Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: “Diagnosis and Management of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

2024-05-12 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: all videos, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, videos other

re: Epstein Barr Virus and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
re: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

re: Chronic Fatigue: the Hard Slap from Working Out a Little Too Much

This doctor should eliminate the depressing sad music and just speak. Dr David Kaufman has retired since this video was made (didn’t know when I posted it).

Comments below.

Reaction

A lot of things in there I recognize including EBV and HHV-6 antibodies high in my case at the onset and continuing. Kinda depressing but I’m not going to let that enter my pscyhe. Nor do I accept the “this is how it is” attitude eg the cognitive commitment resulting in “treatment but not cure”.

If you don’t know how to fix it, figure it out !

“There is no cure and only 5% of adults will make a full recovery...”

Doctors, when you make a cognitive commitment like that, it is self-reinforcing. No doctor should EVER accept “no cure” for ANY condition. If you do that, you are not a healer, you are a Well, I suppose there are rare exceptions, but just ask Scott Adams about spasmodic dysphonia, which he cured after being told it was incurable. So have others.

I intend to make a full recovery, even if it takes me 4 more years. Because my very life depends on it. I have little interest in living to 80 with this condition, which is a fractional life.

“physicians can make a huge difference in the lives of these patients”.

I reject the medical viewpoint on recovery because you don’t know what you don’t know.

The emphasis on class medications and “no exercise”, etc is classic Western Medicine—treat, not cure. That is a bullshit give it up.

Electrocardiogram (ECG) with Simple Device Available on Amazon + Reader Comments

2024-05-11 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: reader comment

re: AFIB

Think you might have AFIB*? I don’t but I tried this gadget anyway, on the recommendation of a friend and a cardiologist.

EMAY Portable ECG Monitor @AMAZON

* AFIB = Abnormal heart rhythm characterized by rapid and irregular beating (usually but not always). Atrial fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm characterized by rapid and irregular beating of the atrial chambers of the heart. It often begins as short periods of abnormal beating, which become longer or continuous over time. It may also start as other forms of arrhythmia such as atrial flutter that then transform into AF. Episodes can be asymptomatic

It’s fast and it’s easy.

My only complaint is that it reports “possible bradycardia” every time based on a false and highly erroneous “normal”—a reductionist falsehood . Paint by numbers medicine. And that is with my HR way above what it might otherwise (on a hot day). At rest lying down, it would be be eg 43 to 46 typically (when highly trained in the past, it has dipped into the high 30’s when lying down). I find this false callout irritating enough that I’ll proably return the device, since I cannot disable this stupid flag.

ECG results from EMAY handhedl ECG device

Anon writes:

Just noticed the EMAY ECG report of "possible bradycardia" but question its accuracy due to widely variable P wave morphology. The rate slightly below 60/min is accurate but sinus rhythm cannot be confirmed due to the variable appearance and occasional absence of the P waves, thus not excluding variable atrial pacemaker. However AFIB with its highly variable rate should be obvious.

I have enjoyed your "Wind" blog for some years now.

WIND: not that I understand all this, but...

Anon cardiologist writes:

Somebody commented on the variable P wave morphology above. Meaningless with this kind of recording device. The device its set up to trigger off the high amplitude spike (dV/dT) of the QRS complex. That’s the electrical activity of the ventricles. P wavs arise from electrical activity of the atria. Because the muscle mass of the atria is much less that the ventricles, they are low amplitude. Note how the morphology of the T wave (the bump that follows the spike) also varies. Again, a low amplitude, longer duration event. Bad signal/noise ratio.

So the device algorithm is making its diagnosis based on the duration and variability of the interval between the spikes. It probably doesn’t recognize the P or T waves. Even if it did, it would have no way of knowing whether the morphology is normal or not. Moreover, the morphology of the recording changes based on where the contacts are placed (RH-LH; LH-RH. hand-leg. hand chest, leg-leg and so forth).

WIND: A-OK. I think I'll just return it for a refund, and I had no serious suspicion of AFIB anyway.

P‐Wave Morphology: Underlying Mechanisms and Clinical Implications

Increasing awareness of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its impact on public health revives interest in identification of noninvasive markers of predisposition to AF and ECG‐based risk stratification.

P‐wave duration is generally accepted as the most reliable noninvasive marker of atrial conduction, and its prolongation has been associated with history of AF. However, patients with paroxysmal AF without structural heart disease may not have any impressive P‐wave prolongation, thus suggesting that global conduction slowing is not an obligatory requirement for development of AF.

P‐wave morphology is therefore drawing increasing attention as it reflects the three‐dimensional course of atrial depolarization propagation and detects local conduction disturbances...

Eating ‘for the planet’ risks human health

2024-05-11 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: health, Nina Teicholz, nutrition

re: nutrition

Of course it does.

Eating ‘for the planet’ risks human health

2024-05-11.

Ever since a “planetary diet” known as EAT-Lancet was published in 2019, nutritionists have been worried that our move towards a plant-based diet would involve a serious cost to human health. (The EAT-Lancet authors were organized by a foundation close to the World Economic Forum and, at the time, the United Nations, to fulfill sustainability goals.)

A principal concern with EAT-Lancet was that such a heavily plant-based diet would be deficient in essential nutrients, especially those in a “bio-available” form that humans can digest. The first person to sound the alarm, as far as we know, was the nutrition expert Zoe Harcombe, whose analysis of EAT-Lancet found that the diet would be deficient in vitamins B12, D, K and A (retinol, the form we can absorb) as well as the minerals sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and probably omega-3 fatty acids.

Now a comprehensive paper– a systematic review of the scientific literature–has largely confirmed Harcombe’s assessment. ...

...

WIND: IMO, the idea of a vegan diet is for crackpots and/or the haters of humanity.

Just one more variant of self immolation, your sacrifice accruing to your children and grandchildren... told to every generation of suckers.

Un Scientific American Magazine

2024-05-11 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: follow the money, follow the self-interest

re: follow the money

Virtually every topic that is of any political/social concern is now verboten to open discourse.

Unscientific American

2024-05-10.

Science journalism surrenders to progressive ideology

...Shermer dug his grave deeper by quoting Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald and The Coddling of the American Mind authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, who argue that the rise of identity-group politics undermines the goal of equal rights for all. Shermer wrote that intersectional theory, which lumps individuals into aggregate identity groups based on race, sex, and other immutable characteristics, “is a perverse inversion” of Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society. For Shermer’s editors, apparently, this was the last straw. The column was killed and Shermer’s contract terminated. Apparently, SciAm no longer had the ideological bandwidth to publish such a heterodox thinker.

...The old Scientific American that I subscribed to in college was all about the science,” University of New Mexico evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller told me. “It was factual reporting on new ideas and findings from physics to psychology, with a clear writing style, excellent illustrations, and no obvious political agenda.” Miller says that he noticed a gradual change about 15 years ago, and then a “woke political bias that got more flagrant and irrational” over recent years...

...Science writers at most major news outlets and science news outlets have spent the last four years obfuscating and misrepresenting facts about the origin of the pandemic. They have done this to protect the scientists, science administrators, and the field of science—gain-of-function research on potential pandemic pathogens—that likely caused the pandemic. They have done this in part because those scientists and science administrators are their sources, . . . in part because they believe that public trust in science would be damaged by reporting the facts, and in part because the origin of the pandemic acquired a partisan political valance after early public statements by Tom Cotton, Mike Pompeo, and Donald Trump...

...

WIND: science is a moldering corpose. Ideology being laundered as science is all we have left, in virtually every field.

I stopped reading that useless rag at least 10 years ago (Scientific American) because it it became intolerable to see complete bullshit constantly thrown in “... due to climate change” and other ridiculous propaganda psyops.

Ditto for National Geographic after reading it for 30 years, ScienceNews.com, etc, etc, etc. It is now nearly impossible to find any credible scientific reporting. It’s all just laundered ideology driven by follow the money forcing the same vomit-inducing narrative.

Dermatology's Disastrous War Against The Sun

2024-05-10 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: cancer, design is destiny, exposure, follow the money, follow the self-interest, health, melanoma, photobiomodulation, skin cancer

re: sunlight
re: photobiomodulation
re: design is destiny
re: follow the money

True? Is there a debunk?

The thing I find persuasive is that fatal skin cancers occur just as much where the sun don’t shine [sic]. And that all this sunblock stuff has shown no redunction in fatal skin cancers. And that sunlight and photobiomodulation are inherent to the design of the system and system design is destiny.

I’ve had dermatologists grudgingly admit to me and/or at least hedge their answers when I ask them point blank if they think sunlight causes fatal skin cancers. They give me a blank stare when I ask about the benefits of sunlight. IMO, this makes the profession largely quackery, at least in this area.

Same article at The Shocking Truth About Skin Cancer: What You’re Not Being Told About the Sun. See also the short video at X.com.

Dermatology's Disastrous War Against The Sun

2024-05-10.

The forgotten side of skin health and the necessity of sunlight

Story at a Glance:

•Skin cancers are by far the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, so to prevent them, the public is constantly told to avoid the sun. However, while the relatively benign skin cancers are caused by sun exposure, the ones responsible for most skin cancer deaths are due to a lack of sunlight.

•This is unfortunate because sunlight is arguably the most important nutrient for the human body, as avoiding it doubles one’s rate of dying and significantly increases their risk of cancer.

•A strong case can be made that this dynamic was a result of the dermatology profession (with the help of a top PR firm) rebranding themselves to skin cancer fighters, something which allowed them to become one of the highest paying medical specialities in existence. Unfortunately, despite the billions that is put into fighting it each year, there has been no substantial change in the number of skin cancer deaths.

•In this article, we will also discuss the dangers of the conventional skin cancer treatments, the most effective ways for treating and preventing skin cancer, and some of the best strategies for having a healthy and nourishing relationship with the sun.

...

The Monopolization of Medicine

Throughout my life, I’ve noticed three curious patterns in the medical industry:

• They will promote healthy activities people are unlikely to do (e.g., exercising or smoking cessation).
• They will promote clearly unhealthy activities industries make money from (e.g., eating processed foods or taking a myriad of unsafe and ineffective pharmaceuticals).
• They will attack clearly beneficial activities that are easy to do (e.g., sunlight exposure, eating eggs, consuming raw dairy, or eating butter).

...The Benefits of Sunlight

One of the oldest “proven” therapies in medicine was having people bathe in sunlight (e.g., it was one of the few things that actually had success in treating the 1918 influenza, prior to antibiotics it was one of the most effective treatments for treating tuberculosis and it was also widely used for a variety of other diseases). In turn, since it is safe, effective, and freely available, it stands to reason that unscrupulous individuals who wanted to monopolize the practice of medicine would want to cut off the public’s access to it.
Note: the success of sunbathing was the original inspiration for ultraviolet blood irradiation.

Because of how successful the war against sunlight has been many people are unaware of its benefits. Forexample:

1. Sunlight is critical for mental health. This is most well appreciated with depression (e.g., seasonal affective disorder) but in reality the effects are far more broad reaching 

...

The Great Dermatology Scam

If you consider the previous section, the following should be fairly clear:

• By far the most common “skin cancer” is not dangerous.

• The “skin cancers” you actually need to worry about are a fairly small portion of the existing skin cancers.

• Sunlight exposure does not cause dangerous cancers (except for SCC, which is nowhere near as dangerous as the others).

In essence, there’s no way to justify “banning sunlight” to “prevent skin cancer,” as the “benefit” from this prescription is vastly outweighed by its harm. However, a very clever linguistic trick bypasses this contradiction—a single label, “skin cancer,” is used for everything, which then selectively adopts the lethality of melanoma, the frequency of BCC, and the sensitivity to sunlight that BCC and SCC have.

This has always really infuriated me, so I’ve given a lot of thought to why they do this.

Note: Dr Malcom Kendrick @AMAZON helps provide some perspective on how this game is played throughout the medical industry by sharing a story from Michael Baum MD:

Each year I play a game with the senior postgraduate students at a course for specialists in cancer run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. I tell them that there are two potentially effective screening tools for prostate cancer, one which will reduce their chances of dying from the disease by between 20 and 30 per cent, while the other will save one life after 10,000 person-years of screening. As a consumer or as a public health official, which one would you buy into? They all vote for the first; yet the two programmes are the same, they were just packaged differently. To continue marketing screening in terms of relative risk reduction in breast cancer mortality is disingenuous in the extreme.

However, I must emphasize that some skin cancers (e.g., many melanomas) require immediate removal. My point here is to encourage you not to avoid dermatologists entirely but to consider seeking a second opinion from another dermatologist if you are unsure about what has been suggested to you as there are many excellent and ethical dermatologists practicing in the field as well.

The Great Dermatology Scam

If you consider the previous section, the following should be fairly clear:

• By far the most common “skin cancer” is not dangerous.
• The “skin cancers” you actually need to worry about are a fairly small portion of the existing skin cancers.
• Sunlight exposure does not cause dangerous cancers (except for SCC, which is nowhere near as dangerous as the others).

In essence, there’s no way to justify “banning sunlight” to “prevent skin cancer,” as the “benefit” from this prescription is vastly outweighed by its harm. However, a very clever linguistic trick bypasses this contradiction—a single label, “skin cancer,” is used for everything, which then selectively adopts the lethality of melanoma, the frequency of BCC, and the sensitivity to sunlight that BCC and SCC have.

This has always really infuriated me, so I’ve given a lot of thought to why they do this.

Note: Dr Malcom Kendrick @AMAZON helps provide some perspective on how this game is played throughout the medical industry by sharing a story from Michael Baum MD:

Each year I play a game with the senior postgraduate students at a course for specialists in cancer run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. I tell them that there are two potentially effective screening tools for prostate cancer, one which will reduce their chances of dying from the disease by between 20 and 30 per cent, while the other will save one life after 10,000 person-years of screening. As a consumer or as a public health official, which one would you buy into? They all vote for the first; yet the two programmes are the same, they were just packaged differently. To continue marketing screening in terms of relative risk reduction in breast cancer mortality is disingenuous in the extreme.

However, I must emphasize that some skin cancers (e.g., many melanomas) require immediate removal. My point here is to encourage you not to avoid dermatologists entirely but to consider seeking a second opinion from another dermatologist if you are unsure about what has been suggested to you as there are many excellent and ethical dermatologists practicing in the field as well.

...

WIND: I vote for sunlight. I get some every day.

Pick your poison

Follow the money will never lead you wrong. If sunlight actually caused skin harm, recommending exposure would be GOOD for business (at least for dermatologists). Conversely, avoiding sun would be bad for business.

Either reject follow the money, the principle of human behavior that never wrongly predicts.

Or accept that you are being advised to do something not in your best interest.

Which will you have?

Common Laxatives are Linked to Behavioral Issues and Worse in Children, Warn Experts

2024-05-09 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: follow the money, follow the self-interest, The Epoch Times

re: climate change

Antifreeze for kids. What could go wrong?

What’s Behind America’s Doctor Crisis?

2024-05-09

As the epidemic of pediatric constipation grows, the safety of MiraLAX draws scrutiny from parents awaiting completion of decade-long research

...The Constipation Crisis in Children

Nearly one in 10 children worldwide suffer from constipation, contributing to 3 percent of U.S. pediatric clinic visits—a number that escalates to 25 percent in pediatric gastroenterology clinics.

...Constipation’s toll goes beyond physical pain, deeply affecting psychological health. Research indicates that children dealing with constipation report a lower quality of life than their peers, encountering greater challenges in relationships and academics and heightened levels of anxiety and depression.

...

MiraLAX: Doctor Preferred

Physicians often treat constipated children with laxatives. Their preferred choice is polyethylene glycol (PEG 3350), or MiraLAX, despite the drug not being approved for those under 17. Praised for its effectiveness, safety, and user-friendly format, MiraLAX powder dissolves in water or other drinks. It pulls water into the intestines to ease bowel movements. PEG 3350 is also present in several other laxatives and bowel preps, including GaviLAX, GlycoLax, ClearLax, and GoLytely, to name a few.

...

According to a search by The Epoch Times of the FDA’s Adverse Events Reporting System, around 39,715 adverse reactions to PEG 3350 have been logged, including 2,607 cases involving children under 18. Experts caution that this may be the tip of the iceberg, suggesting widespread underreporting..

...According to Dr. Carnahan’s website, PEG derivatives themselves aren’t inherently toxic. However, concerns arise from the production process, which may involve chemicals known for their toxic effects on humans. Additionally, PEG’s role as a “penetration enhancer” can lead to increased exposure to other toxins...

...Stanford University research indicates that PEG could decimate gut bacteria within three days...Another theory posits that PEG exposure may eliminate beneficial gut bacteria, with one study claiming that its use could be considered “bacterial genocide” due to its long-lasting impact on the composition and balance of gut microbiota.

...

WIND: follow the money.

Disruption of the gut microbiome could explain all sorts of nasty problems. But does “decimate” means “reduce by 1/10” or “almost totally destroy”?

Doctors do NOT as a rule report adverse reactions. I know that myself, in the case of a severe reaction that I’ve never completely recovered from (peripheral neuropathy). The depressed POS doctor that prescribed it could not be bothered to ever contact me again—avoidance behavior, not reporting!

What’s Behind America’s Doctor Crisis?

2024-05-09 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: DEI, follow the money, follow the self-interest, health, The Epoch Times

re: climate change

I recently talked to a retired doctor friend of mine just yesterday. He not only confirmed my fears, but it’s even worse than I suspected.

You have to be out of your mind to become a doctor—and that’s whose signing up.

What’s Behind America’s Doctor Crisis?

2024-05-08

Physicians are retiring in greater numbers as burnout levels increase; at the same time Americans are placing higher demands on the health care system.

...The other reason is due to what Dr. Ross called the “corporatization of medicine.”...

“The administrative burden or hassle, as many doctors describe it, is very disheartening,” Dr. William Schaffner, infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told The Epoch Times... Doctors didn’t go to medical school in anticipation of arguing with insurance companies. It’s depressing and discouraging,” Dr. Schaffner said.

...The shift away from independent practices is emblematic of the fiscal uncertainty and economic stress many physicians face due to statutory payment cuts in Medicare, rising practice costs, and intrusive administrative burdens,” ...

...There are only 24 hours a day. You can either be on your computer documenting a patient, or you can be seeing the next patient,” Dr. Schaffner said....

...The rules of corporate medicine aren’t making this problem any easier, says Dr. Ross. The “revenue value unit,” or RVU, is now the standard method of evaluating physician productivity.

“Physicians really feel like cogs in a wheel. They’re evaluated on their production. How much are they billing? How much [money] are they bringing in for their practice? Not so much the quality of care or patient satisfaction,” Dr. Ross said.

...

WIND: the structural changes were driven by ObamaCare, the worst bastardization of the system ever—and that’s saying a lot given how awful it was prior. It started selecting for profit-drive corporations and ethics-free doctors, driving out the good and promoting the worst. It’s obvious and in-your-face now.

The article above only touches on the hassles, not the root of the problem: not just the elimination of merit-driven admission, but actively suppressing it via the killer woke mind virus known as DEI—death, enmity and idiocy—the working methodology driving medical schools.

There will be no good doctors within 10 years. All the good ones, what few remain, will have retired, and probably early. But will it matter? Maybe not given all the chaos in progress.

What we’ll be left with for medical students will be the dregs, those taking up the woke mind virus the best, those the nil critical thinking skills, etc. The worst possible candidates for integrity and rigor. It’s going to be very very bad. This is not the future, this starts now with this year’s graduates.

Exceptions? Some of course (are they foolish for trying?). But that’s not the point. They will be beaten down by the intellectual tyranny in school and employment. A rare few Atlas-grade ones will run the gauntlet, but not many.

Fee based medicine

System design is destiny. The hydra of health insurance + Big Pharma + Big Medicine today is the worst possible system for patients. This country should ban health insurance as we know it. Because the system is hopelessly non-functional and driven by the wrong things.

I pay a doctor a monthly fee not covered by insurance as he takes none. Great care (albeit conventional), same day if need be. He is one of the few with the courage and strength to stay independent. I have no choice in the matter, and this doctor made it financially feasible. Otherwise, out of the question.

Trauma care and a few things like that... sure. But even there you had better be careful.

Everything else you’re taking your very life in your hands: the doctors at Sutter I once had that were competent and grounded have now all retired as of a few years ago. They left early, no surprise there. What is left are the worst of the paint-by-numbers crowd. All those feckless turds do (repeated disappointments!) is type into a computer, never really examining let along thinking/questioning beyond kindergarten level. EG total wanton incompetence and ignorance. No, I am not joking, these doctors are pathetic losers. As in I would not see them unless I had no other option, and would fear for my life due to absurd “standard of care” one-size-fits-all.

Offshore Windmills Harm Endangered Species, New Studies Suggest

2024-05-06 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: dumb energy, environmental destruction, Expose Somewhat To Right, Expose To The Right, follow the money, follow the self-interest, noise

re: climate change

This is one of numerous grotesque forms of environmental destruction engendered by “green” technologies, which in truth are as deadly black as they come.

Offshore Windmills Harm Endangered Species, New Studies Suggest

2024-05-05

An effort to create ‘carbon-free energy’ may result in the injury and death of sea creatures, including protected ones.

...Intense noise causes hearing loss in whales, other marine mammals, turtles, and fish, compromising their ability to navigate, avoid danger, detect predators, and find prey, according to scientific studies...

... “These are real data,” Mr. Rand, who testified at a congressional field hearing on Jan. 20, told The Epoch Times. “I measured it. This is not a computer model. This is not a political press release. These are data.”...

“Elevated humpback whale mortalities have occurred along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Florida [since 2016],” the NOAA stated. The NOAA also reported an “unusual mortality event” for North Atlantic right whales, in which 126 have died since 2017.

...

Mr. Rand dropped a research-grade, omnidirectional hydrophone into the water at six locations, starting at 4.1 nautical miles from the pile driving and moving closer to 0.57 nautical miles.

Analyzing the data, he found that even with sophisticated noise mitigation in place, the pile driving is as loud as multiple seismic air guns.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) makes it illegal to kill, hunt, capture, or harass a marine mammal. Killing or injuring a mammal is considered Level A harassment under the 1972 law. Level B harassment includes actions that disrupt an animal’s normal behavior, including migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

... Based on his data, Mr. Rand estimated the pile driving noise at the source at 241 decibels. Loudness decreases as sound waves move away from the source. Still, Mr. Rand measured peak sound levels ranging from 180 decibels at a distance of 0.57 nautical miles from the ship to 162 decibels at 4.1 nautical miles.

He also found that the continuous noise of the Orion’s propulsion and positioning thrusters exceeded 120 decibels at a distance of 3.7 miles from the ship.

...

WIND: these sounds levels would kill your hearing or mine! I once had to work at an office that for a period of two years had pile drivers going into the mud of the bay. A mile away, the din was godawful even inside.

The idea that ultra high-decible sounds blasts somehow do not severely harm marine mammals and all sorts of other life is an idea for children and idiots. Sound travels especially fast and strongly through water.

The activities are clearly and unequivocally illegal.

These projects are for a few grifters to make huge profits at taxpayer expense while supported by massive subsidies, also at taxpayer expense. They serve no other useful purpose.

See also: The Anti Social Cost of Carbon eg “offshore wind generation costs five times more than natural gas and coal” = quality of life for most people is being engineer to be horrible.

Is There Anything to this Cancer from the COVID Jab Thing?

2024-05-06 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: cancer, follow the money, follow the self-interest, medical battery, SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 aka Coronavirus, vaccination

re: How Much Damage Have Vaccines Done to Society?

I wonder. This cancer claim seems to have "legs". I do not have any position on it, but too many credible people keep making the claim, and there is no credible debunk that I’ve found.

The increase started way back in 2018, which would rule out the mRNA vaccines. However, the rate of increase appears greater starting in 2021, which would support a possible connection to mRNA Jabs (or some other factor).

One of the largest concerns with the mRNA gene therapy was its cancer risk—yet Pfizer was exempted from testing for it. Since then, we've seen many signs these vaccines cause aggressive cancers. Recently, a Medicaid whistleblower showed us cancer rates went up 2.5 times. —  A Midwestern Doctor

Correlation is not causation but...

How the “News” Launders Big Pharma Marketing Pitches with FUD — HPG Vaccine

2024-05-06 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Big Pharma, cancer, follow the money, follow the self-interest, gear, gears of the machine, medical battery, Medical Industrial Complex, The Wall Street Journal, vaccination

re: vaccination
re: HPV Vaccine May Increase Risk of Several Autoimmune Diseases
re: 'Follow the Money' is Usually Hidden, but Your Doctor Bribed to Push COVID Jabs

Vaccines are never tested against a real placebo, and are never tested in combination. Indeed, much of the testing looks to be true medical battery eg not saline but a toxic adjuvant, with the patient intentionally misinformed. See Turtles All The Way Down: Vaccine Science and Myth @AMAZON

re: How Much Damage Have Vaccines Done to Society?

This puff-piece article disgusts me as worthless “journalism” by a moron writer. It is vaccine industry propaganda, with no mention of any risks (very high with the HPV vaccine), and no analysis of whether the HPV vaccine has been effective at all—yet it tries to sell mass vaccination as some indisuputable good. Its own graph essentially says that the vaccine has failed.

WSJ: Cervical Cancer Can Be Eliminated. Alabama Is Leading the Way

...cervical-cancer cases among women 30-44 rose nearly 2% annually from 2012-2019. Some 4,300 women will die of the disease in the U.S. this year.

...

WIND: the chart I see in the article shows that the vaccine has had virtually no impact. If the vaccine is so terrific, why did the cancer rate RISE from 2012-2019? Probably just more screening—eg complete bullshit that would indicate a failure of the HPV vaccine.

What is the NNT? How many of those vaccinated will be harmed with serious side effects? Vaccinating 5M kids means 5000 serious vaccine injuries at 1 in 1000.

Where is the evidence that the vaccine actually prevented cancers, and at what rate? And how is that weighed against the harms, vs screening?

This is personal: I have good reason to believe that this feckless fucking HPV vaccine damaged my daughter for life with auto-immune disease.

Chronic Fatigue Bounce-Back: 8 Days of Recovery ===> Ideal Training Ride + Recovery Followup

2024-05-06 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: anti-oxidant, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, health, training, Vitamin C

re: Epstein Barr Virus and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
re: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

In Chronic Fatigue: the Hard Slap from Working Out a Little Too Much, I discussed how doing a little too much over the course of two days wiped me out the next day, with the subsequent 2-3 days being fatigued. Steady improvement over 8 days and I felt like I was up to a ride today—even yesterday I felt tired by mid afternoon.

Such is the pattern of CFS, at least as I experience. I count myself lucky in being able to bounce back up to some level of physical activity. WAY better than 2020/2021/2022.

Today (after 8 days of no biking) it all worked out with a training ride that given my present fitness can only be described as IDEAL/EXEMPLARY. All things are appropriate for the conditions, the heart rate is what it ought to be in my detrained condition, legs had some vigor in strength (though far inferior to pre-TheEvent), and I finished stronger than I started. Most indicative, it felt good and felt right. The effort weighs on me some hours later (very noticeable), but it is not a feeling of exhaustion; it seems heavy but not overwhelming. That’s a good sign.

Now if I could only do this every day as I used, or at least every other day. Then I could really get back in shape and drop 20 pounds of fat. Tomorrow I’ll just do a 40% ride at an easy pace, assuming I feel OK in the morning.

Below, red is heart rate (bpm), green is power (watts).

2024-05-06 Training Ride

Recovery

Taking 5 grams of Lypospheric Vitamin C past 2 days, as well as some powdered Vitamin C. I have the distinct impression that the Lypospheric works, and works way better than the plain stuff. See last year’s experience with high-dose Vitamin C.

Day 1

These results are by my present standards excellent—not wiped out as the prior week’s experience...

The signal for rest was strong: to bed at 10 PM day of (feeling great need for rest), out of bed at 10:30 AM and that’s not being lazy, it’s simply a very strong need for sleep and rest. And I could feel yesterday’s workout through early afternoon. Low-level of activity for 3-4 hours installing drip irrigation worked out well, but meant feeling tired at 5PM. At 9:43 PM I feel pretty good.

Day 2

Woke up 1.5 hours earlier than usual—a good sign. But... I did a ride at low power of ~140W for about an hour at about 3pm. This was too much, and wiped me out for the rest of the day. It shows that stacking workouts needs caution.

Day 3

Did not ride today, took it easy because the need for sleep was high again this AM, and I was forced to nap late afternoon.

Diesel Fuel Finally Cheaper than Gasoline

2024-05-05 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: diesel fuel

When I bought my Sprinter van in 2017, diesel was cheaper than gasoline. Very soon, diesel became more expensive than gasoline and stayed that way for 6 years.

Now in 2024, diesel fuel has finally become cheaper, is this a sign of a recession?

But it’s a bittersweet situation at $5.09/gallon of which $0.69 is taxes equating to 13% (8.7% state tax) at current prices.

When I travel to the Eastern Sierra, just crossing the border into the State of Nevada I can save $1/gallon.

f1.8 @ 1/680 sec, ISO 80; 2024-04-29 12:18:40
iPhone 15 Pro Max + iPhone 15 Pro Max 6.8 mm f/4 @ 6.8mm ENV: altitude 244 ft / 74 m

[low-res image for bot]

Prescription Drugs Are the Third Leading Cause of Death?

2024-05-04 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: atherosclerosis, follow the money, follow the self-interest, health

re: follow the money
re: Unaccountable by Marty Makary

Wow

Prescription Drugs Are the Third Leading Cause of Death

2024-05-04, by Peter C. Gøtzsche. Emphasis added.

Overtreatment with drugs kills many people, and the death rate is increasing. It is therefore strange that we have allowed this long-lasting drug pandemic to continue, and even more so because most of the drug deaths are easily preventable.

In 2013, I estimated that our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer,1 and in 2015, that psychiatric drugs alone are also the third leading cause of death.2 However, in the United States, it is commonly stated that our drugs are “only” the fourth leading cause of death.3,4 This estimate was derived from a 1998 meta-analysis of 39 U.S. studies where monitors recorded all adverse drug reactions that occurred while the patients were in hospital, or which were the reason for hospital admission.

This methodology clearly underestimates drug deaths. Most people who are killed by their drugs die outside hospitals, and the time people spent in hospitals was only 11 days on average in the meta-analysis.5 Moreover, the meta-analysis only included patients who died from drugs that were properly prescribed, not those who died as a result of errors in drug administration, noncompliance, overdose, or drug abuse, and not deaths where the adverse drug reaction was only possible.5

... Many people die from the drugs they take without raising any suspicion that it could be an adverse drug effect...

... psychiatric drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer...

...

If we add the estimates above, 315,000 hospital deaths, 390,000 psychiatric drug deaths, 70,000 synthetic opioid deaths, and 107,000 NSAID deaths, we get 882,000 drug deaths in the United States annually.

It is difficult to know what the exact death toll of our drugs is, but there can be no doubt that they are the leading cause of death. And the death toll would be much higher if we included people below 65 years of age. Moreover, from the official number of deaths from heart disease, we would need to subtract those caused by NSAIDs, and from accidents, deaths by falls caused by psychiatric drugs and many other drugs.

If such a hugely lethal pandemic had been caused by a microorganism, we would have done everything we could to get it under control. The tragedy is that we could easily get our drug pandemic under control, but when our politicians act, they usually make matters worse. They have been so heavily lobbied by the drug industry that drug regulation has become much more permissive than it was in the past.40

...Most tragically, leading psychiatrists all over the world do not realise how ineffective and dangerous their drugs are...

WIND: hardly anyone believes this, it’s just too incredible. When I mention it to anyone, they look at my like I’m crazy. But I have yet to find a credible debunk.

And we worried about COVID and its absurdly non-credible death numbers?!

A Midwestern Doctor: How Much Damage Have Vaccines Done to Society?

2024-05-04 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: follow the money, follow the self-interest, medical battery, SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 aka Coronavirus, vaccination

re: vaccination
re: HPV Vaccine May Increase Risk of Several Autoimmune Diseases
re: 'Follow the Money' is Usually Hidden, but Your Doctor Bribed to Push COVID Jabs

Vaccines are never tested against a real placebo, and are never tested in combination. Indeed, much of the testing looks to be true medical battery eg not saline but a toxic adjuvant, with the patient intentionally misinformed. See Turtles All The Way Down: Vaccine Science and Myth @AMAZON

True or not?

Conditions that increase 3-10X in the vaccinated include: ADD, allergies, asthma, chronic sinusitis, ear infections, eczema, GI disorders, learning disabilities, seizures and eye or speech disorders. Likewise, many of my colleagues can immediately identify unvaccinated children. — Dr Pierrre Kory, MD MPA

I can’t know for sure, how could I?

But I still wonder if my 2nd daughter developed her auto-immune issues (lifelong since and so far) as the result of the notorious Gardasil vaccine. With no family history, this seems highly likely.

A Midwestern Doctor: How Much Damage Have Vaccines Done to Society?

2024-04-14

The data that shows the less appreciated forgotten consequences of vaccination.

Story at a Glance:

• A long history exists of a wave of severe injuries following new vaccinations being introduced to the market. In most cases, those injuries were swept under the rug to protect the business.
• In many cases, the severe “mysterious” injuries we see now are remarkably similar to those that were observed over a century ago. Unfortunately, a widespread embargo exists on ever allowing this data to come to light (as that would instantly destroy the vaccine program).
• A variety of independent studies (summarized below) have shown that vaccines cause a wide range of chronic illnesses.
• A 1990 book made a strong case that widespread vaccination was also causing an epidemic of widespread brain damage which was both lowering America’s IQ and causing a massive rise in violent crime.
• In this article, we will also review exactly what in that 1990 book and the classic signs that can be used to determine if someone has a vaccine injury (along with the subtle more spiritual ones).

...

A Brief History of Vaccine Disasters

...

The Harms of Vaccination

...

Correlation is not causation but where is the careful research?

Vaccine Injury Datasets

...

...

WIND: I cannot assess all this, can you? I say it is impossible for anyone, even a trained professiona to grasp it all without considerable study. ANd I’d bet there are exceedingly few experts in favor of vaccination who would have the moral courage and the willingness to objectively look at the evidence—cognitive commitments almost never die. For what point after all... to become a pariah?

But know that I cannot trust mainstream “experts” (con artists IMO) to weigh in objectively—follow the money. Nor will I ever again trust experts in any field when it comes to much of anything. Because during COVID they were all proven to be fools or liars or flat-out crooks—spineless callous uncaring people willing to go along and hurt others by abdicating judgment and remining silent. That horrific demonstration is all any thinking person needs; the details are irrevant because character does not change.

Mind you, I have had far too many medical interventions aka “vaccines”over the years. And once I stopped getting the influenza vaccine a decade or so ago, I have never again had the flu. And I have not been sick for 4 years (COVID delta variant in April 2020 was the last). No, I’m still having problems from COVID itself. Thank dog I did not get Jabbed as obviously it could not have prevented a non-event.

But I do know that the COVID Jab was not a vaccine, it was not effective and expired rapidly, that all my Jabbed family member all got COVID some more than once but unjabbbed me did not in spite of close-quarters exposure. That it had had a very high level of harm ruining many lives, that it was never properly tested, that the control groups were intentionally destroyed, etc, etc.

And I know that follow the money never lets you down.

Who Will Maintain Your Solar Panels, Inverter, etc over the 30-year Lifespan?

2024-05-04 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: dumb energy, environmental destruction, Expose Somewhat To Right, Expose To The Right, follow the money, follow the self-interest

re: electric vehicle
re: climate science
re: follow the money

re: Electric Vehicles: a Multi-Pronged Menace with Few if any Benefits?

It took my neighbor ~6 months to get his solar system issues resolved—like pulling teeth. And that is with a 3-year-old newly-built house ($$$$$) by a very high-end installer. How many more times will it happen over the ~30 year lifespan? Many solar panel owners are going to have to pay out of pocket for fixing problems—and that means guys charging $200+ per hour here in this area. Kinda wrecks the whole ROI thing.

"I've Been Totally Ghosted": After Install, Solar Panels Become Maintenance Nightmare

2024-05-03

The green new deal and switch to "alternative' energy looks like it's going exactly as planned: costing the taxpayer trillions of dollars and generally pissing everybody off.

That was the case with a number of solar panel owners who are now finding it difficult to get their panels serviced, according to WBAL TV.

Solar panel installation is touted as offering benefits like reduced energy costs, environmental friendliness, and significant rebates. However, many homeowners have discovered a concerning issue within the industry: addressing technical problems can be exceedingly challenging -- if not outright impossible. 

...

WIND: if you create an industry driven by install-and-move-on, that’s what you get—installations. You do not get systems that function until end of life—you get problems and more problems that no one has an incentive to fix other than the homeowner left holding the bag.

IMO, the solar ROI calculations are a form of fraud—in the real world things never work out as forecasted, and there is no leveling-up for problems at 3/5/10/15/20/30 years out. Panels get dirty and damaged. Inverters fail. Roofs leak.Trees grow and block coverage. Parts of the system just break down (see my neighbor above). Power generation payments are reduced. And the grid is undermined by freeloading solar panel homes, which do not pay to maintain the grid. Ad nauseum.

Design is destiny. The destiny of solar design is destruction of the power infrastructur over time, as it forces out baseline load and disconnects economics from reality.

See also: Europeans Ditch Net Zero, While Biden Clings to It

ROI analysis

I have done a solar panel ROI (return on investment) analysis 3 times in the past 10 years. Each time, I rejected the idea because the payback was too long and with too many unanswered questions, no bond for performance, far too many risks, etc.

• Subsidy reductions  — , the power generation solar subsidy payments have been hugely reduced: “utilities commission voted to reduce the daytime compensation for excess solar power by around 75% for new solar customers starting in April 2023”. Your ROI calculation is now a long-gone fantasy. Will existing solar installs be hit next? Hopefully, as they are a direct tax on everyone else.
• Equipment problems — see above. These are guaranteed. See neighbor above.
• Opportunity cost— what if that capital had been invested instead? Even a stable money market fund yields 5%, and that is not likely to go down much ever again, and might rise.
• Roof leaks— even the best install is not going to go well vs that winter rain thing over 30 years. All those little posts on which the panels rest each with its own problems waiting to happen Oops—they couldn’t fix it for a month, and that tiny leak just damaged the attic insulation and ceiling too—add another $10K for repairs and mold remediation. If you think that’s pessimistic, you have not owned a home long enough.
• When the roof needs to be replaced, add in $5K or so for solar panel removal/reinstall and reconnect. Is that in your ROI calculation?
• Town/city permit fees  — in my town these idiots put a stiff fee on all construction activities. Not included in ROI calculation.
• Breaker box and wiring upgrades—in my case at least $5K.
• Fast charger — at least $3K for a fast charger and required wiring. Oops, that breaker box has to be replaced to do that—permit requirement.
• Hail that damages or destroys the panels. This only needs to happen once in 30 years (eg averaging every 15 years) to wreck the economics. Don’t forget the repair costs. What bout permanent environmental damage (glass shards and toxic metals) that go into the soil?
• Toxic e-waste—solar panels are huge e-waste problem.
• Quality of life degradation — too much of this crap buzzes. I can hear my neighbor’s charger up the street from 150 feet away. My immediate neighbor’s Tesla PowerWall inverter buzzes, but luckily I can’t hear it from my house. But what if it starts getting louder? Noise is a very real and very serious health hazard.

Pointless

Anyone who thinks any amount of solar is going to help climate change is fooling themselves. China now emits more CO2 than the rest of the world combined and is on a massive expansion of coal-burning plants.

The human toll is immense and cruel beyond belief. It’s not just lower quality of life, it is life itself: energy costs translate directly into human suffering.

The payback period for the energy consumed in mining, manufacturing, installing and maintaining solar is surely skewed with unrealistic bias. And it ignores the vast infrastructure required widescale solar adoption, which means massive batteries of some kind, which do not exist.

The AI revolution must have baseline power. That means nuclear, gas, coal. Solar has negative value in an era of compute farms because it ends up destroying baseline power.

What really irks me though is the as-far-as-the-eye-can see environmental devastation of massive solar farms, a grotesque abomination so that a few well-connected grifters make a lot of money. I see it more and more in my travels—vast fields of flowers and previously untouched land laid to waste for a toxic glass 'farm'. Green is the new brown... black, as in the black of death as just one example of 4200 Joshua trees aka 'nursery trees' being destroyed, each hundreds of years old with enormous quantities of carbon then released from the soil once killed. Maybe in 500 to 1000 years if the panels were removed you might see it again. If you live that long. The people who do this and approve it are environmental criminals committing crimes against humanity.

Electric Vehicle Boondoggle: Ford Motors Loses US$132,000 Per Electric Vehicle

2024-05-04 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: electric vehicle, follow the money, follow the self-interest, laundered ideology, virtue signaling

re: electric vehicle
re: climate science
re: follow the money

re: Even Massive Government Handouts Cannot Fix the Reality of “Science Fair Project” Vehicles
re: WSJ: The Electric-Vehicle Cheating Scandal
re: Green is the new Brown: ‘The War Below’ Review: Digging for Minerals
re: ChatGPT: Calculating EV Charging Power Requirements
re: Mercedes eSprinter, GM EV Trucks: Science Fair Projects Requiring Fantasy Infrastructure Buildout
re: The Hertz Meltdown Reveals the Scale of the EV Debacle
re: The Norwegian Illusion: EVs Are Not More Energy Efficient

As in: We lose money on every sale, but we make it up on volume.

re: Electric Vehicles: a Multi-Pronged Menace with Few if any Benefits?

Ford's $120,000 Loss Per Vehicle Shows California EV Goals Are Impossible

$$$figure in headline vs text are in conflict, but $132K and $120K are esssentially the same thing.

2024-05-01

On April 24, Ford reported it lost $132,000 for each of its 10,000 electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2024, according to CNN. The sales were down 20 percent from the first quarter of 2023 and would “drag down earnings for the company overall.”

The losses include “hundreds of millions being spent on research and development of the next generation of EVs for Ford. Those investments are years away from paying off.” Ford is the only major carmaker breaking out EV numbers by themselves. But other marques likely suffer similar losses.

...

Battery Problems

“The effects of cold weather on car batteries start to become pronounced when the temperature drops below freezing for an extended period,” explained United Tire & Service. “At a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, your battery will lose about 30 percent of its power. Your battery will continue to get weaker as the temperatures get colder. In fact, your battery will lose about 60 percent of its power at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.”

In Montreal, the average low temperature in January is 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In Edmonton it’s 8 degrees. Most of California enjoys the balmiest weather on earth. But in January 2023, the temperature around Bridgeport, near Yosemite National Park, dropped to minus 27 °F. In such areas, EVs are almost completely useless except for rich people in the summer.

...

WIND: every business requires up-front investment, but this seems way out of line. Still, in a growing market.... oops! They could probably give them away, but it’s not a lot better than that. Not a growing market, a shrinking one.

Does this $132K loss per vehicle include the lost opportunity cost of pursuing proven and useful techologies? What a great way to kill a company.

No one wants an EV except rich people (toys and/or virtue signaling) and/or those who live in a fantasy world and/or those who are propagandized into obedient drones.

I’ll grant that as virtue-signaling toys in my town and in nearby Menlo Park and Palo Alto California they are all the rage—for the well-heeled—who don’t think twice of buying the high-end models with larger batteries so as to put on 10-15K miles a year, with the Mommy Brigade driving to school when they could walk safe tree-lined streets under a mile instead. These are not serious people!

The cold weather issues are ridiculous. I previously calculated that to make an eSprinter viable for my usage, it would need a ~3 megawattt battery pack—26X larger than it has. It would weighd 20,000 to 25,000 pounds. But I did not take cold into consideration—and I travel mostly when it is cold—make that 4M megawatts and 28,000 pounds and 2 weeks to charge it just once at most RV parks. It does not get any stupider.

Electric vehicles are a horror show of negatives. Those who buy them are freeloaders, participating in the wholesale financial slaughter of the working class while exporting a nasty environmental impact overseas.

Electric vehicles and their associated massive (10X greater than ICE vehicles?) materials input along with 'green energy' projects are a massively destructive science fair project, causing widespread environmental calamity (raw materials sourcing), taking enormous amounts of energy up-front not likely to ever be reclaimed over the life of the vehicles. They solve nothing while degrading quality of life for the rest of us in small invisible ways like toxic levels of particulate matter and severe road damage—none of which is factored in nor are many other serious negatives. And then there is the impossible charging situation.

The electric vehicle hoax is all about follow the money—a huge grifter industry has arisen. It is immensely influential and powerful. Money flows from those than earn it to those that profit, which not only no benefit, but massive harm.

Chronic Fatigue: the Hard Slap from Working Out a Little Too Much

2024-05-01 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, health

re: Epstein Barr Virus and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
re: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

I went and saw my doctor on a Friday and got his latest take on my struggle.

What it’s like to deal with this condition

The very next day (Saturday) I did a full bike ride again (26miles, 950 KCal) at what I would formerly have called my “influenza pace”, it being so modest an effort level*. But it was 156 watts average power, up 7W from the 149W of the day prior. A good sign.

Following the ride, about another 500 KCal of fairly strenuous yard work for an hour or so, including mowing 3-foo-tall oat grass, and managing a bucking-bronco rototiller through the clay soil. I was tired but not that was to be expected, and I still felt OK. Tiredness increased until bedtime.

All of that would have been a non-event in my pre-2020 condition.

* My pre-2020 condition was such that 180W for the ride would be a recovery day, no strain at all. Maybe 170W if I had done a double century the day prior. My best ride that same route a decade earlier was 306W.

A hard slap knocks me down...

CFS (whatever is causing it) is a mugger in a dark alley ready to take you down. Hard.

Sunday... got out of bed near 10 AM and felt like I should sleep till noon. Major brain fog all day making it impossible to do any cognitive task eg work. Disabling fatigue just walking around the yard. As a test, I rode 1 mile on my bike but I could barely manage it up the first hill of 20 vertical feet... horrible weakness, turned around at 1 mile. Effectively incapacitated for any useful activity for entire day.

Each day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday more of the same, but with the brain fog reducing to clear on Wednesdy, finally. Some energy returning but the weariness is still slow to pass.

Thursday TBD.

There you have it: one day’s effort which puts no strain at all on heart or lungs or legs takes a huge toll for the better part of the subsequent week.

Apparently it is not a mystery, but typical of chronic fatigue symptom.

Pywiack Falls

f9 @ 1/160 sec electronic shutter focus stack 4 frames, ISO 100; 2023-08-08 18:04:56
Fujifilm GFX100S + GF20-35mmF4 R WR @ 17mm equiv (20.6mm)
ENV: Tenaya Canyon, Pywiack Falls, altitude 7400 ft / 2256 m, 75°F / 23°C
RAW: Camera ASTIA, Enhance Details, LACA corrected, vignetting corrected, WB 5100°K tint 22, push 0.33 stops, +30 Shadows, +20 Whites, +40 Dehaze, +10 Clarity, SmartSharpen{30,0.7,0}, diffraction mitigating sharpening, +10 Vibrance

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DEI Conquers Stanford

2024-04-30 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: DEI

The infection started at least 40 years ago. I should know—I was there as a student. Now the yellow-green pus is oozing out everywhere.

DEI Conquers Stanford

2024-04-29

The university now has at least 177 bureaucrats dedicated to left-wing racialism.

...Stanford employs at least 177 full-time DEI bureaucrats, spread throughout the university’s various divisions and departments.

Stanford’s DEI mandate is the same as those of other universities: advance the principles of left-wing racialism, hire faculty and admit students according to identity, and suppress dissent on campus under the guise of fostering a “culture of inclusion” and “protected identity harm reporting.”

Julia Steinberg, an undergraduate and journalist at the Stanford Review, believes that DEI is a “black box” system of rewards and punishments for enforcing ideological adherence. “I’ve observed as students are reported by their peers for constitutionally protected speech,” and professors are denounced and accused of discrimination by other students “for the crime of not being PC enough in their research or in class,” she says. “Who fits or doesn’t fit into the DEI caste system determines a student or professor’s summary judgement.”

DEI’s growth at Stanford has been fast. In 2021, the Heritage Foundation counted 80 DEI officials at the university. That number has more than doubled since then.

Sophie Fujiwara, a recent graduate, explains that DEI has become “unavoidable” for students, with “mandatory classes” and “university-sponsored activities.” ...

...

WIND: does America have any great universities left? Here in Spring 2024, the rot is nationwide as the new Hitler Youth call for death to Jews in so many veiled and not so veiled way. This oozing pus has infected medical and legal schools, having long ago rotted government schools (the single biggest source of systemic racism). The expected evolution of a super virus. The country is being eaten from within.

Looking back (mid 1980's), I now realize that the infection was already too deep to fix. I now loathe my contemptible alma mater, a racist sexist ethical sewer with its DEI caste system. COVID gave us a preview with the disgraceful viciousness shown by the Stanford Medical faculty that should make you never trust a doctor again. But they have a new and kindly geezer as the new Stanford President. Good luck Stanford.

All dead. All rotten. Elves and Men and Orcses. A great battle long ago. —Gollum

Dealing with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

2024-04-27 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Eastern Sierra, Epstein Barr virus, exposure, health, Mt Conness area, peak bagging, SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 aka Coronavirus

re: Epstein Barr Virus and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
re: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Comeback? I’m trying, see: Exercise: Positive vs Negative Energy Balance? A Personal Challenge. I would dearly love to train and ride like I could until mid-June 2020.

Doctor’s Hypothesis

At right is what my doctor is thinking on the years-long fatigue I’ve been battling, approaching 4 years.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

The Myalgic part does not ring true: I do not have pain in muscles or have it consistently. When I do have pain, it feels like it is in the bones themselves, along with joints, and a generally permeating feeling of fatiguing ache across upper back. And most of the time no pain.

The Encephalomyelitis (“inflammation of brain and spinal cord”) part: I had been free of brain fog for 7-9 months now. But it returned recently after too much exercise. I also had a warning brain fog about a week prior. It would make sense that a viral surge was in progress.

Is this cause of this really and primarily EBV? Allopathic medicine is so inept at sorting this all out. And why can’t my body fight off EBV but I never get sick with anything else at all, even when directly exposed by family?

Background context/perspective

Background because anyone reading this with a similar issue might find commonality, and therefore relevance. Maybe I’ll learn something from a reader (doctor or fellow sufferer), and maybe readers will find something helpful for their own situation.

I completed my 55th double century in March 2020, 2nd one that year and my last ever. I often wonder if it will ever be possible to complete one again. Not so long as I cannot train even at baseline.

COVID hit me in April 2020, from which I recovered and resumed training gently, then hard training resumed about 3 week after that. I had one “shot across the bow” warning in mid-June prior to the event: a puzzling and severe fatigue for one day—the next day I did a 6000 vertical foot hike in the Mt Whitney area just fine.

About a week later on June 21 2020... wham! The Event. A life-changing physiological blow that I hope to someday recover from.

The remainder of that year was a nightmare and two more years were only marginally better. I was never “vaccinated” by the ridiculous toxic Jab, which I deem a poorly-tested ineffective* money-making scam laundered with fear and hysteria. I never had COVID again in spite of repeated household exposures, nor have I ever had a flu or cold since then—I do not get sick even when my household does. So it’s not like my body is weak in the sense of being susceptible to everyday infections.

* Possibly effective for short duration for a small cohort of high risk people, but only for the alpha and delta variants. Beyond that, a complete and utter folly whose negatives continue to emerge.

Observations

First, I have periodic remissions. Therefore I am not structurally damaged in a physical sense.

All regular blood work including some exotic tests are A-OK with two exceptions: EBV and TPO, two key factors.

Each autumn when I start my travels for a 4-5 week trip, I grow steadily stronger. For example, last fall, I hiked every day and got stronger each day, and within about a week I summited Mt Conness without difficulty (though not quickly)—a first in 3.5 years. By the end of the month, one day on the playa I rode 42 miles on my mountain bike, something I had not done in 3.5 years either.

Why? It might be that I am removing stresses, particularly environmental ones eg allergens. It also get a lot more sun exposure and more (solar-driven) sleep, and I eat a very simple diet, etc, etc.

Strength holds through late November or so back at home, then I tend to get oscillating weak periods, some debilitating and making me pretty useless for work, with everything a struggle. But sometimes I have strong periods at home too, including a day or so a month where I operate at full strength, albeit not full fitness. Clearly my heart and lungs and core facilities are not damaged. It is very hard to sort any pattern. Were it financially viable, I’d go rest and play for 6 months in the mountains and desert.

High-dose Vitamin C kicked me out of a “doom loop” last June, or seemed to. I’m trying that again now in late April, with some apparent effect, being able to do a full ride yesterday for the first time in 10 days. A confounder is the end of a 9-day course of Doxycline, which I ended one day early because it was causing brain fog and fatigue. A poor experiment therefore and yet if I can resume full-length rides (26 miles and ~950 KCal at low pace) that actually means something.

Related issues include localized irritation in tiny spots all over my body that need an scratch as if a bug were crawling there. Not all at once but here and then there, etc. This can prevent sleep for hours. This occurs twice a week or so and was not a problem last fall. It could be allergy related by things like Zyrtec for 10 days had no effect. Also, itchy eyes. Similarly, rare but violent reactions to an environmental stimulus like some damned scent from The Wife’s self care products really set me off one day resulting in severe headache and fatigue in under a minute.

Similarly, in the past few months, a beet-red facial flushing has been occurring, particularly late in the day, but at all times of day. This comes and goes.

Summarizing:

• Localized itchy spots on skin cycling all over the place.
• Itchy eyes.
• Beet-red facial flushing across upper part of face as well as forehead, a feeling of warmth/heat associated.
• Intemittent mild headaches.
• Bloating not apparently associated with food.
• Joint pain particularly shoulder and wrists.
• Heavy feeling to body.
• Stiffness in body (less recently).

These all suggest MCAS as discussed below.

Doctor’s diagnosis

I am generally skeptical of allopathic medicine and doctors. What else is possible, given a horrific track record over many years? But that doesn’t make this diagnosis wrong, and this doctor is a good one with an independent mind, and I have full respect for him. How many other doctors would prescribe LDN? Not many.

To summarize the doctor’s view as best I understand it:

• My issues might be some form of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
• Recurring fatigue cycles likely driven by Epstein Barr Virus flareups. Treatments (not undertaken) include Valtrex (Valaciclovir) or Valayte (Valganciclovir?). I am not a fan of 'meds', and so far have not tried.
• MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome). Treatments (will try Allegra) include Atioan (?), Ketotifen , Allegra, Zyrtec. I had no luck with Zyrtec when taken for 10 days.
• Hashitmoto’s Thyroiditis, but I had a miraculous reduction in TPO antibodies last fall.
• Small fiber neuropathy causing the sporadic but repeated pinpoint itchiness all over body.
• Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) to address inflammation. I had stopped using it, but I think I will try again. It might have been helping me.
• Dr Anne Maitland MD videos on MCAS.

Much of the above characterizes long COVID, though it is relatively minor compared to the severe brain fog and fatigue in 2020 and 2021. Things have evolved away from terrible to chronic and variable.

I do not want to be persuaded on MCAS, since even at the height of pollen season eg California oak trees dumping clouds of pollen, I sneeze only a little when pruning them and don't get stuffed up. In other words, a pretty mild reaction given the massive pollen exposure. Yes, I pruned without a mask, as a test of my response. If anything my overall allergies are greatly reduced versus pre-2020. And my asthma is cured too though when maximally stressed by my situation, I can have mild impairment for a short time.

I am tired of living half a life. I want my vigor back, I want to bicycle to my satisfaction, and I don’t want to lose strings of days of my life to a weariness that makes simple things hard.

How to persuade my body to beat back this vicious cycle? Clearly it’s not going to be one pill for two weeks or ever. The body has got to be cajoled into repairing itself, somehow.

Fall of 2023 for the first time in 3 years, I was able to climb a peak. Prior years just doing the flat approach before reaching the ascent part would have been my limit. Not exactly Mt Whitney in difficulty, Mt Conness is nonetheless a significant effort of 10 miles round-trip and ~2500 vertical feet ascent.

View SW to Mt Dana from summit of Mt Conness

f9 @ 1/80 sec electronic shutter focus stack 5 frames, ISO 80; 2023-10-08 15:41:38
Fujifilm GFX100 II + Fujifilm GF 35-70mm f/4.5-5.6 WR @ 28.8mm equiv (35mm)
ENV: Mt Conness summit ridge, altitude 12530 ft / 3819 m, 38°F / 3°C
RAW: Adobe Color, LACA corrected, WB 5050°K tint 22, push 0.38 stops, +20 Whites, +20 Dehaze, +10 Clarity, USM {8,50,0}, diffraction mitigating sharpening

[low-res image for bot]