Saturday, January 31, 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

Why Did I Click?

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wake No More
Very long article about a very sleepy guy.
Who probably needs a carb free diet and a good head cleaning.
But they gave him Flumazenil and Clarithromycin instead.

Flumazenil is used to treat delirium in alcoholic liver disease.

Hepatic encephalopathy is a reversible metabolic cognitive dysfunction with multifactorial pathogenesis. The widely accepted hypothesis is that encephalopathy is due to a failure of liver clearance of gut-derived toxins. Although the exact toxins involved remain controversial, ammonia remains the toxin of interest. This has led to many investigative and therapeutic efforts aimed at identifying and eliminating the putative toxins that originate from the gut lumen.
(It's bacterial endotoxin, not ammonia by the way.)

Clarithromycin is an antibiotic used for lung infections.  Yes, lung infections.  That's right.

There is very little I hate more than the arbitrary diagnoses of NwC, NwoC and IH. 
This classification scheme divides the symptoms, obscures the spectrum of presentations and is a huge impediment to our progress.

It's Not About Calories

Added fructose is a principal driver of type 2 diabetes
Recent studies have shown that added sugars, particularly those containing fructose, are a principal driver of diabetes and pre-diabetes, even more so than other carbohydrates. Clinical experts challenge current dietary guidelines that allow up to 25 percent of total daily calories as added sugars, and propose drastic reductions in the amount of added sugar, and especially added fructose, people consume.
Uh huh.
Long-term fructose bingeing activates a hyperphagic circuit composed in part of Orexin sensitive neurons

Fun with History

Candy Box Insert Promotes Weight Loss, 1954

A fun blog post I found.   I am reading the Candy history book right now.
Shopping vintage ebay again.  Ha.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

A couple more

Green tea ingredient may target protein to kill oral cancer cells
A compound found in green tea may trigger a cycle that kills oral cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, according to Penn State food scientists. The research could lead to treatments for oral cancer, as well as other types of cancer.
Peanut allergy researchers say they may have found key to a cure

Researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute gave about 30 allergic children a daily dose of peanut protein together with a probiotic in an increasing amount over an 18-month period.
The probiotic used in the study was Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the dose was equivalent to eating about 20kg of yoghurt each day. At the end of the trial 80% of the children could eat peanuts without any reaction.
Oh... that would be nice.  I miss peanuts so much...

Words Matter

New biological evidence reveals link between brain inflammation and major depression
The measure of brain inflammation in people who were experiencing clinical depression was increased by 30 per cent, researchers have discovered.
Yes, and there are tons of old studies showing this is caused by bacterial endotoxin leaking out of the gut and into the bloodstream and altering the blood-brain barrier.
It's all already in the literature.  If you only look...
Your precious "Inflammation" is a post infection complication.
Those people are sick.  Period.

I would just like to point out that this study comes from the "Centre for Addiction and Mental Health"-  two concepts entirely made up by Psychologists that permeate their worldview and affect their every decision.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

HeadDeskHeadDeskHeadDesk

Schoolgirl comment points to antibiotics as new cancer treatments
Professor Lisanti said: "I was having a conversation with Camilla about how to cure cancer and she asked why don't we just use antibiotics like we do for other illnesses. I knew that antibiotics can affect mitochondria and I've been doing a lot of work recently on how important they are to the growth of tumours, but this conversation helped me to make a direct link."
Professor Lisanti worked with colleagues from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and the Kimmel Cancer Centre, Philadelphia. The team used five types of antibiotics - including one used to treat acne (doxycycline) - on cell lines of eight different types of tumour and found that four of them eradicated the cancer stem cells in every test. This included glioblastoma, the most aggressive of brain tumours, as well as lung, prostate, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and skin cancer.

This Sounds Familiar

Leptin is produced by fat cells, so the heavier you are the more leptin you produce.    And it looks like we lucky women probably produce even less orexin the more weight we gain.
Go figure.

Leptin modulates orexin-mediated functions at the behavioral and cellular level in mice
The two orexin hypothalamic neuropeptides play an important role in energy homeostasis as well as arousal and narcolepsy. Leptin is putatively involved in the regulation of orexin neuronal activity. Using neurochemical, behavioral and histological methods the in vivo and in vitro interactions between the leptin and orexin systems were studied. Results indicate that there are higher levels of serum orexin A and increased locomotor activity during the active period of the light-dark cycle in female as compared to male mice. Both elevated orexin serum levels and locomotion were decreased following subchronic exposure to a physiological dose of leptin in female mice. In addition, stereological brain analysis revealed that leptin reduced the number of orexin immunoreactive neurons in the lateral hypothalamus of female but not male mice. Leptin also reduced the activation of these neurons in both genders as measured by c-fos activation. ... In summary, these data support the notion that the leptin and orexin systems interact centrally, and indicate how leptin could modulate the orexin-mediated regulation of vigilance states.

This is Why

Acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and cognitive decline: a review and case study.
The objective of this investigation is to review existing research pertaining to cognitive impairment and decline following critical illness and describe a case involving a 49-year-old female with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with no prior neurologic history who, compared to baseline neuropsychological test data, experienced dramatic cognitive decline and brain atrophy following treatment in the medical intensive care unit (ICU) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The patient participated in detailed clinical interviews and underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing and neurological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at approximately 8 months and 3.5 years after ICU discharge. Compared to pre-ICU baseline test data, her intellectual function declined approximately 2 standard deviations from 139 to 106 (from the 99 to the 61 percentile) on a standardized intelligence test 8 months post-discharge, with little subsequent improvement. Initial diffusion tensor brain magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) at the end of ICU hospitalization showed diffuse abnormal hyperintense areas involving predominately white matter in both hemispheres and the left cerebellum. A brain MRI nearly 4 years after ICU discharge demonstrated interval development of profound and generalized atrophy with sulcal widening and ventricular enlargement. The magnitude of cognitive decline experienced by ICU survivors is difficult to quantify due to the unavailability of pre-morbid neuropsychological data. The current case, conducted on a patient with baseline neuropsychological data, illustrates the trajectory of decline occurring after critical illness and ICU-associated brain injury with marked atrophy and concomitant cognitive impairments.
Because this is the expected outcome of plugging into the matrix.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Public Service Announcement

This is kind of old, but new to me.

Nasal Sprays: More There Than Meets the Nose?
Over-the-counter saline sprays are used to moisten dry nasal membranes, clear debris from the nasal passageway, and improve mucous membrane function; they're also frequently used after sinus or nasal surgery. Many commercially available saline solutions have an added preservative to keep bacteria from growing in them.
The trouble appears to be with the most common preservative, benzalkonium chloride (BKC), which researchers say kills off important cells found in the nose. These cells, called neutrophils, are present all over the surfaces of the nose and mouth, and provide a frontline defense against invading organisms. There must be enough functioning neutrophils for the body to successfully fight off infections, including sinusitis.
I'm going to see if Simply Saline works better.   It has some baking soda in it too, so might be nice...

What They Didn't Say

Oxidative and pro-inflammatory impact of regular and denicotinized cigarettes on blood brain barrier endothelial cells
In summary, our results indicate that nicotine free and ultralow nicotine cigarettes are potentially more harmful to the BBB endothelium than regular tobacco products. In addition, this study demonstrates that the tobacco smoke induced toxicity at BBB endothelium cells is strongly correlated to the TAR and Nitric Oxide levels in the cigarettes rather than the Nicotine content.
It also very strongly suggests that NICOTINE IS PROTECTIVE AGAINST THAT DAMAGE.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Whole Grain Goodness

Preventing Gut Leakiness by Oats Supplementation Ameliorates Alcohol-Induced Liver Damage in Rats

Only 30% of alcoholics develop liver disease (ALD) suggesting that additional factors are needed. Endotoxin is one such factor, but its etiology is unclear. Since the gut is the main source of endotoxin, we sought to determine whether an increase in intestinal permeability (leaky gut) is required for alcohol-induced endotoxemia and liver injury and whether the gut leakiness is preventable. For 10 weeks, rats received by gavage increasing alcohol doses and either oats or chow.  Alcohol caused gut leakiness that was associated with both endotoxemia and liver injury. Oats prevented these changes. We conclude that chronic gavage of alcohol in rats is a simple experimental model that mimics key aspects of ALD, including endotoxemia and liver injury, and can be useful to study possible mechanisms of endotoxemia in ALD. Since preventing the gut leakiness by oats also prevented the endotoxemia and ameliorated liver damage in rat, our results suggest that alcohol-induced gut leakiness 1) may cause alcohol-induced endotoxemia and liver injury and 2) may be the critical cofactor in the 30% of alcoholics who develop ALD. Further studies are needed to determine whether ALD in humans can be prevented by preventing alcohol-induced gut leakiness, studies that should lead to the development of useful therapeutic agents for the prevention of ALD.

Friday, January 23, 2015

A few for you

Enzymes believed to promote cancer actually suppress tumors
Protein Kinase C (PKC) is a group of enzymes that act as catalysts for a host of cellular functions, among which are cancer-relevant activities, such as cell survival, proliferation, apoptosis, and migration. The discovery that they are receptors for tumor-producing phorbol esters, plant-derived compounds that bind to and activate PKC, created a dogma that activation of PKCs by phorbol esters promoted carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis.
"For three decades, researchers have sought to find new cancer therapies based on the idea that inhibiting or blocking PKC signals would hinder or halt tumor development," said Alexandra Newton, PhD, professor of pharmacology and the study's principal investigator, "but PKCs have remained an elusive chemotherapeutic target." The reason, suggest Newton and colleagues, is that contrary to conventional wisdom, PKCs do not promote cancer progression; rather, they act to suppress tumor growth.
That one will go in the chapter on man's ability to increasingly intricately measure irrelevant things.   With serum cholesterol.  And maternal attachment.

Viruses may play unexpected role in inflammatory bowel diseases
I don't know about you, but I do not find that surprising.

Regular marijuana use may not be so bad for your lungs
Smoking a joint every day for 20 years was not associated with negative changes in exhalation strength.
So have a nice weekend.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Fun with Profanity

A Better Way to Say 'Lame Duck'

A fun little article on a new use for my favorite eff word that rhymes with duck.
I think I will find it very useful,  Freedom's just another word, you know.
Um, yeah, profanity alert.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Cry Me A River

How Patient Suicide Affects Psychiatrists

The grief is apparently overwhelming.
Not enough to make them think they might be wrong and should reassess what they're doing...
But enough to stop seeing suicidal patients.

Please to bite me now.

One More Thing

Here, a big bunch of bonus irony for you.

The antibiotics we are given for our strep and staph infections...
They also cause the gram negative bacteria in our intestines to die and release endotoxin...
Which triggers the immune response down there...
And it has been known for decades.

Yeah.   Uh huh.
That's all I can take for now.
I have switched to obsessive cleaning.  So much less annoying than research.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Mark Kern

What a Psychologist Specializing in Addiction Treatment Thinks About Drynuary
Moderation Management has always recommended a 30-day abstinence period as part of its program. What was the reasoning behind that?
It’s primarily because we want to reduce the tolerance people have built up over time to alcohol. That’s the first motive. The second motive is to start to get comfortable in your skin again.
I am pretty sure you should understand the metabolic effects of alcohol and the consequences of what you're saying before you recommend it to sick people.
That is exactly the opposite of what happens when you merely abstain without addressing the underlying illness.

Same shit, different day.

Strike that, reverse it.

Workaholics are more likely to drink too much alcohol.

Thanks for the excellent documentation of the obvious, but your conclusion is...  well...  just not even worth moving my eyes from left to right to read it.
Alcohol doesn't relax you, it lowers blood sugar and raises the stress response.
That's why employers used to pay workers with beer.  
It's liquid obsession.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Misty Watercolor Memories

At 12, I got braces.   At 13, I started smoking.
I turned 16 and started my drinking career in 1977.   

This and That

Adolescents who sleep poorly and insufficiently may develop alcohol and drug problems
Here, let me fix that...
Adolescents with infections may sleep poorly and self-medicate with alcohol and drugs.
Especially if they are told to eat corn oil instead of saturated fats.

Eczema woes not just skin deep
Adults who have eczema -- a chronic itchy skin disease that often starts in childhood -- have higher rates of smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages and obesity and are less likely to exercise than adults who don't have the disease. They also have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. About 10 percent of US adults have eczema.
See how that works?

Environment, not genes, dictates human immune variation
Much has been made of the role genes play in human health. Stunning advances in gene-sequencing technologies, in concert with their plummeting costs, have turned many scientists' attention to minute variations in the genome -- the entire toolbox of genes carried in virtually every cell in the body -- in the hope of predicting people's future health. Such studies have revealed a genetic contribution to health outcomes. But, with some notable exceptions, very few individual genetic variants contribute much to particular health conditions.

Could our brain instruct our bodies to burn more fat?
Monash University researchers unravelled a molecular mechanism that depends on the combined action of two hormones - leptin, an appetite suppressant generated in fat cells, and insulin, produced in the pancreas in response to rising levels of glucose in the blood. Their research shows that the two hormones act in concert on a group of neurons in the brain to stimulate the burning of body fat via the nervous system.
Lead researcher Professor Tony Tiganis, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology said discovering the combined action of these two hormones makes could assist in the shedding of excess fat.
"These hormones give the brain a comprehensive picture of the fatness of the body. Because leptin is produced by fat cells, it measures the level of existing fat reserves - the more fat, the more leptin. Whereas insulin provides a measure of future fat reserves because glucose levels rise when we eat," Professor Tiganis said.
I really need to study some more about leptin.   My entire metabolism changes when I weigh more than 145.   Maybe this week...

Vitamin D protects against colorectal cancer by boosting the immune system

Mental wellness warriors: Fighting for those who need it most

Friday, January 16, 2015

Palate Cleanser

Here, what I usually listen to after picking myself up off the floor.

Annie Lennox, of course.

Yo Doctors

CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING?????

Dietary saturated fat reduces alcoholic hepatotoxicity in rats by altering fatty acid metabolism and membrane composition.
As dietary saturated fat content increased, all measures of hepatic pathology and oxidative stress were progressively reduced, including steatosis . Thus, saturated fat protected rats from alcoholic liver disease in a dose-responsive fashion.

The type of dietary fat modulates intestinal tight junction integrity, gut permeability, and hepatic toll-like receptor expression in a mouse model of alcoholic liver disease.
Dietary fat is an important cofactor in alcohol-associated liver injury. We demonstrate that USF (corn oil/linoleic acid) by itself results in dysregulation of intestinal  tight juncion integrity leading to increased gut permeability, and alcohol further exacerbates these alterations.
Seriously, this research stuff is bad for my serenity.
I think I'm going to vomit.

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic

Newlywed Dies of Sepsis After Getting Flu
Katie McQuestion, a 26-year-old radiologist from Kenosha, Wisconsin, got a flu shot to comply with hospital policy and had no underlying medical conditions, but she caught the flu and developed a serious complication from it: sepsis.
Yes, if you are forced to get a flu shot that doesn't contain all the common variants, and then you experience the post-inoculation immune suppression, and then you hang out with sick people...
But nobody could have predicted.

Man in vegetative state for 12 years wakes up to tell remarkable story
When Martin Pistorius was 12 years old, he came down with a strange illness that caused him to lose his ability to walk, talk and make eye contact, NPR.org reported.
Pistorius, of Harlow, England, appeared to be in a coma-like state, and doctors scratched their heads over his condition. Their best bet: crypotococcal meningitis.
Let me guess-  he was on a glucose drip and they fed him fcking porridge...

Thursday, January 15, 2015

A couple for you

US approves new weight-loss device for obese people
Patients are surgically implanted with electrodes in the abdomen, and an externally-controlled electrical pulse generator sends signals to the abdominal vagus nerve, which helps signal to the brain if the stomach feels empty or full.

"We have come to realize just how vital the neurohormonal system is to the regulation of food intake and body weight, and therapies that alter signaling within this system are almost certainly the wave of the future."
Funny, you haven't realized how food or surgery itself affects the neuroendocrine system.
Mainline the matrix, everyone.

Does screening asymptomatic adults for disease save lives? 
Apparently not- or the headline would say so emphatically, amirite?
Screening tests make money whether people are sick or not, that's the reason this practice is widely promoted in the medical industry.  Period.

Frozen Elsa Brain Surgery Game
Because it's awesome.   Way better than the 900 page book on endotoxin.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

In the Hidey Hole

My husband is on a business trip so I am obsessing and surfing my neurotransmitters.   Deep diving Pubmed.  Looking for my missing puzzle pieces.
I have copied off hundreds of abstracts in the past few days,  but  there's a couple I wanted to tell you about before I start cerebral pile management and neglect the blog some more.

Staph Aureus also causes Intestinal Permeability
These experimental findings thus support the hypothesis that free staphylococcal alpha-toxin in the bloodstream may cause intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction and further aggravate the septic condition by promoting the release of intestinal bacteria into the underlying tissues and the blood. 
Booyah.
In addition- my cerebral slot machine finally got around to this search term combination...
And the results made me pace circles around my kitchen for an hour.
Can Nicotine Treat Sepsis?
They report that treatment with the acetylcholine receptor agonist, nicotine, modulates this system and reduces mortality in a mouse model of sepsis.
Chronic nicotine intake ameliorates sepsis‐induced multi‐organ failure in rats
Long‐term nicotine intake reduces sepsis‐induced oxidative damage and its withdrawal provokes tissue damage and delays recovery of the tissues.
Role of nicotine on cognitive and behavioral deficits in sepsis-surviving rats
These results indicate that repeated nicotine administration does not alter the survival rate in rats submitted to CLP and provide new evidence that nicotine can improve long-lasting memory impairments and anxiogenic-like responses in sepsis-surviving animals.
Sheesh.  There's a few doctors and dentists and orthodontists who owe me a sincere apology.

Flying Ass Monkeys

The Brain Preservation Diet: Eating to Save Brain Cells
What you eat affects your brain health.
You people already know all this.   I am just pointing out that this article recommends a low-carb somewhat Paleo diet...

And that US News and World Report has classified Paleo as the "Least Effective Diet" of the last few years.

So USNWR,  which is it?   Kill Ya or Cure Ya?

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

For the Ladies

Maternal insulin resistance changes pancreas development, increases risk of metabolic disorders in offspring
Changes to a mother’s metabolism can lead to increased risk of insulin resistance, obesity and other problems in offspring. "Since insulin resistance alters the metabolic status in the affected individuals, its presence in women during pregnancy has the potential to be detrimental to growth and metabolism in the offspring. Thus, insulin resistance directly impacts pregnant women and also their offspring," researchers note.

Still Thisclose

Rave drug holds promise for treating depression fast Companies and clinicians turn to ketamine to treat mental-health disorder as pipeline of new drugs dries up.
Today’s most common antidepressants target the brain’s serotonin or noradrenaline pathways (some target both). Ketamine blocks the signalling molecule NMDA, a component of the glutamate pathway, which is involved in memory and cognition. Before ketamine was studied, no one even knew that the pathway was involved in depression, Murrough says.
In 2013, his group published the largest trial of off-label ketamine carried out so far, with 73 participants. The trial found that the drug reduced depression 24 hours after treatment in 64% of patients who had tried three or more other medications with unsuccessful results. A second group received the sedative midazolam; in that case, the reduction was 28% . Murrough’s group is now imaging the brains of patients receiving ketamine treatment to try to dissect just how the drug works.
  Well, that probably won't help very much since it works in the periphery...
Ketamine’s fast action is particularly promising for suicide prevention, says Carlos Zarate of the NIMH. Instead of being committed to institutions for weeks of treatment, people who have just attempted suicide might be treated with ketamine and released in days or even hours. Zarate has found that ketamine seems specifically to affect the desire to attempt suicide, whether a person is clinically depressed or not (ref). That observation suggests that suicidal behaviour might be distinct from depression.
 This is because Ketamine reverses the cascade of sepsis.   Septic delirium is a trigger for suicidal ideation.

In vitro investigation of the antibacterial effect of ketamine.
Large dose ketamine inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in rats. 
Ketamine suppresses endotoxin-induced NF-kappaB activation and cytokines production in the intestine.
Mechanisms of ketamine-induced immunosuppression.
Glutamate metabolism in malnutrition and sepsis in man.

I like this a lot.   I like that it works.  I like that it makes sense.
I do not like that- once again- they are going to sell the living shit out of it before they understand what the hell they're doing ...

Same as it ever was.

Thisclose

About a century ago...

Two Men Tried To Cure Schizophrenia by Removing Their Patients’ Intestines
Bayard Holmes and Henry Cotton were separated by a generation, but both thought that mental illness arose from toxins produced within the body.
You can be sure I will have much more to say about this.... on the microscopic level.
Heh.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Funny how that works

Mental health workers don't recognize their own burnout

Yes, well, that's because mental health workers aren't aware that their patients have subclinical communicable diseases that cause mania, now isn't it?

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Fun with Obsession

Don Aslett’s Museum of Clean
I had been expecting something small-scale, perhaps a collection of old vacuum cleaners. So when we pulled up in front of the massive six-story museum in Pocatello, I was floored. All this, for the history of cleaning products? Well, not quite. This isn’t the Museum of Cleaning but the Museum of Clean — an important distinction. Mr. Aslett is building a shrine to the very concept of “clean”. Clean floors and houses, yes, but also clean living. Clean energy, clean morals and a clean world.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Zombie Shopping

Ha. 
A slogan for the revolution.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Diets in the News

It's a Paleo thing already.  Brothing.   
Should have known.  I don't follow Paleo news though.

I think a lot about neolithic northern European diets and metabolism.

Could the Viking Diet Be 2015’s First Diet Craze?

Ha.... Vikings would laugh them out of town.
They left out the most important food group:  Alcohol.

Under your Nose

Schizophrenia onset linked to elevated neural links
In its chronic stage, schizophrenia is typically marked by a dearth of links between brain cells in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for higher-order thinking. However, a new study by Yale and Chinese researchers shows that the onset of the disease—usually in the early 20s—is marked by an abnormal spike in neural connections.
...
Anticevic cautioned it is unclear whether the excess of connectivity causes symptoms of schizophrenia or whether this neural "signature" is the result of some other process, such as fever is a response to infection. If further research establishes this link then individuals during early-stage schizophrenia might benefit from drugs that can minimize the abnormal spike in neural communication, notes Anticevic.
Yes, such as a fever is a response to infection...  kind of exactly...

Infection raises cortisol levels.
Which raises dopamine levels.
Which increases prefrontal activity and connectivity. 
Until the chronic endotoxemia kills them.

It's really confusing when your brain is fried and still runs on overdrive...  

Drive-By

Researchers map direct gut-brain connection

Bullies and their victims may be at higher risk of suicide

Drug stimulates brown fat, boosts metabolism

RSV infection may be associated with higher risk for bacterial pneumonia

PTSD doubles diabetes risk in women

Vocabulary Lesson

I learned something today.

Occult infection- a hidden infection first recognized by secondary manifestations such as fever of unknown origin, or increased white blood cell count.  Often caused by a bacterial infection in an obscure site.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Correlation Games

Reversal of LPS-induced immobility in mice by green tea polyphenols: possible COX-2 mechanism.
Reversal of LPS-induced central and peripheral hyperalgesia by green tea extract.
Green tea extract and catechin ameliorate chronic fatigue-induced oxidative stress in mice.
Green tea extract ameliorates endotoxin induced sickness behavior and liver damage in rats.
Green tea extract reverses the despair behaviour in reserpinised and diabetic mice.
Green tea extract improves running endurance in mice by stimulating lipid utilization during exercise.

LPS= Lipopolysaccharide,  a superantigen in the cell walls of gram negative bacteria.


(Oh, and white tea is young shoots of green tea leaves.  It's even more chemically active.)

Inflammation is the New Black

Chronic Psychitis

A pretty good blog post covering the evidence for inflammation causing depression.  Minus orexin of course.

Another Cuppa

Serena Williams takes a coffee break during Hopman Cup – video
The world number one, Serena Williams, has a coffee after losing her first set of the Hopman Cup tournament to Italy's Flavia Pennetta. Williams went on to beat her opponent 0-6, 6-3, 6-0 and later credited her success to the caffeine hit that saw her through to the next round of the Australian competition.
You go girl.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I Actually Remember 1977

Year of birth significantly changes impact of obesity-associated gene variant
Looking at the relationships between participants' body mass index (BMI), as measured eight times during the study period, the FTO variants they had inherited and when they were born revealed that the previously reported association between a specific FTO variant and BMI was seen, on average, only in participants born in later years. While there was no correlation between the obesity-risk variant and BMI for those born before 1942, in participants born after 1942 the correlation was twice as strong as reported in previous studies. While this study was not able to identify the environmental differences that combine with FTO variant to increase the risk of obesity, the authors note that post-World War II factors such as increased reliance on technology rather than physical labor and the availability of high-calorie processed foods are likely contributors.
Well a little.   The major environmental change was the Surgeon General advising we all eat a Low Fat Diet.  
These metabolic effects are triggered by a persistent high carbohydrate intake.   Period.

Codifying Basic Humanity

Portland Police Bureau drafts new policy on responding to mental health crises
The Portland Police Bureau has drafted a much-expanded policy that stresses the need for officers to recognize behaviors "characteristic'' of mental illness and safely de-escalate encounters.
The new "Mental Health Crisis Response'' directive requires officers to use special skills to avoid unnecessary violence and potential civil liability.
This is what I consider baseline human decency and common sense, and sadly, real progress.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Clarification

I have learned the "Military Diet" doesn't actually have anything to do with the armed services.   That's good.

It's just some asshole who thinks that eating crackers and tuna for three days is a weight loss protocol.

His name is Joe Military, I guess...
Plausible deniability and all that, you know.

Article Roundup

Scientists Agree Work Makes You Wake Up Too Early
Getting up before your final sleep cycle also makes you hypoglycemic and cranky.  Ruins your whole day.

Estrogen worsens allergic reactions in mice
Go frakkin figure.

Scientific team sounds the alarm on sugar as a source of disease
And they don't know the half of it...

Binge drinking disrupts immune system in young adults
But then again, so does soda drinking. 

Mind over matter: Can you think your way to strength?
I actually believe this one.   Used to do this when I was really sick...  pretend I was dancing.
Pretty sure it has something to do with the oxytocin system.
I bet watching other people exercise on TV (and low carb and mouth rinse) could really improve some old folks quality of life pretty quickly.
Let's start with  Omelettes, White Tea and Astaire-Rogers movies.

Problematic Solutions

Two for one sale today.

Lucid Dreams Could Help People with Odd Sleep Disorder
People who suffer from narcolepsy have more lucid dreams, where they know they are dreaming and can at least partly control the events in the dream, two new studies suggest.
Yeah...  so what else is new?
The new findings suggest that people with narcolepsy could combat their nightmares even better by enhancing their lucid dreaming ability, Dresler said.
To have more lucid dreams, people can record their dreams in a diary, and think frequently about the dreams throughout the day. With recurrent nightmares, it helps to think about the subject matter — say, elementary school — along with the thought "I am dreaming now," Dresler said.
Thereby proving he doesn't know what the hell he is talking about and is willing to publish the first idea that flew out of his ass...

I guess he doesn't realize Rubin Naiman has been pushing that nonsense for years.

Lucid dreaming is not triggered by emotional content.  It is caused by an overactive stress response.  There is a lot of cortisol and dopamine running through your brain so you never fully fall asleep.  It is an indication of immune system activity, most likely an allergy or infection.   Trying to surf it or enhance it is exactly the wrong thing to do.  And analyzing the dreams is pointless.

Get up and blow your nose and rinse your mouth instead.

(I am talking to you Dr. Dreamy, your sinus infection and trigeminal neuralgia were obvious from the very back row of the room...)


Manipulating Body Temperature to Control Narcolepsy
 “Although we found that controlled mild proximal warming using a thermosuit improved sleep, bed warming by means of a heating blanket is not advised,” Van Someren says. “The body temperature will rise to a level that doesn’t favor sleep.”
Feedback-loop-controlled systems need to be developed to continuously monitor skin temperature and manipulate the bed temperature from moment to moment in the best direction up or down. Such a system does not yet exist.
Wow that sounds complicated.    Maybe if we weren't systemically infected we wouldn't have those sleep problems and temperature control issues in the first place...

Sunday, January 4, 2015

As I was Saying

No psychology required.

Orexin Signaling Mediates the Antidepressant-Like Effect of Calorie Restriction
During periods of reduced food availability, animals must respond with behavioral adaptations that promote survival. Despite the fact that many psychiatric syndromes include disordered eating patterns as a component of the illness, little is known about the neurobiology underlying behavioral changes induced by short-term calorie restriction. Presently, we demonstrate that 10 days of calorie restriction, corresponding to a 20–25% weight loss, causes a marked antidepressant-like response in two rodent models of depression and that this response is dependent on the hypothalamic neuropeptide orexin (hypocretin). Wild-type mice, but not mice lacking orexin, show longer latency to immobility and less total immobility in the forced swim test after calorie restriction. In the social defeat model of chronic stress, calorie restriction reverses the behavioral deficits seen in wild-type mice but not in orexin knock-out mice. Additionally, chronic social defeat stress induces a prolonged reduction in the expression of prepro-orexin mRNA via epigenetic modification of the orexin gene promoter, whereas calorie restriction enhances the activation of orexin cells after social defeat. Together, these data indicate that orexin plays an essential role in mediating reduced depression-like symptoms induced by calorie restriction.  (free full text)
Honestly, I do not know how I missed that article.   It's so very wonderful...

Everything Old is New Again

Is depression a kind of allergic reaction?
According to a growing number of scientists, this is exactly how we should be thinking about the condition. George Slavich, a clinical psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, has spent years studying depression, and has come to the conclusion that it has as much to do with the body as the mind. “I don’t even talk about it as a psychiatric condition any more,” he says. “It does involve psychology, but it also involves equal parts of biology and physical health.”
One more time-  before Freud, depression as an illness was the assumption of all doctors throughout history.
And depression is not caused by Psychology in any way-  other than the fact that Psychologists and their ridiculous magical thinking are the reason the reality based hypothesis has been ignored for a freakin century.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Quote of the Year

Sorry I missed it. 
... I think that’s the power of the internet, the power of social media,the power of people to publish and entrepreneurs like yourself and myself we’re saying here’s a protocol, it’s pretty low risk, here’s the rationale, give it a shot for a month or two and see what you think.
So my sense now is that forever, as long as we have the internet, a person who’s willing to read and search can know as much or more than their treating physician about the physiology of their disease and what the latest research says.
Dr. Terry Wahls

Damn straight.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

This is Why

Study Shows Link Between Suicidal Behavior in Parents and Children
In a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers noted that previous studies have already pointed out the possibility that suicide risk runs in the family, with young people likelier to attempt suicide in a period of two years after a parent's suicidal attempt. However, David Brent, M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and colleagues wanted instead to explore what exactly causes suicidal behavior to run in a family.
Researchers were also able to spot an increase in the incidence of depression in the children as the study progressed, growing from 29.6 percent in the first two years to 48.2 percent at the end. This increase in depression might also be the reason for the increased number of attempted suicides by children with suicidal parents.
Interventions targeting impulsive aggression are recommended to reduce risks of suicide attempts in children from high-risk families, the researchers added.
Excuse me...
If your results are occurring within two years, that is not accounted for by genetics.   Maybe some kind of lifetime risk is, but not these short term effects.

Epidemiology 101 says...  this is the result of contact with an infection that has a rather long latency period.  ( I don't know, something like periodontitis maybe?)

If they climbed to the roof and their heads exploded, you might have considered something like that I guess...  but no-  this behavior is clearly voluntary, right?

Low level infection would also account for the initial depressive symptoms.

Your data is fully consistent with an infection progressing to sepsis and causing delirium.
In both the parent and the child.
There is probably a genetic component to their immune response, but if you looked a little further you would notice the same thing happens among couples.
These results are clearly triggered and exacerbated by living arrangements.

This is not a mystery.   This is is easily explained by simple, well documented processes.  And your lack of familiarity with basic medical concepts and distribution analysis is what has fueled this tragic cycle for the last century. 

I'm pretty sure "interventions targeting impulsive aggression" is another euphemism for "chemical restraints", so yeah, go fck your high-risk self.