Category: General

Ulcerative Colitis and Flaxseed Oil (continued)

Seth Roberts7 Comments

Tom commented on my earlier post on this topic:

I imagine that the lady you met must have been newly diagnosed. I have had ulcerative colitis since 1996. Most of the people that I know with u.c. take omega-3, though perhaps more commonly as fish oil. All of my gastroenterologists have agreed that it can be a useful adjunct to other therapies. In fact, one of the drug companies is developing a supplement drink that combines omega-3’s with the soft fiber found in bananas, vitamin D and some other foods that are very beneficial to u.c., but hard to get in the right propotions. In general though, doctors seem reluctant to recommend diet-only solutions. I have a relatively mild case, but have had two bad flare ups. Consequently I take two of the drugs listed in addition to fish oil. I am hopeful that one day I will get off the other meds, but for now I just take a very low dose of the drugs thanks largely, based on my self-experimentation, to the omega-3s.

The lady I met (who had ulcerative colitis) had had the problem for 14 years. She had not previously heard of using flaxseed oil. “This is your lucky day,” I told her, not because I told her to try flaxseed oil but because I could tell her a good dose (at least 2 T/day). How much is crucial information.

It is very difficult to do experiments, even self-experiments, that measure the effect of different doses of flaxseed oil on ulcerative colitis. I’m sure they haven’t been done. It was her lucky day because I’m pretty sure I was the only person in the world who could have told her with confidence what dose to take. (Which I could do because of the optimize brain –> optimize body principle.) The gastroenterologists who recommend omega-3 as useful additions — they couldn’t say what the best dose is. The drug company making a supplement drink can’t say what the best dose is.

Until you know the best dose of a drug or nutrient — the one that delivers the largest possible effect — you are very likely to underestimate its effectiveness. If Tom starts using a large-enough dose of flaxseed oil he may no longer need other medications.

Fighting Cancer Via Self-Experimentation — With Success

Seth Roberts3 Comments

About 10 years ago, a UCSD psychology professor named Ben Williams, who is in my area of psychology (animal learning), managed to successfully cure his own terminal cancer by self-experimentation. He wrote a book about it called Surviving Terminal Cancer. As this WSJ story shows, his approach — which can be summed up think for yourself — is spreading.

Just as my dermatologist was irritated by my acne self-experimentation (”Why did you do that?” he asked), Ben’s oncologist, a University of Washington med school prof named Marc Chamberlain, was against what Ben did. Chamberlain now tells the WSJ that Ben’s self-treatment “probably contributed” to saving Ben’s life. Which is like a math professor saying 2 + 2 “probably equals” 4.

A long essay by Williams about his experience.

Addendum: Williams’s book, which had an amazon rank of about 1,000,000 when the WSJ article appeared (Dec 15), is now (morning of the 18th) ranked about 29,000.

Ulcerative Colitis and Flaxseed Oil

Seth Roberts9 Comments

Ulcerative colitis is a disease of too much inflammation. The Mayo Clinic recommends several dangerous and expensive anti-inflammatory drugs. Based on its effect on inflamed gums (gingivitis), I suspect flaxseed oil would be very effective, much safer, more convenient, and much cheaper, assuming you get the right dose (about 2 tablespoons/day).

Flaxseed oil is not on the Mayo Clinic list. Nor is any other source of omega-3. In a store today I ran into a woman seeking herbal treatments for ulcerative colitis. She hadn’t heard of using flaxseed oil.

Does anyone reading this have direct experience about what happens when you take flaxseed oil for ulcerative colitis?

The Mayo Clinic website doesn’t say anything about using flaxseed oil (or other omega-3 sources) to treat gingivitis. (And the Mayo Clinic claims expertise on alternative medicine.) Nor does it say gingivitis is caused by too much inflammation. In two weeks, you can see for yourself they are wrong.

The Power of Prayer

Seth Roberts5 Comments

From Nassim Taleb:

I truly believe that it was rational to resort to prayers in place of doctors: consider the track record. The risk of death effectively increased after a visit to the doctor. Sadly, this continued well into our era: the break-even did not come until early in the 20th Century. Which effectively means that going to the priest, to Lourdes, Fatima, or (in Syria), Saydnaya, aside from the mental benefits, provided a protection against the risks of exposure to the expert problem. Religion was at least neutral –and it could only be beneficial if it got you away from the doctor.

This gives placebo effect a whole new meaning. And it defends religion in a new and reasonable way.

A belief similar to Taleb’s is why I began the long-lasting self-experimentation that led to my paper “ Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas“: I didn’t want to see a doctor about my sleep problem (I awoke too early in the morning and couldn’t fall back asleep). I was sure that what the doctor would prescribe (sleeping pills) would do more harm than good.

Everyday Humor (part 1)

Seth Roberts1 Comment

I returned vol. 3 of Not Only the Best of the Larry Sanders Show to my public library but forgot to include the DVD. I got a phone call about it. I returned with the DVD, which I had put in a paper envelope.

Here it is, I said. As I was leaving, the librarian asked if I wanted my envelope back. “In case this happens again,” she said. Everyone laughed.

Type of joke: veiled not-serious deprecation.

Blood donation, weight loss, and humor. More on humor.

Eskimos, Heart Disease, and Omega-3s: The Plot Thickens

Seth Roberts3 Comments

David Marcus made the following comment on an earlier post:

It’s a myth that Eskimos have low rates of heart disease. Actually, recent studies have shown they have high rates of cardiovascular disease (50% higher than western populations) despite diets that are very high in fatty fish.

Mr. Marcus makes a very good point (and it is wonderful to get such informative feedback). Myth is wrong. A Greenland doctor’s casual observation — Eskimos almost never died of heart attacks — was confirmed by a detailed study, published in Acta Medica Scandinavica in 1980. A r ecent study, however, found this:

OBJECTIVES: The thirty-year-old hypothesis that omega-3 fatty acid (FA) may “reduce the development of thrombosis and atherosclerosis in the Western World” still needs to be tested. Dyerberg-Bang based their supposition on casual observations that coronary atherosclerosis in Greenlandic Inuit was ‘almost unknown’ and that they consumed large amounts of omega-3 FAs. However, no association was demonstrated with data. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: 454 Alaskan Eskimos were screened for coronary heart disease (CHD), using a protocol that included ECG, medical history, Rose questionnaire, blood chemistries, including plasma FA concentrations, and a 24-hour recall and a food frequency questionnaire assessment of omega-3 FA consumption. RESULTS: CHD was found in 6% of the cohort under 55 years of age and in 26% of those > or = 55 years of age. Eskimos with CHD consume as much omega-3 FAs as those without CHD, and the plasma concentrations confirm that dietary assessment. CONCLUSIONS: Average daily consumption of omega-3 FAs among Eskimos was high, with about 3-4 g/d reported, compared with 1-2 g/d used in intervention studies and the average consumption of 0.2 g/d by the American population. There was no association between current omega-3 FA consumption/blood concentrations and the presence of CHD.

A well-written abstract, by the way.

Science is like a game of telephone. It would be truly weird if the initial observation was wrong, given that it was later confirmed in detail and productively followed up — and no one doubts that omega-3 increases clotting time. But “replications” are never exact. This study, for example, measured “in vivo” CHD, whereas the initial observation was about causes of death. The group of Eskimos studied is probably different; and their lifestyle, especially their diet, may have changed substantially in the last 30 years. On the other hand, these new observations are consistent with the great difficulty there has been in confirming the idea that omega-3 fats reduce heart disease.

The Wisdom of Crowds (Babylonian edition)

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Herodotus on Babylon:

They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.

Suroweicki’s book, like this example, was actually about the wisdom of passers-by (unconnected individuals) rather than crowds.

Thanks to David Cramer.

What Causes Heart Disease? Malcolm Kendrick’s Views

Seth Roberts6 Comments

In this video Malcolm Kendrick, a Scottish doctor, points out the lack of cross-country correlation between cholesterol levels and heart disease rates.

In this video Kendrick explains why he believes that extreme stress — often caused by emigration — is a big reason for high rates of heart disease.

This view is supported by research by Michael Marmot and others on the social gradient: People higher in occupational level have better health than those below them. This seems to be because lower jobs are more stressful. The lower your job, the less control you have. Lack of control is the problem.

Kendrick’s view calls into question the usual interpretation of migrant studies. When persons emigrate across countries — from Japan to America, from India to England — they usually have higher heart disease rates in the new country This is often attributed to differences in diet — the old-country diet is presumed healthier than the new-country diet. Kendrick lays the blame elsewhere. He also makes an interesting point about Finland. Finland used to have a very high rate of heart disease. Kendrick points out that in the early 1950s, about 700,000 persons of Finnish descent were pushed by the Soviet government out of the Soviet Union and into Finland. Kendrick also mentions Roseto, Pennsylvania, a town created by emigration en masse from Roseto Italy. The old customs and social networks survived the move intact and the people of Roseto Pennsylvania were. for many years, remarkably healthy.

Previous posts on heart disease: Omega-3 and heart attacks (also here). The Framingham Study.

Thanks to Dave Lull.

Addendum: Kendrick on “ The Great Cholesterol Myth.”

How Dangerous is Bariatric Surgery?

Seth Roberts3 Comments

From the abstract of a new paper on the question:

The 1-year case fatality rate was approximately 1% and nearly 6% at 5 years. . . .There was a substantial excess of deaths owing to suicide and coronary heart disease.

Six percent chance of dying within 5 years . . . Your chance of survival is probably better if you are posted to Iraq. On the other hand, another study found a 6% death rate within 5 years for matched obese persons who didn’t have the operation.