"There is a categorical lack of clinical evidence to support the use of statin therapy in primary prevention."

Via Stan the Heretic:

There is a categorical lack of clinical evidence to support the use of statin therapy in primary prevention. Not only is there a dearth of evidence for primary cardiovascular protection, there is ample evidence to show that statins actually augment cardiovascular risk in women, patients with Diabetes Mellitus and in the young. Furthermore statins are associated with triple the risk of coronary artery and aortic artery calcification.

Don't Trust The Authorities

Milgram a fraud?

… In the fifty years since publication of Milgram’s first journal article the obedience research continues to be cited as evidence of an enduring psychological truth: inside all of us is a Nazi concentration camp guard waiting to be called into service. Yet my archival research and examination of primary sources and that of other scholars contradicts this claim.

Milgram himself was privately aware of the methodological weakness of his research and struggled with many of the issues about the validity of experiments and their generalisability beyond the lab. Privately Milgram reflected that his work was more art than science, and described himself as a “hopeful poet.” …

Positive Psychology? Smelling Bull.

Nick Brown Smelled Bull (via)

Return Of The Aphthous Ulcer

So today I woke up with an aphthous ulcer in my lip – bummer. Now I try to backtrack what I did yesterday what might have been different:

• I used a different brand of toothpaste yesterday morning (I have not used that brand for some time now).
• I had a long test, which was a bit stressful (but not overly stressful).
• I increased my sugar intake yesterday afternoon: six cubes of sugar and a banana (both of which I had avoided the weeks before).
• The banana was quite ripe. It was OK, but not quite ripe (the peel was only yellow, not getting black yet).
• In the evening I ate a liverwurst (the brand of liverwurst was fine the last time, and they declared everything to be pork).

Out flies my theory about as dairy being the sole cause of aphthous ulcers… I still have much much more seldom aphthous ulcers than I used to have, so what ever it was, I have reduced it.

So was it the toothpaste, the stress, the sugar, the banana or the liverwurst? Damn, if I knew… At the moment I tend to go with the toothpaste theory, closely followed by the banana. The liverwurst might have been a problem, but I think the stress and the sugar are unrelated (but I am not sure).

Damn, damn, damn.

Migraine Joke

How many people do you need to investigate migraine?

Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new susceptibility loci for migraine
Verneri Anttila
Bendik S Winsvold
Padhraig Gormley
Tobias Kurth
Francesco Bettella
George McMahon
Mikko Kallela
Rainer Malik
Boukje de Vries
Gisela Terwindt
Sarah E Medland
Unda Todt
Wendy L McArdle
Lydia Quaye
Markku Koiranen
M Arfan Ikram
Terho Lehtimäki
Anine H Stam
Lannie Ligthart
Juho Wedenoja
Ian Dunham
Benjamin M Neale
Priit Palta
Eija Hamalainen
Markus Schürks
Lynda M Rose
Julie E Buring
Paul M Ridker
Stacy Steinberg
Hreinn Stefansson
Finnbogi Jakobsson
Debbie A Lawlor
David M Evans
Susan M Ring
Markus Färkkilä
Ville Artto
Mari A Kaunisto
Tobias Freilinger
Jean Schoenen
Rune R Frants
Nadine Pelzer
Claudia M Weller
Ronald Zielman
Andrew C Heath
Pamela A F Madden
Grant W Montgomery
Nicholas G Martin
Guntram Borck
Hartmut Göbel
Axel Heinze
Katja Heinze-Kuhn
Frances M K Williams
Anna-Liisa Hartikainen
Anneli Pouta
Joyce van den Ende
Andre G Uitterlinden
Albert Hofman
Najaf Amin
Jouke-Jan Hottenga
Jacqueline M Vink
Kauko Heikkilä
Michael Alexander
Bertram Muller-Myhsok
Stefan Schreiber
Thomas Meitinger
Heinz Erich Wichmann
Arpo Aromaa
Johan G Eriksson
Bryan J Traynor
Daniah Trabzuni
North American Brain Expression Consortium UK Brain Expression Consortium Elizabeth Rossin
Kasper Lage
Suzanne B R Jacobs
J Raphael Gibbs
Ewan Birney
Jaakko Kaprio
Brenda W Penninx
Dorret I Boomsma
Cornelia van Duijn
Olli Raitakari
Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin
John-Anker Zwart
Lynn Cherkas
David P Strachan
Christian Kubisch
Michel D Ferrari
Arn M J M van den Maagdenberg
Martin Dichgans
Maija Wessman
George Davey Smith
Kari Stefansson
Mark J Daly
Dale R Nyholt
Daniel I Chasman
Aarno Palotie
for the International Headache Genetics Consortium

I am now migraine free, after having figured out my nutrition. I was able to stop using Ibuprofen – something that was before unthinkable for me.

Will they ever find out? They did "brain tissue expression quantitative trait locus analysis" after all. Should count for something, shouldn't it?

Idiots.

And Nature, that bloody tabloid.

"Something I've been eating is doing bad things to my body."

Adrienne Dellwo:

I'm really not loving this diet. I've been cranky, I've had headaches, and I've caught myself grinding my teeth multiple times. I have cravings that rapid-cycle from one thing to the next. The food I'm eating rarely makes me feel full and satisfied.

But there is a silver lining - my inflammation is way down. I've lost several pounds. I can wear my wedding ring without my finger going numb, and my hair isn't falling out in clumps. My pain is down, especially in my hands, where I've had nerve compression. My hip, which still aches, isn't locking up on me, and I can go down stairs without that painful catch in my knee. I've even ridden my bike a little.

What that tells me is: something I've been eating is doing bad things to my body. …