But of Course

Rat study reveals long-term effects of adolescent amphetamine abuse on the brain

A study of rats given regular, high doses of amphetamine finds that those exposed to the drug at an age corresponding to human adolescence experience long-term changes in brain function that persist into adulthood.
The study, reported in the journal Neuroscience, found that amphetamine leads to changes in dopamine signaling. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in memory, attention, learning and feelings of pleasure.
"The dopamine system, which continues to develop throughout adolescence and young adulthood, is a primary target of psychostimulant drugs like amphetamine," said University of Illinois psychology professor Joshua Gulley, who led the new research. "Changes in dopamine function in response to repeated drug exposure are likely to contribute to the behavioral consequences - addiction and relapse, for example - that abusers experience.

"Along with other studies, this shows pretty clear evidence that drug use during adolescence, a time when the brain is still developing, has extremely long-lasting consequences that go far beyond the last drug exposure," Gulley said.

Big Babies

Anderson Cooper shuts down Donald Trump

With all due respect, ‘He started it!’ is the argument of a five-year-old”
"Not it's not," Trump replied, unaware he was proving Cooper correct, "It's not!"

Yeah, acting like a whiny petulant child is a primary symptom of infection.
My entire life has been punctuated by moments of involuntary toddlerhood.

You Don't Say

Children with Cushing syndrome may have higher suicide risk

Cushing syndrome results from high levels of the hormone cortisol. Long-term complications of the syndrome include obesity, diabetes, bone fractures, high blood pressure, kidney stones and serious infections. Cushing's syndrome may be caused by tumors of the adrenal glands or other parts of the body that produce excess cortisol. It also may be caused by a pituitary tumor that stimulates the adrenal glands to produce high cortisol levels. Treatment usually involves stopping excess cortisol production by removing the tumor.

The authors noted that children with Cushing syndrome often develop compulsive behaviors and tend to become over-achievers in school. After treatment, however, they then become depressed and anxious. This is in direct contrast to adults with Cushing syndrome, who tend to become depressed and anxious before treatment and gradually overcome these symptoms after treatment.

The authors stated that health care providers might try to prepare children with Cushing syndrome before they undergo treatment, letting them know that their mood may change after surgery and may not improve for months or years. Similarly, providers should consider screening their patients periodically for suicide risk in the years following their treatment.

Guess what also raises cortisol levels through the roof...
Bacteremia.  Sepsis.   Which is sometimes caused by surgery...

related post

The Opposite of Eggs

Easter: America's biggest candy season

News Flash:   Candy makes people crazy. 

Reverse Psychology

Alcohol a 'very alarming' problem for nation's lawyers, study finds

The rate of problem drinking is roughly three times higher in the U.S. among lawyers than the adult population as a whole, said attorney and clinician Patrick R. Krill, Hazelden's architect of the project and the study's lead author. Lawyers also have alcohol problems at a rate higher than doctors and other professions.
Narrowing the focus strictly to the quantity and frequency of drinking, the study saw that more than a third of lawyers exhibit trouble with alcohol.
Krill added that "we found rates of depression are also significantly higher than the general population," while lawyers also were coping with anxiety at a higher rate than the country as a whole.

ABA President Paulette Brown said, "This new research demonstrates how the pressures felt by many lawyers manifest in health risks."

Ummmm, no.    Read your data.   Those people were drinking at the beginning. 
What it more likely demonstrates is that people who self medicate their infections with alcohol become anxious and obsessed with learning Rules, and following Rules, and enforcing Rules.  And then doubling down on drinking when the Rules don't seem to work.

It's a self-selecting population.   Rule worship is an Alcoholic behavior.

Article Roundup

Long naps, daytime sleepiness tied to greater risk of metabolic syndrome

Losing weight with a high-protein diet can help adults sleep better

New method reveals roles of GABA in the control of appetite and metabolism

Women more severely affected by Alzheimer's than men

Tooth loss increases the risk of diminished cognitive function

Why do sunbathers live longer than those who avoid the sun?

Antipsychotic drugs linked to increased mortality among Parkinson's disease patients

More elderly using dangerous drug combinations

Medical marijuana reduces use of opioid pain meds, decreases risk for some with chronic pain

Roots of opioid epidemic can be traced back to two key changes in pain management

Neanderthals diet: 80% meat, 20% vegetables

Actual Job: Cheese Librarian 

For the Geeks:
Metabolic asymmetry in the hypothalamic regulation of food intake and reproductive processes in male and female rats

A lovely dissertation by a scholar in Hungary.    Very Nice.

The Internet, Explained

Explosive road rage-like anger linked to parasite spread by cats

Equal Time Rule

Democrat's Teeth

News I Can Use

Hypervirulent strep outbreak identified

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has helped state, local and tribal health officials identify an outbreak of "hypervirulent" strep bacteria in the American Southwest.
Identified in Flagstaff, Ariz., from January to July 2015, this outbreak of the emm59 clone of group A Streptococcus is directly related to cases identified recently in New Mexico. This strain type appears to have evolved from a nationwide outbreak in Canada that lasted from 2006-09, according to a report in the April issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
"The presence of emm59 in the southwestern United States poses a public health concern," said Dr. Paul Keim, Director of TGen's Pathogen Genomics Division (TGen North) in Flagstaff, and the senior author of the report.

Damn I missed it

Hope you had a happy World Sleep Day 2016 Everyone. 

March 18 is World Sleep Day, an annual global event that aims to improve sleep health worldwide. World Sleep Day is organized by the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) to spread awareness of important sleep-related issues and the burden insomnia places on society through a series of special events.

 Yes, I'm sure.   You need to remind everyone that they are having trouble sleeping- so they will come into your clinics.   You now have a shiny new drug for insomnia you guys are literally trying to shove down people's throats.    The one that causes depression and suicidal ideation.  Yep.

This year it is focusing on sleep loss resulting from the need to urinate during the night.
This can be caused by drinking a lot before bedtime, or having a high caffeine or alcohol intake, which can easily be remedied by lifestyle changes. It can also be due to an imbalance in normal body rhythms causing the body to overproduce urine at night—nocturia.

I hope they aren't using this particular symptom as bait to sell Suvorexant.
Nocturia is a primary indicator symptom of  diabetes.    And blocking orexin receptors is going to make that problem worse.    Yep. Yep. Yep.

Microbial Whak-a-Mole

Omega 3 fatty acids may reduce bacterial lung infections associated with COPD

COPD, which is most often caused by years of smoking, is characterized by inflammation and excessive mucus in the lungs that blocks airflow. Quitting can slow the progress of COPD, but it doesn't halt the disease. Anti-inflammatory drugs are the most common treatment, however they suppress the immune system, which can put people with COPD at risk for secondary infections, most commonly NTHi bacterial infections.
"Our biggest concern with patients who have COPD is bacterial infections, which often put their lives at risk," says Richard Phipps, Ph.D. professor of Environmental Medicine and director of the URSMD Lung Biology and Disease Program. "If we can figure out how to predict who is likely to get an infection, physicians could put them on a preventative medication."

Umm no.   COPD is a bacterial infection that is suppressed by endotoxin.   All the symptoms can be explained by that.    Mucous, restricted airways, chronic fatigue....

The reason people get sicker after they quit smoking is because  nicotine suppresses bacterial infections and tightens epithelium.    Even though the other particulates contribute to illness, the nicotine is actually antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory.   So when people stop smoking, their infections and endotoxin  flare up.

So then they put those people on steroids  which suppresses the immune response too, only the doctor and pharmas make the money instead of the tobacco company.

If they can figure out that EVERYONE has underlying infections, well then maybe they might feel inclined to figure out some preventative treatments besides drugs....

"We never really knew why diets high in omega fatty acids seemed good, but now we know it's because they provide the precursors for molecules that help shut down excessive inflammation." says Phipps.

Omega 3 fatty acids counteract the effects of bacterial infection.

Correlation Games

Rats Depress People More Than Crime Does, Study Finds

People living in Baltimore's low-income neighborhoods who see rats as a big problem are significantly more likely to have depressive symptoms such as sadness and anxiety, the research finds.
 This study provides very strong evidence that rats are an underappreciated stressor that affects how people feel about their lives in low-income neighborhoods," German said.

My turn:

This is not about an unsightly neighborhood making people unhappy for fcks sake.
It's about germs.
Rats carry Toxoplasma, a neurotropic, psychoactive parasite associated with suicidal tendencies.
It's been causing human weirdness in crowded, unsanitary cities since the Ancient Egyptians.

Then Again

If this is the effed up bizarro world I am going to have to exist in-
Who needs brain cells and sanity?

Bartender, waffles for everyone!

Expensive Holes in his Head

Story Three:

About 15 years ago, I had occasion to consult with a fancy Upper East Side dental surgeon who specialized in cosmetic work. The circumstances are unimportant, though he did notice that I was getting older and might want to consider implants or veneers since he said I had made my teeth considerably smaller over the years by grinding them. An occupational hazard, I guess.

The dentist was momentarily called away, and when he returned to the conference room where I waited, he had a set of teeth molds in his hand.

“Do you know what these are?” he asked with a smirk. Then, without waiting for an answer, added: “Donald Trump’s teeth.”

The dentist said Trump would come to the office every six months or so complaining that his veneers weren’t white enough.

“I tell him that if they are too white, they won’t look real,” the dentist said, as I recall, “but he won’t listen. So he picks a shade, and I make them about one-quarter as white as the shade he selects, and he goes away happy.”

Yes....  as I said....
Not only is trauma or infection or neglect able to cause this acute systemic response- many of the treatments actually trigger and compound the pathology.     

Treatments like full mouth reconstruction and tooth whitening.... 

Oh holy hell....
Ben Carson Loses A Tooth At South Carolina Campaign Stop

His veneers are falling out of his head.

 

Sounds Familiar

‘Americanitis’: The Disease of Living Too Fast

How a 19th-century nervous condition shaped the way modern Americans think about health and happiness.

Actually, it's a Viking thing.   Everything old is new again.  

This and That

Things I collected while not blogging:


Patients with anorexia feel less bodily pleasure

Getting multiple tattoos can strengthen your immune system 
Yes, but the urge to get them is a sign your immune system is suppressed in the first place.

Link between gum disease and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's
Common denominators:  herpes, endotoxin and sugar....  in your mouth.

Fighting cavities could one day be as easy as taking a pill, research shows

Mother's smoking may increase her children's risk of lung disease as adults
Because smokers are self medicating their low level respiratory infections....  their entire families are infected too.


If you treat a parent's depression, will their child's asthma improve?
Only if you treat the infectious source of the depression...

Serotonin deficiency implicated in rheumatoid arthritis
Oh really.


Enzyme involved in glucose metabolism promotes wound healing, study finds

Brown fat keeps blood sugar in check


Majority of California adults have prediabetes or diabetes
India says number of obese teens nearly doubles in five years


Breast cancer has a higher incidence in obese women as fat facilitates cancer stem cell expansion

Diabetes treatment can reduce mammographic density The use of diabetes treatment, whether by diet or pills such as metformin, decreases mammographic density (MD), one of the strongest risk factors for breast cancer, whereas taking insulin appears to increase it.

ADHD or just immature?
Ummm, neither?

Trouble sleeping? The size of your tongue and tonsils could be why
Ya think?   Try checking those adenoids too.

Beta-blockers could reduce the risk of COPD exacerbations
this one's for you, Owen.

CPAP may not improve glycemic control in people with diabetes 
Yes, well that's because it doesn't actually address the oropharyngeal infection.


Grid cells' role in human imagination revealed

Scientists find brain cells that know which end is up
That's pretty cool.

My Blue Heaven
I have always imagined a place like that.   I don't see any reason why everything can't be blue.

The Circle of Evidence

Diabetes may raise risk for dangerous staph infection

Overall, they found that people with any form of diabetes were almost three times more likely to acquire a staph blood infection outside of a hospital, compared to those without diabetes.
The risk jumped to more than seven times higher among people with type 1 diabetes, and almost three times higher for those with type 2 diabetes.

Yes, well maybe that's because it's Caused By Chronic Bacterial Infection.

(staph is suppressed by Endotoxin too...)

Bacteria may cause type 2 diabetes

A new study by University of Iowa microbiologists now suggests that bacteria may even be a cause of one of the most prevalent diseases of our time - Type 2 diabetes.
The research team led by Patrick Schlievert, PhD, professor and DEO of microbiology at the UI Carver College of Medicine, found that prolonged exposure to a toxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria causes rabbits to develop the hallmark symptoms of Type 2 diabetes, including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and systemic inflammation.
"We basically reproduced Type 2 diabetes in rabbits simply through chronic exposure to the staph superantigen," Schlievert says.

And exacerbated by Antibiotics, which are given for Bacterial Infections.
 Antibiotic use linked to type 2 diabetes diagnosis

State of the Kitchens

So this is what I have been doing instead of blogging:    Renovating apartments.   After we moved down here from Seattle we bought a couple of older apartment buildings and have been updating them.   So now instead of one kitchen, I have fourteen....   I may never get around to doing the cabinets in my house.

Lately I have been working on my cute vintage fourplex.     The last couple weeks I have been obsessing on this unit because it was almost done, I wanted to see it.   I had such anxiety when I started it, thought I would never finish.
We replaced almost all the fixtures and scraped and painted everything.
This kitchen turned out really well.  The cabinet is an odd size, so I refurbished it.   I took off all the hinges and handles and soaked them in a crock pot to get fifty years of paint off them.   

I don't have internet over there, so I usually just breathe paint or cleaning fumes and just think.   About strep.  and insanity.   and stuff.

 

 

As I Was Saying

Alzheimer’s disease could be caused by herpes virus, warn experts
Drugs trials have failed and it's time to face up to the fact Alzheimer's is probably caused by viruses and bacteria, say scientists

Specifically Herpes I and endotoxin....   uh huh.

Holy Wicked Twist Batman

Maternal bacterial infections trigger abnormal proliferation of neurons in fetal brain

"The finding was unexpected because in children and adults pneumococcal infections can lead to meningitis and the death of neurons," said the study's corresponding author Elaine Tuomanen, M.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases. "This study in a mouse model of the bacterial infection found that prenatally the opposite is true. The evidence suggests maternal infections cause a signaling event that leads to the proliferation and reorganization of neurons in the developing brain that is defective in some way, maybe due to overcrowding."
Researchers showed for the first time that pieces of the bacterial cell wall crossed the placenta and traveled to the fetal brain, triggering proliferation of immature neurons. Evidence suggested the proliferation was sparked by a previously unrecognized pathway that involves the innate immune system and a protein that regulates gene expression.
The proliferation resulted in a 50 percent increase in neurons in a region of the developing brain that becomes the cortex, which is responsible for thought, action and other higher functions.
Investigators also reported that mice exposed to bacterial cell wall early in fetal development later performed below average on measures of memory and cognitive functioning. Researchers also found evidence that treatment of maternal infection by the antibiotic ampicillin, which destroys bacteria and sends pieces of the cell wall into the bloodstream, led to a similar neuronal increase.
Tuomanen said the results raise questions about which class of antibiotics should be used to treat bacterial infections during pregnancy. "This study suggests widely used antibiotics like ampicillin that cause bacteria to burst and release cell wall may lead to changes in the developing brain," she said. "Such changes did not occur in mice treated with antibiotics like clindamycin that kill without releasing cell wall.

Long Distance Diagnosis

Idaho shooting suspect’s ‘hypersexual’ Martian manifesto is a window into an unraveling mind

And that photo is like a window onto facial infection.
His face is asymmetrical- droopy on one side and clenched on the other.   Looks like he has a nasal infection on the right side and a tooth problem on the left.  His adenoids and all his sinuses are swollen.  His skin is covered with pimples around the nose and mouth.   His eyes are so puffy it's not a wonder they are generating illusions...  so I will guess it's also in his throat, clogging his ears and causing the auditory hallucinations too.

The second picture shows he already went through the period of insulin resistance and obesity, the more recent one shows he has slipped into sepsis and is anorexic.

One Hundred Dollars says it's his wisdom teeth. 

Gross Anatomy

It seems I am going to need to get graphic, you people are not complying with my instructions.

Every time I tell someone they need to clean their mouth and throat with a spongy swab, they insist they can't because just the thought makes them gag.

Well let me be clear, the reason you are gagging is because your throat is completely coated with a bacterial biofilm.   All that mucous that runs from your nose has collected in your throat and set up a permanent residence in there.   It starts in the back of your mouth and coats the down the esophagus.
It creates a continuous film over everything. And it's very much like an egg white.   If you touch one end of it, the entire thing moves.   And that slimy motion grosses out your brain and makes you gag.
Most of the time you just can't notice it's there. Because it coats everything and covers the nerve endings.

Wanting to gag is an effect of the snot, not the swab.

And for those of you who have sinus issues but your nose doesn't run down your face-
Yeah, that's because if it did you would take care of the problem.   The lesions that persist into adulthood are located further back in positions where they run down into the throat instead.   You just haven't noticed, because as I said, it covers the nerve endings in there and you can't feel it.

Chapped lips are a sign your nose is running into your mouth.
Yellow teeth are a sign your nose is running into your mouth. 

Get some swabs and solve the problem.

Edit: I happen to know you people lie in bed and wander the Valley of Death in your dreams...
You can't tell me this is worse than that.

Sick Sick Puppies

Death predicts whether people vote for Donald Trump

A few weeks ago, following the Republican Iowa caucuses, I pointed out an eerie correlation in the voting data. It seems that Donald Trump performed the best in places where middle-aged whites are dying the fastest.
That wasn't a fluke. The relationship between white mortality and Trump support is real, as the fresh results from Super Tuesday confirmed.

 As I was saying... belligerent self-righteousness is a symptom.