Pwned, Ivermectin, Electrolytes, Lawnmowers and Stir-Fry

Have You Been Pwned?

If you donated to the Canadian truckers via GiveSendGo, your personal information might have been compromised by hackers who attacked the site. No bank information was apparently compromised, but names, emails and locations were hacked and in some cases publicized. To find out if you were a victim, go to https://haveibeenpwned.com. If you were pwned, make a complaint to your state's attorney general. To be safe, protect your accounts. One way is to put a freeze on your credit so that nobody can take out a loan in your name (IIRC, this is a free service with the credit reporting agencies). You can also use a fee-based service like LifeLock, which monitors your credit and accounts opened in your name.

Ivermectin Study from Malaysia

This randomized, controlled study didn't find that ivermectin had any effect in older people with comorbidities who had COVID. In fact, the ivermectin arm did a little worse than the placebo group as far as severe illness (the primary endpoint), though it wasn't statistically significant. The only serious criticism I've read of the study was that ivermectin was given too late (5.1 days after symptoms began, on average). All the other criticisms I've read amount to special pleading. 

Nevertheless, anyone who gets COVID should be alert that looking for a doctor to prescribe ivermectin, then finding a pharmacist to prescribe it--a process that could easily take five days--is a very bad idea. Some of the patients in the study (who either got Malaysian standard of care or that plus ivermectin) went to the hospital, got ventilated, and died. And while the ivermectin group did better on those secondary endpoints, the result wasn't statistically signifiant. Nor does it make sense that the same treatment would cause both more severe illness and less ventilation and death. 

Feeling Better with More Electrolytes

Now that I've found magnesium supplements that I absorb instead of--well, rapidly dispatching, I'm able to take enough actually feel a lot better. I need 150% of the daily dose. Based on fiddling with doses, I've come to think that acid reflux is partly a lack of magnesium. It's needed for proper muscle function (like peristalsis, which keeps food moving along) and taking a tablet or two cures my acid reflux flare-ups within about 20 minutes. 

I've started taking iron again, too. I can tell when I'm low on it: I get weak and tired. I've gotten my energy back from taking the iron and magnesium.

Gardening Time!

Nevertheless, I finally broke down and bought a self-propelled lawn mower. I needed a new one since the manual push mower didn't cut the thick lawn very well. Besides, I don't know what my energy level will be like in ten years--will I still be able to push a mower in the heat and humidity of summer? So I ordered a new one and put the old one by the curb, where it disappeared within an hour. February is an odd time to buy a lawn mower, but I was concerned that prices would go up and supplies would go down. There's now a new cordless mower in my garage. 

In my basement, perennials are sprouting under lights. I bought a device called a plant pulley to hang the lights. They're normally used for plants, but they work with lights, too, which is useful for keeping them within a few inches of the seedlings. You hang the pulley from the ceiling, hook the light to it, and pull the cord while you raise or lower the light. When you release the cord, it keeps it at that height. It makes for less clutter on my workbench, too.

Stir-Fry Recipes

I love stir-fry, but I've never been able to get the spices and sauces right. But there's a new magazine called The Keto Diet Quick and Easy Recipes with several stir-fry recipes, and the ones I've tried have turned out great. The chili mole and sriracha-buffalo cauliflower bites were good, too. The unusual salads and snacks look worthwhile; the cauliflower grilled cheese looks interesting but difficult. But I recommend the magazine--and at this writing, it's available for less than newsstand price on Ebay.