Thursday, July 31, 2014

Drive By

New infections cause dormant viruses to reactivate
Tell me about it.   You might want to tell some Alzheimer's patients too.

New research links anxiety to epilepsy-like seizures
"Experiential Anxiety" sounds very familiar.  also Temporal lobe problems.
Pretty sure it's not psychological though.

Boosting neural pathway from gut to brain could play part in weight control
Yes, and guess what suppresses the vagus.... Sugar.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

 Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior

Dieting young may lead to poor health outcomes later: Trends in dieting strategies in young adult women from 1982 to 2012
The younger a woman was when she started her first diet, the more likely she was to use extreme weight control behaviors like self-induced vomiting, misuse alcohol, and be overweight or obese when she reached her 30's.
Yes, well that's because this is the time when we young women were told to lose weight by eating low fat food.   Which causes hyperinsulinemia, hypoglycemia and eating disorders.   And the younger you start, the sicker you get.   Cause and Effect. 
It's not about dieting, it's about erroneous dieting advice.

Stop studying "Ingestive Behavior" and start studying metabolism please.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

On the Other Hand

Here's a new study that doesn't make my head screech.

Gender Differences between Hypocretin/Orexin Knockout and Wild type Mice: Age, Body Weight, Body Composition, Metabolic Markers, Leptin and Insulin Resistance.
Insulin resistance was significantly higher in both male (73%) and female (93%)  orexin knockout mice compared to age- and sex-matched Wild Type mice. We conclude that absence of the Hcrt peptide has gender-specific effects. In contrast, Hcrt-ataxin mice and human narcoleptics, with loss of the whole Hcrt cell, show weight gain in both sexes.
Thanks UCLA.

Big Doins in the Trailer Park

Retraction Watch

Authors retract paper “confirming” that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease
A group of researchers at Stanford and elsewhere is retracting a 2013 paper that another scientist told Nature was “one of the biggest things to happen in the narcolepsy field for some time.”
The Science Translational Medicine paper caused a buzz because it claimed to show that narcolepsy was an autoimmune disease. Here’s the notice:

A.K. De la HerrĂ¡n-Arita and colleagues retract their Research Article “CD4+ T Cell Autoimmunity to Hypocretin/Orexin and Cross-Reactivity to a 2009 H1N1 Influenza A Epitope in Narcolepsy,” which appeared in the 18 December 2013 issue of Science Translational Medicine. The researchers report that they have been unable to reproduce the paper’s key findings. Specifically, they could not demonstrate a differential Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSpot response of CD4+ T cells from patients with narcolepsy compared to those from normal controls after exposure to the hypocretin peptides HCRT56–68 or HCRT87–99. Because the validity of the conclusions reported in the study cannot be confirmed, they are retracting the article.

Here is Christina's excellent explanation.

Now,  I would appreciate it if he would rescind that suggestion that we all get flu shots until they figure out what the hell is going on.

Updates:
Stanford Notice
AAAS Article
NatGeo

Yoo Hoo.... Narcolepsy Network.... where are you....  Tick Tock....

Let the Choir Sing

Low-carb diet recommended for diabetics
The study, conducted by a consortium of 26 physicians and nutrition researchers, suggests the need for a reappraisal of dietary guidelines due to the inability of current recommendations to control the epidemic of diabetes. The authors point to the specific failure of the prevailing low-fat diets to improve obesity, cardiovascular risk or general health, and to the persistent reports of serious side effects of commonly prescribed diabetes medications. By comparison, the authors refer to the continued success of low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome without significant side effects.
"Diabetes is a disease of carbohydrate intolerance," said Barbara Gower, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for research in the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences and one of the study authors. "Reducing carbohydrates is the obvious treatment. It was the standard approach before insulin was discovered and is, in fact, practiced with good results in many institutions. The resistance of government and private health agencies is very hard to understand."

The authors say their review of the medical literature shows that low-carbohydrate diets reliably reduce high blood sugar—the most salient feature of diabetes—and at the same time show general benefit for risk of cardiovascular disease.

The 12 points of evidence, backed up by clinical studies, are:

-High blood sugar is the most salient feature of diabetes. Dietary carbohydrate restriction has the greatest effect on decreasing blood glucose levels.
-During the epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, caloric increases have been due almost entirely to increased carbohydrates.
-Benefits of dietary carbohydrate restriction do not require weight loss.
-Although weight loss is not required for benefit, no dietary intervention is better than carbohydrate restriction for weight loss.
-Adherence to low-carbohydrate diets in people with Type 2 diabetes is at least as good as adherence to any other dietary interventions and frequently issignificantly better.
-Replacement of carbohydrates with proteins is generally beneficial.
-Dietary total and saturated fats do not correlate with risk of cardiovascular disease.
-Plasma-saturated fatty acids are controlled by dietary carbohydrates more than by dietary lipids.
-The best predictor of microvascular and, to a lesser extent, macrovascular complications in patients with Type 2 diabetes is glycemic control (HbA1c).
-Dietary carbohydrate restriction is the most effective method of reducing serum triglycerides and increasing high-density lipoprotein.
-Patients with Type 2 diabetes on carbohydrate-restricted diets reduce and frequently eliminate medication. People with Type 1 usually require less insulin.
-Intensive glucose-lowering by dietary carbohydrate restriction has no side effects comparable to the effects of intensive pharmacologic treatment.

"We've tried to present clearly the most obvious and least controversial arguments for going with carbohydrate restriction," said Richard David Feinman, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and lead author of the paper. "Here we take a positive approach and look to the future, while acknowledging this paper calls for change. The low-fat paradigm, which held things back, is virtually dead as a major biological idea. Diabetes is too serious a disease for us to try to save face by holding onto ideas that fail."
Look at that.  Evidence based dietary advice.  Mark the calendar, it's a big day.

Paging Dr. Devries, please report to the information desk...

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Eeww! Ick!

Looks like a biohazard to me

Yo Doctors

Diet affects men's and women's gut microbes differently
These results suggest that any therapies designed to improve human health through diet should take into account whether the patient is male or female.
It's 2014.  The effects of estrogen on metabolism have been known for sixty years.  Why oh why is this a "novel" idea?

Sounds so Fun!

Back to Bed
Developed by Bedtime Digital Games, Back to Bed is a 3D puzzle game with a surreal twist. Bob suffers from narcolepsy, which gives him hallucinations and excessive daytime sleepiness, causing him to take a surprise nap in the most dangerous of places. Playing as Bob's subconscious protector, you'll move him around illusion-filled levels and manipulate the environment to save Bob’s life and steer him back under his duvet.
edit... Bonus Level: get Bob to clean out his cupboards and stop eating wheat while under it's hypnotic influence...

Monday, July 28, 2014

The Goosebump Protocol

Brown Fat May Protect Against Diabetes and Obesity in Humans
A new study in 12 men with and without brown fat has shown for the first time that when activated by mild exposure to cold, brown fat increases blood glucose disposal, insulin sensitivity, and energy expenditure in humans.
I now go in the pool just to shiver.  No need to swim.  Ha.
(I wonder how long that Hot Yoga fad is going to last.)

Cooler bedroom temperatures may boost metabolic activity

For the record- epinephrine is well documented (1968) to induce the mitochondria to proliferate and "brown" the fat....

Stimulants raise epinephrine levels. And make me shiver.  Huh.  How about that.

Clever, that.

Dementia May Spur Pacemaker-Implant Recommendations
Subjects with dementia at the baseline visit (the visit prior to their assessment for a new pacemaker implant) were 60% more likely (p=0.02) to get a device than those initially without cognitive impairment.
The analysis adjusted for demographics, intensity of pacemaker use in each center's referral region, functional status, cardiac comorbidity status, hypertension, and Hachinski Ischemic Score (used to differentiate ischemic from degenerative forms of dementia).
Ssshhh!  The patients never noticed!  

Just Ignore It

Safety profile of blockbuster blood thinner comes under question
In an apparent bid to position Pradaxa as an improvement on a long-used medication, Boehringer-Ingelheim "withheld from the [FDA's] regulators important analyses regarding how to use the drug as safely and effectively as possible," wrote BMJ's investigations editor, Deborah Cohen.
Today, millions of patients across the globe are taking Pradaxa. As of December 2011 -- about a year after Pradaxa became available -- Boehringer-Ingelheim reported that it had been notified of 9,049 bleeding events among patients taking dabigatran, including 368 deaths. Under the terms set by the FDA and its European counterpart, Cohen wrote, some of those patients may have had their blood over-thinned, raising the risk of bleeding, a problem that might have been averted had regulators required closer monitoring of patients taking the drug.
Isn't this the drug in those commercials that claims it's better because you don't have to be monitored?
Oops.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

New York Times

Says Repeal Marijuana Prohibition

Their economic and justice arguments make sense...

I just want to add that it really looks like marijuana is the most appropriate social substitute for alcohol.   Especially for alcoholics-
It lowers insulin resistance and stabilizes blood sugar, it lowers dopamine response, and it heals mucous membranes in the alimentary tract.

Go figure.

I Thought So

The Secret to a Tattoo's Permanence: The Immune System
As this fascinating video from TED explains, tattoos are actually a complicated inflammatory process—a delicate balancing act between your body and the dye that's invading it.

It turns out your ethereal watercolored bird is kind of like an infection—and the reason it's permanent is because your body keeps on fighting it forever.
Yep yep yep.
I have always been more inclined to piercing, but maybe someday she will be a part of me.

More Fruits and Vegetables!

Scientists identify the flavor that helps us eat less

Uh huh.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Pay it Forward

Hey Everyone-
Christina is setting up a Gluten Free Narcolepsy website.
It's going to have all kinds of information and resources for us all in one place.  Instead of spread all over our Facebook posts and personal blogs.

She's a dedicated scientist and truly conscientious person, so be assured it will be professional.
Not a snarkfest like this blog...

Anyhow,  it's kind of bare right now, but the goal is to have it ready for the NN conference in October.
If you have links to submit that would be great.  And please, please, please write up a testimonial and send in a picture.   It would be so awesome to have a whole page of faces to greet newbies...

Thanks!

Strike that, Reverse it

So I finally got around to reading the Summary of the FDA Patient Conference on Narcolepsy.

Most of it is just reporting the annoying State of the Paradigm, but this part really bugs me...
Some participants commented on the need to better understand and target the underlying cause(s) of the disease, for example orexin or hypocretin loss.
A few commented that sodium oxybate targets the underlying cause (sleep consolidation) but that other options are needed for patients who cannot take sodium oxybate.
Who is telling people that narcolepsy is caused by a breakdown in sleep architecture?
Hmmmm.   I wonder.
That sounds kinda backwards to me.

There's an app for that

Monitoring the Rise and Fall of the Microbiome
Trillions of bacteria live in each person’s digestive tract. Scientists believe that some of these bacteria help digest food and stave off harmful infections, but their role in human health is not well understood.
To help shed light on the role of these bacteria, a team of researchers led by MIT associate professor Eric Alm recently tracked fluctuations in the bacterial populations of two research subjects over a full year. The findings, described in the journal Genome Biology, suggest that while these populations are fairly stable, they undergo daily fluctuations in response to changes in diet and other factors.
The interesting thing is how quickly the changes can occur... within a day.
That sounds so familiar.   What was that?  Doctor something and Mister somebody else?

Friday, July 25, 2014

Just Sayin...

The roles of influenza virus antigens and the AS03 adjuvant in the 2009 pandemic vaccine associated with narcolepsy needs further investigation.
Facial hypotonia and tongue protrusion were eventually more frequent in Pandemrix-vaccinated children (significant at the 5% level). Of the 11 vaccinated children, 10 (91%) eventually developed cataplexy, compared with 46 out of 64 (72%) of the unvaccinated children; this difference was not statistically significant and there were no other significant differences between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups (see Table 2).
Facial Hypotonia.   Tongue protrusion.

Sounds suspiciously like a chronic mouth infection to me...

Breaking News

Big doins in the trailer park.

Click on Retractions

still looking for more info...

update here, this is good.
Doesn't address the retraction or any reasons for it, but does make some good technical points on the data.
Narcolepsy: welcome to neuroimmunology!

Here are my thoughts on the subject, although I haven't done an analysis of "Mignot's" paper.   For some reason, just thinking about it makes my head screech.

thanks to everyone who is feeding me info on this topic...

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Monday, July 21, 2014

Exquisite Pile Management

Books out, 3D printers in for reinvented US libraries
In 2011, Fayetteville became the first public library in the US to set up a maker lab. Besides 3D printers, the space features a laser cutter, electronics kits, workshop tools, Raspberry Pi computers and an array of sewing machines. It functions somewhere between a classroom and a start-up incubator – a place where people from all over the region can get involved with state-of-the-art technology.
Since the lab opened, similar spaces have been popping up across the country, including in cities like Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Denver and Detroit. According to the American Library Association, about 1 in 6 libraries now dedicates some of its space to maker tools and activities. The New York Public Library – one of the largest in the country – is watching these developments to inform its upcoming renovation.
I love this idea so much.   Sharing resources instead of text.  In Seattle there is a Tool Library at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.   I was very envious of the curator there.  My kind of fun.
I totally want to 3-D print something.   I just have to figure out what...

Pie Fight

Kaiser is watching carefully-

Cost Of Sovaldi And Other Specialty Drugs Worries States, Pharmaceutical Executives
"The prospect that hepatitis-C drug sales could soar to $20 billion annually by the end of the decade is spurring attempts by drug companies to assert the patent rights they'll need to grab a piece of the pie"

"CVS officials write in a commentary published Sunday. Gilead’s Sovaldi “is not really a per-unit cost outlier, but is a ‘total cost’ outlier because of its high cost combined with a very large population eligible for treatment — and a beacon for costs of specialty medications generally,”
Yeah, it's funny how when they finally find an effective treatment, there's a huge market for it..
This is going to get ugly, the insurance companies are figuring out the Pharmas have rigged things to blow up the whole game if they don't win...  

Sunday, July 20, 2014

See the Future

Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza
People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive.

Behold the power of Righteousness.
Have some soda and chips.

Silliness

Zombie Shopping

45 years later

I know exactly where I was.

My mother "let me" stay up to watch it because I had an EEG in the morning.
They wanted to know why I screamed and walked in my sleep every night.

So the protocol was... I had to stay up all night, go to the hospital, they gave me some drugs, put me on an uncomfortable gurney, and wired up my head.  And funny... I slept like a log.  Didn't move at all.

Even at age 9, I knew their experiment was flawed.
The first of many inconclusive tests. Which is all of them.

Those doctor's diagnosis?  "She'll grow out of it."

I suppose I should just be grateful that I do remember.

(bonus memory- I had what was left of my tonsils removed when I was 7.)

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Kinda Fun

Why Does Your Body Do These Strange Things?
Doctors explain Reddit’s list of bizarre and secret bodily behaviors.
Some of the answers are pretty good. Some of them are blow-offs. Most of the "bizarre and secret" symptoms seem pretty familiar...
I constantly have a weird static in my vision... it's mostly visible in the dark, but in light I can still see it (or if not directly it, perceive some kind of motion as what I assume to be an effect of it). I've asked other people and they have no idea. It's been there my whole life.
Trust me, that's inflammation of the opthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve...
When it's real bad I see like this and get something I call "restless face".

And since they mentioned tinnitis too...  I should probably mention that most of their list can be subclinical manifestations of chronic oropharyngeal infection.   Tonsil balls?  That's just blatant.

Rats on Ships

A good sign.

Experts urge new discipline combining benefits of neuroscience, psychology treatments
The authors advocate steps for closing the culture gap: First, uncover the mechanisms of existing psychological treatments. There is, they note, a very effective behavioral technique for phobias and anxiety disorders called exposure therapy; patients learn that what they fear is not as harmful as they think, and their fears are greatly reduced by the repeated presence of the object of their fear.
Second, the paper states, neuroscience is providing "unprecedented" insights that can relieve dysfunctional behavior -- practitioners can use those insights to create new and improved psychological treatments. Third, the authors urge, the next generation of clinical scientists and neuroscientists should work more closely together. They propose a new umbrella discipline they call "mental health science" to marry the benefits of both disciplines.
Yeah, I bet you do.
Firstly, Psychology has no track record of success.  Nobody ever actually gets better.... your paradigm has been proven useless.   Why should anyone want your input?
(Tormenting the frightened into submission is your success story?  That's not exactly original...)

Secondly, once neuroscience relieves our anxiety and other symptoms, there will be no need for your "therapeutic" coping strategies.   It's obvious you can see that and are desperately grasping for relevance.

Thirdly- I suggest becoming a Dental Hygienist. 

Friday, July 18, 2014

Oh Really

Mediterranean diet has varied effects on cognitive decline among different races, study shows
In a population of initially well-functioning older adults, we found a significant correlation between strong adherence to the Mediterranean diet and a slower rate of cognitive decline among African American, but not white, older adults. Our study is the first to show a possible race-specific association between the Mediterranean diet and cognitive decline.

Why looky there

Gut microbes turn carbs into colorectal cancer
"Because hereditary colorectal cancer is associated with aggressive and rapid tumor development, it is critical to understand how major environmental factors such as microbes and diet interact with genetic factors to potentially affect disease progression," says senior study author Alberto Martin of the University of Toronto. "Our study provides novel insights into this question by showing that gut bacteria interact with a carbohydrate-rich diet to stimulate a prevalent type of hereditary colon cancer."
As I once wrote...
The first basic principle: Each person has their own combination of immune genes.
The second basic principle: There are Many to Many relationships too.
The third basic principle: Your risk is determined by your genes AND your environmental exposure to pathogens and allergens.
Which brings us to the fourth basic principle: All those things interact with eachother.

So pretty.  Just needs a bow on top.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Fascinating

I've been trying to figure him out.  There's no acute signs of trigeminal neuralgia or salivary gland infection (he's probably got TMJ though), he's clearly alcoholic- but is definitely a maniac, not depressive.
And then I just noticed...
He never opens his mouth.

I'll bet there's a black hole to hell in there.

Crazy

Parasite Discovered in Cat Poop Could Combat Cancer

Oh, that just figures...

It's a difficult concept

Why do we have blood types?
More than a century after their discovery, we still don’t really know what blood types are for. Do they really matter? Carl Zimmer investigates.
He goes on quite a bit about how the "Blood-type Diet" has no merit.
But then he explains that blood types influence susceptibility to infection.   He even mentions intestinal infection.
He's so close...

...Infection clearly affects metabolism...
Indirect correlation.   It explains a lot.  Try it sometime.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman

Cannabis really can trigger paranoia
The largest ever study of the effects of the main psychoactive component of cannabis suggests that it can cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals....
Well, thanks for your outstanding documentation of the obvious,  here's some other already existing data I found-
Marijuana can cause auditory processing problems.  (you did notice that)

Hearing loss seems to precede paranoia. (that makes sense and explains a whole lot of Arizona now doesn't it?)

Schizophrenics have more ear infections than controls. 

Marijuana also seems to exacerbate psychosis in individuals "familially predisposed" to schizophrenia.

Tobacco smoke has been shown to damage to the cilia that protect the Eustachian tube from infection.

That took me a couple hours.  And I am pretty stoned...
Maybe you "experts" should do a little background and follow-up research in your subject area instead of alarming everyone with simplistic conclusions from your superficial and superfluous experiment.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

More Naming Games

Meet the ‘Stuffers’ 

I think the word all you people are looking for is Hyperinsulinemiac.

Girltalk

So, I couldn't sleep last night, and got up to research peristalsis...  yes, I have been obsessing on peristalsis lately for some reason... say it three times fast...  and I found this-
Women with infertility and mostly mild endometriosis display a uterine hyperperistalsis with nearly double the frequency of contractions during the early and mid- as well as midluteal phase in comparison to the fertile and healthy controls. During midcycle these women display a considerable uterine dysperistalsis in that the normally long and regular cervico-fundal contractions during this phase of the cycle have become more or less undirected and convulsive in character. Hyperperistalsis results in the transport of inert particles from the cervix into the tubes within minutes already during the early follicular phase, and may therefore constitute the mechanical cause for the development of endometriosis in that it transports detached endometrial cells and tissue fragments via the tubes into the peritoneal cavity. Moreover, dysperistalsis may contribute to the infertility in these patients since it results in a break down of sperm transport within the female genital tract.
Orexin stimulates the secretion of luteinizing hormone which triggers ovulation, the release of the ovum from the follicle.  That stimulates the corpus leuteum and oxytocin, and oxytocin stimulates uterine peristalsis.  This problem may be be a result of, or exacerbated by, orexin deficiency in the luteal phase.

Even if the ovum is viable,  it may not get to the right place.

Update:  My MIL wants a translation of this post...  sorry I'm obtuse!

Orexin stimulates the release of the ovum from the ovary.  So lowered orexin levels can probably cause infertility by diminishing the number of viable ova.
This article says infertile women often have impaired peristalsis of the uterus.  The contractions are not rythmic.
My thought is... the follicle left over after ovulation stimulates oxytocin production.   Oxytocin stimulates the smooth sequential muscle contractions of peristalsis.
So lowered orexin levels may also contribute to infertility by producing inferior follicles and interfering with oxytocin production resulting in inadequate movement  of any viable eggs to the uterus.
Is that better? 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Tom Stafford - from Mind Hacks

Why do we bite our nails?
He writes a lot but doesn't say anything.  Certainly doesn't answer the question.
Nice job if you can get it, I guess.

We bite our nails because the strep bacteria in our mouth like to live there.
And for some of us... every time we bite them we infect the nail bed and every time we break the skin we get a nice shot of dopamine-agonist from our immune system. (and that's really helpful when writing...)

It's not a bad habit.  It's neurohacking.   One would think he might have thought of that...

Self-injury is the hallmark behavior of autoimmune OCD.

More ironically-
The actual urge seems to be triggered by overgrown cuticles.   We're addressing the wrong end.
Soak your nails in very dilute bleachy water.  (1Tbs to a pint of water)
Push back your cuticles.
File off all the pointy parts of your nails and fingertip skin so they will heal smoothly.
Moisturize.
Twice a week.

The Circle of Insanity

Renaming Deck Chairs on the Titanic.

An ex-vegan takes on the trolls

I say anorexia, you say orthorexia... let's call the whole thing off.

Sorry I missed this

From 2010-
How a Sleeping Drug Company Increased Prices 300% Without Anyone Noticing

Yeah, I don't remember even a peep from Narcolepsy Network...

A Little Clarification

Study confirms creative energy in Parkinson's sufferers is greater than in healthy individuals

Well, actually it only compares patients on different levels of dopamine supplementation. 

It confirms that Dopamine is dose dependently correlated with creativity, not Parkinson's.

Give me some and I'll explain it all to you...

Monday, July 14, 2014

And then there was Freud

Middle-ear disease and schizophrenia: case–control study
One hundred years ago psychiatrists thought that ear disease could cause insanity by irritation of the brain. Current understanding of the role of the temporal lobes in schizophrenia and their proximity to the middle ear supports this hypothesis.

Aims
To establish the rate of middle-ear disease pre-dating the onset of schizophrenia.

Method
Eighty-four patients with schizophrenia were each matched to four non-psychiatric controls by age, gender and season of birth. History of ear disease was obtained from general practice records. Additional information on symptoms was collected for participants in the case group, who also had audiometry.

Results
The odds ratio of recorded middle-ear disease pre-dating schizophrenia was 3.68 (95% CI 1.86–7.28). This excess was particularly marked on the left (OR=4.15, 95% CI 2.08–8.29). Auditory hallucinations were associated with middle-ear disease but not with hearing loss.

Conclusions
There is an association between middle-ear disease and schizophrenia which may have aetiological significance.
 Damn I hate it when articles start with that phrase...

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Dr. Stephen Devries  and Medscape for publishing it.
See the Echo Chamber.

Heart-Healthy Diets Deciphered
Let me ask your opinion quickly on a controversy that we have talked about on this show before: the so-called Atkins diet, or the paleo diet. They get a lot of press, and there are many people who say, look, the only way I can really lose weight is if I focus on taking all carbs out of my diet and replacing them with protein. What is your current thought, because the data on those sorts of diets are mixed?

Dr. Devries: There are no long-term data on either of those diets. The fact that over a period of a few months or even a year, you might have favorable impacts on some biomarkers, I don't think is the end goal. As clinicians, we are all interested in patients living longer and better; those are the endpoints that we really care about and that have not been shown for those diets.
Lies. Lies. Lies.  The whole thing is misinformation    Repeating lies for other doctors to repeat further.

See the Pathology

A Brief History of Houses Built Out of Spite

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Things they forgot to say

I've seen news reports on these studies everywhere.
They're getting way better at diagnosing, it's a shame none of their treatments work.

Worried You May Be Developing Alzheimer's? Check Your Eyes and Nose

Two points-
Retinas have insulin receptors. That's why the get messed up in diabetes. That's why your vision gets blurry when you spike and crash your blood sugar.

Olfactory function is regulated by orexin.   Less orexin- less olfactory response.  There is plenty of evidence this is also a glucose sensitive system.

Nonetheless, testing gets a lot of people in the door.
And as I said earlier...  cognitively impaired customers....

Yo 1%

They want your money most of all...
Cognitively impaired customers are the very very best kind...

Empty Mansions review – the life of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark
Bill Dedman and Paul Clark's account of the strange life of Huguette Clark proves the old adage that money can't buy you happiness.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Wholly Unacceptable

CDC discovers botched shipment with bird flu, closes down labs

Listen I know it is easy to become conditioned to your environment, but You People Are Paid To Obsessively Track Your Inventory!!!

Extreme Pile Management.  Just Do It.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Yeah

These two will fit nicely into the new version of the Grand and Glorious Narcolepsy Hypothesis I'm working on...

When good gut bacteria get sick
The researchers observed many disruptions in the normal bacteria at different locations in the gut during the infection. For instance, they discovered a microbial signature in the colon involving species belonging to the genus Mucispirillum that showed decreases early in infection before the onset of symptoms. Other signatures included increases in populations of bacteria from the Clostridiales and Lactobacillales families occurring after the pathogen had disappeared. Interestingly, some of these signatures occurred in locations in the gut where the pathogen was not directly damaging host cells.
TB lung infection causes changes in the diversity of gut bacteria in mice

A lung infection affects the guts....Yeah, I call that "Proof of concept".

Save the Mangos

Why growing numbers of pot smokers eat mango before lighting up
But one of its lesser-known qualities is that the myrcene allows THC to pass through the blood brain barrier much faster. On average, it takes THC seven seconds to reach the brain after inhaling. But if you eat a mango — or a mango smoothie — 90 minutes before smoking, you could potentially halve that time.
Seriously? There are stoners who are worried about three seconds of their life?
Have you tried the weed they sell lately? A lot of it is already too strong...

And this bothers me too, almost all the "edibles" contain allergens.   I know it's a Brave New World, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Be careful out there.  

Worth Fighting For

How Coffee Fueled the Civil War 

It's Indisputable

On the link between periodontitis and atherosclerosis
The researchers conclude, "P. gingivalis modifies its lipid A structure in order to evade host defenses and establish chronic infection leading to persistent systemic low-grade inflammation." They go on to state that "uniquely among gram-negative pathogens, P. gingivalis evasion of TLR4-mediated host immunity results in progression of inflammation at a site that is distant from local infection by gaining access to the vasculature."
I'm expecting some kind of denial from the AHA in 5, 4, 3...

Thursday, July 10, 2014

For the Record

For some reason I went over to the Wikipedia entry on Orexin today...  

It's been a long time, I gotta say it's way better than it used to be.
Whoever is updating the page...  you're doing a great job.   Thanks!

As I was Saying

Research finds association between certain pain relievers and heart attack
The researchers found that regular use of the NSAID naproxen, the active ingredient in medications such as Aleve, is associated with a 10 percent increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death in postmenopausal women, said UF cardiologist Dr. Anthony Bavry, the study's lead author. Regular use was defined as at least twice per week for the previous two weeks.
Actually- these side effects were documented before approval.
Peter Goetzche documented that extensively in his book.

After it is Approved


Is when they find out how it really works.

Scientists discover clues why weight-loss surgery cures diabetes
Study team leader, Dr Craig Smith, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Cell Physiology, said: “Our research centred on enteroendocrine cells that ‘taste’ what we eat and in response release a cocktail of hormones that communicate with the pancreas, to control insulin release to the brain, to convey the sense of being full and to optimize and maximize digestion and absorption of nutrients.”
“Under normal circumstances these are all important factors in keeping us healthy and nourished. But these cells may malfunction and result in under or over eating.”
75% of people suffering from obesity who also have diabetes are cured of diabetes after receiving a gastric bypass and Dr Smith says that understanding how bypass surgery cures diabetes is the crux of his team’s research.
Dr Smith: “This is where things start to get really interesting because the most common type of gastric bypass actually also bypasses a proportion of the gut hormone cells. It is thought that this causes the gut hormone cells to change and be reprogrammed. For us, understanding how these cells change in response to surgery is likely to hold the key to a cure for diabetes.”
It has nothing to do with portion control or feeling full.
They bypass the cells that regulate insulin metabolism.

Good data.  But it's still what I call "taking the long way home".

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Good for the Soul

'I got it!': Watch as amputee toddler takes inspirational first steps with walker

Behold the power of dopamine.

Everything old is new again

Wet wraps cut need for drugs in kids with eczema
The largest study ever conducted on wet wrap therapy shows it can dramatically improve skin conditions like atopic dermatitis and eczema. Experts at National Jewish Health in Denver saw a 71 percent improvement in symptoms without having to rely on traditional therapies like antibiotics, steroids or immunotherapy drugs. 
Little quibble- I'm pretty sure baths and wet wraps are historically the traditional therapy.
Drugs are the modern medical industry "solution". 

ps.  uh huh

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Typing in the dark.

Amazing desert lighning storm all around me right now.  .  There's no rain.  Or thunder.  It's actually quiet.   Just constant flashing all over the sky.

Stunning.

Tweet of the Day

The first rule of Smallpox Club is no one loses the smallpox.
-@pourmecoffee

Been there, done that.

Sugar may harm brain health
Future research will need to characterize how glucose exerts these effects and whether dietary or lifestyle interventions might reverse such pathological changes. 
Actually there is already a lot of evidence how it works, but that is mostly irrelevant to demented patients.  
If you tried- You could have the other answer in three weeks.

Wound me up

Other things that annoyed me after looking at that site...

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic
Just what the doctor-pharma cartel needs, more money.

Which Came First, the Sleep Apnea or the Weight Gain?
See the box.
Ask the wrong question-
Get the wrong answer.
The oropharyngeal infection came first.


How to Sleep Less and Function Better

More fruits and vegetables!  And provigil.

Dr. Dreamy

Yes he should.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Cheaper than a Brain Scan

Predicting which teenagers will be binge drinkers may be possible

I'm guessing this will also get 70% accurate results:
Put your hungry teenager at the kitchen table. Give them a choice between meat or candy.
The ones who choose candy will most likely enjoy binge drinking too.

So Many Maniacs

So little medicine.

Doctors Could Use a Little Hypochondria

Hmmmmmmmm

Consciousness on-off switch discovered deep in brain
It now looks as if Crick and Koch were on to something. In a study published last week, Mohamad Koubeissi at the George Washington University in Washington DC and his colleagues describe how they managed to switch a woman's consciousness off and on by stimulating her claustrum. The woman has epilepsy so the team were using deep brain electrodes to record signals from different brain regions to work out where her seizures originate. One electrode was positioned next to the claustrum, an area that had never been stimulated before.
When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn't respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed. As soon as the stimulation stopped, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of the event. The same thing happened every time the area was stimulated during two days of experiments.
Well, I guess I should look into this further...

Yes, the orexin neurons receive input from this structure.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Easy Target

Zombies lurk at the end of a gravel road in Virginia.

Why howdy, yes they do.

Hint for preppers:  Zombie flesh decomposition progresses slowly.... and starts on the inside...

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Taffy Brodesser-Akner

How Botox Can Solve the Depression Epidemic

I'm sorry dear, but you are desperate and confused.
Yes, shutting down the trigeminal nerve feels great.   My head never felt better than after my eye surgery.
But that information should be used to find the source of the neuralgia.
Not to make money injecting neurotoxin into people's heads to mask the symptoms.

Sounds kind of Familiar

Power-napping helps late-born dormice prepare for winter
For hibernating mammals, the pre-winter months are a race against time to accumulate enough energy reserves to last until spring. Offspring born late in the year have much less time to achieve this. Austrian scientists have discovered that power-napping can help late-born dormice overcome these unfavourable odds.
During hibernation, dormice enter into 'torpor' to save energy and water. In this state, the dormice become inactive and show a marked decrease in their metabolic rate, causing their body temperature to reduce. However, late-born dormice use bouts of torpor during the summer to "catch up" with their earlier-born counterparts. "The longer an animal stays in torpor, the more energy it saves," says Dr Sylvain Giroud (Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Austria), who led the study.
Torpor use was measured using temperature loggers placed in the nests of the animals which detected the sharp drop in body temperature which occurs in dormancy. Late-born juveniles entered into torpor more frequently and for longer periods, allowing them to achieve higher growth rates. As a result, the late-born juveniles reached a similar size to the early-born dormice at the onset of winter.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Things that are worth living for


















I love America.
I've finally got a backyard pool and a floaty chair.


Happy Summer Everyone.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Quote of the Day

Can't repeat this one enough.
Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I wish mental health care were as easy to get as, say, a gun.
-Andy Borowitz
 or antibiotics...

Correlation Games

Lightning Round

Nobody wins.

The Underlying Issue

What comes next for contraception coverage?
A final step the administration could take would be to enhance access to contraception by making all forms of oral contraception available over-the-counter without a prescription.

Absolutely.  Yes.   A thousand times yes.
Medically there's no real risk, it's been "discussed" for decades, and yet it hasn't happened.

Guess why.
It's a gateway drug.
It's how they lure us into the vortex.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Oh, there'$ a rea$on

Doctors Are Examining Your Genitals for No Reason
Nevertheless, ACOG reupped its endorsement of the exam, writing that it “seems logical.”
Seem$ logical to doctor$.
That'$ all that matter$.

Evidence based medicine is a lot less common than you would like to believe.