As I am working on my Fluvoxamine series, it appears that all across the board many vaccine and mask mandates are ending. Hopefully this is a sign that things may return to “normal”. I’ll remain cautiously optimistic on that front.
I’m sure there will still be plenty of COVID-related things to write about for the next few months, but if this truly is coming to a close then that would require a transition. Therefore, instead of writing about COVID I would hope to cover plenty of other topics, whether medicine-related, supplement-related, or even food-related, and tackle these from a possible biochemical/pharmacological perspective.
So if there has been something stirring in your mind, something you’ve been curious about please let me know in the comments! I would love to know what you all would like to see covered!
Edit: Added a Subscribe and Share option in case other people out there are curious!
I should preface this by saying that this will depend predominately on what papers are also available. One of the best things to have happened for such a terrible Pandemic was the free flow of papers and information.
The same can't be said for papers outside of COVID, and unfortunately science papers are not known for being affordable. Therefore, depending upon my financial means or if I can find a backdoor way of sourcing papers my initial posts may be limited. Regardless, don't let that stop you from asking for any topic!
In order to bypass some of the expense of subscribing to a journal or paying for individual articles, you could find a professional, hospital or library that would allow you to tag onto their subscription. If this isn't possible, you will find many articles that usually require payment available for free on Sci-Hub ( https://sci-hub.se). This is my primary source of articles. You won't find everything there and may need to wait for several months before you can access recently published articles. But it is a really great resource.
Thanks for the reference! I'll definitely try looking into my local library. If that doesn't work, I'm wondering if signing up for a P/F class at a community college might help...
To me the big question that we need to ask and think about is: "What have we learned from the current COVI19 pandemic?" and "How can we build the internal resilience that enables us to move through another similar challenge more easily and with less fear"? We've always had severe flues and other illnesses and probably always will. I think that the 2 biggest issues this time is the continual eroding of our basic state of health and wellness. It is interesting to me that the greatest clarity that it was those whose health was most vulnerable that constituted an extremely high majority of those who were hospitalized or dying. It would be interesting to look at the biological and physiological issues underlying the presence of multiple co-morbidities. Epidemiological evidence shows that most of the fatalities from viral diseases came under control with increased hygiene and reduced pollution - before vaccines were widely introduced. Yet despite this, we have never seen such a high level of unwell ness with chronic and autoimmune diseases here in the USA and in many other 1st world countries. Why? Why has it been this group of adults and children who have been most vulnerable to the SARS-2 coronavirus? What can we learn from the existing research literature about prevention, greater resilience in a changing world etc.? What can each person do (more specifically with food nutrients, knowledge of the microbiome, chemicals to avoid whenever possible etc.?
The 2nd biggest learning from the current pandemic relates to early treatment. Many scientists and doctors (as well as laypeople) believe that the total lack of early intervention has been the main factor leading toward hospitalization (with hospitals and medical staff becoming overwhelmed) and the huge numbers of deaths. I know you have been addressing this in relationship to some of the repurposed drugs such as Hydroxychoriquin and Ivermectin. I'd like to see a separate topic about how people can think about early treatment, talk to doctors about this and look at weighing the pros and cons of specific approaches etc.
Wow, I may need to reread this several times and parse the information! It really is a nuanced situation that has been given an overly broad public health message. Do you have a paper to point to that hygiene and pollution point? I would like to look into that more.
On the basis of comorbidities, I mentioned in my 2nd Fluvoxamine post that elevated ceramide levels have been found in various diseases such as cardiovascular diseases.
Since COVID infection may depend on the ASM/Ceramide system, we could put 2 and 2 together there and see how comorbidities, by virtue of causing elevated ceramide levels, may also cause higher viral infection. Not to spoil my next post on ER Stress and Sigma-1, but ER stress biomarkers are seen in people with cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration, so we can draw some parallels there as well. It's not about the existence of comorbidities, but what changes in the body may arise from a disease, and how viruses may take advantage of that.
I think the issue, and it's something I hope to at least address by virtue of making this Substack, is that many people have become their own outside viewer of their own health. Many people don't know much about the drugs they take, what options are out there, or really any deep knowledge about their diseases. Hopefully this Substack will serve as an accumulation of information that people can use to inform themselves. But overall, yes I think your point is mainly aimed towards the idea that people should really become their own informed advocate.
I'll certainly consider making a post with that perspective in mind.
There's a lot to the whole construction of the food pyramid that I'm naïve to. I did watch plenty of those sugar documentaries which are quite interesting although I have not done a lot of research myself. I do find it interesting that the response by doctors to diabetics and obese individuals is not to reduce carb intake but to eat the "correct" type of carbs. Regardless if it's whole wheat, I think several hundred grams of carb intake is probably not that beneficial in reducing the sugar response.
To make this area even more messy, there are approaches such as the Mastering Diabetes protocol, which is a high fruit, high raw foods HCLF dietary pattern, devised by a pair of T1 diabetics
I wasn't sure what was going on, looked it up and...I'm not sure if I should feel surprised or not. I came across this article from Vision Times from December:
Strange that they're stating it emerged from COVID. I thought it was under control? Now, I don't know too much about virology but I'm pretty sure someone just doesn't have "asymptomatic hemorrhagic fevers".
I'll keep a lookout and see what's happening. Unfortunately this appears like another hush-hush situation until it may fall out of their control.
Thanks for all of your articles. They have been very helpful. Going forward, here are some topics I would like to learn more about:
I have read that fibrinolytic enzymes taken on an empty stomach may help with Long COVID, vaccine adverse events and apoptosis in general. I would like to know if there is any truth in this, or whether there are other reasons to be taking these.
Also for those of us who received the vaccination, but are worried about possible long-term side effects, is there anything we should know or should be doing to protect against possible adverse consequences?
On a related topic, a pharmacist recommended high dosage pre/probiotics to me recently saying that the key to a healthy immune system starts in the gut. I’d also like to learn more about this.
Finally, speaking of the gut, I would like to learn more about reflux, the damages that PPI’s can cause, and whether there are any effective alternatives to PPI’s when H2 blockers don’t work.
Thank you! I really hope people are learning a lot from these. It definitely takes a lot of time to research and write so I appreciate that people find them helpful.
I have not heart of fibrinolytic enzymes so I'll have to do some research. Do you have any articles about long COVID or VAE and its ties?
As for the vaccines, it really is a difficult situation there. I may have to tread on water for that. I think there's hardly any information about the long-term consequences because we just don't have long-term safety data! There is a reason why vaccines take years of R&D before they reach the market. Strangely enough, the same happens for drugs as well but I think many people are unaware of that.
With probiotics, I think the evidence is clear cut that bacteria play a vital role in regulating our immune system. The real question is to what extent supplementation may help, and what specific strains of bacteria are the most beneficial. Unfortunately all of that is not quite as clear.
I have heard about PPI's. In fact, I've been thinking of looking at statins as well. I think there's a lot of adverse reactions that we may have overlooked with plenty of unintended consequences.
I'll keep all of this in mind and see which ones I'd be able to address. Thanks for all the ideas!
I'd love to dig into the whole GMO food debate as you'll see it's Gates and the whole same cast of billionaire characters driving (and investing in) that whole show. Gates holds much of Africa Hostage with exclusive agreements for patented seeds that ha e to be repurchased each planting. GMO trafficking is a federal offense in a dozen or more western nations but open season in the US. Why? What do they know?
If it's general information on GMO's I may be able to find information. As for Gates' relationship, that type of investigative journalism may fall out of wheelhouse, but I may be on the lookout about this type of stuff. I certainly know India has taken a staunch position against GMO's and have criticized Gates for A LOT of this malfeasance in India.
LongCovid will be an ongoing issue for many - who are considered are hypochondriacal when they are not. There are physicians who are learning the particulars of this illness and those who will benefit from their experiences.
Long COVID will be covered to an extent in this Fluvoxamine series so be on the lookout for some of the information in these posts. I did cover this observational study that made its rounds a few months prior:
I would love to see some discussion about immunity and vaccines in general. It used to be we could use titers to prove immunity to a disease like measles, but it seems in the last two years there has been a lot of debate over this. I'd also love to see some discussion about prevention and health.
I know you stated a general discussion, but did you have any vaccines in mind? I've heard from people that these vaccines have honestly worked similar to flu vaccines (in that they aren't quite working) and so maybe I'll look into flu vaccines.
I do have a lot of concerns with the idea of focusing solely on neutralizing antibodies as some measure of immunity. My only idea is that this is because neutralizing assays are so much easier to carry out than T Cell assays. Also, take into account that the constant production of antibodies is essentially a fruitless endeavor. There's no reason for your body to continue to produce antibodies against an antigen that it is no longer being exposed to. I think a lot of public health officials have not taken that into consideration and it's why they've suggested this ridiculous 6 month booster regimen.
I'm in California and it used to be that one could use titers to provide proof of immunity for childhood vaccines. That is no longer the case in practice. So someone who had measles would still need to get the vaccine to attend school (but titers for measles and rubella are regularly taken during pregnancy). But Hep B is probably the best one to look at because there is some disagreement I've seen about how long it lasts. As I'm not a scientist, I'm very curious about what is the right way to determine immunity. I also think there is an interesting interaction between how CA is dealing with all childhood vaccines in the last two years and how we have approached the covid vaccines.
Oh that's really interesting. I'll try to look into that then. Do you know if this was a recent change in policy on the heels of all of these COVID vaccine policies?
I'll take note of Hep B specifically then. Thanks!
I tried it for neurological symptoms, imbalance and short term memory issues and did not find methylene blue effective. Pulsed IVM has blunted but not resolved the symptoms. They seem milder over time but are noticeable to my husband still. And of course to me; he never notices other changes in 20 years of marriage so I am certain the changes in my brain function are real.
The covid vaccine debacle has caused me to question the entire childhood vaccine schedule, unfortunately. It would be interesting to learn more about all of the other routine vaccines, their development and any controversies surrounding them.
I'll try to see what I can find. That may be more on the historical basis for such a policy, and whether there was any validity to consider such a vaccine regimen. I think it's interesting that there have been recent remarks about the COVID vaccine dosing regimen be spaced out further. What parallels could be drawn with childhood vaccine regimens would be interesting.
Can you do some commentary on the microscopic autopsy findings on the 2 teenagers at Yale who died of myocarditis? That perhaps it was not the typical cause but adrenergic “stress”?
Could you provide an article on that? Unfortunately I do not have the knowledge to be able to assess microscopic images, but if provided enough background maybe I could look into it and see what I can find. I would need some more information and context and see what I can do.
One other topic might be the presence (or lack thereof) of mercury in non-COVID vaccines. I believe the FDA says there is absolutely no mercury in vaccines given to children under 6 years old, that most other vaccines have versions without mercury, and that the type of mercury in the other vaccines is not dangerous. RFK Jr. obviously disagrees. It would be helpful to get information about this from an unbiased source.
Thank you for considering me an unbiased source, although I'd personally say that my biases have come out at certain points. I have heard him commenting on vaccines, but I have not heard specifically about mercury. Could you point me to an article?
I'll see what I can find. Unfortunately, it may be an issue if all of the information is derived from pharmaceutical industries. As for the toxicity I would have to look at the type of mercury used and so I'll see what the evidence states.
Propaganda tactics, human psychological weaknesses that make propaganda successful might be a good thing to talk about. Advertising and military psyops use a lot of these tactics.
Oof, it sounds like you want me to brush off my Psychology degree that I have never used since graduation! I'll be frank and say that I have a more skeptical view of the social sciences now. The field is wrought with replication and reproducibility issues so it would be hard for me to assess some of the topics without a bias against the evidence, but I'll try to keep an open mind and see if anything comes up akin to what you are suggesting!
Thank you for the paper. Unfortunately a lot of this is above my knowledge so there would be a lot of extensive research to try to figure this out. It's so unfortunate that these apparently happened while in their sleep. It apparently states that one had ADD while the other was obese. I would like to know if we have any correlative data about adverse reactions and comorbidities. Obese individuals are more likely to experience more severe COVID symptoms, and if the same is said in obese individuals who are vaccinated I wonder if certain parallels can be drawn there.
If I have the time I will try to look into this further, but please don't get your hopes up that I will be able to provide conclusive information.
I should preface this by saying that this will depend predominately on what papers are also available. One of the best things to have happened for such a terrible Pandemic was the free flow of papers and information.
The same can't be said for papers outside of COVID, and unfortunately science papers are not known for being affordable. Therefore, depending upon my financial means or if I can find a backdoor way of sourcing papers my initial posts may be limited. Regardless, don't let that stop you from asking for any topic!
In order to bypass some of the expense of subscribing to a journal or paying for individual articles, you could find a professional, hospital or library that would allow you to tag onto their subscription. If this isn't possible, you will find many articles that usually require payment available for free on Sci-Hub ( https://sci-hub.se). This is my primary source of articles. You won't find everything there and may need to wait for several months before you can access recently published articles. But it is a really great resource.
Thanks for the reference! I'll definitely try looking into my local library. If that doesn't work, I'm wondering if signing up for a P/F class at a community college might help...
To me the big question that we need to ask and think about is: "What have we learned from the current COVI19 pandemic?" and "How can we build the internal resilience that enables us to move through another similar challenge more easily and with less fear"? We've always had severe flues and other illnesses and probably always will. I think that the 2 biggest issues this time is the continual eroding of our basic state of health and wellness. It is interesting to me that the greatest clarity that it was those whose health was most vulnerable that constituted an extremely high majority of those who were hospitalized or dying. It would be interesting to look at the biological and physiological issues underlying the presence of multiple co-morbidities. Epidemiological evidence shows that most of the fatalities from viral diseases came under control with increased hygiene and reduced pollution - before vaccines were widely introduced. Yet despite this, we have never seen such a high level of unwell ness with chronic and autoimmune diseases here in the USA and in many other 1st world countries. Why? Why has it been this group of adults and children who have been most vulnerable to the SARS-2 coronavirus? What can we learn from the existing research literature about prevention, greater resilience in a changing world etc.? What can each person do (more specifically with food nutrients, knowledge of the microbiome, chemicals to avoid whenever possible etc.?
The 2nd biggest learning from the current pandemic relates to early treatment. Many scientists and doctors (as well as laypeople) believe that the total lack of early intervention has been the main factor leading toward hospitalization (with hospitals and medical staff becoming overwhelmed) and the huge numbers of deaths. I know you have been addressing this in relationship to some of the repurposed drugs such as Hydroxychoriquin and Ivermectin. I'd like to see a separate topic about how people can think about early treatment, talk to doctors about this and look at weighing the pros and cons of specific approaches etc.
Wow, I may need to reread this several times and parse the information! It really is a nuanced situation that has been given an overly broad public health message. Do you have a paper to point to that hygiene and pollution point? I would like to look into that more.
On the basis of comorbidities, I mentioned in my 2nd Fluvoxamine post that elevated ceramide levels have been found in various diseases such as cardiovascular diseases.
https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/fluvoxamine-the-little-ssri-that-22f?r=rgoth
Since COVID infection may depend on the ASM/Ceramide system, we could put 2 and 2 together there and see how comorbidities, by virtue of causing elevated ceramide levels, may also cause higher viral infection. Not to spoil my next post on ER Stress and Sigma-1, but ER stress biomarkers are seen in people with cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration, so we can draw some parallels there as well. It's not about the existence of comorbidities, but what changes in the body may arise from a disease, and how viruses may take advantage of that.
I think the issue, and it's something I hope to at least address by virtue of making this Substack, is that many people have become their own outside viewer of their own health. Many people don't know much about the drugs they take, what options are out there, or really any deep knowledge about their diseases. Hopefully this Substack will serve as an accumulation of information that people can use to inform themselves. But overall, yes I think your point is mainly aimed towards the idea that people should really become their own informed advocate.
I'll certainly consider making a post with that perspective in mind.
There's a lot to the whole construction of the food pyramid that I'm naïve to. I did watch plenty of those sugar documentaries which are quite interesting although I have not done a lot of research myself. I do find it interesting that the response by doctors to diabetics and obese individuals is not to reduce carb intake but to eat the "correct" type of carbs. Regardless if it's whole wheat, I think several hundred grams of carb intake is probably not that beneficial in reducing the sugar response.
To make this area even more messy, there are approaches such as the Mastering Diabetes protocol, which is a high fruit, high raw foods HCLF dietary pattern, devised by a pair of T1 diabetics
Cover hemorrhagic fevers
I wasn't sure what was going on, looked it up and...I'm not sure if I should feel surprised or not. I came across this article from Vision Times from December:
https://visiontimeswest.com/outbreak-of-plague-in-northern-china-people-suffering-with-viral-hemorrhagic-fevers/
Strange that they're stating it emerged from COVID. I thought it was under control? Now, I don't know too much about virology but I'm pretty sure someone just doesn't have "asymptomatic hemorrhagic fevers".
I'll keep a lookout and see what's happening. Unfortunately this appears like another hush-hush situation until it may fall out of their control.
I see what you did there. :)
Thanks for all of your articles. They have been very helpful. Going forward, here are some topics I would like to learn more about:
I have read that fibrinolytic enzymes taken on an empty stomach may help with Long COVID, vaccine adverse events and apoptosis in general. I would like to know if there is any truth in this, or whether there are other reasons to be taking these.
Also for those of us who received the vaccination, but are worried about possible long-term side effects, is there anything we should know or should be doing to protect against possible adverse consequences?
On a related topic, a pharmacist recommended high dosage pre/probiotics to me recently saying that the key to a healthy immune system starts in the gut. I’d also like to learn more about this.
Finally, speaking of the gut, I would like to learn more about reflux, the damages that PPI’s can cause, and whether there are any effective alternatives to PPI’s when H2 blockers don’t work.
Thank you! I really hope people are learning a lot from these. It definitely takes a lot of time to research and write so I appreciate that people find them helpful.
I have not heart of fibrinolytic enzymes so I'll have to do some research. Do you have any articles about long COVID or VAE and its ties?
As for the vaccines, it really is a difficult situation there. I may have to tread on water for that. I think there's hardly any information about the long-term consequences because we just don't have long-term safety data! There is a reason why vaccines take years of R&D before they reach the market. Strangely enough, the same happens for drugs as well but I think many people are unaware of that.
With probiotics, I think the evidence is clear cut that bacteria play a vital role in regulating our immune system. The real question is to what extent supplementation may help, and what specific strains of bacteria are the most beneficial. Unfortunately all of that is not quite as clear.
I have heard about PPI's. In fact, I've been thinking of looking at statins as well. I think there's a lot of adverse reactions that we may have overlooked with plenty of unintended consequences.
I'll keep all of this in mind and see which ones I'd be able to address. Thanks for all the ideas!
I'd love to dig into the whole GMO food debate as you'll see it's Gates and the whole same cast of billionaire characters driving (and investing in) that whole show. Gates holds much of Africa Hostage with exclusive agreements for patented seeds that ha e to be repurchased each planting. GMO trafficking is a federal offense in a dozen or more western nations but open season in the US. Why? What do they know?
If it's general information on GMO's I may be able to find information. As for Gates' relationship, that type of investigative journalism may fall out of wheelhouse, but I may be on the lookout about this type of stuff. I certainly know India has taken a staunch position against GMO's and have criticized Gates for A LOT of this malfeasance in India.
LongCovid will be an ongoing issue for many - who are considered are hypochondriacal when they are not. There are physicians who are learning the particulars of this illness and those who will benefit from their experiences.
Long COVID will be covered to an extent in this Fluvoxamine series so be on the lookout for some of the information in these posts. I did cover this observational study that made its rounds a few months prior:
https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/long-covid-valid-symptoms-or-a-consequence?r=rgoth
It certainly is difficult to discern. I do have a few long COVID papers because of covering Fluvoxamine so I may go into detail in a bit with that.
I would love to see some discussion about immunity and vaccines in general. It used to be we could use titers to prove immunity to a disease like measles, but it seems in the last two years there has been a lot of debate over this. I'd also love to see some discussion about prevention and health.
I know you stated a general discussion, but did you have any vaccines in mind? I've heard from people that these vaccines have honestly worked similar to flu vaccines (in that they aren't quite working) and so maybe I'll look into flu vaccines.
I do have a lot of concerns with the idea of focusing solely on neutralizing antibodies as some measure of immunity. My only idea is that this is because neutralizing assays are so much easier to carry out than T Cell assays. Also, take into account that the constant production of antibodies is essentially a fruitless endeavor. There's no reason for your body to continue to produce antibodies against an antigen that it is no longer being exposed to. I think a lot of public health officials have not taken that into consideration and it's why they've suggested this ridiculous 6 month booster regimen.
I'm in California and it used to be that one could use titers to provide proof of immunity for childhood vaccines. That is no longer the case in practice. So someone who had measles would still need to get the vaccine to attend school (but titers for measles and rubella are regularly taken during pregnancy). But Hep B is probably the best one to look at because there is some disagreement I've seen about how long it lasts. As I'm not a scientist, I'm very curious about what is the right way to determine immunity. I also think there is an interesting interaction between how CA is dealing with all childhood vaccines in the last two years and how we have approached the covid vaccines.
Oh that's really interesting. I'll try to look into that then. Do you know if this was a recent change in policy on the heels of all of these COVID vaccine policies?
I'll take note of Hep B specifically then. Thanks!
Methylene Blue!
I tried it for neurological symptoms, imbalance and short term memory issues and did not find methylene blue effective. Pulsed IVM has blunted but not resolved the symptoms. They seem milder over time but are noticeable to my husband still. And of course to me; he never notices other changes in 20 years of marriage so I am certain the changes in my brain function are real.
Was there something specific with methylene blue you were interested in? I'll see what I can find in regards to it.
Not really, just a good analysis of it and how it may or may not help humans for any number of different ‘disease’
The covid vaccine debacle has caused me to question the entire childhood vaccine schedule, unfortunately. It would be interesting to learn more about all of the other routine vaccines, their development and any controversies surrounding them.
I'll try to see what I can find. That may be more on the historical basis for such a policy, and whether there was any validity to consider such a vaccine regimen. I think it's interesting that there have been recent remarks about the COVID vaccine dosing regimen be spaced out further. What parallels could be drawn with childhood vaccine regimens would be interesting.
Can you do some commentary on the microscopic autopsy findings on the 2 teenagers at Yale who died of myocarditis? That perhaps it was not the typical cause but adrenergic “stress”?
Could you provide an article on that? Unfortunately I do not have the knowledge to be able to assess microscopic images, but if provided enough background maybe I could look into it and see what I can find. I would need some more information and context and see what I can do.
Article cited above. Thanks.
I would like to see more investigation into the prevalence of plastics in our food supply.
I think this would be really interesting and highly applicable to many people. I'll see what I can find in regards to this. Thanks!
One other topic might be the presence (or lack thereof) of mercury in non-COVID vaccines. I believe the FDA says there is absolutely no mercury in vaccines given to children under 6 years old, that most other vaccines have versions without mercury, and that the type of mercury in the other vaccines is not dangerous. RFK Jr. obviously disagrees. It would be helpful to get information about this from an unbiased source.
Thank you for considering me an unbiased source, although I'd personally say that my biases have come out at certain points. I have heard him commenting on vaccines, but I have not heard specifically about mercury. Could you point me to an article?
I'll see what I can find. Unfortunately, it may be an issue if all of the information is derived from pharmaceutical industries. As for the toxicity I would have to look at the type of mercury used and so I'll see what the evidence states.
Propaganda tactics, human psychological weaknesses that make propaganda successful might be a good thing to talk about. Advertising and military psyops use a lot of these tactics.
Oof, it sounds like you want me to brush off my Psychology degree that I have never used since graduation! I'll be frank and say that I have a more skeptical view of the social sciences now. The field is wrought with replication and reproducibility issues so it would be hard for me to assess some of the topics without a bias against the evidence, but I'll try to keep an open mind and see if anything comes up akin to what you are suggesting!
👍🏼 thanks. 😊
https://meridian.allenpress.com/aplm/article/doi/10.5858/arpa.2021-0435-SA/477788/Autopsy-Histopathologic-Cardiac-Findings-in-Two
Thank you for the paper. Unfortunately a lot of this is above my knowledge so there would be a lot of extensive research to try to figure this out. It's so unfortunate that these apparently happened while in their sleep. It apparently states that one had ADD while the other was obese. I would like to know if we have any correlative data about adverse reactions and comorbidities. Obese individuals are more likely to experience more severe COVID symptoms, and if the same is said in obese individuals who are vaccinated I wonder if certain parallels can be drawn there.
If I have the time I will try to look into this further, but please don't get your hopes up that I will be able to provide conclusive information.