Journalism and science are both ways of finding out about the world, so maybe changes in journalism presage changes in science. In a lecture about the future of journalism, Alan Rusbridge, editor of the Guardian, concluded:
There is an irreversible trend in society today . . . It’s a trend about how people are expressing themselves, about how societies will choose to organize themselves, about a new democracy of ideas and information, about changing notions of authority, about the releasing of individual creativity, about an ability to hear previously unheard voices; about respecting, including and harnessing the views of others.
My self-experimentation had/has some of these elements. The fact that I reached useful conclusions about sleep, mood, and weight without being an expert in any of these fields changed my ideas about authorities (that is, experts). Self-experimentation is very much — perhaps above all — a “releasing of individual creativity” in the sense that I could try to understand sleep, mood, and weight. If I had an idea, I could test it. The problem was mine to solve. Self-experimentation releases scientific creativity just as any artistic tool releases artistic creativity. In the areas of sleep, mood, and weight, I was a “previously unheard voice”. This blog connects my ideas with “the views of others”.
If the parallels between science and journalism hold up, we should eventually see a big restructuring of science — especially health science — that resembles the changes in journalism now happening. Dennis Mangan, who works at a blood bank, has shown that Restless Leg Syndrome can be due to niacin deficiency. No one ever found two causes of scurvy so it is likely that all cases of RLS are due to not enough niacin. So long, expensive drugs for RLS! The poor health of Americans pays for a lot of not-very-useful health science. When that health improves, that pool of money will shrink. Just as when people became better informed (by the Web), the pool of money available to pay journalists began to shrink.
Seth, I’ve forwarded this info on niacin to my stepfather who has RLS, perhaps it will help. Did some quick double-checking for others’ experiences with niacin for RLS and came across this video that I don’t know if you’ve seen but I suspect you would enjoy on several levels, off-topic as it is for the RLS issue:
https://psychdrugs.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/1098/
BTW, I take niacin & a smattering of other supps every day and have gone from HDL around 40 in August last year to last week (got a meter, check it myself) HDL of 85. Also modified diet etc., so probably not just the niacin.
One primary goal of a science/journalism infusion restructuring movement in healthcare should be to empower individuals with ways to set their own physiologies free from disease, on their own terms. Self-experimentation does that. We are all Patients of One, so self-experimenting is fundamental to the human condition, whether we realize it or not. I suspect it’s better to realize it.
I started taking niacin after reading the HeartScan Blog. I took it for its effects on the silent inflammation that is supposed to help reduce, low hdl, high triglycerides etc. I wasn’t aware at the time that it had any sort of an effect on louder inflammation like arthritis or this restless leg thing. I have a shoulder that acts up once in a while, it starts with slight discomfort and over the course of days becomes actual pain, eventually spreading to my neck, getting to the point where I can barely turn my head.
Just going on a low carb diet seemed to decrease the spread; the pain would stay in my shoulder, then slowly go away again, more or less sparing my neck. I started taking niacin and fish oil, and the whole thing pretty much went away. After a while, I would start to think it was resolved, and stop taking the supplements. Big mistake. I thought it was the fish oil. Several times I ran out of niacin, but not fish oil. Turns out it was the niacin.
My Dad takes niacin, and when he goes off of it, if he goes back on he has to slowly increase the dose from very small amounts or the flush he gets is very uncomfortable. When I go off it and then back on, I don’t have this problem. My mom is schizophrenic, and schizophrenics as a group are supposed to flush less than non-schizophrenic. I’m not schizophrenic, but do suffer from extreme social anxiety and did have a psychotic episode over a period of months when my maternal grandmother was dying in the hospital.
I have one sister who is celiac, another gluten intolerant, whose two daughters are celiac. Celiac is supposed to be higher in schizophrenics, which would at least give a possible theory as to why more niacin might be needed to prevent deficiency in some people than in others.
Seth, I have an idea for your next book: write a book on HOW to do self-experimentation effectively. I don’t have the scientific/research background to know how to collect data, how to control for various biases, how to analyze the data. The book could be aimed at a broad audience, from those that just want to do simple experiments to see if a change has an effect, to those that want to learn how to do more sophisticated statistical analyses on data they collect. For some stuff, you could defer to existing books, but your audience could benefit just from knowing what those books would be.
David, my next paper will be about that — why my self-experimentation was effective. My EG talk, the powerpoint of which I will post in a few days, covers the same ground more briefly.
Melissa,
I have my own story about fluoride in the water. When my permanent teeth came out, the front two teeth were already badly stained an others somewhat stained. Apparently, some portion of the population is affected by the added fluoride in this way. I really have to wonder whether adding chemicals like this to the water supply is worth it. When you are older (assuming you have enough money) you can cover up your teeth with dental work, but the emotional scars from growing up with brown teeth take a long time to heal.
David