical for brain function.

This entire lifestyle is perpetuated by hyperinsulinemic young women trying to control their metabolisms.    Without the correct information.

Been there, done that.  Got really fat.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Beauty and Joy

You know, the older I get, the less I care about having nice things.   I used to want fancy things and to keep and take care of them, but I don't anymore.   I am okay with painting over my old, dinged stuff.  Jewelry and new cars and matching furniture just don't make me happy.
Stuff like this does though.

Researchers inoculated some people with lipopolysaccharide (a bacterial superantigen)  and guess what happened...   they created first stage metabolic syndrome.

A human model of inflammatory cardio-metabolic dysfunction; a double blind placebo-controlled crossover trial
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated a consistent relationship between chronic low grade inflammation and states of obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes and atherosclerosis. A challenge in understanding the mechanism of these associations in humans however remains hampered by a lack of a reliable in vivo model. Here we show that an evoked inflammatory model to simulate these states can be fruitful in identifying genes and pathways activated in cardio-metabolic disease. We acknowledge that the low dose endotoxemia model does not reproduce the chronic pathophysiology of complex cardio-metabolic diseases. It is, however, associated with minimal clinical response and approximates acutely the inflammatory and metabolic responses of the chronic disease states of interest. Furthermore, low-dose experimental endotoxin induction of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) signaling in vivo is one well established model of inflammation-induced metabolic disturbances in humans. Sepsis and chronic infections in humans induce insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and lipoprotein changes similar to the metabolic profile observed in obesity, type-2 diabetes and established coronary artery disease. The insulin resistance, adipose inflammation and lipoprotein changes observed acutely during experimental endotoxemia resemble those observed chronically in cardio-metabolic disease states.
So pretty.  More precious than diamonds.


Thanks for the link, C.

My Two Cents

All the research on stress response and dopamine indicates that starving and depriving sleep and repetitively injuring people will result in less pain sensitivity and more determination to complete their mission.

Torture probably has the opposite effect of it's intent.

But a couple of psychologists from the backwater of Spokane received 81 million dollars for confidently stating the opposite.  And making their wicked vision our shame.

Plausible deniability is the hallmark behavior of a sociopath.

Correlation Games

Middle-ear disease and schizophrenia: case–control study
Conclusions:  There is an association between middle-ear disease and schizophrenia which may have aetiological significance. 

Smoking, schizophrenia linked by alterations in brain nicotine signals
The authors found that the level of nicotine receptors in the brain was lower in schizophrenia patients than in a matched healthy group. Further, smoking, which is known to increase the levels of receptors for nicotine in the brain, had this effect in both groups, although was blunted in schizophrenia.

Nicotinic filtering of sensory processing in auditory cortex.
We show that nicotine produces complex, layer-dependent effects on spectral and temporal processing that, broadly speaking, enhance responses to characteristic frequency (optimal) stimuli while simultaneously suppressing responses to spectrally distant stimuli. That is, nicotine appears to narrow receptive fields and enhances processing within the narrowed receptive field.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Article Roundup

Hand dryers can spread bacteria in public toilets
Scientists from the University of Leeds have found that high-powered 'jet-air' and warm air hand dryers can spread bacteria in public toilets. Airborne germ counts were 27 times higher around jet air dryers in comparison with the air around paper towel dispensers.
Excellent.   Another universally accepted assumption that was backwards.


Could there be a bright side to depression?
NO.   No no no no no.
I hate this argument.   Thought of it and Dismissed it twenty years ago.
The ruminations are not the evolutionarily adaptive factor in depression.   In mania- for sure.
Fatigue and Immobilization is an evolutionary adaption for FIGHTING INFECTION.


Review: Ketogenic diets suppress appetite despite weight loss

Vegetable oil ingredient key to destroying gastric disease bacteria
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with gastric ulcers and cancer. To combat the infection, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering developed LipoLLA, a therapeutic nanoparticle that contains linolenic acid, a component in vegetable oils. In mice, LipoLLA was safe and more effective against H. pylori infection than standard antibiotic treatments.

Depression, Pain More Common in Dry Eye Than Tear Film Flaw
Indicating this is an INFECTION.
As one of my pet peeves, let me just add that "Dry Eye" is a description of a syndrome, and does not qualify as a diagnosis.


Horror in American nursing homes: The dangerous practice that they keep getting away with
An NPR inquiry found that antipsychotics are incorrectly prescribed to hundreds of thousands.
"Chemical Restraints"- such a nice euphemism for poisoning people...

This.

Dopamine helps with math rules as well as mood
To test this, the researchers trained rhesus monkeys to solve “greater than” and “less than” math problems. From other recent studies, the researchers knew that certain neurons in the prefrontal cortex answer such questions – one half of these “rule cells” was only activated when the “greater than” rule applied, and the other half was only activated when the “less than” rule applied.
Meanwhile, physiologically small amounts of various substances were being discharged near the relevant cells. These substances can have the same effect as dopamine – or the opposite effect – and could be adsorbed by dopamine-sensitive neurons. The surprising result was that stimulation of the dopamine system allowed the “rule cells” to perform better and to more clearly distinguish between the “greater than” and “less than” rules. Dopamine had a positive effect on the “rule cells’” quality of work.

This is the most important info I've seen in ages. I've been assuming it, but it's nice to have evidence.   Explains so much about mania.
I think I can structure the entire swirling super-rant in my head around this.
Nice...