Free Learner

Flu update

Three things have caused me to get a bit concerned about this flu thing.

First, I've been comparing local reports to the national news, and it's clear that many suspected and probable flu cases are not being reported at the national level.  I think the major media made a decision not to report any cases until they are officially confirmed by the CDC.  That's understandable, because if they overstate the dangers, they may be ignored by the public when the "real thing" comes down the pike.  For instance, the second (more lethal) wave of the pandemic.

That said, the news is currently understating the situation, and there are dangers on that side, too.  It's currently taking about a week to get a case confirmed, and a week in pandemic time is an eon.  When they say "probable case" this almost always means it's swine flu.  Usually it means the person has been in Mexico, came down with flu symptoms inside the correct incubation period (4-10 days), and tests positive for influenza A and/or a non-human flu strain.  Virtually all of these will eventually be confirmed, according to geneticist / virologist Dr. Henry Niman (see below).  But you and I won't hear about them, except in local news, until days later. 

"Suspected" cases involve people who took a trip to Mexico or had close exposure to someone who has been to Mexico, plus flu symptoms inside the correct time frame.  The trouble is, "flu symptoms" can include almost anything-- vomiting, wheezing, joint pain, coughing, depression, diarrhea, you name it.  That said, the primary symptom of influenza seems to be a high fever for multiple days.  I had a flu in 2003 which was, given the flu strains circulating in my area, almost certainly an H1N1.  For four days I was unable to get my temperature below 102 degrees despite taking both Tylenol and ibuprofen simultaneously.  (During this time I was pregnant and was told "Don't let your temperature go above 102 degrees.")

There are at least 4 Michigan counties with suspected, probable, or confirmed swine flu cases (Livingston, Wayne, Ottawa, and Washtenaw).  The Livingston County case was in the local news two days ago, but Michigan only made "the list" in the national news as of today.  In Wayne County, it's a student at Woodhaven High School who has come down with what appears to be swine flu, though that's pending confirmation.  In his case the incubation period was long (10 days) and we will have to see how many classmates may have become infected during that time.

The second thing was, I came across this Flu News page, which paints a considerably more dire picture than you get from the New York Times et al.  Did you know Texas has cancelled all high school sports until May 11?  Or that 4 schools are closed in Milwaukee?  Check it out.

Third, I watched this video by Henry Niman, who flu-watchers will know and respect as an expert in flu viruses and their epidemiology.  He feels this flu parellels the 1918 flu in multiple ways.  He thinks we haven't had as many fatalities in the US only because we lag behind Mexico, time-wise... but the American deaths are coming.  And the real deaths are coming in the fall, if things continue to progress in 1918 fashion.

I can't really imagine a death toll in developed nations that would be quite as high as in 1918.  Philadelphia, which I've mentioned before because they were hit hard by the 1918 flu, was stupid enough to have parades in spite of the clearly burgeoning flu epidemic.  We're unlikely to be that stupid again.  In Ann Arbor in 1918, the university was shut down, all public venues were closed, church services were suspended, and students were quarantined in their dorms.  The death toll was very low.

In the third world... whew.  I hope it doesn't happen.

Who's flu?

There's been a nasty flu outbreak in Mexico, with a few scattered cases in Texas, California, Kansas, and New York.

If you don't have two weeks' worth of food in your house, as the US government advises, now might be a good time to lay in the necessary supplies.  This virus, similar to pandemic flu viruses in previous decades, appears to be most lethal in young adults (20's and 30's), but is less dangerous in the young or elderly.  Mexico City has closed all schools, museums, theaters, etc.

It could be... y'know... the real thing.

I say this as a person who got obsessed with H5N1 news and read flu forums for months, before finally tiring of the always-impending avian flu pandemic.  So I'm not trying to freak anyone out... we've been on the verge of flu pandemic for years now.  I'm just saying: hey, man-- dried beans are cheap, and don't forget the coffee and vodka.  Just in case.

I read Gina Kolata's book Flu and various articles on the 1918 flu (here's an example) some years back.  The story of the 1918 flu and how it got into humans (killing between 2 and 4 percent of all humans alive on Earth in less than a year) is a bit foggy.  For one thing, Establishment Science did not like the little army pathologist who first began genotyping the 1918 flu, so they refused to publish his work-- humankind be damned!!  He wasn't in the club!  Hell, he wasn't even in academia!!  [More details at this old 2005 post.]

Once we got past that hurdle, it turned out that the 1918 flu wasn't quite what most people had thought.  Pandemic flus tend to contain avian flu genes, but the thinking had been that avian flu would have a hard time jumping straight into humans.  Pigs, however, can be a breeding ground for both bird flus and human flus.  And if a pig happens to be infected with both sorts of flu at the same time, it's singles night at the Roman bathhouse-- the viruses swap genes and the genes get mixed.  And then emerges a nasty bird/swine/human flu, one that humans don't have immunities against, and we're screwed.

The problem was, there wasn't so much evidence of swine flu genes.  Possibly the 1918 flu went straight from birds to humans, which no one can exactly explain (after all, it hasn't happened very successfully with the H5N1 bird flu that's been around since 1997).  Maybe it made a brief stop in pigs, but... there isn't too much swine influence, so it wasn't percolating in pigs for very long, if at all.

Secondly, nobody to this day seems to be able to understand why it was quite so virulent, quite so contagious, quite so deadly-- and especially in young, healthy adults.

There's an explanation, but it simply MUST be wrong because it has definitely not been endorsed by NPR and it qualifies as tinfoil hat.  The theory goes:

1. In 1918 we were inoculating army soldiers against typhoid.
2. In 1918 we didn't know what in the hell we were doing, re: viruses.
3. We incubated the vaccine in chicken eggs.
4. We had no ability to test for avian viruses in the finished vaccine.
5. We inoculated thousands of soldiers while they were living near a hog farm in Kansas.
6. The virus began in soldiers.
7. Conclusion: the virus came from avian-flu-infected typhoid vaccine.  We gave it to ourselves.

The first wave of the flu, in the spring of 1918, was not nearly so deadly.  But it provided ample opportunity for mutation of the virus to become more contagious and lethal in humans.  Rather than assuming that the flu mutated inside pigs, one has to wonder whether soldiers in Fort Riley, Kansas contracted both low-pathogenic swine flu (which most livestock veterinarians and hog farmers have antibodies against) and avian flu from infected typhoid vaccine.  Quite possibly, humans were the 'swinging singles bar' of flu viruses which led to the pandemic flu strain-- not pigs.

The worst hit city in the US was probably Philadelphia, where they were unable even to bury their dead for some time due to massive fatalities.  The Philadelphia outbreak, though it was spread by a war fundraising parade (at which, one can assume, soldiers were present), actually originated in a Navy shipyard.

Fast-forward to today, Mexico City.  Keep in mind that outbreaks of polio, chicken pox, flu, and foot-and-mouth disease in livestock have all been traced to vaccination or accidental releases of materials used in making vaccines.

The Mexico City H1N1 flu strain has elements of North American swine flu, Europe / Asian swine flu, North American avian flu, and North American human flu (New York Times).  The assumption, as with the 1918 pandemic, is that these viruses mingled together and mutated inside pigs.  Overcrowded hog farms near Mexico City have been blamed over at HuffPo, and certainly this is one reason not to have insanely contagious and horribly unhealthy pig farms (beyond the obvious moral reasons, as pigs are likely as intelligent as dogs).

That being said, this four-viruses-in-one combination, never seen before, and found in 19 Americans in 4 states, none of whom have had contact with pigs, suggests that perhaps the viruses had a bit of help in recombining.  Consider, as a bit of context, the article "Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus":

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses....

The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live....

On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.

“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email....

Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.

To recap: a European vaccine manufacturer contaminated materials (to be used to make human flu vaccine) with live H5N1 avian flu.  Whooops!

And then there's this debacle:

Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland

Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus.

The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.

Had any of these homeless people had human flu at the same time they were injected (apparently) with live avian flu virus, the necessary mutations to cause pandemic could have occurred.  What in the hell are they doing injecting live H5N1 into people?  Trying to give the pandemic bug a leg up?

Flu vaccination in general contains serious risks, even when it's only for human flu, because the genes contained in the vaccine itself may provide genetic material to other circulating flu viruses, accelerating the rate of mutation.  It may also provide for an emptier "playing field" for flu strains that would have had competition... except that the competition was kept down by vaccination.  In short, flu vaccination may result in more dangerous flu strains over time.

The Mexican government is rushing forward with a mass swine flu vaccination program, which is likely to exacerbate the problem.  [UPDATE: It isn't a swine flu vaccine, it's the regular seasonal flu vaccine-- utterly pointless.]  The vaccine they have does not match the flu virus currently infecting Mexicans and is unlikely to be effective.  To create a vaccine that matches would take months, and that's the whole issue with the flu-- months from now, it's always a very different virus, because influenza mutates quickly.  This is also why the regular flu vaccine usually does not work (it totally fails, most years).  The swine flu vaccine will, however, provide interesting new genes which may or may not be picked up by the current flu virus.  Mind you, the vaccine necessarily contains genes that make swine flu contagious in humans.  That should be obvious, since they would hardly bother with a vaccine against a variety of swine flu that was not contagious in humans, now would they?  Therefore, quite possibly, this flu is about to get a whole lot more contagious, after a helpful boost from a futile swine flu vaccine campaign.

On the other hand, perhaps flu-infected pigs in Europe spread the virus to migrating birds, who combined the swine and avian flu genes and then infected pigs in North America, who then passed along all three kinds of flu genes to humans in North America.  Yeah, it's possible.  But if this thing goes pandemic, my money is on human intervention as a major cause.

Mexico has shut down schools, libraries, and other public places.  Of roughly 1,000 people infected (surely an underestimate) about 60 have died, which suggests a 6% fatality rate.  That's unlikely, in my opinion.  Lots of people caught this who did not know they had this particular flu, or have not been recorded among the infected.  The real fatality rate is more likely 1-2% or less, in keeping with the 1918 flu and considering improved nutrition and medical science.

All the same, some boxed spaghetti and N95 masks wouldn't go amiss.

Good news

It feels to me like there's hardly any good news out there, lately.  One site that does have good things to report is Natural News, so check them out if you need to read something positive.  Here are some recent headlines:

Gingko Reduces Brain Damage from Stroke by 50 Percent

Ginger Reduces Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy and Relieves Menstrual Pain

IP6 Is Highly Effective Alternative Treatment for Cancer

Broccoli Compound Found to Protect Against Lung Disease

Increasing Fruits and Vegetables Leads to Permanent Weight Loss

Copper Fittings Could Eliminate Superbugs in Hospitals

GFCF Diet Shows Promise as Natural Treatment for Autism

Music Can Restore Vision After Stroke

L-Carnitine May Prevent and Treat Liver Cancer

Drink Red Wine and Keep Breasts, Livers, and Brains Healthy

Alternative health is an area where you can always find good news... and almost everyone can find a way to alleviate some minor (or major) health issue.  But just remember: you have to do it yourself, or if that's not possible, be an indefatiguable nuisance who demands alternative therapies from doctors.

Not in my home

Wow.  I just came across the EPA instructions for disposal of a broken CFL (compact fluorescent) lightbulb:

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

• Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
• Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
• Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

• Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
• Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

• If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
• You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
• If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

• Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
• Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
• Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

• The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
• Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Uh, yeah.  Think I'll stick with LED's and halogen when the new rules on energy efficiency come into effect in 2012.

Do you have probiotics in your fridge?

Probiotics, for those that haven't heard of them, are the beneficial bacteria that live in our digestive tracts.  Taking probiotic capsules has dozens of potential health benefits, from ameliorating asthma to reducing inflammatory disease to improving the elimination of toxins.

But the most basic reason you want a little bottle of probiotic capsules in your fridge is that it might keep you or your kid from throwing up.  If you have an infant it might keep your baby out of the hospital.

When Tristan was around 8 months old, he and I were taking probiotics because of his screwed up gut flora, but my daughter and husband were not.  We all caught a rotavirus which was going around in Anya's preschool classroom, and which wound up hospitalizing the younger siblings of three of her classmates.  It was a very nasty bug, and Anya and my husband both went 12 hours without keeping down any liquids.  Tristan and I, although we had some symptoms, never threw up once.

So, when at 4am this morning Tristan started throwing up, as soon as I got him back in bed after Round One, I went and got the probiotics out of the fridge.  We've actually been slacking off on supplements this month and he hadn't taken probiotics in over a week.  We all took one immediately (I open the capsules and sprinkle them into his mouth).  We've all had 4 doses today.  Tristan stopped throwing up by around 11am, but still has abdominal pain, fever, headache, dizziness, total weakness (cannot even really stand up), etc.  It's a really nasty bug.  Anya and I also have symptoms: fever, headache, dizziness, lethargy-- but no throwing up.  And although my little guy is really sick, I don't have to worry about dehydration since he has been drinking tons of liquid since lunchtime, and hasn't had any more vomiting or diarrhea.  This is a huge blessing since many of his symptoms are also the symptoms of dehydration, and if he were still throwing up I would probably have to consider taking him to the ER (an absolute unimaginable horror).

Got probiotics?

More on vitamin D

Please note that I added another research result to my previous vitamin D post: men deficient in vitamin D were 2.5 times more likely to have a heart attack than men with sufficient levels, in one study.

This morning I stumbled across this study, involving lung cancer:

Successful outcomes for surgery to treat early stage lung cancer appear to depend on the level of vitamin D present in a patient - a calculation that includes food sources, supplements, as well as the season of the year during which the operation is performed....

Their study... shows that patients with high vitamin D intake who had surgery in months with lots of sun were more than twice as likely to be alive five years after surgery, compared to patients with low vitamin D intake who had wintertime operations.

It may also help to prevent multiple sclerosis:

The study found that among whites the risk of developing MS significantly decreased with increasing levels of vitamin D in their blood. For instance, those people in the top 20 per cent of vitamin D concentration bore a 62 per cent lower risk of MS compared to the people in the lowest 20 per cent.  [Numbers were small in the black and Hispanic groups, but the trend was in the same direction.]

The researchers said that the level of vitamin D they found in the high range that appeared to give protection against MS were within safe levels, and suggested that higher levels of vitamin D could be good for protecting against osteoporosis and other chronic diseases.

. . .

The study is in line with a growing body of evidence that shows how important vitamin D is to the immune system, where it helps to control autoimmune reactions.

Both cancer (of many varieties) and MS are more common in northern latitudes than in southern ones, a fact which likely prompted a lot of this vitamin D research.  Remember that you are not getting actual vitamin D from milk or your multivitamin unless it says D3 or cholecalciferol; other versions (D2, ergocalciferol, others) are called "D" but your body can't make much use of them.

Current alternative health opinion seems to be that up to 10,000 IU of oral supplementation per day is safe.

The miracle vitamin

It's no surprise, since humans evolved in tropical areas, that we were meant to have very high vitamin D levels.  Today, between being indoors, using sunscreen, living farther from the equator, wearing more clothing, and eating less fish, most of us are deficient in vitamin D for at least part of the year.  Studies have found that even in Florida and Hawaii, vitamin D deficiency is hardly rare.

Blogger Kandylini found this article on using vitamin D to prevent colds and flu.  Vitamin D triggers the production of anti-bacterial and anti-viral substances in certain immune cells.  It also prevents our bodies from over-reacting to infections by flooding our systems with damaging and inflammatory chemicals.  Very high doses of vitamin D (and, I would think, omega-3 fatty acids) may have prevented some 1918 flu deaths in which healthy adults' immune systems literally suffocated them with inflammatory cytokines.  (People who fear such a 'cytokine storm' flu pandemic in the US need not worry; an extremely slim percentage of American adults have an immune system anywhere near as strong as the average person in 1918.)

On the subject of cancer, vitamin D is the most promising natural substance out there.  Check out Low Vitamin D Levels Raise Breast Cancer Death Risk by 75 Percent:

(NaturalNews) Women who are deficient in vitamin D at the time they are diagnosed with breast cancer are nearly 75 percent more likely to die from the disease than women with sufficient vitamin D levels, and their cancer is twice as likely to spread to other parts of the body.

"This study links vitamin D with the aggressiveness of disease," said JoEllen Walsh of the University of Albany, who was not involved in the study. "It suggests that your vitamin D status may affect how your disease progresses."

Also, in Sunlight Emerging as Proven Treatment for Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer and Other Cancers:

In laboratory tests performed on animals, vitamin D3 inhibited the growth of malignant melanoma, breast cancer, leukemia and mammary tumors. Vitamin D3 also slowed down angiogenesis, which aids the growth of cancer cells. Vitamin D3 stops cancer-aiding blood vessels from being formed, curbing the tumor's ability to spread and disrupt other functions in the body. Donald R. Yance Jr. writes that vitamin D3 may also inhibit the activity of hormones such as estrogen in breast cancer, thereby decreasing its spread.

And in Vitamin D, a Gene-Regulating Super-Nutrient:

Vitamin D has long been known to assist healthy bones by helping to stimulate bone cells to make new bone while enhancing the uptake of calcium into bones. Its role in boosting immunity, hormone regulation, brain health, metabolism, diabetes prevention, cancer prevention, and cardiovascular health are just now becoming clear. The sunshine vitamin appears poised to claim its crown.

All your body organs and cells have receptors for vitamin D, meaning that vitamin D communicates all around your body. Your cells use vitamin D to directly regulate your genes, making it one of the most powerful compounds in human health. In fact, one study with 2,100 female twins showed that having adequate vitamin D extends life by five years.

You know where calcium goes when it does NOT wind up in your bones, as assisted by vitamin D?  It winds up in your arteries instead.

[ADDED]: I forgot one of the greatest benefits of vitamin D, that it dramatically lowers the risk of heart attack in men (and probably women, but we don't have the data yet).

Men with low levels of vitamin D have an elevated risk for a heart attack, researchers said on Monday in the latest study to identify important possible health benefits from the "sunshine vitamin."

In the study, men classified as deficient in vitamin D were about 2 1/2 times more likely to have a heart attack than those with higher levels of the vitamin.

"Those with low vitamin D, on top of just being at higher risk for heart attack in general, were at particularly high risk to have a fatal heart attack," study author Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston said in a telephone interview.

. . .

A number of recent studies have indicated vitamin D also may offer a variety of other health benefits, including protecting against types of cancer including colon and breast cancer, peripheral artery disease and tuberculosis.

In January, researchers led by Dr. Thomas Wang of Harvard Medical School reported findings that fit with the new study, showing that people with low vitamin D levels have a higher risk for heart attack, heart failure and stroke.

Vitamin D capsules are tiny, no bigger than a pea.  I use the Carlson brand and I am currently taking 8,000 IU per day, or more when I am sick.  I take less in the summer but usually 2,000 IU or more per day.  If you are overweight, you need to really flood your body with vitamin D for some time, because initially your body will just sock all that vitamin D away in fat cells.

I can also say from my own experience and that of a few people close to me that vitamin D can help ameliorate those "winter blahs" which result from Michigan's days of overcast twilight.

Update:  I just had another thought.  Why is it that Africans are known for their beautiful, white, strong teeth, while the British are known for having awful teeth?

Boneheaded 'scientific' conclusions

A few days back the most often read story at BBC News was Intelligent 'have better sperm':

They [i.e. the researchers who I will shortly conclude were morons] found that those who performed better on intelligence tests tended to have more - and more mobile - sperm.

The study, which appears in the journal Intelligence, appears to support the idea that genes underlying intelligence may have other biological effects too.

...

[P]eople with robust genes might be blessed with a biological "fitness factor" making them fit, healthy and smart.

Well, yes, in a eugenicist's dream there is a simple, binary "fitness factor" which causes certain special humans to be both a) superior and b) more fertile, but here in the real world this is the biggest load of hooey I've come across in a long time.

These researchers need to familiarize themselves with the statistical concept of "confounding."  Confounding occurs when some third piece of information -- something that was not included in the analysis -- is in fact responsible for the bogus research finding.  For instance, I could go out and do a study of elementary school children and conclude that children with larger feet have superior reading ability.  In a K through 5 sample, this would no doubt be true.  You could absolutely feed in shoe size and reading score to some software program and find a strong correlation.  But of course, if you said "big feet make you a better reader" you'd be a fricking idiot.

Just like these IQ - sperm people, who are also fricking idiots.

There are poisons that reduce both cognitive functioning and male fertility, such as mercury, lead, and GM (genetically modified) soy.  There are also mineral deficiencies, such as a lack of zinc, that can cause both.  There's trans-fat, which increases the number of abnormal sperm and also blocks the omega-3 fatty acids which are critical to brain functioning.  The researchers controlled for alcohol use and smoking, but, in typical fashion, did not consider diet or exposure to common poisons.

Basically, they looked at two indicators of poor health, low sperm count and low cognitive functioning, discovered that (surprise, surprise!) they were modestly correlated, and then made some unjustified conclusion which smells vaguely of eugenics.  A great many things affect sperm count.  Let's not start pretending that a low sperm count means one is an untermensch.

Already, a gun fired at school

It wasn't a usual school shooting, but a boy in Ohio did fire a gun twice in a school hallway yesterday.  He was apparently intending to kill himself, and was maybe practicing firing the gun.  The principal and assistant principal talked him into dropping the gun.

What struck me was this:

"He did put the gun to his head numerous times," Lombardo said. "He never really said why he was doing it. He did say it wasn't like him to do this, and he was fearful that he had ruined his life."

In a local news video, the principal reiterated: "He was basically saying it wasn't him, he doesn't know why he's doing this."

Yeah, that's called dissociation.  "I'm not me," the kid is saying; "this is not real."  In his case, his own existence did not seem quite real to him.  In other cases, neither the other students and adults in the school nor their own existence seems real, which makes it easy to both murder others and commit suicide.  This disconnection from reality can be a side effect of common psychiatric medications, as discussed in this article on psychiatric drugs and school violence.

Whenever there is a school shooting, I assume a priori that anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and/or ADHD stimulants were involved.  So far I do not know of any school shooting where the kid was not medicated.  Columbine happened a few days after Eric Harris's Luvox dosage was doubled; Kip Kinkel was taking both Prozac and Ritalin; the Virginia Tech murderer was on anti-depressants.  Doctors prescribe these drugs but fail to monitor kids afterward, even though we know that suicide, violent thoughts, and psychosis are more common side effects in adolescents than in adults.

The argument that these kids were crazy to begin with, so of course they were on meds, does not stand up.  In most cases newspaper reports suggest the shooters were fairly normal until recently, and/or did normal and everyday things just prior to the incident.  Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as we all remember thanks to Michael Moore's film, attended their 1st hour bowling class before going on to murder classmates.  And in the days just before their rampage, they had flirted with girls and talked about prom.

If parents want safer schools, they need to mount campaigns to reduce the percentage of students taking psychiatric drugs in their communities.

Fermented pickles

I was out at my parents' place over the weekend, and picked three grocery bags full of pickling cucumbers in one day.  It's amazing how much produce can be gotten out of a patch of land.  I said that I would take some home, and my mom said "You're darn right you will!"

And here are two half gallons of pickles beginning to ferment, in a salt brine with mustard, white pepper, and dill:

The plastic caps are perfect for this, because you just loosen them a bit to allow fermenting gases to escape, but once or twice a day you can tighten them to shake up the mixture.

I used my own heads of dill, snipping off the smaller bunches of seeds and shoving them in amongst the cukes.  Here's one head, mid-way through the snipping process:

One online recipe called for 30 heads of dill for a gallon of pickles, which seems crazy to me.  Some of my heads of dill are 8 inches across!  I only used 2 heads of dill per half gallon.

When the pickles are done they'll have a different taste than commercial pickles because they won't be in vinegar, they'll be in lactic acid.  Lactic acid, it turns out, is a fuel for our mitochondria.  It is not, contrary to widespread belief, a "waste product" that builds up in muscles, nor is it responsible for making muscles sore.  From a New York Times article:

As for the idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness, Dr. Gladden said, that never made sense.

"Lactic acid will be gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise," he said. "You get sore one to three days later. The time frame is not consistent."

The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.

Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the substance into them, Dr. Brooks found.

I wonder, then, if people would have more energy when they eat large amounts of lacto-fermented foods, chock full of lactic acid?  Or, more to the point, chock full of lacto-bacteria, which inhabit your gut and sit around making lactic acid all day?  All this from cucumbers, water, salt, and a few days' time.