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Ten-Year Anniversary of this Blog

Merry Christmas! First, I'm happy to say my cold got nuked out of orbit before it had a chance to set in. Hydrocortisone and Mucinex FTW! Second, my health is much improved from a year ago. The scary palpitations are now infrequent and only mildly concerning and I'm starting to slowly lose weight after upping my thyroid supplements again. (My latest test showed free T3 in the lower half of the reference range.) My digestion is better, probably thanks to lots of Pepto-Bismol early this year, peppermint lattes (LC, of course), L. reuteri yogurt, and adrenal supplements. I don't have all my energy back, but I've lost the neurotic fear of trying things like making a slipcover and no longer have the feeling of being in la-la land. Next year I'd like to try tuck-and-point the masonry on my house--I think I could now handle a tuckpoint grinder. Third, I'm thrilled to see the complete turnaround in dietary ideas. When I started low carb almost ten years ago, peop

Dollars for Doctors; Getting a T3 Prescription

Propublica says, "Doctors who received payments from the pharmaceutical industry prescribed drugs differently than their colleagues who didn’t. And the more money those doctors received, on average, the more brand-name medications they prescribed."That's the result of their investigation using a large database of doctors and the prescriptions they write. Good news, though: you can use ProPublica's database to find a doctor in your area (in the US) who prescribes T3. Many patients have a hard time finding a doctor who'll write a prescription for T3. T3's official name is Liothyronine. Go to the site , click on your state, sort by drug (click on "drug"), and scroll down to liothyronine, and click on it. You'll see some of the doctors in your state who prescribe T3.  Sad to say that the the most common prescriptions in the database are atorvastatin (a statin drug) and levothyroxine (syncrap).  In happier news, I'm fighting a cold-

Improvements and Saving Money

Things are continuing to improve. I've stopped taking my adrenal cortex medicine and digestive enzymes because I don't feel I need them. I'm now down to hydrocortisone cream and natural desiccated thyroid (NDT). I got some lab tests done the other day--I'm sure they'll show improvement. I couldn't take any hydrocortisone that day (and I forgot to take my NDT until that afternoon). I didn't take my vitamins or electrolytes, either. I ended up eating a whole can of chocolate covered nuts. And a small order of fries with my lettuce-wrapped burger. Cortisol helps control blood sugar; maybe it has something to do with controlling cravings, too. I went back to my supplement regimen the next day and felt no desire to eat fries or chocolate--just tacos. I had chicken, salsa, cheddar cheese, guacamole and pork rinds. Now that I'm feeling better, thinking more clearly and no longer desperate to get well, I took advantage of a slow day at work to look over cos

Much to be Thankful For

It's been four years last week since I escaped moved from Denver and ten years ago this month that I started this blog. I have much to be thankful for: My health is a lot better than it was last year. My digestion, energy, palpitations, and mood are better, even if I feel like I still have a ways to go. A nice Thanksgiving meal with good company. My meetup group went to Bob Evans and we talked about Day of the Dead , health care, the economy, and I don't remember what else. I was bad--I had eggs benedict with biscuits since I don't like Thanksgiving fare--but felt fine. I'm not going to make a habit of getting glutened, though. I haven't forgotten how sick I was ten years ago, and how much a gluten-free diet helped.  I live in Indiana, where I can get lab tests without a permission slip from a doctor. I live in Indiana, where raising a vegetable garden is easy. I live in Indiana, where so many beautiful plants grow so well that I'm having a hard time p

L. Reuteri Yogurt Recipe from Coconut Milk

Equipment (pick one): Pot-style yogurt maker Cup-style yogurt maker + heating pad and insulated container if you don't have enough cups for the recipe (see #4 below) Sous vide stick and pot Heating pad and insulated container (e.g., camping cooler, insulated grocery bag) Note that your yogurt maker must let you set the temperature at 97 degrees F (36C) for 36 hours.   I use this one  (a cup-style yogurt maker). Since the yogurt takes a long time to ferment, and I don't like to go without while I'm making a new batch, I make a few extra cups in an insulated container.  My heating pad does the job at the medium setting in an insulated grocery bag at room temperature. (My insulated grocery bag is just a paper grocery bag with a bubble wrap liner.) I use  8 oz plastic freezing cups , available where canning and freezing supplies are sold. Ingredients 3 T powdered plain gelatin 1/2 c water (cold or room temperature) 4 cans regular coconut milk (13.5 oz each) 6 T c

Need Surgery on a Budget? The Free Market is Here to Help

Keith Smith, the founder of and an anesthesiologist at the Oklahoma Surgery Center, was recently on EconTalk, a podcast from the Library of Economics and Liberty at Stanford University. The Oklahoma Surgery Center is unusual in that they don't deal with insurance companies, they do post all-inclusive prices on their web site, and they typically charge far less for the same procedures compared to regular hospitals. Time magazine interviewed a patient who had total knee replacement done there for $19,000. The average price in the US is $57,000. The actual cost to the hospital? At one, it turned out to be $10,550. Dr. Smith and host Russ Roberts discuss the surgery center and the US health care system in this mind-blowing episode . Sources: "Keith Smith on Free Market Health Care." Keith Smith and Russ Roberts, EconTalk, November 18, 2019.  https://www.econtalk.org/keith-smith-on-free-market-health-care/ "What Happens when Doctors Only Take Cash." Haley S

Good News, Bad News

First, the good news: I'm well enough to exercise. I made it though a 15-minute workout I couldn't get through the last time I tried. The heart palpitations are going away and I don't feel out of breath and exhausted with every little bit of exertion. It's been almost a year since I started another go at getting my health back, and I've come a long way. I've put on about ten pounds (unintentionally) and I'm hoping that adding muscle will increase my metabolism. Now, the bad news. This has not been cheap. It hasn't been ruinous, but my health insurance hasn't covered anything. I can't even use my HSA (health savings account) to pay for my lab tests or thyroid or adrenal medicine. (But I could use it to pay for prescription sunglasses!) So I have over $900 in my HSA that I can realistically only use for sunglasses or an emergency. I'm stuck making more contributions to it for almost another year, since we just made our benefit elections at w

Adrenal Fatigue and Thyroid: Still Fiddling with my Medications

DIYing my adrenal fatigue and low thyroid has been a challenge. At least I'm over the brain fog and can read and think more clearly. After my ears got dry and itchy again--which seems to be a symptom of low thyroid for me--I upped my thyroid dose again. I also lowered my adrenal cortex dose since I was gaining weight, even with the increased NDT (natural desiccated thyroid medicine) and decreased carb intake. The cortisol (an adrenal hormone) will make you gain weight if you take too much. I hope this is the last time I need to up my NDT, since my current dose costs $80 per month. I can't even pay for it with my HSA (health savings account, a pre-tax deal in the US). At least the adrenal cortex is cheap, and hydrocortisone is $5 a tube. The adrenal cortex, which I take in the morning at at noon, started turning me into a morning person. I was up at six doing dishes, vacuuming the house, and packing a lunch. I was tired around 10 PM. Since backing off a little, I'm ba

Podcast with Stop the Thyroid Madness Author Janie Bowthorpe

Elle Russ from Mark's Daily Apple chats with Janie Bowthorpe about thyroid treatment. Bowthorpe suffered for 20 years on Syncrap Synthroid (T4 only) with symptoms that nearly made her apply for disability, all while being told by numerous doctors that it wasn't her thyroid. Through her Yahoo group, she and other thyroid patients figured out better treatments for optimal health. Bowthorpe discusses the difficulty in finding a non-obstructionist doctor, the need to educate yourself about the thyroid instead of relying on your doctor to solve your problems, and some of the issues with various thyroid treatments. Podcast here .

Taking Adrenal Cortex Supplements: My Results. Yet Another Reason to Avoid Statins.

I've been taking various adrenal hormones for the past few weeks with mixed results. Overall, it's been positive: they seem to have helped me get over a three-month-long case of bronchitis and I have more energy. Using a dab of hydrocortisone at bedtime has prevented me from grinding my teeth at night. On the downside, the adrenal glandular (containing adrenaline) gives me palpitations if I take too much of it. I've been getting too hot and cold (mostly too hot). Too much hydrocortisone made me puffy and gave me a slight case of acne. Taking adrenal cortex after midday gives me acid reflux and keeps me up at night. (I'm writing this at 4:30 AM.) Your adrenal hormones help with healing, controlling blood sugar, controlling inflammation, and dealing with stress. They make some of your sex hormones. Why is adrenal fatigue apparently becoming more common? Your adrenal hormones are made of cholesterol--including LDL, the "bad" cholesterol. Salt is also importa

Perfect Muffins

Tonight I created the perfect muffin. This is not the gluten-free baked goods of the 90s that tasted like cardboard. From the top of the muffin to the bottom, it's moist and delicious. It's a variation on Mark Sisson's pumpkin muffin recipe, which is a variation of a Bruce Fife recipe. The red kuri squash was a bit cheaper at the store than pie pumpkins. It has a mild flavor (despite being called "onion squash" in the UK, apparently after its shape). To cook it, stab it through to the center around the top a few times with a meat fork or sharp knife and bake it on a cookie sheet or pie dish at 350F (175C or gas mark 4) for an hour. Allow it to cool, then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, scoop the flesh into a pan, and mash with a potato masher. (You could use a food processor if you don't mind the cleanup.) Red kuri squash. Image by  Marzena P.  from  Pixabay   Perfect Muffins 12 servings. 1/2 cooked red kuri (hokkaido) squash, cooked and

Three Cheers for Adrenal Supplements

I know I've been saying this for three months...but I think I am finally over my bronchitis. Three cheers for adrenal supplements! I kept using 35mg per day of hydrocortisone cream, until one day last week when I became puffy and gained a couple of pounds. That's a sign you're overdoing the hydrocortisone. I backed off, then started taking adrenal cortex extract that finally arrived. I waited until Saturday to take it because I wanted to be home in case I didn't feel well on it. Saturday morning I woke up with a persistent headache, but today, I felt 42 again . I installed a new car stereo, planted some ferns, cleaned up the yard, fixed the fences--and I'm a little sore because it's been awhile since I worked so hard. Much credit to the book Stop the Thyroid Madness, Updated Revised Edition, for its chapters on treating your adrenals.

Adrenal Fatigue

I think I finally understand why I've had bronchitis off and on for months, why I had scary heart palpitations for years up until a few days ago, and why I couldn't fast or do well on keto/Atkins induction. The reason is adrenal fatigue. Some call it a made-up illness (there's no insurance code for it), but here are the results of my lab test for adrenal hormones: Green is optimal; my cortisol levels are mostly suboptimal. DHEA is in the tank. My adrenals are clearly at the low end. As Dr. William Jefferies put it, "Patients with mild adrenal deficiency describe wanting to do things but feeling too exhausted to undertake them..." The latter is exactly how I've felt for quite a while.  Cortisol, one of the adrenal hormones, helps you deal with inflammation and stress; it also helps regulate blood sugar, metabolism and immune responses. When my dog Molly died in 2017 and I started breaking out in hives at night, it was probably a lack of cortisol. Wh

Kamala Joins the Dietary Dictocrats

Kamala Harris discusses her stance on red meat and the US Dietary Guidelines. While she says she "love[s] cheeseburgers from time to time," she says she would change the Dietary Guidelines to reduce red meat specifically and introduce "incentives" to educate Americans about the environmental effects of what they eat. Kamala should have said she needed to study the issue more. In reality, the perennial grasses that cattle eat prevent runoff and help keep carbon in the ground. Some farmers like Allan Savory say that properly done grazing restores desert and reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizer. Cattle and other livestock can grow on land that's unsuitable for growing crops. And land lush with plants is cooler than desert--even my little suburban lot in Colorado, where the front yard was planted with flowers and bushes instead of lawn, felt a degree or two cooler than surrounding yards planted with water-sucking grass.  If you're not ea

It's Like they Want us to Stay Sick

Popping the Umcka Cold Care pills has made me feel a lot better. I'm still coughing, but no longer wondering if I should see someone. And what if I did see a doctor? According to official websites like the Mayo Clinic, WebMD, and MedlinePlus.gov, you should "wash your hands," "use a humidifier," "wear a face mask," and "stop smoking" if you have bronchitis--which it says is "rarely" caused by infection. Are they writing this for people in Somalia? I already wash my hands and I've never smoked in my life. Use a humidifier? I live in Indiana, where it's so wet that we need de humidifiers. "Wear a face mask"? Why not put some leaches on, too? I work in an office in the US, not a construction site or the middle of a forest fire. Of course, the ubiquitous advice is "see your doctor." Which you'll need to do if you try to cure your bronchitis with hand washing and a face mask. "Stop smoking"

I Feel Like a Wind-Up Doll

I've always been a night owl. Look at my posts and you can see a pattern of them being written late at night. Yet lately it's been more pronounced. Saturday mornings, I can barely function. Today is Labor Day, and it's kind of like a Saturday. After sitting around watching Overboard and  Fluffy , playing with the dog and wondering if I should seek medical help, it was like someone wound me up at 8 PM. I mowed the lawn, finished the ironing and made low-carb cookies. I feel like I could go  "diggin' ditches through an isthmus, and rough ridin' down to Cuba like 'What's up bitches!'"   I'd love to feel like this during the day so I could get more done and then sleep at night. That, and not feel like I need medical help for the first 12 hours of the day. I'm going to take an adrenal function test next weekend and hope that sheds some light on my problems. Maybe part of my problem is that I still have bronchitis I caught July 4. However

Hypothyroid, Hyper-Bloating, and the Cold that Wouldn't Die

Ah, the Fourth of July. The summer weather, the fat, juicy burgers, the fireworks, the last day I didn't have a cold for over a month. I woke up feeling good, got a lot done, but by evening I didn't even feel like standing on the corner to see fireworks. I called in sick the following Monday and Tuesday. On August 4--one month later, I took a turn for the worse and saw a doctor, who wrote a prescription for antibiotics and cough syrup. I called in sick for the next three days. Then I went to work--still coughing, coworkers telling me it would be OK to go home--and picked up my natural desiccated thyroid (NDT). I started taking it that Saturday--and soon my cold started getting better. As the week went on and I needed to up my dose of NDT, the cough started coming back to the point that I thought about going back to the doctor. But I upped the dose--and again, the cough mostly went away. I was thinking I'd need Sheriff Grimes on the case to kill the cold that wouldn't

Thyroid: Hormonal Dunning-Kruger Syndrome

It's been quite an adventure riding this sparking and sputtering thyroid. It started back in the highly stressful year of 2014 when I had mountains of work on my desk, an hour-long commute, and aging parents who themselves were sputtering along and constantly needed me to come over to help them. Then my coworker quit and I had all the work to do. I asked if I could go live with her in Mexico, only half joking. My father died. My mother nearly died of kidney failure. Then stayed with me for two weeks during and leading up to the estate sale. We surrendered her dog when she couldn't take care of him. In thanks for my hard work, I was accused of elder abuse. (The county found no grounds for the accusations.) I had a root canal and three courses of antibiotics. Then I moved across the country: I bought one house before selling the other (albeit in Denver's hot real estate market) and had no permanent job lined up in Indiana. Then finding my best friend had changed quite a

Yogurt Maker for L. Reuteri

Move over, Instant Pot--you're overly hot! My Suteck yogurt maker makes special yogurt for L. reuteri bacteria that need a long, warm fermentation. And it was only $32.99. Here's my Amazon review, with a few tips: I bought this product to make L. reuteri yogurt, which requires special preparation. I didn't have any trouble--the yogurt maker was easy to program, and both batches I've made so far turned out well. I did have to shake the final product in the jars because it separated, but the yogurt stayed homogenized after refrigeration. If you wish to add water in the yogurt maker, you don't need to keep adding it during the processing. A tip: use a canning funnel if you have one to fill the jars. Another tip: don't snap on the lids before processing--they pop off during fermentation. Just place the lids on the jars.

Sleep Paralysis and L. Reuteri Yogurt

A few months ago, I joined Dr. Davis's Inner Circle to resolve some health problems. He recommends making "yogurt" with L. reuteri bacteria for its unique health benefits. Users reported vivid dreams after eating the yogurt. Having suffered from sleep paralysis long ago, I worried that it would return if I ate this yogurt. Sleep paralysis feels like a weight on you while you're somewhere between being asleep and being awake. You're paralyzed while it happens, and since humans tend to assume that things have agency when in doubt, it seems like it's a creature that's sitting on top of you. It's terrifying. It happened to me during the Satanic Panic , which added to my own panic. Decades later, I slept like the dead on a low-carb diet. No dreams, no sleep paralysis, just a very deep, black sleep. Wonderful. I took L. reuteri tablets as supplements for a few months. I dreamed, but nothing remarkable happened. I whipped up a batch of yogurt and ate s

They've Lost the Plot

The other night, the Democratic presidential candidates all said they'd provide free health care to illegal immigrants. Not free emergency services, but free health care. Free in this case means paid for by the taxpayers.   I don't get free health care and I'm a veteran who works for a living. I pay both health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses because 1) I have a high deductible and 2) I order my own tests because most endocrinologists and gastroenterologists have no idea what they're doing. When these socialists are not pandering to illegal immigrants, the same people also say We have food deserts where poor people have a hard time getting groceries Some people struggle to afford health insurance Some people struggle to afford health care and medications Migrants in detention centers aren't being taken care of We have homeless people not being taken care of Health care costs for Americans are steeply rising (which we can all agree on)

This Just In: Poor Don't Eat Like Middle Class

This is why I don't take the newspaper anymore: I'm tired of the sob stories. The latest is an article in The New York Times about how people in flophouses can't afford unprocessed food. They use the term "working class" to describe people living with no reliable stove or refrigerator or pots, pans and other basic utensils, which annoys me as someone living in a working-class neighborhood. We have our problems, but a lack of a working appliances and cooking utensils is pretty unusual. Some of the people interviewed in a book the article referred to said they were evicted from their last place, but there's no reason given (there never is in the news). First, I have to wonder whether people without cooking utensils care about cooking. It's just as well if they don't--moving to a place with working appliances really should be more important than figuring out how to sit down to poached salmon and asparagus in a lemon-butter sauce at home. And I doub

First, They Came for Sugary Sodas

...and I said nothing because I wasn't a drinker of sugary sodas. Now, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York is coming for cauliflower, calling it "colonialist" in community gardens. Fox News' guest liberal, Cathy Arue, defended Cortez's statemen t, saying that cauliflower is a monocrop and the soil needs different plants to avoid becoming depleted, since the same old colonialist crops have been grown for generations. From what I understand, people rent plots in community gardens and grow whatever they like. If committees are dictating what crops are to be grown in community gardens in New York City, where Ocasio Cortez is from, maybe the committees, not the cauliflower, are the problem. In any case, is monocropping in community gardens a serious environmental problem? Looking at a few of New York City's 550 community gardens  on Google Street View, I didn't see anything that looked remotely like this: Photo by Gary Rogers. Wikimedia Commons

Are Soyboys Hypothyroid?

Commentator Paul Joseph Watson posted a video on his observation that a lot of left-wing activists share a distinct look, like this man (Paul Crowther), who allegedly threw a milkshake on politician Nigel Farage: Photo from Facebook. I'll stick with coconut milk. Almost everyone he pointed out was overweight and had a puffy face. In another video, he remarked how depressed his soyboy critics were. I'm no expert, but it looks and sounds like hypothyroid. Maybe someone should think about offering everyone seaweed snacks instead of statins. In fairness to them, the standard of care for thyroid treatment, especially in the UK, is so bad that patients have taken to ordering medications from Mexico and Thailand. What got me thinking about hypothyroid was being diagnosed with it. Having been startled by a high BG rating about a month ago, I really whacked back the carbs...and became so tired I barely wanted to move. My heart was going like a jack rabbit. Remembering what I sa

For Safety's Sake, Use Lard

Or butter, ghee, bacon grease or coconut oil--not something out of a spray can. Eight people have allegedly been injured by exploding cans of cooking spray (like Pam) when putting the cans near a stove . When's the last time you heard of shrapnel from exploding lard? Besides, humans have been eating animal fats for millions of years, and butter and coconuts for several thousand, suggesting we're well-adapted to those foods. Industrially made oils used in Pam, not so much. If your lard comes from a pastured piggy (not a blue box on the grocery store shelf), it'll have lots of vitamin D and no hydrogenated oil. Find a farmer near you that sells lard. Sources I've purchased from and recommend here in central Indiana: Fischer Farms ( bulk orders of their meat, eggs, lard, etc. only) Smoking Goose Source: " 8 People Allegedly Disfigured by Exploding Cans of Cooking Spray Sue Conagra " by Zlati Meyer. USA Today, May  7, 2019.

23andMe: Conflict of Interest and Crappy Advice

23andMe, the genetic testing company, sent me a new report saying I have a 64% chance of developing diabetes based on my genetics. Having at least three diabetic grandparents and hypoglycemia from the time I was a kid, I already figured I was a case of diabetes waiting to happen if I didn't take precautions. If I followed 23andMe's crappy advice, I'd probably become one of those cases. GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the diabetes drug Avandia , owns a $300 million share of 23andMe . Some of 23andMe's advice for avoiding diabetes is good--avoid added sugars, refined flour and potatoes. Thanks to the work of journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and a few renegade doctors and researchers who attacked the low-fat orthodoxy, they have to throw that in now to avoid losing all credibility. But their advice on what to eat instead isn't very helpful for filling you up and keeping you from snacking on foods with flour and sugar: Fruit can be very high in sugar; beans are mo

Scared Straight

Over the past few months, my stomach is feeling a lot better and I think it's thanks to low-carb lattes I've been having for breakfast. Plus a lot of Pepto-Bismol. Doing a little research, it turns out that all the ingredients in the latte (coconut milk, cocoa powder, peppermint extract, and even coffee) are antibacterial. So is Pepto-Bismol. I've also been avoiding high-FODMAPS foods that cause bloating. So I think my problem was SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) after taking too many probiotics...and maybe some carb creep. Something felt off. I was tired, I'd gained a few pounds, and felt puffy. I got a new blood glucose meter and tested my fasting and post breakfast levels (breakfast being bacon, eggs, two lattes and some dried seasoned tomatoes). That was about 18 grams of carbohydrate. My blood sugar went from 91 to 146. Not good! After two hours, it went to 109 and stayed around there for the next four and a half hours, when I stopped taking readings

The Healthy Japanese: Starchy Diet or Annual Physicals?

Some people are still trotting out the old "Japanese are healthy because of their starchy diet" chestnut.  There are a lot of differences between Japanese and American diets and cultures. One I hadn't heard of until recently was annual physicals for Japanese citizens and ex-pats 30 and over living in Japan. The checkups are free--employers are required to provide them. Those without a regular employer can go through their city office. The results of these physicals are shared with your employer, who can tell you to shape up or ship out (or pass you over for promotions). With this in mind, many Japanese go on an annual "cleanse" to prepare for their physical. "They do things such as eliminating fried foods and alcohol, and pay close attention to getting more sleep, usually for a month or so beforehand," says ex-pat Jessica Korteman. A lot of Americans likewise make New Year's resolutions to diet and exercise--but we have a lot less skin in the

What Happened to the ADA Guidelines to Eat Lots of Carbs?

Awhile back, I was looking at the ADA website (American Diabetes Association) to see their carb recommendations. Oddly, I couldn't find any. No, I didn't imagine having seen dietary recommendations designed to keep diabetics sick and the organization's  medication and sugar sponsors in the clover--they changed their page in August 2017. Here's the old page  via the Wayback Machine from June 2017, recommending 45-60 grams of carbohydrate or even more per meal: Look at the list of junk food on their site from 2017: So how much carbohydrate do they say diabetics should eat? Figure it out yourself! The ADA is a bunch of narcissistic assholes for ever recommending that diabetics--people with a disease of carbohydrate intolerance--eat a baked potato, or a cup of pasta or cake or ice cream at every meal . Don't expect them to ever admit they were wrong. 

Three LC Movies You Should Watch

Fat Head Kids: Stuff About Diet and Health I Wish I Knew when I was Your Age by Tom Naughton. Written for older kids, but has information that will probably be new to a lot of adults. It uses a spaceship as a metaphor for the human body and programming as a metaphor for personal metabolism. Drs. William Davis, Richard Feinman, Ann Childers, John Briffa, Michael Eades, Andreas Eenfeldt, Michael Fox, Dwight Lundell, Robert Lustig and Eric Westman provide interviews through the movie. Love Paleo. This movie was released in 2015, but I hadn't heard about it until recently. Several people--including Dr. John Briffa, discuss the major health improvements they've seen on a paleo diet and why it works.  What's with Wheat? Regular readers already know that wheat in its current form is genetically very different from what it was a few decades ago. What they might not know is that monocrop agriculture  isn't good for the environment, that wheat has glyphos

Be a Vegan and Save the World?

The Lancet has come out with a new report saying "Repent! The End is Near!" These days, that means someone wants you to live on grains, beans, nuts and vegetation to save your health and civilization itself; coming to Jesus for salvation would be absurd to them. But there are flies in the ointment that only a bunch of academics could fail to observe: After being goaded for decades to move towards such a diet, people in developed countries are fatter and more diabetic than ever.  Growing these crops destroys natural habitats, uses fertilizer that depends on fossil fuels, and requires pesticides (even if organically grown).  Much of the land on earth is unsuitable for growing anything but livestock.  Such a diet is nutrient-poor and completely unsuitable for many people. The poorest countries tend to have frequent fighting and ((#%(@!#y governments, not citizens who are oddly unable to figure out what to eat.  Bison, deer, elk, antelope and other game used to roam

23andMe Signs Agreement with Big Pharma, Offers Health App

GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest drug makers, recently bought a $300 million stake in 23 and Me, a genetic testing company . The two also signed an agreement giving GlaxoSmithKline exclusive rights to customer data. The data is de-identified, aggregate customer information. 23andMe recently rolled out Lark, an health app specially geared to your genetics. I was curious what kind of diet advice Lark gave, since 23andMe advised me a year or so ago to limit saturated fat . Here's a screen grab from their video suggesting the new app is programmed with diet advice from the 90s: " Lark Chat: Personal Weight Loss Coach & 24-Hour Nutritionist " by ourLark on Youtube.  Uploaded April 27, 2015. Think about it, though--why SHOULD a company with a relationship to big pharma tell you to put down the bread when doing so may reduce your need for beta blockers (which lower blood pressure), nasal steroids and bronchial drugs, all of which GlaxoSmithKline m

Back on Track!

Finally, after several attempts, I'm back on track with low-carb, real food. I don't know what made the difference, but I'm eating high-fat, low-carb food without (many) palpitations, stomach upset, weird cravings or aversions to foods like oily fish. My diet hasn't been awful for the past three years(!), certainly better than the standard American diet, but I had problems with lower back pain, lack of energy, acne, bloating, and some dental problems. Whatever it was that affected me around the time I moved in 2015 seems to have resolved itself. Maybe it was a combination of stress and the lack of "guts" (think antibiotics due to root canal, due to my bike wreck ) to deal with it. In the course of four years, my father died, I was accused of crimes I didn't commit, had to give up dancing because it hurt my knee, I moved across the country, worked at five different places, my dog Molly died, and my mother died. I should have sought help for my digestiv