A few caveats. There are helpful people and communities with trustworthy suggestions and advice. And then are other ‘experts’ who just have to tell the audience inside a theatre that’s on fire exactly where they think the exit doors are, even though they don’t actually know where the exit doors are. No need to be
The media was awash with reports of a preprint (not-peer reviewed) report that individuals who are blood type A might be at more risk of Covid19 infection than those who are type O. The study was conducted by scientists and doctors from cities across China including Beijing, Wuhan, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Medical researchers in
On a recent thread a practitioner on my Facebook Group wrote about their anxiety and frustration in attempting to help an elderly friend from a distance. They wrote of their own fear and uncertainty and the overall lack of any guidance whatsoever with regard to just how to take care of this person should they
Covid19: 03/19/2020 No. We need to stop worrying about an herb or vitamin triggering a ‘cytokine storm,’ (CS) a massive immunologic overreaction that is seen at the end stage of certain viral infections. Most of the time CS is not triggered by the virus but rather another end-stage consequence, septic shock, and with it, multiple
I’ve heard again and again about how the reason that older people are more impacted by Covid19 is due to their diminished immune system capacity. This seemed from the start to make little sense to me. I mean, if their immune systems were degraded, they’d have less acute inflammation as a result of infection, not
People have asked me about the risk of using NSAIDS like ibuprofen (Advil), for inflammation and fever, in situations such as Covid19. There is really two sides to the answer. NSAIDs like ibuprofen could increase levels of ACE2 (shown in animal models, but not in patients.) Most medical professional societies have not gone so far
Covid19: 03/10/2020 Not for nothing, but by my calculations the chaos in the US and other secondary countries will hit in about 9-14 days. Use the next few days to get prepared for your own distancing, and make sure the sick and old geezers you look after are in at least semi-isolation by beginning of
Covid-19: 03/08/2020 Italy announces quarantine that will involve 16 million people, as health care system in Lombardy nears collapse; 10-16% of infected need ICU care. Wuhan began large scale quarantine when number of infected hit 571. US now at 479 and administration still claiming that air travel safe for over 60+ age fliers. Masks. Ignore
03/04/2020: Pool Shock If you’ve been reading my posts over the last few weeks, you’ll have noticed I recommend ‘pool shock’ granules over liquid bleach as a surface disinfectant. Many online vendors sell , as do pool and hot tub supply stores. Pool shock is comparable to bleach when following the same principles for proper
If nCorV2019 hits pandemic levels the main issue will be availability of life support, since if even as little as 2-3% go onto severe respiratory issues, this would easily overwhelm the current inventory of hospital ventilators. The trick is provide positive airway pressure to keep the alveoli of the lungs open and allow the inflammation
Covid2019: 02/23/2020 Excellent piece on how to tell people something they probably don’t want to hear. Problem is, few politicians and regulators have the stomach to make that call (‘what if I’m wrong?’) See embedded link. The primary job of governmental agencies is to minimize panic, which disrupts the supply-side ability of stores to stock
Covid-2019: 02/19/20 We’ve got this thing under control. That’s why we’re building 19 more hospitals. China announced it will build 19 more field hospitals in Wuhan. That doesn’t make any sense when they keep saying this is slowing down. Mama Mia! Italy orders mass closures after coronavirus cases quadruple. Officials ordered schools, public buildings, restaurants
I’ve been building a database of potential agents (drugs, botanical, supplements and foods) that have some evidence basis behind their use as antivirals against the novel coronavirus. The online database can be accessed here.
CoVD2019: 02/09/2020 And in today’s bad news. ‘Initially, the basic reproductive number, R0, was estimated to be 2.2 to 2.7. Here we provide a new estimate of this quantity… Integrating these estimates and high-resolution real-time human travel and infection data with mathematical models, we estimated that the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double
A nightmare scenario and a nothing-burger are just two possible Wuhan Coronavirus outcomes, and there’s a whole lot gray area in-between. This post is what I have been thinking about the last day or two. Keep in mind these are just my opinions and observations over a thin veneer of facts. And not much more.
Mannose-binding lectins are inhibitors of SARS-like coronaviruses. Best food sources of mannose-binding lectins? Monocots, such as leeks, garlic and onions. Fresh crushed garlic probably best. Mannose binding lectin (MBL) is also made internally via the MBL2 gene as part of the body’s immune complement system. Low levels of MBL are well-associated with immune compromise, most
Wuhan Coronavirus (1/25/2020) Due to the latency of the virus, the effects of the current active public health measures underway, media fatigue, and the extensive (and largely terrible) coverage in the media, an inevitable (and understandable) backlash is the invariable result. Overly facile responses to what some consider ‘coronavirus hype’ often feature irresponsible comparisons of
Some pretty pictures of detoxification network analysis courtesy of an app I’m developing called ‘Rheingold,’ which takes drug/ supplement/ food queries and returns predicted cytochrome consequences. In addition, with this client I was able to superimpose their Opus23 genomic data, and as can be seen in the image, the red box for CYP2D6 shows a
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. In a nutshell, ignorant people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence. In other words, you have to be somewhat intelligent in order to realize just how
I’ve been exploring artificial intelligence (AI) modules from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), a great resource for legally stealing very useful tools made by people far smarter than me. One of their featured machine learning modules is also one of the simplest. It’s called the ‘Naive Bayes’ algorithm. I like simple, so I started