Delicious

Takes one to know one.  Heh.

Woman Bites Radio Host Danny Bonaduce - Zombie or Vampire?

The Logical Conclusion

Of childrens' sugar poisoned minds.

University of Tennessee student hospitalized after alcohol enema nearly kills him
Drunkorexia: No eating, more drinking

I'm shocked, I tell you

Programs to get kids moving do little to fight obesity

Evidence:  Programs encouraging children to be physically active have little impact on their weight, a review suggests.

Conclusion:  Changing indoor and outdoor built environments to foster kids' physical activity is a key area for research.

Cheery Today

Know Hope

Silliness

Five Historical Attempts to Ban Coffee 

In 1777, Frederick the Great of Prussia issued a manifesto claiming beer’s superiority over coffee. He argued that coffee interfered with the country’s beer consumption...

ht PMC

Just a Suggestion

Give schoolchildren less grain and more milk.

California Dairies Going Broke Due to high Feed, low Milk Prices

This is Why

Child obesity: Why do parents let their kids get fat?

"When I got hungry I would get so angry and scream and shout," says Stacey, a mother-of-one from London. "My mum would often end up shouting 'just have it then'. The pressure I put on her was huge and unfair, it put a real strain on our relationship."

People do not want to be fat.
People do know how to follow directions.
And yet they can't lose weight.

Maybe there's something else going on...

Medical Theater

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Mogul Behind Drug Rehab 'Torture' Centers Is Bankrolling Opposition to Pot Legalization in Colorado

Smart Colorado, led former Republican senate candidate Ken Buck and a team of Republican lobbyists and campaign operatives, hopes to drive down the popularity of Amendment 64 before Election Day. The supposedly family-friendly group, however, relies heavily on funds from a pair of controversial Republican fundraisers who once led a drug rehab center shut down over wide-ranging child abuse scandals.

As I was saying

They. Know. This.

Post-streptococcal antibodies are associated with metabolic syndrome in a population-based cohort.

Aran A, Lin L, Finn LA, Weiner K, Peppard P, Young T, Mignot E. 
Source Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America.

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Streptococcal infections are known to trigger autoimmune disorders, affecting millions worldwide. Recently, we found an association between post-streptococcal autoantibodies against Protein Disulphide Isomerase (PDI), an enzyme involved in insulin degradation and insulin resistance. This led us to evaluate associations between post-streptococcal antibodies and metabolic syndrome, as defined by the updated National Cholesterol Education Program definition, 2005.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: Metabolic data (HDL, triglycerides, fasting glucose, blood pressure, waist circumference, BMI, smoking), post-streptococcal antibodies (anti-Streptolysin O (ASO) and anti-PDI), and C-reactive protein (CRP, as a general inflammatory marker), were assessed in 1156 participants of the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study. Anti-PDI antibodies were found in 308 participants (26.6%), ASO≥100 in 258 (22.3%), and 482 (41.7%) met diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome. Anti-PDI antibodies but not ASO were significantly associated with metabolic syndrome [n = 1156, OR 1.463 (95% CI 1.114, 1.920), p = 0.0062; adjusted for age, gender, education, smoking]. Importantly, the anti-PDI-metabolic syndrome association remained significant after adjusting for CRP and fasting insulin.
CONCLUSIONS: Post-streptococcal anti-PDI antibodies are associated with metabolic syndrome regardless of fasting insulin and CRP levels. Whereas these data are in line with a growing body of evidence linking infections, immunity and metabolism, additional studies are necessary to establish the post-streptococcal-metabolic syndrome association.
Free PMC Article

Fat Red Faces.   Just sayin'.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Righteous White Guy David Brooks who apparently read a book on psychology last week or something.

The Psych Approach

When you look over the domestic policy landscape, you see all these different people in different policy silos with different budgets: in health care, education, crime, poverty, social mobility and labor force issues. But, in their disjointed ways, they are all dealing with the same problem — that across vast stretches of America, economic, social and family breakdowns are producing enormous amounts of stress and unregulated behavior, which dulls motivation, undermines self-control and distorts lives.

Maybe it’s time for people in all these different fields to get together in a room and make a concerted push against the psychological barriers to success.

Yes, that approach seems to be having excellent results.  Suicide rates are increasing at an alarming pace.  Let's do it some more.

Bedtime Stories

Wake the Fk Up
Samuel L. Jackson debuts profanity-laced pro-Obama ad

I need an antisocial network

Sorry kids, but I had no intention of running a Zombie site on Facebook.  I was just trying to join some of your groups.   However that account wouldn't let me, and the response was overwhelming, so it's been disabled.   I am pursuing other options within the borg.

Y'all go out and join Gluten Free PWN.  
I will have another try at putting on the harness.

Update- Yeah, I don't see me hanging out on Facebook.  After a few hours looking around-  It's everything I hate, and more.  I haven't got enough time or brain cells left to use them being agitated.

To Be Clear

Narcolepsy Network is NOT a patient organization.
Narcolepsy Network does not exist to help or educate Narcoleptics.
Narcolepsy Network does not want you to get better. 
Narcolepsy Network is now almost fully funded by drug companies.  It is not a source FOR patients.  It is a Source OF Patients.
Look at it-  their goal is "Raising Awareness".  Translated, that means "Drum up Business".
Find you as soon as po$$ible, get you into a Doctor$ office, give you lots of Te$ts and put you on ¢Pap and Drug$.
And then suck your family into the vortex, too.

It's not about you.  It's about your diagnosis.  Period.
Narcolepsy makes you eligible for life-long big-dollar insurance reimbursement.


The patient forum and conference are merely ways to get you to become personally invested in their charade. And do their public relations for them.

Jazz has coopted the Zombies into literally trolling schools to find kids to put on Xyrem.

Exciting Results

Eye Proteins Have Germ-Killing Power, Could Lead to New Antimicrobial Drugs

A team of UC Berkeley vision scientists has found that small fragments of keratin protein in the eye play a key role in warding off pathogens. The researchers also put synthetic versions of these keratin fragments to the test against an array of nasty pathogens. These synthetic molecules effectively zapped bacteria that can lead to flesh-eating disease and strep throat (Streptococcus pyogenes), diarrhea (Escherichia coli), staph infections (Staphylococcus aureus) and cystic fibrosis lung infections (Pseudomonas aeruginosa).

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Craig Taro Gold

The (Not-So-Secret) Angry-Old-White-Man Agenda 

The fact is that nearly 75 percent of all suicides in America are now white males, and the older the white male, the higher his likelihood of killing himself. The highest suicide rate among any group of Americans is white men over the age of 50.

And none of it has anything to do with any agenda.  It is not divine justice for closed minded selfishness.  They do not twist their minds into mental knots.
Those men are sick and their fat red faces, lack of empathy and progressively increasing righteousness are overt symptoms. 

Nothing will change until we address that.

(It does tend to run in families, son...  and you do know they make that same argument about your social group, right? )

Amphetamines and GHB

Why does that sound so familiar?  

Santa Clara elementary school principal charged with selling drugs

More Fruits and Vegetables!

Retired military chiefs: Obesity levels mean US is 'too fat to fight'

Combined with other disqualifying factors — including criminal backgrounds and poor education — excess weight means that an estimated 75 percent of young adults could not serve in the military even if they desired to, according to the report. 

and then there's this:

Their report praised government action against obesity, specifically efforts by municipalities such as Philadelphia and New York City to reduce junk food in schools.
U.S. students consume 400 billion calories from junk food sold in schools each year, or more weight than the aircraft carrier Midway, according to the report.

(Apparently this author's school didn't teach that calories are not a measure of weight.)

But yes of course, old white guys are absolutely the right people to make that decision. 

A Post-Apocalyptic Nursery Rhyme

Sugar makes you sleepy. sugar makes you sad.
Sugar makes you crazy. sugar makes you mad.

Sugar makes you stupid. sugar makes you fat.

But sugar is addictive- so you just ignore all that.

The Root of the Problem

Their mistakes just make more business for them.

How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us
Medical errors kill enough people to fill four jumbo jets a week. A surgeon with five simple ways to make health care safer.

The Cycle Begins

Lady Gaga Gains Weight

A low fat diet should fix her right up...

They're Heeeere

State's first case of 'zombie bees' reported

Mark Hohn didn't pay much attention to the dead bees scattered outside his shop when he got home from vacation a few weeks ago. He just pulled out a leaf blower and blasted away the mess.
It took him a few days to realize he had an invasion of the living dead on his hands.
"I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house," said the novice beekeeper. The dead and dying honeybees from Hohn's 1.25-acre spread in Kent are the first in Washington confirmed to be infected by a parasitic fly that causes the bees to lurch around erratically before dropping dead.

Very Bad Timing

Attempted burglar found asleep on floor 

Old Song of the Day

You Learn.  

Compare and Contrast

Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects

Chemotherapy can backfire, make cancer worse by triggering tumor growth 

It's Not About You

Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic

When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but also to reduce health care costs. 
But, in reality, the move to electronic health records may be contributing to billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers and patients by making it easier for hospitals and physicians to bill more for their services, whether or not they provide additional care.
...Critics say the abuses are widespread. “It’s like doping and bicycling,” said Dr. Donald W. Simborg, who was the chairman of federal panels examining the potential for fraud with electronic systems. “Everybody knows it’s going on.” 

The prime directive of medical business management is upgrading the reimbursment level and extracting as much money as possible.    Period.   If they can get away without providing the service, even better.

Yo Psychs

Excellent Work.  High fives all around.

Suicide now the Leading Cause of Injury Mortality in U. S.

"Suicide is now the leading cause of unintentional and violence-related injury mortality as a whole," Dr. Rockett said. Suicide only surpassed motor vehicle traffic crashes in the final year available for the study, 2009. The suicide mortality rate was 15 percent higher in 2009 than 2000.

Predictable, really

Britney Spears shows symptoms of psoriasis 

Pretty sure all child stars are manic.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Tanya Marie Luhrmann

Beyond the Brain

In the 1990s, scientists declared that schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses were pure brain disorders that would eventually yield to drugs. Now they are recognizing that social factors are among the causes, and must be part of the cure.

Now I could go through this entire rambling article and point out all her errors in logic, but it all boils down to this:
Just because the genetic hypothesis hasn't produced direct results and the psychoactive drug approach hasn't worked, and there are clearly numerous interacting factors involved- DOES NOT mean that social events affect the underlying pathology or that psychotherapy is a valid treatment.   Especially not bullshit like teaching sick people to talk to their voices... Good grief, that is merely evidence of how frakkin desperate and crazy therapists are.  Wasting tormented peoples' time and brain cells to justify their own existence.

This argument is fallacious.   Just because she doesn't know the answer doesn't mean the psychosomatic hypothesis is credible.  There are other biomechanical options.  Like infection.
Scientists shocked to find antibiotics alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia

(seriously, what is it about Stanford that produces biased research that ignores reality?)

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Pacifier use can lead to emotional problems in boys, study finds

According to Paula Niedenthal, principal author of the study and a professor of psychology at UW-Madison, said pacifier use makes it difficult for young boys to learn how to express themselves.

My turn-  Pacifier use is a sign of apnea.   Apnea is a sign of oropharyngeal infection.   Strep infection causes behavioral problems in susceptible individuals.

Parents should be open to the idea of controlling pacifier use in their infants, which is a discussion, Niedenthal said, most parents don’t want to have.

Yeah, because nobody's tried that before. 

Asshat.

Call to Action

If you have recovered or lessened the symptoms of your narcolepsy using a Gluten Free Diet and would like to be included in a future research project-   Please send Christina an email.   I am going through my records but some of your addresses are no longer working.   I'm pretty sure there's some lurkers out there too.

We are trying to write a case study including a spectrum of patients.   Families with multiple narcos are especially desirable...

How to Cheat on your Sleep Test

Passive-Aggressive Public Service Announcement #2

Now I don't know why anyone would want to be diagnosed with Narcolepsy- but if you do, here's some tips to make you as sleepy as possible.

• Wear really comfy clothes that are discreet. Sweats, t-shirts, shorts.
• Make sure you are warm. Cold skin makes you less prone to sleep.
• Eat Sugar- Orexin cells are glucose sensitive. The more sugar you eat, the less orexin you will produce.
• Eat Gluten- Make some multi grain muffins with wheat, corn, soy and nut flours. These foods contain known allergens which affect the alimentary tract. Since orexin cells line the intestine, this suppresses their function. Wheat Gluten is especially associated with Narcolepsy.
• Don't smoke or drink coffee- caffeine and nicotine activate the frontal cortex and actually do increase alertness.
• Stay inside and wear Sunglasses- Orexin cells are also triggered by light on the retinas. Just looking out the window will stimulate your nervous system.
• Sleep in the chair if they let you. It's much easier to find a comfortable position for the tubes and wires, and we tend to breathe better sitting up.
• Don't forget your pillow.

Like I said, I don't know why anyone would want a Narcolepsy diagnosis. Luckily, you can also use this information to alleviate your symptoms. I have been in remission for five years. Read my research.

cross-posted at NN.  heh.  wonder how long it will last.

See the Pathology

This is Why

Surviving the Pain at the Roots

I came out of the womb scratching.

The entire rest of this article is this woman rationalizing her "voluntary behavior".
That is what psychs do.   They make you feel guilty.   And sicker.

Compulsive epithelial damage is a symptom/trigger of strep induced mania.

One step forward

Periodontal infections linked to insulin resistance in diabetes-free adults

Recent data from the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has shown that periodontal infections were linked with elevated insulin resistance in a sample of men and women without diabetes.

Previous studies have reported the presence of periodontal disease and its potential to increase the risk for incident type 2 diabetes and a five-fold increase in HbA1c levels, the researchers wrote.
“The potential for periodontal infections to contribute to insulin resistance and overt type 2 diabetes is biologically plausible, and one specific causal pathway linking infections and type 2 diabetes risk is chronically elevated systemic inflammation,” they wrote.

Yeah, that inflammation is evil.  It's killing everyone.   And if we research inflammation we'll have a decade or two before it's clear that's futile and we decide to figure out what causes the inflammation...
(notice they actually factor out the symptoms of infection)

Infection is a biologically plausible cause of illness.  I love that.
Good Data.   Same old conclusions. 

Thanks to Denise for this. 

The last day you will drink

Alcoholics never choose to stop drinking. They think they do. But they don't.

As your orexin cells cease functioning, it becomes harder and harder to metabolize alcohol.

And it's not as pleasant. And you drink less. And you feel righteous.  And you think about quitting drinking. You may even say you did. You may even think you really did.

But there's always that One Last Binge after all your orexin cells are gone...

At the same time your orexin cell loss is shutting down your metabolism, it's causing all kinds of havoc in your social interactions. Spouse, work, kids- all become too much to handle. Finally something predictably awful happens and your amygdala freaks out and you just need to drown it. You run to your familiar friend and it's special magic. Only it doesn't work. So you drink some more just to be sure. 

And then you feel like you're going to die.

You get so mindbendingly sick you swear you'll do anything to make the pain go away. You'll never drink again.

But the fact is- you can't. You can't even think about drinking alcohol after that. Just the idea causes psychic distress.

You do “learn your lesson”. But you shouldn't take credit for it.

You can't not learn that lesson.

It is operant conditioning at the brainstem level.

Of Mice and Men

The Mouse Trap- The dangers of using one lab animal to study every disease.

Daniel Engber’s three-part series “The Mouse Trap: How One Rodent Rules the Lab” has won the 2012 Communication Award for the online category.

It's long and kind of technical, but some of you may have the interest and stamina.

No, that's Psychology

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
-Ernest Benn

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. 

-Sir Winston Churchill

The Chicken and the Egg

From Medline, free registration.
Methamphetamine, Heroin Users Both Suffer from 'Meth Mouth'

"People assume they know what's going on with meth mouth, but I'm not sure that's the truth," coauthor Kevin Hursh, DDS, dental director at the San Francisco Native American Health Center and an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, told Medscape Medical News.
Many people think that meth mouth is caused by the direct effects of the smoked drug on the abuser's teeth, he said. But when the researchers surveyed people who inject heroin and people who inject methamphetamine, they found rampant dental decay similar to what has been called meth mouth.

About a half of both groups reported brushing their teeth seldom, if ever, and no participants from either group took advantage of an offer of a free dentistry appointment.

The investigators conclude that a next step might include offering preventive measures such as chlorhexidine rinses or xylitol gum or the application of fluoride varnishes to injection drug abusers, regardless of the type of drugs. They suggest accomplishing this through outreach workers.

Great idea, but they still see the dental decay as a complication, not the cause.  Even though it is associated with ALL their adverse outcomes...
So close, and yet so far away.

The zombie attacks continue

What the hell.
Naked, bloody man chews on woman’s head

I would really like to know what's going on with this.   The nudity and face chewing seem to be persistent symptoms.

I want to see those people's olfactory bulbs and trigeminal nerves.   I am pretty sure they have abscesses in their heads and whatever they're doing is pushing them over the edge.

Duh Science

Cutting edge research from a major university:

Pre-marriage doubts signal unhappy unions, predict divorce

Somebody please do this experiment:   dental disease and divorce.   I gotta feeling...

Updated Update.

How I Carry On

I buy garden angels.

Strike that, reverse it

Can One Lose Lactose Intolerance as an Adult?
Is it just me, or is that an annoying sentence?  "Can one regain lacose tolerance", right?

One More Time

Okay, the group over at Facebook is called Narcolepsy Free.
There's another group called Gluten Free PWN.   I think that's a few other people I know.
Anyhow, hopefully someday we will merge peacefully and not have a crazy narco lady catfight...

I actually am trying to get an account.   I did something wrong.  Or I'm an idiot and am missing something obvious.  Or both.
But hopefully I will see you there soon.

The things I do for you people...   

Quote of the Day

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."
 -Aldous Huxley

Big Doin's In the Trailer Park

Apparently some of the girls have set up a group over on Facebook called Gluten Free Narcos
Narcolepsy Free.

Go over and join.

The Double Edged Sword

Psychopathic Boldness Tied to U.S. Presidential Success 

"Certain psychopathic traits may be like a double-edged sword," says lead author Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University. "Fearless dominance, for example, may contribute to reckless criminality and violence, or to skillful leadership in the face of a crisis."
In fact, fearless dominance, linked to low social and physical apprehensiveness, appears to correlate with better-rated presidential performance for leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management and Congressional relations, the analysis showed.

 Yes.   When it is good it is very, very good-  and when it is bad it is horrid.

A really good day

Know Hope

Pop Quiz

Mom’s Depression May Lead to Shorter Kids

The study doesn’t prove that mom’s depression causes a child’s short stature, only that the two are associated. And the authors couldn’t confirm the underlying mechanism linking the two factors, but they had some theories: maternal depression can lead to increased stress in kids, for example, and chronically high levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been associated with lower levels of growth hormones in kids. Depressed moms may also have poor feeding practices like spending less time breast feeding.  “Maternal depressive symptoms are associated with insecure attachment in children and with poor parenting behaviors,” the authors write.

 Your mission is to think of a reality based mechanism.

This is Why

Each day 30,000 people around the world attempt suicide.

Happy Suicide Prevention Day Everyone.

Heh

October is Zombie Awareness Month

Get a Hat

Sleepwalk With Me

Mike Birbiglia has a new movie about his REM behavior disorder.  Jeff and I went to see it last night.

This is Seattle, there was a big crowd, the whole theater was filled-  with frakkin zombies.
The ratio of fat red-headed people was out of control.   It was like an oompa-loompa convention.   I lost count before we even left the lobby. 

And then the movie started.
It's a good movie, it is.  He's really cute and funny and it has a ton of my favorite actors and the story is a familiar tale of navigating impulse control problems.    But watching him eat pizza and then literally run in his sleep, well, that made this crazy old lady twitch and cry through the whole thing.

I really didn't want to see the movie, though.  I usually make an effort not to torment myself that way.
It was an intervention.    He was in town for the screening.  I spent the day and made him a Zombie Survival Kit.   Bought some gluten free food and mouth rinse.  Put the dentist book and a letter in there explaining why.   After the show he had a little Q&A session.   I leapt up after that and got to the front in time to give him the bag, but not really speak.

Hopefully he will read it and stop by the website and get better soon.
Stop Sleepwalking with me instead.

It's a disgrace

Health-care system wastes $750 billion a year

Health-care system squanders roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, a new study shows. Deep cuts to the US heath-care system may produce a more efficient, better-quality product.

They waste a whole hell of a lot more than that.   Half of what they do is treating the side effects of the other half of what they do.  The entire Psychology field could disappear and health outcomes would probably improve.

Things that make me twitch

Can You Die From A Nightmare?
Yes, those strep infections will kill you if you let them.

Sleepwalk with Me 
I want him to get better and lose this livelihood.  Does that make me a bad person?

Heh.  September 7    Seattle, WA - Sleepwalk With Me Movie at Harvard Exit - Mike will be at 7:30 and 9:35 PM Screenings! 

ZomBees!

With GPS!

Biologists Tag 'Zombees' to Track Their Flight

After last year's accidental discovery of "zombie"-like bees infected with a fly parasite, SF State researchers are conducting an elaborate experiment to learn more about the plight of the honey bees. The scientists are tagging infected bees with tiny radio trackers, and monitoring the bees' movements in and out of a specially designed hive on top of the Hensill Hall biology building on campus. At the same time, they are monitoring hives on campus and on the roof of the San Francisco Chronicle's offices for further signs of the mysterious parasite and encouraging the public to participate through a new website ZomBeeWatch.org.

Good Point

From Paul Krugman's blog-

I’ve spent most of the day with a parent in the hospital; and my thoughts turned to the GOP platform, which boasts that

Our reform of healthcare will empower millions of seniors to control their personal healthcare decisions.

If you’ve ever been in this situation — and I assume that many readers have — you’ll understand what I mean by saying that empowering seniors to “control their personal healthcare decisions” is very definitely not what you want right then (or what they would want ex ante).

But I guess that IS the point of the exercise...
Mentally challenged customers are the most exploitable.

Ground Zero

I'm telling ya, the UK is the center of the Zombie Vortex...

No city for old men

Glasgow, for all its charms, is sick—and not metaphorically. Glaswegians die younger than other Britons and nobody knows why.
...Even in wealthy neighbourhoods mortality rates are 15% higher than in similar districts of other big cities. In rougher parts the difference is starker. A study by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health found that between 2003 and 2007 there were 4,500 more deaths in the city than might have been expected given the age and poverty of the population.
...What needs explaining is the following: in modern times, up until 1950 Glasgow did not stand out as particularly sickly. But between 1950 and 1980 a gap opened up between it and other big cities in Britain. The difference was mainly explained by a greater number of deaths from cancer and heart disease. Then, starting in about 1980, the gap widened again, though this time the symptoms were different. Glasgow still had too many cancers and heart attacks; but the marked difference from other cities came in deaths from suicide, violence, drug abuse, alcohol and traffic accidents.

In the 50's, antibiotics started being used.  The genetically susceptible people started dying of chronic streptococcal diseases like cancer and heart disease instead of acute Rheumatic Fever.  And then in the 80's, low fat diets started getting recommended.
These results are absolutely what one would expect from an immune compromised and metabolism impaired population.

Neener Neener

This place delivers to my house...

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

New York City Education Department

Lunch Trays Got Too Lean in City’s Fight Against Fat

Worried that children were losing the war on obesity, New York City began to slim down its school lunch offerings several years ago, replacing fries with baked potato strips and introducing nonfat chocolate milk, whole grain pasta and salad bars, among other tweaks.  In the process, the city also cut calories. So much so, city officials now acknowledge, that it often served children fewer calories than required by the federal government.

Yeah.   Low-fat, calorie-restricted diets.   Guess what that leads to-  Hypoglycemia and deactivation of the frontal cortex.    Excellent education strategy, people.
Thanks for totally freaking me out for the day.  I'll be twitching about all those sick kids you are just making sicker...

Non-fat chocolate milk?   Really?  Which part of that is nutritious?

Now this is fun

Zombie Family Car Stickers

Things I don't want to know

Corn Maize Gluten Causes Antibody Response in Celiac Patients

That explains the taquitos.
Dammit.

It's the Sugar, Stupid

Even ‘High-Normal’ Blood Sugar Tied to Brain Shrinkage

 “These findings suggest that even for people who do not have diabetes, blood sugar levels could have an impact on brain health,” study author Nicolas Cherbuin, of the Australian National University in Canberra. “More research is needed, but these findings may lead us to re-evaluate the concept of normal blood sugar levels and the definition of diabetes.”

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Tom Horvath
You're talking, but you're not saying anything.

How should we treat addiction?

The leader of the largest alternative to AA sounds off on why 12 steps shouldn't be the only model for sobriety.

That's a fact.  AA shouldn't be used at all because the "stop drinking and just suffer" model doesn't help.  However an "internal locus of control" means basically nothing and isn't a real solution either.  If this man knew anything about alcoholics he would help those people with their glucose metabolism.  But he admits he doesn't know what alcoholism really is and that he has basically just decided that whatever ideas he pulls out of his ass are an appropriate thing to do anyway.   Hell, he doesn't even have an internally coherent strategy.  He only has a bunch of clients because his "program" is the path of least resistance- an alcoholics' very favorite thing.

See the Pattern

Shattered Genius
Grigori Perelman is one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, a Russian genius who solved the Poincaré Conjecture, which plagued the brightest minds for a century. At the height of his fame, he refused a million-dollar award for his work. Then he disappeared. Our writer hunts him down on the streets of St. Petersburg.

There was time for one final question. I put it to him in English, the single philosophical question that I hoped he would consider. Where does your life go from here?” I said. Perelman stepped closer to me. I saw that one of his upper teeth was dark brown, decayed. “What?” he said, his English skills apparently dormant. Perelman’s face was focused in concentration as I repeated the question, and I thought that he might answer. But when I finished speaking, his face went slack, as before. He understood what I wanted find out, the path of this unusual life. He mumbled, “I don’t know.”

Stalking Sick People and regurgitating the details.   It's a living, I guess.

Yobama

Obama ordering VA to add staff, see suicidal vets within 24 hours

SSDD.

World Class Obsession

Honorary Zombie of the Day.   Even if he is a Vampire.

Count von Count

I'm so glad I don't have compulsive counting...

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Bijal Trivedi
 
An extensive article that is behind the New Scientist paywall so I am including my favorite three paragraphs as per the fair use doctrine...

Food for thought: Eat your way to dementia

If McNay and de la Monte are correct, a similar process may lead to Alzheimer's. They think that constantly high levels of insulin, triggered by the fat and sugar content of the western diet, might begin to overwhelm the brain, which can't constantly be on high alert. Either alongside the other changes associated with type 2 diabetes, or separately, the brain may then begin to turn down its insulin signalling, impairing your ability to think and form memories before leading to permanent neural damage. "I believe it starts with insulin resistance," says de la Monte. "If you can avoid brain diabetes you'll be fine. But once it gets going you are going to need to attack on multiple fronts."
-snip-
Of course, animal studies can only tell you so much about a human disease, but an almost Frankensteinian demonstration confirms that the brains of people with Alzheimer's are insulin-resistant. Using brains from cadavers, Steven Arnold at the University of Pennsylvania bathed various tissue samples in insulin to see how they would react. Tissue from people who had not had Alzheimer's seemed to spring back to life, triggering a cascade of chemical reactions suggestive of synaptic activity. In contrast, the neurons of those who had had Alzheimer's barely reacted at all (Journal of Clinical Investigations, vol 122, p 1316). "The insulin signalling is paralysed," says Arnold.
-snip-
It's not yet fully understood exactly why disrupted insulin signalling would lead to the other kinds of brain damage associated with Alzheimer's, such as the build up of plaques, though the emerging research suggests many, possibly interlinked, mechanisms. One line of evidence, for instance, has shown that insulin and beta amyloid are both broken down by the same protein-chomping enzyme. Under normal circumstances that enzyme can successfully deal with both, but if too much insulin is washing around, the enzyme gets overwhelmed by the hormone, and the beta amyloid gets neglected. Instead of being broken down, it accumulates, perhaps building into the toxic plaques that kill brain cells.

It's a really good summary and there's lots of great ideas on how insulin could be causing dementia. (my guess)   Ordinarily I would be dancing and showering a cover article (!) like this with praise.
But the author repeatedly asserts that fatty foods trigger insulin production and even though that idea is now "common knowledge" - it is just not true.   Carbohydrates do.  Sugar. Sugar. Sugar.
One would expect in an article subtitled  "What you eat may be killing your brain" - there would be a minimal attempt to get the facts straight about the effects of food.
The reason we are all crazy sick is a century of sloppy assumptions just like that.