Tag: health
Poor precision in communication distorts motives
And distorted motives warp human interactions, which in turn degrade individual psychology.
There is no way around it—the ways almost all people communicate are much cruder than their brains are capable of.
And that is the cause of most of what we now call (non-biological) “mental health” problems.
Here is an example: I want to say something very complex to my primary care doctor. I can give her the gist in a minute or two but I do not want to have that go on my medical record.
So I ask her if I can start a discussion that she will promise to keep off my record.
She says, “I’ll think about it.”
A week later I get a letter from her nurse saying she is not willing to do what I asked.
No reason why was given. Do rules prevent her from doing that? I have heard of doctors allowing patients to keep some concerns off the record, but who knows what the reality is? Do you?
If I insist, will that go on my record? Did what I asked in the first place go on my record? My doctor is trapped within or is voluntarily following some guideline that is most decidedly not in my best interests.
This same sort of thing can happen interpersonally. If I raise a topic that is psychologically important to me with even a close friend, I have to wonder will they understand? Will they allow me to expand the subject over a few weeks or months or longer? Will my initial statements change our friendship?
The basic problem is how do you discuss complex psychological subjects with others?
One of my friends works in alternative health care. She knows what I want to bring up with my doctor and admits that even in her professional setting where patients have an hour to open up, there is not enough time.
Back to my primary care doctor. I saw her again a year later and she asked if I remembered her. I said, “Of course I remember you.” She said no more and neither of us raised the off-the-record topic. An intern was with her.
I wonder what she thinks of me. Did she interpret my slightly nervous behavior when I first asked as a “sign” of something? Does she think I am volatile or bipolar or just nuts? (I am not.)
I am 100% sure that she cannot possibly know what I wanted to bring up with her. In this case, I have all of the information and I want to give it to her but she cannot or will not allow that unless my initial fumblings toward a complex subject are made public.
Even a close friend could find themselves in a similar position. And I wonder if I have done that myself to someone. Most people most of the time are not able to scale those walls that divide us.
On either side of the wall is a complex person capable of complex understanding, but one or both persons cannot scale the wall. My doctor is smart enough to have become an MD and yet I cannot tell her about a complex medical condition that is of great importance to me.
I know that I do not want to open the subject and risk a shallow public label (a common hindrance to many potential communications). I honestly do not know what my doctor is thinking. Maybe I will try again the next time I see her.
EDIT 12/16/2020: I didn’t try again. After much thought, I decided to switch doctors. And I will not bring this subject up with my new doctor. It’s a sad reality that trying at all ruined (in my mind) my relationship with my first doctor and convinced me that the topic is not one I can discuss with any medical professional in a professional setting and maybe in any setting.
first posted OCTOBER 10, 2017
Benefits of napping
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I have read that short naps or lapses in attention often occur because the brain is disposing of waste. FWIW, napping is very common in China, and the ‘right to nap’ used to be part of the Chinese constitution. Not sure about the legal status today. ABN
Coconut oil as a cure for dementia
Most doctors claim dementia is progressive and irreversible.
Yet Dr. Mary Newport’s discovery on coconut oil proves this wrong, which she documented in 288 real cases.
Her method on restoring cognitive abilities with this simple kitchen ingredient:
First, why Dr. Newport’s credible:
She’s a neonatologist (medical doctor) who tried an alternative approach when her husband couldn’t qualify for Alzheimer’s trials.
After giving him coconut oil, she saw signs of improvement immediately and shared this story to help other families.
Makes sense. Worth reading. ABN
Recession Warning: The Real Economy Is ‘Very, Very, Very Weak’ | Craig Fuller @FreightWaves
UPDATE: This whole video is well-worth watching but at 35 minutes, the disaster that is illegal and totally incompetent truckers is horrific. Incompetent illegals comprise 600,000 truckers out of national total if 3.5 million truckers. The 600,000 include multitudes of untrained and completely inexperienced truckers. And they are causing many fatal accidents. ABN
THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I WILL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE — Trump
THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I WILL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE, WITH NOTHING GOING TO THE BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO HAVE MADE $TRILLIONS, AND RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH. THE PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE AND BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, INSURANCE. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else. This is the only way to have great Healthcare in America!!! GET IT DONE, NOW. President DJT
Natural compound boosts immune system in just 28 days
Researchers have demonstrated that a compound made in the gut, produced by consuming foods like pomegranate and walnuts, can rejuvenate the immune system in middle age, shielding us from cell damage, inflammation and chronic diseases, including cancer.
Researchers at Germany’s Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, have spent years investigating the metabolite urolithin A (UA), a natural compound that’s produced by gut bacteria in response to ingested ellagitannins from foods such as pomegranates, almonds, walnuts and some berries.
The new study follows on from a breakthrough in 2022, when the team found that UA induced a biological pathway that rejuvenates the cellular power plants – mitochondria – in T cells, equipping these immune cells with more cancer-fighting might. But it goes far beyond cancer.
“Three years ago, we discovered that urolithin A could powerfully expand a special population of long-lived, anti-tumor T cells in our laboratory models,” said principal investigator Dr Dominic Denk, a physician-scientist at University Medicine Frankfurt. “Our goal was always to translate our findings from the lab into the clinic.”
Food as a means of control
Medieval England had laws dictating who could eat what based on social class.
Nobility: Venison, beef, mutton, game birds. The fattiest cuts. Roasted whole.
Peasants: Barley, oats, peas, beans. Meat maybe twice a year at festivals.
This wasn’t preference. This was LAW. You could be punished for eating above your station.
The aristocracy understood that diet determines class more than birth. Feed someone like a peasant long enough, they become one. Weak bones, poor teeth, stunted growth, no energy for rebellion.
Feed someone like a lord and suddenly they start acting like one. Strong, aggressive, capable of demanding more.
Now we don’t need sumptuary laws. We just price meat out of reach, run fear campaigns about cholesterol, and convince people that quinoa is premium nutrition.
Different century. Same suppression. Better branding.
This is where the insulting phrase, the little people, comes from.
Weakening the people through diet, culling their herd by killing or maiming their strongest; poisoning their wells, the King’s Spies… these were all methods of total control, among many others.
The little people were (and still are) punished harshly for speech and behavior that threatens to liberate them from slavery.
Elites today oppose free speech because it will undermine their evil control of the human population.
They support mass immigration invasion because it dilutes their herds of little people, weakens them, forces them to succumb.
Today’s little people are now diabetic and obese from bad diets and this was not by accident. ABN
FDA removes black box warning on hormone therapy for menopause
Per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare — Trump
I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over. In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!
Health insurers receive 20% of per-dollar spent under ObummerCare, which is why they love rising HC costs. ABN
Trump announces major drug price reductions
Doctor recommends motorcycle riding
(The video should have sound but works without it.)
I would add — yes, bikes are dangerous but the danger is overemphasized. I believe it is overemphasized because all healthy men would love to ride but are afraid; and the exaggeration of danger justifies staying away; following that is the echo chamber of uninformed agreement and circular reasoning.
Modern motorcycles are definitely safer than bikes from just two decades ago. They are equipped with many traction and braking safety features. Also, airbag jackets and vests for motorcycles are available and moderately priced.
My very consistent attitude toward motorcycles is I never try to convince anyone to ride and am not doing that now. Right now, I am just setting the record straight, as I see it.
Motorcycling is a very free sport. Most riders are very pleasant, polite men; and they are that way because riding uses and exhausts primal animal hormones, thought and sensory processes, and instincts as they were evolved to be used.
Yes, some women ride and I love them for it, but the sport is mostly men. ABN
Microplastics Found in Sediment Layers Untouched by Modern Humans
Microplastics! They’re in everything, from our bodies to the ocean.
And apparently they’re even found in sediment layers that date back as early as the first half of the 1700s, showing microplastics’ pernicious ability to infiltrate even environments untouched by modern humans.
A team of European researchers made this alarming discovery after studying the sediment layers at three lakes in Latvia, as detailed in a study published in the journal Science Advances.
The scientists were studying lake sediment to test if the presence of microplastics in geological layers would be a reliable indicator for the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch, defined in the study as starting in 1950 and meant to delineate when humans started having a large impact on our environment.
Scientists have long used layers of ash or ice to study past events on Earth, leading to the question of whether microplastics can serve as a reliable chronological marker for the Anthropocene.
Clearly not, according to this new research, which found microplastics in every layer of sediment they dredged up, including one from 1733.
“We conclude that interpretation of microplastics distribution in the studied sediment profiles is ambiguous and does not strictly indicate the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch,” the scientists wrote.
The Great Alzheimer’s Scam and The Proven Cures They’ve Buried for Billions
• Alzheimer’s disease is commonly thought to result from abnormal plaque buildup in the brain that gradually destroys brain tissue. As a result, almost all Alzheimer’s research has been directed toward eliminating amyloid, even after the basis for much of this work was shown to stem from fraudulent research.
•As such, despite decades of research and billions of dollars spent, this model has completely failed to produce useful results. The costly “groundbreaking” Alzheimer’s drugs only slightly slow dementia progression—at the expense of causing brain bleeding and swelling in over a quarter of those treated.
•In contrast, numerous affordable treatments have been developed for Alzheimer’s disease that target the root causes of the disorder, producing significant benefits at a fraction of the cost and without any toxicity.
•One neurologist, for example, proposed that amyloid serves a protective function in the brain and treats Alzheimer’s by identifying the underlying process causing dementia (which can often be diagnosed through symptoms). Remarkably, despite the method being proven in clinical research, awareness of it or the fact there are completely different types of “Alzheimer’s disease” which require different treatments remains almost nonexistent.
•Likewise, a strong case can be made that impaired cerebral circulation, along with impaired venous and lymphatic drainage, plays a pivotal role in Alzheimer’s disease.
•This article will review the common causes of cognitive impairment and dementia (e.g., cells becoming trapped in a shocked state where they no longer function) along with the forgotten treatments for neurodegenerative disorders—some of which, like DMSO, have extensive evidence supporting their use.
Scientists studied ayahuasca users—what they found about death is stunning
People who regularly use ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian psychedelic drink, may have a fundamentally different way of relating to death. A new study published in the journal Psychopharmacology indicates that long-term ayahuasca users tend to show less fear, anxiety, and avoidance around death—and instead exhibit more acceptance. These effects appear to be driven not by spiritual beliefs or personality traits, but by a psychological attitude known as “impermanence acceptance.”
The findings come from researchers at the University of Haifa, who sought to better understand how psychedelics influence people’s thinking and behavior around mortality. According to their data, it is not belief in an afterlife or a shift in metaphysical views that predicts reduced death anxiety. Instead, the results suggest that learning to accept change and the transient nature of life may be central to how ayahuasca helps people relate more calmly to death.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew traditionally used by Indigenous Amazonian groups in healing and spiritual rituals. The drink contains the powerful hallucinogen DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) along with harmala alkaloids that make it orally active. Many users describe deeply emotional, and often death-themed, visions during their experiences. These may include the sensation of personal death, symbolic rebirth, contact with deceased individuals, or feelings of ego dissolution—the temporary loss of a sense of self.
The research team, led by Jonathan David and Yair Dor-Ziderman, were interested in this recurring death-related content. Historical records, cultural traditions, and previous studies all suggest that ayahuasca frequently evokes visions or thoughts related to death. In one survey, over half of ayahuasca users said they had experienced what felt like a “personal death” during a session. Others described visions involving graves, spirits, or life-after-death themes.
Despite these consistent reports, empirical studies that systematically assess how ayahuasca affects death-related cognition and emotion remain rare. Past work has often relied on limited self-reports, lacked control groups, and overlooked possible mediating psychological factors. The current study aimed to address those gaps with a more rigorous design.
American Buddhist Net 