Pain, Pain, Go Away!

My glasses had never fogged up in the summertime until last week. T he heat index (temperature with humidity) was 100 to 115 F , or 38 to 46 C. Hospitals saw an increase in heat-related illnesses last week , and even with a reprieve on Saturday, the glass doors to the grocery store had so much condensation, they looked like someone sprayed them with water. Hopefully, the knuckleheads who think the heat warnings are just climate change propaganda have had the sense to come in out of the sun. Or the moon: even at 10 PM, it felt like a sauna outside. Photo from Pexels.com .  For an easy meal and to avoid heating up the house even more, I made a charcuterie plate of sausage, bleu cheese, pâté, hummus and avocado and a salad and had a glass of magnesium tea . For dessert, I made  frozen yogurt . I also picked up a chicken at the store. Read ingredient lists when you buy sausage or roast chickens--some contain carrageenan (a sickening thickener). Or roast chickens can taste like teddy bear s

 It should be 1 pound of pickling cucumbers, not two, per quart jar. The corrected recipe is here:  https://relievemypain.blogspot.com/2023/08/fermented-bread-and-butter-pickles-ft-l.html

These sweet-and-sour pickles are the tastiest I've ever made. There's just a little added sugar (some of which the bacteria will consume) and turmeric that gives the pickles their bright color.  Special equipment Quart jar (or two pint jars) with lid(s) (or a fermentation jar) Weight for holding down the pickles (I ordered these ; glass fermenting weights or a small, clean stone that's been boiled and cooled are other options) Ingredients 1 pound pickling cucumbers (not salad cucumbers) 1 t turmeric 2 T brown sugar 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 1.5 T pickling salt (or other salt with no iodine) 1 T pickling spice Filtered water 1/4 t pickle crisp (optional) Directions In a medium bowl, combine turmeric, brown sugar, vinegar and salt. Stir well to dissolve the salt.  Wash the cucumbers. Remove and discard the ends. Cut crosswise into 1/4" slices.  Put the pickling spice in the jar. Add the cucumber slices and pack them down. Pour the vinegar mixture in the jar and top off w

Super-bacteria L. plantarum might be as close as your garden. Zucchini is a good source of the bacteria, and by fermenting it, you can up the benefits like slightly lower blood sugar, improved insulin, improved exercise capacity, improved sleep and mood, and many others. Don't give away that zucchini--ferment it! This recipe has a milder flavor than most fermented foods--it's only slightly tart. And of course it's an alternative to yogurt.  Equipment needed 1 quart jar (or 2 pint jars) with lid(s) Canning funnel (optional) Fermentation device (I use an insulated grocery bag, plastic grocery bag and a heating pad)  Ingredients 2 apples, peeled and cored 1 medium zucchini, unpeeled 4 dates, chopped 1 T cinnamon 1/2 T ground ginger 1 t salt 1/4 t ground cloves 1/4 t nutmeg Filtered water 2 capsules or equivalent of your favorite probiotic that ferments at ~95F (I used Biotiquest Antibiotic Antidote) Shred the apples and zucchini and put them in a large bowl. Add the spices, s

Preprint Servers Reject CDC Criticism If you're doing your own research on MedRxiv or SSRN, they're rejecting articles critical of CDC policies.  We have had multiple articles removed from SSRN and MedRxiv solely because they are critical of CDC-- which is a broken and failed agency This is concerning censorship https://t.co/iH6GzFzkZO pic.twitter.com/2NRhomAjrp — Vinay Prasad MD MPH (@VPrasadMDMPH) July 27, 2023 In another tweet , Dr. Prasad added, "We analyzed every preprint to come out of my lab at UCSF  @vkprasadlab What it reveals is that the servers routinely reject papers that are critical of CDC and Biden Policy They also rejected our analysis of the servers.  "Odd behavior." The analysis, along with a paper on the re-analysis of the Boston school mask study , is now on a physics server. You can still find at least one of the articles through Google and Google Scholar. And please tell me you're not doing your own  COVID research on Facebook .  Lit

Lately I've seen people online eager to stick it to The Man by doing the opposite of what they're advised. When the air in New York City was orange with smoke from Canadian forest fires and people were advised to stay inside, some petulantly insisted people should carry on as normal. It's just more climate scare! Or lockdowns, like 2020! After all, you can be inside at school...just don't ask how kids are supposed to get there without going outside.  New York City in June. Photo by  Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office Likewise vaccines. Looking at risk vs. benefit on a case-by-case basis, or whether other countries similar to your own recommend the vaccines you're considering, isn't a bad idea. But rejecting them wholesale because autism  (long debunked) or because COVID is stupid. A major reason many of us were vaccine hesitant with regard to the COVID shots was because they were so different from previous vaccines. Now it's subjecting yourself to

"On behalf of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)," says a memo dated today, "I hereby suspend and propose the debarment of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Capital Construction (WIV) from participating in United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement programs." Photo from Pexels . "It is important to note that suspension is a temporary action, used where immediate action is necessary to protect the integrity of United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement activities." "... there is risk that WIV not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety." More at Fox News:  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-administration-suspends-funds-wuhan-lab-failure-provide-covid-related-info