Adenoid Facies

Then
Now

His brain has been oxygen deprived for a very long time.

Oops sorry!   Fixed the first link.

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas!

Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells

This is Why

Semiautomatic handgun advocate shot and killed her two daughters

Because righteous rage is a symptom of systemic bacteremia.
And that also tends to cause impulsive behavior.

Uh huh.

And by the way

Dragons are nice and all, 
But don't forget about the geek in the library....

Odds and Ends

New link found between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease

The paper, published in the journal Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes), found for the first time that dementia-related complications within the brain can also lead to changes in glucose handling and ultimately diabetes. This is contrary to what was previously thought - that diabetes begins with a malfunction in the pancreas or a high fat, high sugar diet.

Hundreds of genes seen sparking to life two days after death

The discovery that many genes are still working up to 48 hours after death has implications for organ transplants, forensics and our very definition of death

Tourists pick up antibiotic-resistance genes in just two days

One-third of hospitals in developing world lack running water

New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity
Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such life-forms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated.

Don’t Wash Your Face Because Zits Are Cool Now
Ummm, No.    Facial infection is not advisable.

Office cake culture is 'danger to health'
Ummm, Yes.    Especially that bizarre "exhaling on cake" tradition...

Why We Have Headaches

Orexin reduces pain sensation in the trigeminal nerve.    

It also reduces the accompanying learning and memory effects of trigeminal injury.

So if you have less orexin you have more facial pain and less thinking ability.
Yep.

(full text)

Things I think about quite a bit

When Poverty Is Profitable

States and their human service agencies are partnering with private companies to form a vast poverty industry, turning America’s most vulnerable populations into a source of revenue … The resulting industry is strip-mining billions in federal aid and other funds from impoverished families, abused and neglected children, and the disabled and elderly poor.

The War on Stupid People

American society increasingly mistakes intelligence for human worth.

See the Vortex

Here it is:

Hypocretin/orexin loss changes the hypothalamic immune response.

The authors used mice that produce less orexin, and regular lab mice as controls.
Then they injected them with endotoxin.  Endotoxin is a product of gram negative bacteria called Lipopolysaccharide  (LPS).

-Orexin expression was inhibited after LPS injection in both types of mice, but orexin expression  was completely abolished in orexin deficient mice.

-It also raised histamine production in the deficient mice, so although they slept more at first, they did recover their activity levels as quickly as the others.

Here's the twist:

Long term endotoxin exposure kills orexin cells.

Here's the takeaway:

Bacterial Infection shuts down orexin production AND it masks it's effects,  and left unaddressed it will kill the cells and compound this pathology.

See the center of the gaping black hole in your world.

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

Judgment, memory better for older adults with optimistic outlook

"We felt like this was an important topic to investigate and to our knowledge, it's the first study to examine the link between optimism and cognitive impairment in older adults," said lead author Katerina Gawronski, a U-M graduate now at the University of Pennsylvania. "We found that optimism was indeed associated with better cognitive health over time."
Gawronski and Eric Kim of Harvard University conducted the research as students at U-M.
They say that randomized controlled trial studies have shown that optimism can be modified using fairly simple paper and pencil exercises. For example, writing about one's "best possible self" has been shown to increase optimism.

That is complete unmitigated bullshit.
The only conclusions that should be taken away from this study are:
1.  This crap was sufficient to fulfill the author's graduation requirements.
2.  Psychology departments do not know or teach- and Psychology graduates do not learn or understand- even the slightest bit about sickness behavior.

Snarkolepsy

I quit medicine. Here's what future doctors should know going into it 

There is too much bureaucracy, and it gets in the way of patient care.

Ya think?

Hot drinks may cause cancer, but coffee does not

WHO’s cancer research agency says beverages consumed at more than 65C are probably linked to esophageal cancer.

I wonder what criteria they used to decide coffee was carcinogenic in the first place....  you know, since it isn't...

(Very hot drinks burn and abrade your oropharyngeal epithelium.   Unhealed lesions are probably the real trigger for throat cancer.)

Reality Television

BrainDead 

In BrainDead—a satirical B-movie of a TV show from Robert and Michelle King, the creators of The Good Wife—space bugs (the show’s term) are taking over politicians’ minds. “Taking over” is perhaps too polite. These little critters, who arrived on Earth in the meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 and are related to the indigenous (to Earth) screw-worm, crawl into their victims’ ears. Soon thereafter, the person’s head either explodes like a water balloon full of spaghetti sauce or their brain comes scooting out the other ear, glistening and intact, as easily as a drop of pesky swimming pool water. In the latter case, the bugs perform a personality overhaul. The possessed come to hate alcohol, love wheatgrass smoothies and the Cars “You Might Think,” and turn into inflexible political extremists.
BrainDead’s premise is a dark joke. “In 2016,” the show begins, “there was a growing sense that people were losing their minds and no one knew why, until now.” The only way to explain what’s going on in Washington, D.C., is idiotic alien possession in which our elected officials haven’t just metaphorically lost their minds, they have really lost their minds: Like, someone could find said minds and turn them in to Capitol security. The space bugs eat brains, but the infected act more like they have been body-snatched than like they’ve been zombified. They don’t lurch but become uptight and narrow-minded, stuck on their talking points, implacable in their dopey, damaging, dronelike opinions, insensible to compromise.

Thisclose.
 

Survival of the Sickest

I have lots of opinions on things that happened last weekend.   But I'm not up to organizing all my thoughts.    So I will let Digby do this part:

Nobody needs an AR-15 

I would just like to add:
No matter how lucid and law abiding they may appear during the purchase-  it is safe to assume only paranoid, obsessed people actually want one.    

It's not Rocket Science.

Number One Diagnosis

The Surprising Shift in Elderly ICU Admissions     (free sub required)

The authors examined 27.8 million elderly Medicare beneficiaries who required ICU care between 1996 and 2010. They noted declines in admissions with a primary diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure) and an increase in infectious diseases with explicitly labeled sepsis, increasing from the 11th-ranked diagnosis in 1996 to the top-ranked primary discharge diagnosis in 2010.

This is really not surprising since doctors and hospitals have been facilitating the creation of antibiotic resistant microbes for seventy years.

See the Vortex.

Yo "Professionals"

It would help if you behaved like you understood that you hang around with sick people all day.

Doctors & nurses often neglect hand hygiene when not watched: study


(oops, you reminded me of this post)

Article Roundup

Global study shows diabetes and heart disease can be a deadly combination

Patients with type 2 diabetes have two to three times the heart disease risk of the general population. This is partly because obesity and other illnesses such as hypertension and elevated cholesterol contribute to both diseases.

But it's mostly because they are both caused by strep infections.   And if you have both diabetes and heart disease-  well, you have been chronically infected, all over, for a long time.   That tends to lower your survival rate.

 Vaccine watches bacteria, strikes only when trouble stirs

A new vaccine allows pneumonia-causing bacteria to colonize inside the body, springing into action only if the bacteria pose a threat.

Now that sounds interesting...

Diabetes more frequent in children with chronic rheumatic disease

Constipated? Study finds surprising cause

They found that the herpes virus spread from the genitals to nerves in the spinal chord, and then on to neurons in the colon, killing them. The damage to the colonic neurons prevented the movement of food along the digestive tract, leading to an enlarged colon and disease.

Every Man a King: Henry VIII's Worst Affliction Is on the Rise in America

This is probably because gout can be caused by consuming too much fructose.


Autism with intellectual disability linked to mother's immune dysfunction during pregnancy
 

Most antidepressant drugs ineffective for children and teens, according to study


 Study of 81,000 adults examines mental illness, gun violence and suicide

People with serious mental illnesses who use guns to commit suicide are often legally eligible to purchase guns, despite having a past record of an involuntary mental health examination and brief hospitalization.

Good Long Article
A New Theory Explains How Consciousness Evolved

For All Yall

Here's the first one I saw.

Overweight adults spend more of their sleep in REM stage than healthy weight adults do, says Penn Medicine study.

Uh huh.
Here's how I say that works:
Fat cells produce leptin, so overweight people produce more leptin.
Leptin suppresses orexin production.
Orexin deficiency then increases the time spent in REM sleep.

For the Geeks

Here's all the abstracts that were submitted for this year's Sleep Conference.

It's 456 pages, so give me some time to look through it.

Correlation Games

Midlife Health Effects of Cannabis Use Limited to Gum Disease?

Long-term use of cannabis is associated with a significant increase in the risk of developing gum disease but does not appear to be linked to adverse outcomes on other measures of heath, new data suggest.
Madeline H. Meier, PhD, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, and colleagues found that regular use of cannabis during adulthood was associated with periodontal disease at age 38 years.
However, unlike long-term tobacco use, cannabis was not linked to significant or relevant changes in measures of lung function, systemic inflammation, cardiovascular function, and metabolic health.

Although they don't come out and say it causes periodontitis... they do say it is a long term complication.

It seems more logical to me that people with chronic periodontitis are just more likely to put PAIN REDUCING substances in their mouths.   Like cannabis.

Or Cigarettes .  or Alcohol.   or Hot Sauce.  or Mint.  or Chocolate.   or Gluten.  or SUGAR.

Cannabis is the only one that actually makes the mouth tissues heal better though.

Exhibit A

Terrifying Video Shows Florida Man Trying to Drag Teen Girl Out of Grocery Store in Failed Kidnapping Attempt

"In my 10 years on the road I have never seen anything like this," Sgt. Craig Callahan said of the incident the statement. "He truly intended to abduct this child right in front of everyone in the store."

Tony Bonello said of his nephew. "He needs to talk to some psychiatrists and find out what the issue is."

Everyone has become absolutely incapable of seeing the screamingly obvious.
Yes the video is pretty dramatic. Look at his picture though.

Tell me if you can see a problem or reason why his head might not be working properly.

Bet the inside of that face looks even worse.

Biohazard

Yes.  That's the correct descriptor.

BuzzFeed ends Republican ad deal over 'hazard' Trump

Mr Peretti wrote: "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue (...) However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason."

Cigarettes all over the world are outraged by the comparison.   Nicotine at least has some positive effects.  Like reducing adenoid inflammation...

Things that make me laugh

5 sleep disorders you didn’t know existed

Actually I'm pretty sure I've had all of them.   Mostly at the same time.

Saturday Drive-By

Girls' Early Puberty and Breast Development Tied to Depression
Yes, well breast development and depression are both related to weight gain....

Women Who Get Migraines May Be More Likely To Develop Heart Disease
Common denominator?  Bad Teeth.
 
Bacteria found in female upper reproductive tract, once thought sterile
Legacy white male assumptions.   The curse of the 21st century.

MRI scans prove schizophrenic brains attempt self-repair
Immune system = Infection

Study finds that our level of wisdom varies depending on the situation
Study shows excellent documentation of the obvious.

And a little medical history-

How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion

Brain Eating Zombies of the Day

This Ukrainian Company Wants to Become the Netflix of Sleep

What if the perfect dream weren’t fleeting? What if, instead, it could be replayed or remixed whenever and however you wanted? Change that one moment in time that you and your subconscious think has fcked up the rest of your life? No problem. Sleep with your favorite celebrity? Of course. Spend a day as a fire-breathing dragon? A little weird, but sure. Making this happen is essentially the business plan of the Kiev-based company Luciding. It claims that its signature product, a headset called the LucidCatcher, puts you in control of your dreams via a minor electrical shock to the brain during REM sleep.

Oh yeah, that sounds healthy.

One more time-
LUCID DREAMING IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT OR THERAPY.
It's a sign your sleep is being disrupted and you are still semi-conscious.
Usually because of breathing problems.

Disrupted sleep ruins your immune system and metabolism.
It's probably not something you want to induce with shocks to your head.

Zombie Shopping

Apparently I bought this on Etsy in the middle of the night... hahahhahaha....

As I Was Saying

The Infection Does Not Need To Be In The Brain.

Leaky blood-brain barrier linked to Alzheimer's disease
E. coli peritonitis and bacteremia cause increased blood-brain barrier permeability

previous post

Yo Doctors

American Death Rate Rises for first Time in a Decade

The death rate in the United States rose last year for the first time in a decade, preliminary federal data show, a rare increase that was driven in part by more people dying from drug overdoses, suicide and Alzheimer’s disease. The death rate from heart disease, long in decline, edged up slightly.

Please explain why you aren't getting better at your jobs over time.