I’m researching a few new things for my next topic and going down another rabbit hole, which means I may not have a post for some time depending on how much information I need to look up. I also have to do something the older generations generally refer to as “manual labor”.
Not much has changed for me in terms of personal health. I have been an avid amateur athlete for the last 22 years. Good diet, supplementation, stress reduction, and exercise have been a part of my life for decades. The worst thing about COVID policies (not the virus) have been the physical limitations on my freedom (like when they forced gyms to close and we were forced by Newsom to workout outside in the middle of fire season when the air was toxic) and the violations of my bodily autonomy (i.e., vaccine mandates), both of which were a challenge to my mental health. Covid further confirmed my pre-existing belief that the most subversive thing that you can do is be self-reliant and stay healthy.
avid amateur athlete- try saying that 3 times fast!
The paradox that in order to stay healthy policies were made to stop people from being healthy. I remember one of the parks near my house started putting up barriers around the playgrounds to stop people from going on the equipment, as if COVID is waiting to strike kids on the slides! I originally thought that the county was going to use this time to remodel many of the playgrounds, but then I realized that it really was to stop kids when they removed the seats from the swings. I did notice a lot of people began walking because no one had much else to do, but I don't remember how long much of that lasted to be quite honest.
We should never forget those aerial pictures of skateparks filled with sand... While I and many adults coped just fine with the nefarious Covid policies, I am filled with rage when I think about what was done to children -- how every policy was designed to handicap them physically, intellectually, and psychologically.
I wasn't even aware of the sand in skateparks! Cue Anakin Skywalker quote? But how ridiculous, I mean how is someone supposed to clean all of that up?
I believe children interactions have been permanently damaged from the lockdowns. There have been kids who have drawn masks on pictures of children because they thought it didn't look right. The biggest issue is that we have raised a generation of children to do as they are told without providing the proper explanation as to why or maybe how so many adults screwed this up. I think we need a correction period in which parents explain why masks aren't as perfect as they were made out to be, with the hope that children don't carry these failures further into the future with teenagers who mask without knowing exactly why they should.
As an unvax’d person living among the vax’d, mental health has been an issue for me too. I feel like a Jew living in 1933 Nazi Germany. I don’t feel bad making this comparison, because I heard it from a Holocaust survivor. She says it is entirely appropriate.
Holocaust Survivor Vera Sharav Speech at Nuremberg 75
I'm fortunate most people around me have sort of stopped caring, but there were certain times where it legitimately felt like I would need to show papers in order to gain entry somewhere. It takes its toll because you have to figure out where you are welcomed, and if people ask whether you want to go out you have to check to see if places have vaccine policies and you can't quite bluntly state to people why you can't come. A few of my friends have gotten married over COVID, and they kept their weddings to a minimum with only close family members, so I'm fortunate I wasn't put into a situation in which a friend asked if I would attend a wedding only to have to decline without quite giving an upfront explanation as to why.
I was already anti-medicine before the virus panic. I think there is a line where intervention into illness distorts what should be the natural human experience of death and our current system presumes it to be mandatory to cross that line for every individual it can get its hands on (ie, those not lucky enough to die in an accident before making it the hospital; but even those will be tortured with useless CPR even after they have technically died). Certainly the ""biopolitics" aspect of public health has come sharply into focus where I used to see this stuff as more purely materialist.
Alright, I'll put you down in the "grandma killer" category Brian! /s (for older people, this is a reddit thing to insinuate sarcasm)
I think it is something worth considering. Modern medicine has done a lot to help us live longer, but we also need to examine to what extent we should consider the length of our lives, and whether we should take into account other factors that contribute to our overall health. Surely diabetes medication can help control for high blood sugar, but shouldn't we as a society do things to prevent the need for diabetes medications? In that regard, and something I mentioned in my NAC post, we have to consider whether medications and supplements are a method of addressing problems that can't be fixed through behavioral or lifestyle changes, or if we are using them as a bandage for more serious problems, essentially pushing the real problems under the rug.
I’m going to chime in here. If you have an elderly family member with no money and poor health, there’s not much help from anywhere especially if he/she had no property, didn’t trust banks, and got his/her SS money out of the bank every month. Medicaid doesn’t like that.
After caring for someone for a year and trying to figure out costs, care, arguing with siblings, etc, I know that I want to go out in a flash. I don’t want my daughter to have to figure out how to take care of me! Especially if the economy wipes out my savings. I hope she can feel sad when I die and not exhausted or relieved. Therefore I’ve decided that I don’t want surgery after 70 or anything else that my cause me to be dependent. Of course, its no one else’s job to tell me when I need to die (WEF), but I do hope I just don’t wake up one morning instead of dying a little every night for years.
Certainly I understand the situation Canny Granny. I don't want to expose too much of my personal life, but I'll say that I helped out a very close friend a few months prior who's family member went from diagnosed to deceased in a matter of two months. Helping out the friend and just seeing the immediate deterioration while the family had to figure out exactly what to do was a pretty horrifying experience. Trying to see them juggle insurance as well as other agencies and dwindling finances certainly took a toll on everyone. It's a huge emotional rollercoaster, especially at the end when family had to decide if they reached their limit and will only take supportive care within the last few days. It was certainly a situation which caused other family members to state that if they were ever in a similar position to really not fight to keep them alive due to the sheer burden on those around them.
So in that regard I can empathize with you Canny Granny. I suppose I wouldn't want to go down the route of discussing euthanasia because I really don't know what position I would take and I'd rather not have to make that decision, but I do understand people's awareness and consideration for their life with respect to those around them and to what extent they would want to be a burden on their loved ones. There's much to discuss about giving people the choice to choose how they spend the last years of their life.
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 24, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent
I was told that "/s" means "seriously" /s.
I don't just mean our obsession with living "longer" (though that is one manifestation of our de-normalizing of a thing that happens to literally everyone ever born, ie death), but the lack of a line for rescuing people from death - things like ICUs, resuscitation, these should be understood as an unnatural intervention into the core of what the human experience is. This is a blog along my lines of thought, ironically from an anonymous medical professional -
"There comes a time to die. It used to be that all people knew it and prepared for it. Today in places where Western medicine is well developed and people believe that death is not a certainty but an option to be negotiated, dying becomes a torture smeared in time. Everybody dies no matter what you do. How you die differs."
I believe you were heading down that route but then I had to take my own tangent which I shouldn't have. It is interesting to consider to what extent death exists on a "spectrum" to use that word and what role our interventions play. I don't think many people consider walking around with a sign saying, "do no resuscitate" to the same extent we walk around with our credit cards and driver's license. So it really is a look into the eyes of existence and death and to what degree we would consider our situation a negotiation outside of the natural realms.
And I dunno Brian, reddit really could mean anything! /s could mean sexual, sandy, shallow, or sardines. Do the young kids like sardines?
I doubt any messages to the effect of DNR wouldn't be checked in an everyday setting anyway. As an extreme example, my mother's friend suddenly experienced cardiac rupture. This is an obvious case where less-than-highly-diminished recovery is impossible. Died after a continuous month of ICU delirium.
Your comment reminded me of the old adage, “the purpose of modern medicine is to entertain the patient while nature heals him”. Probably more truth in that saying than many realize.
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 24, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent
Unfortunately. I clicked the wrong button on changing your health. I should have clicked all of the above. I have added supplements, began exercising, tried to get more sleep, and changed my diet. I’m old. Do I get a pass? Lol I’ve lost a little over 35 pounds. Those body fat tests still calculate that I’m at the high end of normal scale, but will probably stop soon and maintain.
I started going to a doctor who doesn’t take insurance/Medicare. I pay a fee, so more expensive for me because I now also have to pay for Medicare and supplement. Before I hit 65, my insurance was paid by employer. I also have crappy prescription drug insurance now because Medicare prescription insurance is expensive. That’s okay, I don’t want to take too much medicine anyway. I also spend too much on supplements. I don’t take them all, but I thought we may need them
Congratulations on the weight loss! That must feel great to have lost all of that weight!
That's interesting about the supplements. I think supplements are certainly a place for more informed decisions. Each supplement alone isn't rather pricey- I would probably argue against the narrative that supplements are super expensive. However, it does become a problem when you begin taking tons of different supplements that may rack up a hefty monthly cost. That's probably when we should examine what is possibly necessary.
I'm sorry about the Medicare situation. It sounds like a lot going on in regards to costs.
Congrats! that does sound great so I'm glad that's working out for you! I'm not sure to what extent I would try intermittent fasting but I may consider just reducing when I eat and prevent myself from eating within the evening hours, although that's still a bit of a struggle.
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 25, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent
I try to eat between 11 am and 5 or 6 pm on weekdays. I usually eat breakfast on weekends. I drink lots of water and black coffee w/o sugar. I didn’t think I could do it, but it’s been fairly easy.
Hey Canny Granny. I'm 72 and on Regular Medicare and supplement. I am lucky I only have Blood Pressure meds to worry about. I too, have lost 32 pounds since this Covid thing started. I wish I could afford a Naturopathic Doctor but can't at the moment. I believe Naturopath Doctors are the future. They take care of the disease and not just the symptoms. Eating well has a lot to do with it. Yes, I'm on a lot of supplements too but I have managed to cure my painful arthritic knee, and I have the energy now I had 25 years ago just by changing my diet and walking 45 mins a day. If anything good came out of this Covid crap; it's that a lot of people took control of their own health for the better!
Congratulations! You are right about taking control of your health. I do not trust medicine too much anymore, so I’m gonna try to stay as healthy as possible.
Edit: I am always finding typos even though I think I’m checking what I write. On this post, I wrote heal instead of health. The app is convenient, but it will not allow edits (that I have found), so I have to go to website. I really need to do a better job of proofreading because I would hate for people to think I’m an uneducated nincompoop when in reality I’m an okay educated slightly goofy granny.
I have worked tangentially in the health field for 30+ years, mainly helping others listen to what their body is telling them and doing what is necessary to get healthy. The mind/body concept playing a huge role…the natural healing ability of the body being at the forefront of what I taught. Going against my own intuition, I had “A” Pzifer shot and immediately had an adverse reaction which went on for months. Even through my PCP was an intern with Andrew Weil, MD., I was aghast at how the medical establishment refused to enter my AE in my chart. Even though I had clients, those who follow my work, I was more than surprised that they blanked out when I questioned the safely of the vaccine. As a result, I did a deep dive into Covid and the vaccines, including what we read here. I am saddened that so many resources I formerly trusted drank the cool aid and are not only not open to facts, they are downright mean when they think someone is not vaxxed! I wonder how someone like Stephan Swartz (who writes one oneness and consciousness), Norm Chomsky or the ACLU can be so blind? If there is a light at the end of the tunnel it is the work Robert Kennedy, Jr. is doing, and the work of Jeffrey Sachs (a leading Liberal who has awakened to all we read about here.) The bottom line is that my view of America and democracy has changed. We aren’t the free country we thought we were.
I guess in some regards COVID provided an avenue for many of us to see which people will hold steadfast in their positions and which ones would cave given the circumstances. I think for many COVID was staring down death, leading to many to act in fear for due to staring at their own mortality. Noam Chomsky is no spring chicken, so taking one look at him and seeing how quickly he went from being for the workers to the workers don't need to work if not vaccinated has to be a consequence of him being scared of his own frailty. That's why the go-to for many of these COVID policies were in regards to the elderly, the immunocompromised, and the people who were not well-off healthwise.
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 24, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent
I've always respected supplementation, having been an athlete whose success depended on superior physical fitness, diet and supplementation. Having said that, my respect for 'healthy living' was renewed when the key supplements were proven to directly prevent /help with C-19, et.al. Sleep, NAC, nebulizing, herb extracts, etc. also peaked my interest to study and try... all to my and my husband's (and all who would listen) benefit. I've noticed a greater divide between those who willfully refuse to accept the fact that the jabs were an abject FAILURE.
One thing I found interesting was that even many of the people I know who got vaccinated and boosted still turned to things such as Zinc for when they got COVID. I find it interesting that there's an apparent selective approach that goes on, as if to look at various things in an a la carte manner.
Healthy living really is all-encompassing. We really need to look at everything and understand the multifaceted relationship between our health and our lifestyle choices.
I take NAC and Lion’s Mane now. I don’t go out as much, but I would argue it has a lot to do with COVID protocol nonsense and ignorant vaccine cultists everywhere.
It does make it a bit harder, and I guess to some extent it's good that there's a growing number of people who just appear to be fed up with everything and not being the same mask zealots that were once parading around everywhere in 2020.
The problem is, the zealots are still out there, and they pop up randomly. I was in a store recently, and the clerk said I had to shop in a mask unless my vax status was up-to-date. 🙄 I said I’m not wearing a mask and just walked out. But my action revealed my status to a stranger, which I shouldn’t have been asked to do. It really upset me.
I can understand why it would be frustrating when those situations pop up. It's sort of like when vaccinated people still wore masks because they couldn't tell who was vaccinated. So much for putting your faith in the jab!
But for the most part it does feel as if people have kind of just stopped caring to the degree that they normally did. I'm seeing far more people not in masks even in mask heavy zones, even when there was that Ba.4/Ba.5 scare going on and I think for most people they just want to move on without policing people. I suppose the social credits are not the same now as it was two years ago?
In your polls “for the better/worse”, wasn’t sure what that meant. To me better was “now I know better”. Anyway, I’m a nurse who had the opportunity to retire after a year of Covid nonsense and have not regretted it one bit. I knew in my soul something was “off”, but couldn’t put my finger on it. So I’ve been following the breadcrumbs from the start and I’ve been astounded by what I have found. Healthcare was already going down the tubes; the bureaucracy did nothing but grow once Obamacare came into play. I saw more and more nonsensical decisions concentrated in the hands of the “C” suite. Not only did many of us honestly give hospital administrators answers/ideas in response to their inquiries, but nothing would change and they would conduct meetings as though everything behind closed doors was some big secret. Morale was horrible!
I have done most of the things that I can do for my health for years; however, I did change my diet and have done lots with supplementation of late. I also have been refusing any so-called vaccines, including flu. I am ashamed to admit I never gave that stuff much thought, till three years ago. I am currently looking for another PCP who has experience with modalities on top of any training in conventional medicine. Reading is a hobby, so I have immersed myself in all kinds of health-related info. I’m sickened by the state of what has become sick-care, and can no longer function in such a dysfunctional environment. I could go on, but enough....you get it.
Apologies for the confusion. The "for the better" or "for the worse" really was to ask if your perspective either improved or gotten much worse i.e. do you view doctors in a much more negative light now ("for the worse"). It sucks because Substack is still, for all intents and purposes, a work in progress. It's still sort of in this situation where as soon as they add new features there are a few kinks to work out with said features, or something else has broken on the website. So for Substack's polling features the answers are limited to maybe 30 characters at the most? Hence why some of the answers seem so truncated.
Thanks for providing your perspective. I think many people have thought something was no quite right, and with COVID it kind of gave something to which all of the failures of healthcare were able to be funneled through and made it far more transparent to the general public. It was healthcare failures amplified to an astonishing degree.
It's a shame that most outcries fell on deaf ears. I'm sure the higher ups were more concerned with CDC/NIH policies and sticking to whatever trickles down rather than make their own decisions. I think that's the general problem here. COVID sort of created a divide among doctors seeing who would do as they were told or deviate and act independently. It's a dangerous situation because acting independently means you may be able to save plenty more lives, but if something goes wrong the bureaucratic weight of the government can come down on you for going against the grain. If doctors do as they are told then they can externalize any problems such as death to agencies. Patients who die due to being given medications far too late won't be the fault of the doctors- they were doing as they were told, so no dirty hands on their part.
I've rethought my position on flu vaccines as well. Having one of my friends comment that these COVID vaccines work the same as flu vaccines i.e. not very well kind of made me think about why I took an annual flu vaccine that didn't quite do much in my opinion. I did find it interesting that many of my friends who never got the flu shot were all in on the COVID vaccines as well as the boosters, and especially given our age it was quite shocking to witness.
I would say this pandemic has confirmed my beliefs about both dietary supplements and the healthcare system.
I’ve been taking supplements for over 30 years now and have heard numerous times that supplements were just a waste and created “expensive urine”. The TV told many people that, and they believed. There are so many studies showing the benefits of various supplements it’s impossible to wade through them all.
On healthcare I would say it confirmed that, maybe your doctor cares and is great, but the system he operates in doesn’t care the slightest about your health and well-being. You are just a head in the herd to healthcare overlords.
I begged off the healthcare system 15 years ago after very unsatisfactory results from seeing 3 different doctors and took issues into my own hands. The results from studying dietary supplements and diet in general have been great. We are an over medicated and over doctored country. Investigate areas where people live the longest! They rarely go to see doctors! We need to change our attitudes towards healthcare and take more personal responsibility.
I found the supplements as expensive urine remarks to be mostly unfounded. I wonder how many doctors actually look at the price of supplements- most daily supplements can cost 10-15 bucks but last 2-3 months. It is likely true that much of what we supplement with is removed via lack of bioavailability, but again "expensive" is a relative term.
What's important with supplements is understanding to what degree we may rely on them. I remember even writing about this in my Quercetin Anthology series where I argued that micronutrients such as Quercetin should probably be given a bigger, more important role in our diet considering that we have eaten fruits and vegetables for thousands of years. If we are supplementing because we have drastically altered our dietary habits for heavily processed foods we should consider going back to whole, nutrient-dense foods first and then address the holes where necessary.
I have had a healthy mistrust for doctors for 40 years. Now that mistrusted has turned to distain. They say evidence nased but cannot produce the evidence: I fond most are unhealthy and ignorant. Many cannot be bothered to read a journal article I have added supplements such as quercitin and NAC. I have give up my asthma meds for nebulizing food grade H2O2. The biggest thing is the addition of methylene blue. Wow, it’s amazing. Always exercised and did not stop. Lost pounds rather that gained during this debacle. Plenty of sunshine as well. I eat organic and keto. Meat is locally raised.
That's good to hear Dr. Linda! I wrestle with the concept of science/knowledge brokers and who sort of drives the information that gets disseminated. Doctors are likely to be far too busy with their practices to be able to keep up with the literature, and as such one has to wonder where they get their information. That usually means that their knowledge brokers are going to be salespeople for pharmaceutical manufacturers, and it's likely them who provide the glistening reviews for new drugs to push onto their patients.
It's the case that many doctors may be knowledge brokers for the public, but their own knowledge brokers are ones to have ties that may go against the principles and intentions of the medical profession.
I live in Hungary, I am 55 years old. During my Covid period, after homeoffice, I was regularly running outdoors, or doing my own weight training, or doing my own exercises at home. So I was not affected by the gym closures. I have been taking dietary supplements in the right quantity and quality for years. I started Covid period with a vitamin D level of 200nmol/l (80ng/ml). I had no problems in 2020 and 2021, not even a cold. I have not been vaccinated, nor will I be. In Feb 2022 Covid decided to stop, but it hasn't even stopped me from working. I was back to normal in 4 weeks with a home office. I also used Ivermectin during my recovery. I have not been seen by a doctor during this time. I pay special attention to my sleep, keep my circadian rhythm nice and steady. I sleep from 10pm to 5.30am, in a completely darkened room. I've been fasting in stages for over a year now, with a 16/8 split. I also pay close attention to my iodine intake. I have been consuming 50 milligrams of iodine per day in the form of Lugol's solution for over a year. I pay close attention to my breathing. I also use the Buteyko breathing technique for my runs during the week. I do not trust 90% of doctors. I consider most of them corrupt and narrow minded. They are not at all aware of the role of vitamins, trace elements and minerals. I believe that the Creator put us humans together perfectly. It is our job to maintain that perfection to the best of our ability. To do this, we need to keep learning, we need to understand our own human functioning, even if we do not have a medical degree. This is how we can ensure that we make the best decisions for our own health. I consider this to be the biggest lesson of the last 2.5 years. We need to raise our awareness to the highest level, both physically and mentally!
Very interesting perspective Istvan! It sounds like you were already doing things that many of us should have been doing via exercise, nutrition, and sleep. I do believe science is there to elucidate much of what is going on within our bodies, but science is not a set field that comes to a consensus easily. Several scientists and doctors have raised questions as to whether the daily dietary measures for vitamins may be severely outdated, such as is the case for Vitamin D with doctors suggesting the daily intake should be increased. Science is far away from being able to solve all of our problems, and we should make sure to consider that- science isn't settled, and science comes with it a host of limitations.
A lot of research in Hungary has shown that the amount of vitamins, trace elements and minerals in crops grown on a large scale is a fraction of what it was 100 years ago. Our land in which we grow the crops and are depleted. Because the crops that animals eat and that we humans eat are deficient in vitamins, trace elements and minerals, we have to eat these missing things in supplement form. That's it! I listen to cutting-edge science, and I also take 4000 IU of vitamin D daily, for example, in multivitamin format, which means that in addition to this I also take vitamin A 4000 IU, magnesium, vitamins K1 and K2, and many, many others (vitamin C, vitamin E, B vitamins, etc.) I ignore official recommendations that recommend small amounts. I weigh the official claims of science against internal standards and if they don't agree, I reject them. Because of this attitude, I am currently in explosive form. My blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol (both LDL and HDL) are well within range. My Garmin app says my fitness age is 47 :)
I'm watching for new research on life-giving sunshine. Beyond vitamin D production, I'm fascinated by the effect of near infrared radiation on increasing mitochondrial melatonin production in the skin cells.
I think public health policy has been atrocious and doctors beyond naïve (at best) in pushing new mRNA vaccine technology. On the other hand, I think we should be careful that "our side" doesn't fall into blanket hysteria over everything Western medicine or vaccine-related.
I published another analysis of Novavax today, and I'm sorry to disappoint everyone in that it does look like it will be safer than Pfizer/Moderna. Am I biased in *wanting* a safer alternative? Yes, but this is also common sense since we already know how protein subunit vaccines behave in general, and mRNA is problematic for reasons I would think are obvious.
But my Novavax article has gotten very little likes, and I am quite concerned that people are actually going to hurt the movement to get mRNA vaccine dangers into the mainstream awareness...if they just blanket shut down on Novavax before we have enough information to warrant a fear campaign against it.
More specifically, if people just react and go "all lipid nanoparticles are evil!" without fully understanding what a nanoparticle is, or what the difference is between nanoparticles for mRNA and nanoparticles for a pre-made antigen, we're going to be waived off as a bunch of hysterical people with little science understanding.
Yes I saw that post Stephanie. What's happening is that this may be a feature of the heuristics fallacy, as in using generalizations and shortcuts are easier approaches than to consider nuances. As such, it's far easier to demonize ALL vaccines rather than to pick apart each individual one and see which ones have what pros and which ones have what cons, where do they overlap and where do they differ.
I think there is an ideology issue, in that there's a bit of tribalism that does not what to be in favor of any of the actions in question for fear it concedes some made up ground to opponents. But that argument is only an issue insofar as we find it necessary to engage in tribal antics and otherings of our opponents.
I don't think PAXLOVID is very effective, but I don't think it's an indication that the vaccines are compromising the immune system- that's a very tenuous association to make. I'm concerned about the safety profile of Molnupiravir, but I never stated that it was carcinogenic, only that we have no robust evidence that it wasn't carcinogenic. So as such, it's far easier to argue against these therapeutics by ascribing them with some negative feature that hasn't been fully elucidated if it means that we don't concede the ground and consider these options.
Like you, I found it rather interesting that my post on Evusheld did not gain much traction. I was wondering if it was because I didn't include any words in the title associating it to COVID, or if people thought that a prophylactic that helps the immunocompromised wouldn't be a good fit for the narrative. I thought that Evusheld would be a perfect prophylactic to consider for those who don't respond to the vaccines, and yet I didn't see so much as a peep about Evusheld. I'm not sure what the FLCCC's stance is on monoclonals but I saw a section on their recovery protocols that argued against the use of convalescent plasma or monoclonals due to the immunogenicity of these agents, although most monoclonals have modifications to their Fc stalk to prevent binding to Fc receptors.
I've sort of rebutted much of the OAS hysteria because I found it to have fallen into a far too simplistic method of thinking- it's another method of engaging in heuristics without thinking of all of the context necessary to argue that OAS is occurring, or how cross-reactive immunity which was something that was a feature of the adaptive immune system is now a bug as explained through OAS.
I write my posts in a manner that I hope teaches people to engage in the science more than to exist as peripheral viewers. The way the Icelandic study was pushed around really bothered me, mostly for the fact that the study was so small and so easy to read and yet people just ran with it. I suppose over time I just became more disillusioned with many people. As much as people have become critical of the science and medical community, may people still want to be told what to think rather than how to think.
Maybe it's a bit undersampling important detail. I had to check - yes, views on healthcare system changed, and for the worse. But... not that much, so counting me as "full" there is perhaps not accurate.
I "always" found the whole pharma-based-by-default approach very suspect and that "evidence based medicine" for the vast majority of stuff looks at "does pharma product X 'work'" (where 'work' is defined by 'them'), while, "of course", not a lot of money is being spent on shining light down other alleys, so our perception of health- & medical reality is way off anyway, given heavily biased illumination of only certain portions of the labyrinth.
Then I've had my share of experience with doctors being totally at a loss when they can't diagnose something with a 5-step multiple choice test, or so my impression.
Haphazard prescription of antibiotics still super common, although it's known to be bad for decades?
That sort of stuff... made me visit doctors as rarely as possible, way before COVID.
Completely understandable, I could have honestly just put, "it depends" for every answer but then I think everyone would just answer that. These polls are very informal and it's sort of a loose gauge to see how someone's views compare to others.
A few months ago I wrote a post on evidence-based medicine which might interest you:
There's an issue in which positive studies are likely to be favored over neutral or negative studies, and this bias is likely to lead to assumptions that drugs are effective based on the collection of evidence. In reality, if some of the evidence is hidden we can't say for sure that the totality of evidence would be in favor of the drug.
There is something to be said about how medicine has been "streamlined" at the detriment of the patient. I've had many visits where the physician was more concerned with filling out information than paying attention to me. It doesn't make for a personal experience.
I have lost faith in the medical establishment and have searched for answers from many sources mostly on the internet. I respect my internist however he thought ivermectin did not have studies to show it worked for Covid. He recommended the covid shot but did not push it and after I got covid in January this year he no longer recommended the shot which I was happy to hear. Unfortunately I have lost faith in flu and pneumonia shots for myself since I am a healthy 68 year old. Or maybe that is a good thing. After seeing so much of the lies and fraud of big pharma, CDC, FDA and Bill Gates I am having to reevaluate many health recommendations and search for truth elsewhere. I feel more empowered to do that also. Thank you so much for all the time you have put into research and sharing what you find.
That's really interesting. Possibly being an internist had some help in making him more malleable to change? Or it could have been him in particular. I could see it going either way to be quite honest.
I certainly believe that COVID should have led others to become more informed activists for their own health. It's why I try to write about drugs and supplements to provide people with information they can use for their own health.
Thank you Cindy! It does mean a lot to hear from people who find utility in my work!
Prior, I never read or looked at medical studies. I let other people tell me what the research said. Never again. I'm not a data or numbers person but I regret not being more aware in the past. I won't get another vaccine again. I'm 63, so probably won't need more but regret not researching for myself. I thought RFK, Jr. was an environmental wacko. My apologies to him and all the "anti-vaxxers". It is clear, IMO, anti-vaxxers are pro-vaxxers who had an awakening!
I definitely like to hear the first part! I think there is still an issue in which people are too trusting of others to do the analysis for them, but I think it's good that that more people at least stop and take a devil's advocate approach before diving all in and trusting other people's reporting of science.
I've certainly been dissuaded from annual flu vaccines. I've made a comment somewhere that my friend remarking the COVID vaccines are similar to the flu vaccines being a big nope to me wanting annual flu vaccines.
Thanks for the link Paul! It reminds me of when people were looking into coconut oil as a possible agent against COVID. I think a few of the studies into fatty acids were looking at them as agents to break up the virus' membranes.
I do hope this at least reminds people to look things up and not just rely on the words of others. Even if there's a lot to wade through people do need to stat from somewhere.
Not much has changed for me in terms of personal health. I have been an avid amateur athlete for the last 22 years. Good diet, supplementation, stress reduction, and exercise have been a part of my life for decades. The worst thing about COVID policies (not the virus) have been the physical limitations on my freedom (like when they forced gyms to close and we were forced by Newsom to workout outside in the middle of fire season when the air was toxic) and the violations of my bodily autonomy (i.e., vaccine mandates), both of which were a challenge to my mental health. Covid further confirmed my pre-existing belief that the most subversive thing that you can do is be self-reliant and stay healthy.
avid amateur athlete- try saying that 3 times fast!
The paradox that in order to stay healthy policies were made to stop people from being healthy. I remember one of the parks near my house started putting up barriers around the playgrounds to stop people from going on the equipment, as if COVID is waiting to strike kids on the slides! I originally thought that the county was going to use this time to remodel many of the playgrounds, but then I realized that it really was to stop kids when they removed the seats from the swings. I did notice a lot of people began walking because no one had much else to do, but I don't remember how long much of that lasted to be quite honest.
We should never forget those aerial pictures of skateparks filled with sand... While I and many adults coped just fine with the nefarious Covid policies, I am filled with rage when I think about what was done to children -- how every policy was designed to handicap them physically, intellectually, and psychologically.
I wasn't even aware of the sand in skateparks! Cue Anakin Skywalker quote? But how ridiculous, I mean how is someone supposed to clean all of that up?
I believe children interactions have been permanently damaged from the lockdowns. There have been kids who have drawn masks on pictures of children because they thought it didn't look right. The biggest issue is that we have raised a generation of children to do as they are told without providing the proper explanation as to why or maybe how so many adults screwed this up. I think we need a correction period in which parents explain why masks aren't as perfect as they were made out to be, with the hope that children don't carry these failures further into the future with teenagers who mask without knowing exactly why they should.
As an unvax’d person living among the vax’d, mental health has been an issue for me too. I feel like a Jew living in 1933 Nazi Germany. I don’t feel bad making this comparison, because I heard it from a Holocaust survivor. She says it is entirely appropriate.
Holocaust Survivor Vera Sharav Speech at Nuremberg 75
“Never Again” is Now
https://rumble.com/v1gtl0n-vera-sharav-speech-at-nuremberg-75.html?
I'm fortunate most people around me have sort of stopped caring, but there were certain times where it legitimately felt like I would need to show papers in order to gain entry somewhere. It takes its toll because you have to figure out where you are welcomed, and if people ask whether you want to go out you have to check to see if places have vaccine policies and you can't quite bluntly state to people why you can't come. A few of my friends have gotten married over COVID, and they kept their weddings to a minimum with only close family members, so I'm fortunate I wasn't put into a situation in which a friend asked if I would attend a wedding only to have to decline without quite giving an upfront explanation as to why.
Same and Kitty Werthmann’s story was just as amazing: https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/she-survived-hitler-and-wants-to-warn-america.html
I was already anti-medicine before the virus panic. I think there is a line where intervention into illness distorts what should be the natural human experience of death and our current system presumes it to be mandatory to cross that line for every individual it can get its hands on (ie, those not lucky enough to die in an accident before making it the hospital; but even those will be tortured with useless CPR even after they have technically died). Certainly the ""biopolitics" aspect of public health has come sharply into focus where I used to see this stuff as more purely materialist.
Alright, I'll put you down in the "grandma killer" category Brian! /s (for older people, this is a reddit thing to insinuate sarcasm)
I think it is something worth considering. Modern medicine has done a lot to help us live longer, but we also need to examine to what extent we should consider the length of our lives, and whether we should take into account other factors that contribute to our overall health. Surely diabetes medication can help control for high blood sugar, but shouldn't we as a society do things to prevent the need for diabetes medications? In that regard, and something I mentioned in my NAC post, we have to consider whether medications and supplements are a method of addressing problems that can't be fixed through behavioral or lifestyle changes, or if we are using them as a bandage for more serious problems, essentially pushing the real problems under the rug.
I’m going to chime in here. If you have an elderly family member with no money and poor health, there’s not much help from anywhere especially if he/she had no property, didn’t trust banks, and got his/her SS money out of the bank every month. Medicaid doesn’t like that.
After caring for someone for a year and trying to figure out costs, care, arguing with siblings, etc, I know that I want to go out in a flash. I don’t want my daughter to have to figure out how to take care of me! Especially if the economy wipes out my savings. I hope she can feel sad when I die and not exhausted or relieved. Therefore I’ve decided that I don’t want surgery after 70 or anything else that my cause me to be dependent. Of course, its no one else’s job to tell me when I need to die (WEF), but I do hope I just don’t wake up one morning instead of dying a little every night for years.
Certainly I understand the situation Canny Granny. I don't want to expose too much of my personal life, but I'll say that I helped out a very close friend a few months prior who's family member went from diagnosed to deceased in a matter of two months. Helping out the friend and just seeing the immediate deterioration while the family had to figure out exactly what to do was a pretty horrifying experience. Trying to see them juggle insurance as well as other agencies and dwindling finances certainly took a toll on everyone. It's a huge emotional rollercoaster, especially at the end when family had to decide if they reached their limit and will only take supportive care within the last few days. It was certainly a situation which caused other family members to state that if they were ever in a similar position to really not fight to keep them alive due to the sheer burden on those around them.
So in that regard I can empathize with you Canny Granny. I suppose I wouldn't want to go down the route of discussing euthanasia because I really don't know what position I would take and I'd rather not have to make that decision, but I do understand people's awareness and consideration for their life with respect to those around them and to what extent they would want to be a burden on their loved ones. There's much to discuss about giving people the choice to choose how they spend the last years of their life.
I was told that "/s" means "seriously" /s.
I don't just mean our obsession with living "longer" (though that is one manifestation of our de-normalizing of a thing that happens to literally everyone ever born, ie death), but the lack of a line for rescuing people from death - things like ICUs, resuscitation, these should be understood as an unnatural intervention into the core of what the human experience is. This is a blog along my lines of thought, ironically from an anonymous medical professional -
https://medicalnemesis.substack.com/p/there-comes-a-time-to-die
"There comes a time to die. It used to be that all people knew it and prepared for it. Today in places where Western medicine is well developed and people believe that death is not a certainty but an option to be negotiated, dying becomes a torture smeared in time. Everybody dies no matter what you do. How you die differs."
Other good ones https://medicalnemesis.substack.com/p/right-to-be-sick-most-threatened-right and https://medicalnemesis.substack.com/p/quo-vadis
I believe you were heading down that route but then I had to take my own tangent which I shouldn't have. It is interesting to consider to what extent death exists on a "spectrum" to use that word and what role our interventions play. I don't think many people consider walking around with a sign saying, "do no resuscitate" to the same extent we walk around with our credit cards and driver's license. So it really is a look into the eyes of existence and death and to what degree we would consider our situation a negotiation outside of the natural realms.
And I dunno Brian, reddit really could mean anything! /s could mean sexual, sandy, shallow, or sardines. Do the young kids like sardines?
I doubt any messages to the effect of DNR wouldn't be checked in an everyday setting anyway. As an extreme example, my mother's friend suddenly experienced cardiac rupture. This is an obvious case where less-than-highly-diminished recovery is impossible. Died after a continuous month of ICU delirium.
Yeah eating preserved fish is big rn
Your comment reminded me of the old adage, “the purpose of modern medicine is to entertain the patient while nature heals him”. Probably more truth in that saying than many realize.
Unfortunately. I clicked the wrong button on changing your health. I should have clicked all of the above. I have added supplements, began exercising, tried to get more sleep, and changed my diet. I’m old. Do I get a pass? Lol I’ve lost a little over 35 pounds. Those body fat tests still calculate that I’m at the high end of normal scale, but will probably stop soon and maintain.
I started going to a doctor who doesn’t take insurance/Medicare. I pay a fee, so more expensive for me because I now also have to pay for Medicare and supplement. Before I hit 65, my insurance was paid by employer. I also have crappy prescription drug insurance now because Medicare prescription insurance is expensive. That’s okay, I don’t want to take too much medicine anyway. I also spend too much on supplements. I don’t take them all, but I thought we may need them
Congratulations on the weight loss! That must feel great to have lost all of that weight!
That's interesting about the supplements. I think supplements are certainly a place for more informed decisions. Each supplement alone isn't rather pricey- I would probably argue against the narrative that supplements are super expensive. However, it does become a problem when you begin taking tons of different supplements that may rack up a hefty monthly cost. That's probably when we should examine what is possibly necessary.
I'm sorry about the Medicare situation. It sounds like a lot going on in regards to costs.
It does. I’m 65 and I can run again! Lol I’m getting close to college weight. It’s been easy because I do intermittent fasting a just watch my carbs.
Congrats! that does sound great so I'm glad that's working out for you! I'm not sure to what extent I would try intermittent fasting but I may consider just reducing when I eat and prevent myself from eating within the evening hours, although that's still a bit of a struggle.
I try to eat between 11 am and 5 or 6 pm on weekdays. I usually eat breakfast on weekends. I drink lots of water and black coffee w/o sugar. I didn’t think I could do it, but it’s been fairly easy.
Hey Canny Granny. I'm 72 and on Regular Medicare and supplement. I am lucky I only have Blood Pressure meds to worry about. I too, have lost 32 pounds since this Covid thing started. I wish I could afford a Naturopathic Doctor but can't at the moment. I believe Naturopath Doctors are the future. They take care of the disease and not just the symptoms. Eating well has a lot to do with it. Yes, I'm on a lot of supplements too but I have managed to cure my painful arthritic knee, and I have the energy now I had 25 years ago just by changing my diet and walking 45 mins a day. If anything good came out of this Covid crap; it's that a lot of people took control of their own health for the better!
Congratulations! You are right about taking control of your health. I do not trust medicine too much anymore, so I’m gonna try to stay as healthy as possible.
Edit: I am always finding typos even though I think I’m checking what I write. On this post, I wrote heal instead of health. The app is convenient, but it will not allow edits (that I have found), so I have to go to website. I really need to do a better job of proofreading because I would hate for people to think I’m an uneducated nincompoop when in reality I’m an okay educated slightly goofy granny.
I have worked tangentially in the health field for 30+ years, mainly helping others listen to what their body is telling them and doing what is necessary to get healthy. The mind/body concept playing a huge role…the natural healing ability of the body being at the forefront of what I taught. Going against my own intuition, I had “A” Pzifer shot and immediately had an adverse reaction which went on for months. Even through my PCP was an intern with Andrew Weil, MD., I was aghast at how the medical establishment refused to enter my AE in my chart. Even though I had clients, those who follow my work, I was more than surprised that they blanked out when I questioned the safely of the vaccine. As a result, I did a deep dive into Covid and the vaccines, including what we read here. I am saddened that so many resources I formerly trusted drank the cool aid and are not only not open to facts, they are downright mean when they think someone is not vaxxed! I wonder how someone like Stephan Swartz (who writes one oneness and consciousness), Norm Chomsky or the ACLU can be so blind? If there is a light at the end of the tunnel it is the work Robert Kennedy, Jr. is doing, and the work of Jeffrey Sachs (a leading Liberal who has awakened to all we read about here.) The bottom line is that my view of America and democracy has changed. We aren’t the free country we thought we were.
I guess in some regards COVID provided an avenue for many of us to see which people will hold steadfast in their positions and which ones would cave given the circumstances. I think for many COVID was staring down death, leading to many to act in fear for due to staring at their own mortality. Noam Chomsky is no spring chicken, so taking one look at him and seeing how quickly he went from being for the workers to the workers don't need to work if not vaccinated has to be a consequence of him being scared of his own frailty. That's why the go-to for many of these COVID policies were in regards to the elderly, the immunocompromised, and the people who were not well-off healthwise.
I could not agree more.
I've always respected supplementation, having been an athlete whose success depended on superior physical fitness, diet and supplementation. Having said that, my respect for 'healthy living' was renewed when the key supplements were proven to directly prevent /help with C-19, et.al. Sleep, NAC, nebulizing, herb extracts, etc. also peaked my interest to study and try... all to my and my husband's (and all who would listen) benefit. I've noticed a greater divide between those who willfully refuse to accept the fact that the jabs were an abject FAILURE.
One thing I found interesting was that even many of the people I know who got vaccinated and boosted still turned to things such as Zinc for when they got COVID. I find it interesting that there's an apparent selective approach that goes on, as if to look at various things in an a la carte manner.
Healthy living really is all-encompassing. We really need to look at everything and understand the multifaceted relationship between our health and our lifestyle choices.
I take NAC and Lion’s Mane now. I don’t go out as much, but I would argue it has a lot to do with COVID protocol nonsense and ignorant vaccine cultists everywhere.
It does make it a bit harder, and I guess to some extent it's good that there's a growing number of people who just appear to be fed up with everything and not being the same mask zealots that were once parading around everywhere in 2020.
The problem is, the zealots are still out there, and they pop up randomly. I was in a store recently, and the clerk said I had to shop in a mask unless my vax status was up-to-date. 🙄 I said I’m not wearing a mask and just walked out. But my action revealed my status to a stranger, which I shouldn’t have been asked to do. It really upset me.
I can understand why it would be frustrating when those situations pop up. It's sort of like when vaccinated people still wore masks because they couldn't tell who was vaccinated. So much for putting your faith in the jab!
But for the most part it does feel as if people have kind of just stopped caring to the degree that they normally did. I'm seeing far more people not in masks even in mask heavy zones, even when there was that Ba.4/Ba.5 scare going on and I think for most people they just want to move on without policing people. I suppose the social credits are not the same now as it was two years ago?
In your polls “for the better/worse”, wasn’t sure what that meant. To me better was “now I know better”. Anyway, I’m a nurse who had the opportunity to retire after a year of Covid nonsense and have not regretted it one bit. I knew in my soul something was “off”, but couldn’t put my finger on it. So I’ve been following the breadcrumbs from the start and I’ve been astounded by what I have found. Healthcare was already going down the tubes; the bureaucracy did nothing but grow once Obamacare came into play. I saw more and more nonsensical decisions concentrated in the hands of the “C” suite. Not only did many of us honestly give hospital administrators answers/ideas in response to their inquiries, but nothing would change and they would conduct meetings as though everything behind closed doors was some big secret. Morale was horrible!
I have done most of the things that I can do for my health for years; however, I did change my diet and have done lots with supplementation of late. I also have been refusing any so-called vaccines, including flu. I am ashamed to admit I never gave that stuff much thought, till three years ago. I am currently looking for another PCP who has experience with modalities on top of any training in conventional medicine. Reading is a hobby, so I have immersed myself in all kinds of health-related info. I’m sickened by the state of what has become sick-care, and can no longer function in such a dysfunctional environment. I could go on, but enough....you get it.
Apologies for the confusion. The "for the better" or "for the worse" really was to ask if your perspective either improved or gotten much worse i.e. do you view doctors in a much more negative light now ("for the worse"). It sucks because Substack is still, for all intents and purposes, a work in progress. It's still sort of in this situation where as soon as they add new features there are a few kinks to work out with said features, or something else has broken on the website. So for Substack's polling features the answers are limited to maybe 30 characters at the most? Hence why some of the answers seem so truncated.
Thanks for providing your perspective. I think many people have thought something was no quite right, and with COVID it kind of gave something to which all of the failures of healthcare were able to be funneled through and made it far more transparent to the general public. It was healthcare failures amplified to an astonishing degree.
It's a shame that most outcries fell on deaf ears. I'm sure the higher ups were more concerned with CDC/NIH policies and sticking to whatever trickles down rather than make their own decisions. I think that's the general problem here. COVID sort of created a divide among doctors seeing who would do as they were told or deviate and act independently. It's a dangerous situation because acting independently means you may be able to save plenty more lives, but if something goes wrong the bureaucratic weight of the government can come down on you for going against the grain. If doctors do as they are told then they can externalize any problems such as death to agencies. Patients who die due to being given medications far too late won't be the fault of the doctors- they were doing as they were told, so no dirty hands on their part.
I've rethought my position on flu vaccines as well. Having one of my friends comment that these COVID vaccines work the same as flu vaccines i.e. not very well kind of made me think about why I took an annual flu vaccine that didn't quite do much in my opinion. I did find it interesting that many of my friends who never got the flu shot were all in on the COVID vaccines as well as the boosters, and especially given our age it was quite shocking to witness.
I would say this pandemic has confirmed my beliefs about both dietary supplements and the healthcare system.
I’ve been taking supplements for over 30 years now and have heard numerous times that supplements were just a waste and created “expensive urine”. The TV told many people that, and they believed. There are so many studies showing the benefits of various supplements it’s impossible to wade through them all.
On healthcare I would say it confirmed that, maybe your doctor cares and is great, but the system he operates in doesn’t care the slightest about your health and well-being. You are just a head in the herd to healthcare overlords.
I begged off the healthcare system 15 years ago after very unsatisfactory results from seeing 3 different doctors and took issues into my own hands. The results from studying dietary supplements and diet in general have been great. We are an over medicated and over doctored country. Investigate areas where people live the longest! They rarely go to see doctors! We need to change our attitudes towards healthcare and take more personal responsibility.
I found the supplements as expensive urine remarks to be mostly unfounded. I wonder how many doctors actually look at the price of supplements- most daily supplements can cost 10-15 bucks but last 2-3 months. It is likely true that much of what we supplement with is removed via lack of bioavailability, but again "expensive" is a relative term.
What's important with supplements is understanding to what degree we may rely on them. I remember even writing about this in my Quercetin Anthology series where I argued that micronutrients such as Quercetin should probably be given a bigger, more important role in our diet considering that we have eaten fruits and vegetables for thousands of years. If we are supplementing because we have drastically altered our dietary habits for heavily processed foods we should consider going back to whole, nutrient-dense foods first and then address the holes where necessary.
Great comment. 👍
I have had a healthy mistrust for doctors for 40 years. Now that mistrusted has turned to distain. They say evidence nased but cannot produce the evidence: I fond most are unhealthy and ignorant. Many cannot be bothered to read a journal article I have added supplements such as quercitin and NAC. I have give up my asthma meds for nebulizing food grade H2O2. The biggest thing is the addition of methylene blue. Wow, it’s amazing. Always exercised and did not stop. Lost pounds rather that gained during this debacle. Plenty of sunshine as well. I eat organic and keto. Meat is locally raised.
That's good to hear Dr. Linda! I wrestle with the concept of science/knowledge brokers and who sort of drives the information that gets disseminated. Doctors are likely to be far too busy with their practices to be able to keep up with the literature, and as such one has to wonder where they get their information. That usually means that their knowledge brokers are going to be salespeople for pharmaceutical manufacturers, and it's likely them who provide the glistening reviews for new drugs to push onto their patients.
It's the case that many doctors may be knowledge brokers for the public, but their own knowledge brokers are ones to have ties that may go against the principles and intentions of the medical profession.
I live in Hungary, I am 55 years old. During my Covid period, after homeoffice, I was regularly running outdoors, or doing my own weight training, or doing my own exercises at home. So I was not affected by the gym closures. I have been taking dietary supplements in the right quantity and quality for years. I started Covid period with a vitamin D level of 200nmol/l (80ng/ml). I had no problems in 2020 and 2021, not even a cold. I have not been vaccinated, nor will I be. In Feb 2022 Covid decided to stop, but it hasn't even stopped me from working. I was back to normal in 4 weeks with a home office. I also used Ivermectin during my recovery. I have not been seen by a doctor during this time. I pay special attention to my sleep, keep my circadian rhythm nice and steady. I sleep from 10pm to 5.30am, in a completely darkened room. I've been fasting in stages for over a year now, with a 16/8 split. I also pay close attention to my iodine intake. I have been consuming 50 milligrams of iodine per day in the form of Lugol's solution for over a year. I pay close attention to my breathing. I also use the Buteyko breathing technique for my runs during the week. I do not trust 90% of doctors. I consider most of them corrupt and narrow minded. They are not at all aware of the role of vitamins, trace elements and minerals. I believe that the Creator put us humans together perfectly. It is our job to maintain that perfection to the best of our ability. To do this, we need to keep learning, we need to understand our own human functioning, even if we do not have a medical degree. This is how we can ensure that we make the best decisions for our own health. I consider this to be the biggest lesson of the last 2.5 years. We need to raise our awareness to the highest level, both physically and mentally!
Very interesting perspective Istvan! It sounds like you were already doing things that many of us should have been doing via exercise, nutrition, and sleep. I do believe science is there to elucidate much of what is going on within our bodies, but science is not a set field that comes to a consensus easily. Several scientists and doctors have raised questions as to whether the daily dietary measures for vitamins may be severely outdated, such as is the case for Vitamin D with doctors suggesting the daily intake should be increased. Science is far away from being able to solve all of our problems, and we should make sure to consider that- science isn't settled, and science comes with it a host of limitations.
A lot of research in Hungary has shown that the amount of vitamins, trace elements and minerals in crops grown on a large scale is a fraction of what it was 100 years ago. Our land in which we grow the crops and are depleted. Because the crops that animals eat and that we humans eat are deficient in vitamins, trace elements and minerals, we have to eat these missing things in supplement form. That's it! I listen to cutting-edge science, and I also take 4000 IU of vitamin D daily, for example, in multivitamin format, which means that in addition to this I also take vitamin A 4000 IU, magnesium, vitamins K1 and K2, and many, many others (vitamin C, vitamin E, B vitamins, etc.) I ignore official recommendations that recommend small amounts. I weigh the official claims of science against internal standards and if they don't agree, I reject them. Because of this attitude, I am currently in explosive form. My blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol (both LDL and HDL) are well within range. My Garmin app says my fitness age is 47 :)
I'm watching for new research on life-giving sunshine. Beyond vitamin D production, I'm fascinated by the effect of near infrared radiation on increasing mitochondrial melatonin production in the skin cells.
I think public health policy has been atrocious and doctors beyond naïve (at best) in pushing new mRNA vaccine technology. On the other hand, I think we should be careful that "our side" doesn't fall into blanket hysteria over everything Western medicine or vaccine-related.
I published another analysis of Novavax today, and I'm sorry to disappoint everyone in that it does look like it will be safer than Pfizer/Moderna. Am I biased in *wanting* a safer alternative? Yes, but this is also common sense since we already know how protein subunit vaccines behave in general, and mRNA is problematic for reasons I would think are obvious.
https://wholistic.substack.com/p/novavax-eua-authorized-for-kids-12
But my Novavax article has gotten very little likes, and I am quite concerned that people are actually going to hurt the movement to get mRNA vaccine dangers into the mainstream awareness...if they just blanket shut down on Novavax before we have enough information to warrant a fear campaign against it.
More specifically, if people just react and go "all lipid nanoparticles are evil!" without fully understanding what a nanoparticle is, or what the difference is between nanoparticles for mRNA and nanoparticles for a pre-made antigen, we're going to be waived off as a bunch of hysterical people with little science understanding.
Yes I saw that post Stephanie. What's happening is that this may be a feature of the heuristics fallacy, as in using generalizations and shortcuts are easier approaches than to consider nuances. As such, it's far easier to demonize ALL vaccines rather than to pick apart each individual one and see which ones have what pros and which ones have what cons, where do they overlap and where do they differ.
I think there is an ideology issue, in that there's a bit of tribalism that does not what to be in favor of any of the actions in question for fear it concedes some made up ground to opponents. But that argument is only an issue insofar as we find it necessary to engage in tribal antics and otherings of our opponents.
I don't think PAXLOVID is very effective, but I don't think it's an indication that the vaccines are compromising the immune system- that's a very tenuous association to make. I'm concerned about the safety profile of Molnupiravir, but I never stated that it was carcinogenic, only that we have no robust evidence that it wasn't carcinogenic. So as such, it's far easier to argue against these therapeutics by ascribing them with some negative feature that hasn't been fully elucidated if it means that we don't concede the ground and consider these options.
Like you, I found it rather interesting that my post on Evusheld did not gain much traction. I was wondering if it was because I didn't include any words in the title associating it to COVID, or if people thought that a prophylactic that helps the immunocompromised wouldn't be a good fit for the narrative. I thought that Evusheld would be a perfect prophylactic to consider for those who don't respond to the vaccines, and yet I didn't see so much as a peep about Evusheld. I'm not sure what the FLCCC's stance is on monoclonals but I saw a section on their recovery protocols that argued against the use of convalescent plasma or monoclonals due to the immunogenicity of these agents, although most monoclonals have modifications to their Fc stalk to prevent binding to Fc receptors.
I've sort of rebutted much of the OAS hysteria because I found it to have fallen into a far too simplistic method of thinking- it's another method of engaging in heuristics without thinking of all of the context necessary to argue that OAS is occurring, or how cross-reactive immunity which was something that was a feature of the adaptive immune system is now a bug as explained through OAS.
I write my posts in a manner that I hope teaches people to engage in the science more than to exist as peripheral viewers. The way the Icelandic study was pushed around really bothered me, mostly for the fact that the study was so small and so easy to read and yet people just ran with it. I suppose over time I just became more disillusioned with many people. As much as people have become critical of the science and medical community, may people still want to be told what to think rather than how to think.
Maybe it's a bit undersampling important detail. I had to check - yes, views on healthcare system changed, and for the worse. But... not that much, so counting me as "full" there is perhaps not accurate.
I "always" found the whole pharma-based-by-default approach very suspect and that "evidence based medicine" for the vast majority of stuff looks at "does pharma product X 'work'" (where 'work' is defined by 'them'), while, "of course", not a lot of money is being spent on shining light down other alleys, so our perception of health- & medical reality is way off anyway, given heavily biased illumination of only certain portions of the labyrinth.
Then I've had my share of experience with doctors being totally at a loss when they can't diagnose something with a 5-step multiple choice test, or so my impression.
Haphazard prescription of antibiotics still super common, although it's known to be bad for decades?
That sort of stuff... made me visit doctors as rarely as possible, way before COVID.
Completely understandable, I could have honestly just put, "it depends" for every answer but then I think everyone would just answer that. These polls are very informal and it's sort of a loose gauge to see how someone's views compare to others.
A few months ago I wrote a post on evidence-based medicine which might interest you:
https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/the-illusion-of-evidence-based-medicine
There's an issue in which positive studies are likely to be favored over neutral or negative studies, and this bias is likely to lead to assumptions that drugs are effective based on the collection of evidence. In reality, if some of the evidence is hidden we can't say for sure that the totality of evidence would be in favor of the drug.
There is something to be said about how medicine has been "streamlined" at the detriment of the patient. I've had many visits where the physician was more concerned with filling out information than paying attention to me. It doesn't make for a personal experience.
I have lost faith in the medical establishment and have searched for answers from many sources mostly on the internet. I respect my internist however he thought ivermectin did not have studies to show it worked for Covid. He recommended the covid shot but did not push it and after I got covid in January this year he no longer recommended the shot which I was happy to hear. Unfortunately I have lost faith in flu and pneumonia shots for myself since I am a healthy 68 year old. Or maybe that is a good thing. After seeing so much of the lies and fraud of big pharma, CDC, FDA and Bill Gates I am having to reevaluate many health recommendations and search for truth elsewhere. I feel more empowered to do that also. Thank you so much for all the time you have put into research and sharing what you find.
That's really interesting. Possibly being an internist had some help in making him more malleable to change? Or it could have been him in particular. I could see it going either way to be quite honest.
I certainly believe that COVID should have led others to become more informed activists for their own health. It's why I try to write about drugs and supplements to provide people with information they can use for their own health.
Thank you Cindy! It does mean a lot to hear from people who find utility in my work!
Prior, I never read or looked at medical studies. I let other people tell me what the research said. Never again. I'm not a data or numbers person but I regret not being more aware in the past. I won't get another vaccine again. I'm 63, so probably won't need more but regret not researching for myself. I thought RFK, Jr. was an environmental wacko. My apologies to him and all the "anti-vaxxers". It is clear, IMO, anti-vaxxers are pro-vaxxers who had an awakening!
I definitely like to hear the first part! I think there is still an issue in which people are too trusting of others to do the analysis for them, but I think it's good that that more people at least stop and take a devil's advocate approach before diving all in and trusting other people's reporting of science.
I've certainly been dissuaded from annual flu vaccines. I've made a comment somewhere that my friend remarking the COVID vaccines are similar to the flu vaccines being a big nope to me wanting annual flu vaccines.
Mainly it's reminds me that I San the one who needs to research it all, for any of my health care needs.
By the way, a cool piece on palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), an endocanabinoid, effective against the virus https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/5/1080/htm
Thanks for the link Paul! It reminds me of when people were looking into coconut oil as a possible agent against COVID. I think a few of the studies into fatty acids were looking at them as agents to break up the virus' membranes.
I do hope this at least reminds people to look things up and not just rely on the words of others. Even if there's a lot to wade through people do need to stat from somewhere.