Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments

Bertrand Russell’s “Liberal Decalogue”…
The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Via.

You are what you ate

A new study suggests that the connection between your food’s biochemistry and your own may be more intimate than we thought. Tiny RNAs usually found plants have been discovered circulating in blood, and animal studies indicate that they are directly manipulating the expression of genes.

The ways in which food can influence us never ceases to impress me.

When they put the rice miRNA in cells, they found that levels of a receptor that filters out LDL, aka “bad” cholesterol, in the liver went down. As it turned out, the miRNA was binding to the receptor’s messenger RNA and preventing it from being expressed, sending receptor levels down and bad-cholesterol levels up. They saw the same effect when they tried it mice.

What they say in this convoluted way is: Rice increases LDL, the "bad cholesterol?

XMRV is on its way out

"This has been a difficult and disappointing process for them and for CFS patients, but hopefully we have all learned lessons that will guide future research and lead to discovery of the cause and cure of this disease".

So Mikovits/Lombardi/WPI have retracted a part of their Science paper. And the results of the blood working group look like contamination.

“I commend them on their scientific integrity and commitment to the scientific process,”

The WPI have pushed the ME/CFS issue, even if they are wrong with regards to XMRV. I think they find out what has happened to cause these results and will publish it – it just takes some time.

Lots of Newspapers Covering ME/CFS Today

I have read the articles from the major US sources, and all spoke of CFS like a serious physical disease. It was all in the context of the XMRV studies coming up negative, but they only quoted "real" ME/CFS docs and researchers, so barely a breath of psychological mumbo-jumbo anywhere.

The really good news is that the Lights & Bateman get a Million dollars to do more research into ME/CFS.

And always take your Statins!

In the past, the F.D.A. advisers have been concerned that over-the counter versions of statins could not be used safely, that some patients who did not need the drugs would take them.
I’d be worried about that too.  It’s much better to have doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs to people who don’t need them.

Since high cholesterol is a symptomless condition, consumers would not know whether the drug was working without having their cholesterol checked periodically.
Don’t be silly … of course consumers will know if the Lipitor is working.  They’ll wake up in the morning and say, “Holy crap, my muscles and joints are killing me!  It must be the … the … Honey, what’s the name of that stuff I’ve been taking?”

Fat Head at his/its best.

Wheat? Just say no!

Fat Head: You’ve seen hundreds of your own patients become cured of supposedly incurable diseases after giving up wheat.  Describe one or two of the most dramatic examples.

Dr. Davis: Two people are on my mind nearly every day, mostly because I am especially gratified about the magnitude of their response and because I shudder to think what their lives would have been like had they not engaged in this diet change.

I describe Wendy’s story in the book, a 36-year mother and schoolteacher who had nearly incapacitating ulcerative colitis; so bad that, despite three medications, she continued to suffer constant cramps, diarrhea, and bleeding sufficient to require blood transfusions. When I met Wendy, she told me that her gastroenterologist and surgeon had scheduled her for colon removal and creation of an ileostomy bag. These would be lifelong changes; she would be consigned to wearing a bag to catch stool at the surface for the rest of her life. I urged her to remove wheat. At first, she objected, since her intestinal biopsies and blood work all failed to suggest celiac disease. But, having seen many amazing things happen with removal of wheat, I suggested that there was nothing to lose. She did it. Three months later, not only had she lost 38 pounds, but all the cramps, diarrhea, and bleeding had stopped. It’s now been two years. She’s off all drugs with no sign of the disease left—colon intact, no ileostomy bag. She is cured.

The second case is Jason, also described in the book, a 26-year old software programmer, in this case incapacitated by joint pains and arthritis. Consultations with three rheumatologists failed to yield a diagnosis; all prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and pain medication, while Jason continued to hobble around, unable to engage in much more than short walks. Within five days of removing all wheat, Jason was 100% free of joint pains. He told that he found this absolutely ridiculous and refused to believe it. So he had a sandwich: Joint pains rushed right back. He’s now strictly wheat-free and pain-free.

More on Vitamin D, Calcium, Parathyroid, Fatigue

I was concerned that he may be absorbing too much calcium, as a result of too high a vitamin D level. Other bloggers have posted about this for example Jenny on Diabetes Update in this post “Too much calcium and vitamin D => Trouble” She writes about a condition called “Milk Alkali Syndrome” and her experience with it after increasing her vitamin D… ‘caused by the combination of high calcium and high Vitamin D and that the recent spike in cases has been caused by the recent fad of people supplementing with high levels of Vitamin D.’  (‘Calcium supplements can increase risk of kidney failure‘)

And from Dr William Davis: “Here’s a curious observation I’ve now witnessed a number of times: Some people who supplement this (1200mg day) dose of calcium while also supplementing vitamin D sufficient to increase 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood levels to 60-70 ng/ml develop abnormally high levels of blood calcium, hypercalcemia.” (‘Increased Blood Calcium and vitamin D’)

Paul Jaminet also writes in this post “Some people over-do vitamin D supplementation and/or calcium supplementation. Elevated blood calcium levels, which can be brought about by too much vitamin D, will cause constipation. If you supplement either vitamin D or calcium and have constipation, ask your doctor to check serum 25OHD, 1,25D, and calcium levels.”.

Read more here.

So Vitamin D can cause problems other than the toxicity that is talked about in the medical mainstream.

Enterovirus related metabolic myopathy in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

Enterovirus related metabolic myopathy: a postviral fatigue syndrome.
(Full text available for free as PDF)
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2003 Oct

OBJECTIVE:
To detect and characterise enterovirus RNA in skeletal muscle from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and to compare efficiency of muscle energy metabolism in enterovirus positive and negative CFS patients.

METHODS:
Quadriceps muscle biopsy samples from 48 patients with CFS were processed to detect enterovirus RNA by two stage, reverse transcription, nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-NPCR), using enterovirus group specific primer sets. Direct nucleotide sequencing of PCR products was used to characterise the enterovirus. Controls were 29 subjects with normal muscles. On the day of biopsy, each CFS patient undertook a subanaerobic threshold exercise test (SATET). Venous plasma lactate was measured immediately before and after exercise, and 30 minutes after testing. An abnormal lactate response to exercise (SATET+) was defined as an exercise test in which plasma lactate exceeded the upper 99% confidence limits for normal sedentary controls at two or more time points.

RESULTS:
Muscle biopsy samples from 20.8% of the CFS patients were positive for enterovirus sequences by RT-NPCR, while all the 29 control samples were negative; 58.3% of the CFS patients had a SATET+ response. Nine of the 10 enterovirus positive cases were among the 28 SATET+ patients (32.1%), compared with only one (5%) of the 20 SATET- patients. PCR products were most closely related to coxsackie B virus.

CONCLUSIONS:
There is an association between abnormal lactate response to exercise, reflecting impaired muscle energy metabolism, and the presence of enterovirus sequences in muscle in a proportion of CFS patients.

(via)

"The incidence of psychiatric co-morbidity in ME-CFS has been greatly over-emphasised"

The incidence of psychiatric co-morbidity in ME/ICD-CFS has been greatly over-emphasised: a study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2000:93:310-312) found that of patients in a tertiary referral centre who had received a psychiatric diagnosis, 68% had been misdiagnosed, with no evidence of past or current psychiatric illness.

(via)

First commercially available PCR machine for $512

The price of a traditional PCR machine is around $3,000. So, do people in garages have great PCR machines? Not really. Howabout high school or middle school teachers? Nope. Howabout smaller medical testing labs or labs in India or China? Nope. Even some big bio labs try their luck on eBay. We set out to change that.

Josh and I prototyped OpenPCR over about 4 months — it was a lot of fun. Last May we unveiled the first OpenPCR prototype to all a bunch of crazy people on Kickstarter, 158 people gave us a total of $12,121. With that we designed and manufactured a repeatable, works-all-the-time device — it took a lot of hard work. Now we’re done and ready to share!

Cell Types and Diseases

There are several hundred distinct human cell types. … Cell types can be classified by their tissue of origin. However, it is possible for some cells to have their behavior induced by surrounding tissue.

So, if there are several hundred distinct human cell types, how many distinct autoimmune antibodies can there be? I know, this comparison is a bit lopsided, but still: Do we know all possible autoimmune diseases?

What kind of disease could we cause, if we would pick one cell type, target it with inflammation and/or antibodies? Is early hair-loss a autoimmune disease of certain hair-cells? Is tinnitus a autoimmune disease of certain auditory cells?

And do we know all hormones? All hormone producing cells? Or just the "important" ones? What happens if the cells responsible for a lesser hormone fail?

Sjögren's Syndrome

“In comments to the press, Ms. Williams expressed disappointment at being unable to compete because of severe fatigue and pain, but gratitude for recently receiving a diagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome that explained symptoms she had been feeling for some time,” said Ms. Dowd. “Unfortunately, her experience is not uncommon; proper diagnosis can take years.

Blood tests can be done to determine if a patient has high levels of antibodies that are indicative of the condition, such as anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) and rheumatoid factor (because SS frequently occurs secondary to rheumatoid arthritis), which are associated with autoimmune diseases. Typical Sjögren's syndrome ANA patterns are SSA/Ro and SSB/La, of which SSB/La is far more specific; SSA/Ro is associated with numerous other autoimmune conditions but are often present in Sjögren's.

So these tests are "indicative".

Be your n-1

So, about 3 and a half weeks ago, I made up my mind to stop the caffeine, and the beloved coffee. I tapered things down for about 2 and half weeks, endured daily headaches, but then finally, I quit about a week ago.

Since quitting, I haven’t had a single headache, visual aura, or palpitation. I’m cured.

It’s curious, isn’t it? I’m a doctor right? I should have known better. I should have identified the obvious instigator and simply stopped it.

But I’m also a real person, with a real life, real loves, and real routines. I’m surely not stupid. And we’ve all seen morbidly obese doctors and unfaithful preachers. So what happened?