Their Vision of Your Future

Another brick in the matrix. 

Tooth sensors can aid weight loss and fight cavities
Scientists create a Wi-Fi-enabled mouth sensor that collects data to help improve eating habits and dental health.

Make sure you comply.
Do the wrong thing correctly.

Follow the Money

50M-70M U.S. adults have trouble sleeping, 9% use sleep aids

And that's just the insomniacs.  Add in the hypersomniacs and we're talking a pretty big chunk of people.

Microbiome Trifecta

There must be a gut conference going on...

One in four has alarmingly few intestinal bacteria
Intestinal flora determines health of obese people

Why Smokers Gain Weight When They Quit Smoking: Changes in Intestinal Flora

So what you're saying is smoking suppresses pathogenic bacteria?   Hmm.   Imagine that.

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic

Wake Up Narcolepsy Funds Research at Stanford, Harvard, Sick Kids Hospital 

Please don't feed the Pharma Infiltrated Drug Pushing Sleep Medicine Cartel.
They are the reason you are still sick.

Or Maybe Not

Haters Are Gonna Hate, Study Confirms

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology corroborates the hip-hop and Internet truism that you just can’t win with some people. 

They insinuate this is a fundamental trait.
I find that I am much less combative now that I'm not sick and my blood sugar is under control.
(hard to tell on this bitchfest blog, though)

One of my most memorable moments came at about 8 weeks gluten free-
My husband forgot to get something we needed at the store-  and I didn't scream at him.
It surprised both of us.   Unprecedented.

Errors and deficiencies just don't seem as urgent anymore.   

The State of the World

Mental Disorders Leading Cause of Nonfatal Illness Worldwide

Mental and substance use disorders are the leading cause of nonfatal illness worldwide, with a global disease burden that trumps that of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, or transport injuries, new research shows.
A team of investigators from the United States and Australia led by Professor Harvey Whiteford found that in 2010, mental and substance use disorders were the fifth leading contributor to death and disease worldwide and that at 40%, depressive disorders account for the largest proportion of this burden.

The State of the Art

Compare:
Researcher Controls Colleague's Motions in First Human Brain-To-Brain Interface

Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

Contrast:
Oregon homeless man, robs bank for $1 to access health care

Geez Miley

You're making hypersexuality look like a bad thing...

Passive Aggressive Public Service Announcement

This information cost me and my insurance company about ten thousand dollars in services and testing. So I am going to share it with everyone.

How to Treat Clogged Sinuses

This is a pretty fun pic.   It shows how the maxillary sinus drains at the top.
What usually happens is that little duct section swells and backs up the whole thing. But since it's off on a branch it doesn't block the air passage. Your whole sinus can be full and you can still breathe through your nose.
This is what nobody tells you-
Using saline will just flow right past the blockage, or often fills up the sinus even more.
But inhaling Afrin into the sinuses dries out the tissues which facilitates reinfection.
The proper method involves both.

If you squirt a little Afrin up high into the nostril or put it on a q-tip and stick it up there, and breathe gently rather than snort it- you can get it right on that duct. Wait ten or fifteen minutes- it will shrink and then you can rinse out the sinus.
Put a few squirts of saline up there, tip your head different directions, including bending over, and blow it all out. The salt water will loosen the biofilm. Rinse repeat. (works way better in the shower.)  Then breathe quickly in and out of your nose to dry it and check for remaining debris.

Blowing your nose removes mucous from your sinuses, but deposits it in your nostrils.
And every time the mucous dries and cracks the skin, the infection starts over.
There are also pockets in there that collect mucous, and perpetuate the immune respone.  Swells the tissues, especially in the bulby end.

After rinsing your sinuses, put some saline on a q-tip and wash out your nostrils too.
If you still have drying problems after that, put some olive oil on a q-tip and wipe that up there.   Moisturizes the tissues and soothes the nerve.  Very nice.

Proper periodontal care is also crucial.   Your upper teeth and nose share the same nerves.
This is what happened to me-  a bad tooth tweaked the nerve, which closed the duct, which backed up the sinus and my whole face was affected and it took me months to sort it all out.

Seriously- I went to four ENT's to learn this.  The first three gave me MRI's and offered me surgery.   The last one was retiring and actually had no computer and looked in my nose (with a regular not camera scope). immediately found the lesion , and gave me a photocopied sheet of paper with nose cleaning instructions.
She was so old-school she recommended a rubber bulb and cooking your own salt water, but saline is cheap.

Way cheaper than MRI's.

Update:  please use saline without benzalkonium chloride.

For the record-  I snored from the time I was an infant until I was 50.  That's the reason I went to ENTs and why they wanted to cut out my swollen turbinate tissue.
Once I started doing this-  I was able to sleep with my mouth closed.  I still marvel every day.

Edit #3:  here's a fun video about sinus anatomy... heh.

Fun with Obsession

When it is good it is very, very good.

Zombie Shopping

FDA Discusses Banning Online Sales of E-Cigarettes

Time to stock up...

Scary Smart

Sorry, many contractors this week, maybe will post later.
Have a nice weekend.

She got bored with herself immediately, was watching me take the picture in the reflection.   Looked me right in the eyes as if to say "I'm not fooled". 

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Louis Aronne, M.D.
The New Theory On Weight Loss: Your Bad Diet Has Damaged Your Brain

He's hawking his new book.  Go figure.
Same Assumptions, Different Day.

I don't care how much you fancy talk about the hypothalamus-  if your diet plan does not account for glucose suppressing orexin activity, you are full of shit.

I Wonder Why

Alcohol abuse, eating disorders share genetic link

She believes physicians and therapists who treat people for alcohol dependence and eating disorders should be more aware that the problems can occur together. "When you go to an eating disorder treatment center, they don't often ask questions about alcoholism. And when you go for alcoholism treatment, they don't generally ask questions about eating disorder symptoms," she said. "If centers could be aware of that and perhaps treat both problems at the same time, that would be a big help."

Ya think?

Before Freud, all doctors assumed these were the same digestive disorder.
Psychs came up with the crazy idea it's a flaw in people's psyches.

Oh Irony

Good article.
A Dry Pipeline for Psychiatric Drugs

After a series of failed clinical trials in which novel antidepressants and antipsychotics did little or no better than placebos, the companies seem to have concluded that developing new psychiatric drugs is too risky and too expensive. This trend was obvious at the 2011 meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, where only 13 of 300 abstracts related to psychopharmacology and none related to novel drugs. Instead, they are spending most of their research dollars on illnesses like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, which have well-defined biological markers and are easier to study than mental disorders. 

Yes, well nothing in the pipeline seems like a great improvement over the output so far.
And I'm quite sure those diabetes researchers are closer to the answer anyway.

My hypothesis regarding Ketamine.

Duh Science

Researchers debunk myth of 'right-brain' and 'left-brain' personality traits

Yes well, the math mistake is hilarious, but they were obviously overreaching from the very beginning.

Semi-Concious Life Forms

Study shows differences in brain waves between people who recall dreams and those who don't

 In studying the data, the researchers found that both groups responded when their names were called when they were sleeping, but the high recallers responded more. Quite unexpectedly, the same group also showed brain wave spikes when hearing their name spoken when wide awake. The team also found that the high recallers spent more time awake on average during their sleep cycle than did low recallers (30 minutes compared to 15).
The researchers speculate that high recallers are more reactive to environmental stimuli in general, which explains why their brains would respond more in response to hearing their name called when awake. Why they respond more when sleeping, they add, likely means they are more responsive when dreaming as well, which may or may not be connected to why the same group spends more time awake at night.

Higher stress response associated with sleep disorders.   Wonder what it could be.

For the record, LUCID DREAMING IS A SIGN OF ACUTE INFECTION, not superhuman mind control powers.

Yo Jazz

If you knew anything about narcoleptics-  you wouldn't screw them over.

You take advantage of their disability.  I know exactly what they are capable of.

I'm glad they're on my side.   Heh.

An Infectious Idea

Teaching neuroscience using Zombies. 

They got the hypothalamus thing wrong though...

And So It Goes

Kansas Sportswriter Posts "Suicide Website" 

Thus proving his "rational decision" was actually mania.
Rest in Peace, dear man.

Gluten Free Sanity

Seattle cops to deal Doritos and information at Hempfest

Have a nice weekend.

(ooh look, Zombies this weekend too!)

As I was Saying

Viral Infection Linked to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Smoking associated with Chronic Lung Diseases.
Which came first?

Quickies

Exercise Is No Quick Cure for Insomnia
You're right. It's a quick fix for Hypersomnia, which is a blood sugar problem.
Insomnia is not. It's an infection. I'm guessing the long term results are a result of increased hygiene.
(edit- and lymphatic system stimulation.)

Colorectal cancer may be triggered by mouth bacteria
Put another one in Koch's column.

Oh My Heavens

New Zealand woman drives for hours sending texts while asleep at the wheel

A New Zealand woman drove for hundreds of kilometres while asleep at the wheel, sending texts from her mobile phone along the way, police said.

Clearly she doesn't have a driving problem.  She has a memory problem.

Can you imagine how wired that woman is normally?   Behold the power of dopamine.

Hoist Hoist Hoist

Public Meeting on Narcolepsy Patient-Focused Drug Development

 On September 24, 2013, FDA is conducting a public meeting on Patient-Focused Drug Development for narcolepsy. FDA is interested in obtaining patient input on the impact of narcolepsy on daily life and the available therapies for narcolepsy.

This website will be updated as registration and additional meeting information become available.

Date:	September 24, 2013
Time:	1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Location:	FDA White Oak Campus 10903 New Hampshire Ave. Building 31, Room 1503A Silver Spring, MD 20993   (Information about arrival to FDA's White Oak campus)
Registration:	To register for this meeting, visit: http://patientfocusednarcolepsy.eventbrite.com   Registration will close on September 13, 2013.

Submitting comments to the docket: In addition to providing input at the public meeting, patient stakeholders are invited to provide their perspectives on the discussion questions through the public docket. Visit the following website to provide electronic or written comments: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2013-N-0815-0001