- Five quantified-self stories
- False Alzheimer’s diagnosis. “Alzheimer’s symptoms such as confusion, memory loss and personality changes also can be side effects from medication—even commonly used drugs. For example, the entire class of anticholinergic drugs, which includes many antihistamines, antianxiety drugs, muscle relaxants and sleeping pills . . . Cholesterol-reducing statins have also been linked to brain fog in some people. In many cases, the cognitive symptoms vanish when medication is stopped. “I have had people referred to me with a clear history of dementia and when I started to peel back the medications, they were much better,” says Gary Kennedy, chief of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y.”
- Ancestral Health Symposium 2012 (Boston) recaps. I thought Robb Wolf’s talk was excellent. Jay Stanton had original ideas about weight control. Most of the other talks, not so much.
Category: Assorted Links
Assorted Links
- Quantified Self and the Future of Health Care (talk) by Rajiv Mehta
- Did Muhammed Yunus deserve the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize? The truth about microfinance: impact close to zero. Lots of microfinance loans are used to pay off a loan from another microfinance lender.
- Calorie content of almonds — the usual value — wrong by one-third
- The Siege of Academe (online competition with traditional college classes) via Marginal Revolution. An entirely different article could be written about employers who realize that the best employee isn’t necessarily a Harvard graduate.
- Inside a “low-performing” San Francisco high school
Assorted Links
- A map of San Francisco highlights folded in an intriguing new way
- Virtuous Pedophiles
- Jane Jacobs video (1969)
Thanks to Dave Lull.
Assorted Links
- Did Jules Hoffman deserve the 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology? “Jules again, in his very subtle manner, described the Toll story as a team-work. I sat there, nauseated.”
- Babies given antibiotics more likely to be obese at age 3. This is very likely cause and effect because it is well-established that giving livestock antibiotics makes them fat.
- Lynn Yaeger on collecting. “I’ll be trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of what makes otherwise sane people spend all their money on King George coffee mugs.”
- Cultured Food Life
- Pushcart kombucha
- Sky natto
Thanks to Adam Clemens.
Assorted Links
- the science of fermented fish sauce
- there may be a better treatment your doctor knows about but doesn’t tell you about.
- brief overview of the human microbiome and its manipulation. In one study, yogurt had no effect.
- detailed illustrated sauerkraut recipe
Thanks to David Cramer and Arthur Niculitcheff.
Assorted Links
- I want to take this! Harvard class on fermented food.
- Psychological stress (depression, etc.) associated with more death and heart disease even at low levels of stress.
- Paleo diet clears up acne. “As someone with bad acne growing up, I remember very clearly going to the dermatologist and them CLEAR AS DAY stating that there is no link between food and acne.”
- The world’s biggest breast cancer charity misleads women about the value of mammograms.
Thanks to Tim Beneke and Bryan Castañeda.
Assorted Links
- Interview with Wardeh (pronounced Wor-dee) Harmon about fermenting foods. Interesting sauerkraut recipe.
- Several thousand people “like” a fake company advertised on Facebook. “Facebook feels my experiment is worthless.”
- Weight loss and elimination of psoriasis. “It’s possible to control psoriasis with diet. The medical community doesn’t seem to be aware of this, but I am completely psoriasis free after years of being covered in it.”
- More evidence that a lot of health care spending is wasted. “The positive association between outpatient spending and inpatient spending we find is consistent with the Dartmouth view that much health care spending, in this
case outpatient spending, is “supply sensitive” and largely without substantial health benefit.” Via Marginal Revolution.
Thanks to John Batzel.
Assorted Links
- Yale cancels China year-abroad program. One reason is that students in Beijing (at Peking University, one of the best universities in the country) learned less Chinese than students at Yale.
- European plagiarism epidemic. “More than a third of a new book for law students on how to write papers properly was plagiarised . . . The authors vowed to find the culprits.”
- Penkowa for Dummies. Complicated scientific fraud.
- Self-tracking difficulties: a fickle and too-demanding exercise tracker. I try to walk 60 minutes/day. It’s easy to track.
Thanks to Anne Weiss.
Assorted Links
- Chicago discourages food trucks. “Some of the drivers say police have shooed them away from spaces near a Starbucks or 7-Eleven.” Via Melissa McEwen.
- The Quantified Community by Esther Dyson
- the big business of sleep
- even dim bedroom light may have a bad effect
Thanks to Melody McLaren, Allan Jackson and Bryan Castañeda.
Assorted Links
- self-experimentation = ouch. The downside of barefoot running.
- Self-experimentation and its role in medical research (paper written by doctor apparently as a hobby)
- The Legacy of a Jerk. Wonderful Freakonomics podcast. “Did you know there are products that change the scent of the air?” says an interviewee.
- all those exhortations to be a better person? They work.
- correlation between dream content and geomagnetic activity.
Thanks to Ken Feinstein.