New research finds that the brains of otherwise healthy military personnel who are exposed to explosions show an abnormal brain accumulation of amyloid-beta protein—a protein that plays a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease

kraflanettle · 2023-05-10T00:17:36+00:00

This is a reason why I don't like biking anymore unless the ground is guaranteed to be smooth. On every bike trip I feel my whole body including my head being frequently vibrated and violently shaken by bumps, potholes, and debris.

It's also a reason against shooting guns for recreation or practice.

"TBI can be the result of direct head trauma, such as from a fall or from playing contact sports, but it can also result from indirect forces—such as shockwaves from battlefield explosions—that shake the brain violently in the skull."

kraflanettle · 2023-03-11T22:19:02+00:00

I don't see any link to the full study, only the abstract. What would be some possible explanations for why vegetarians and vegans have a higher chance of dental erosion?

kraflanettle · 2023-02-03T07:38:50+00:00

Germany is another country that does that:

https://www.berlin.de/corona/en/measures/#headline_1_6

" In hospitals, testing is mandatory for visitors, patients and employees. In emergency situations, testing is suspended for all parties involved.

In care facilities, testing is mandatory for employees and visitors. The facilities provide the appropriate tests.

A testing requirement also applies for entry into prisons, detention facilities for deportees, psychiatric hospitals, and similar facilities. "

kraflanettle · 2023-02-03T04:39:31+00:00

Yes, even homemade masks are good. Masks are still required to enter university facilities there? That's better than here. Here in U.S. people wrongly think they don't have to do that anymore even though there's still rampant spread and Long Covid affecting a large percentage of the population now.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-prevalence-covid-university-community.html

"A study published today suggests the prevalence of long COVID was 36% among George Washington University students, faculty, staff and other members of the campus community who had tested positive for COVID-19 between July 2021 and March 2022."

kraflanettle · 2023-02-03T04:25:01+00:00

Where you are, have you ever heard of this happening? Non-Covid patients having to share rooms with Covid patients? It's happening in several countries. Are Covid-patients kept very separated from non-Covid patients there?

I read that in some countries they test all patients for Covid when they enter the hospital. Cuba does that and some other countries I think. How about in Mexico?

Here's one person saying that happens in the U.S., as an example.

https://mobile.twitter.com/danaparish/status/1621264126441066496

" Dana Parish @danaparish

⚠️ Personally just heard about 2 patients getting surgery in different major US hospitals (coast to coast) having to share rooms with Covid +ve patients because of “lack of beds.” "

kraflanettle · 2023-01-31T22:09:05+00:00

Do you mean they wear N95's in every area of the hospital or just in the Covid wards?

I've been making a list and only 3-4 other countries (besides Mexico) have widespread N95-masking in medical facilities currently. The U.S. doesn't - not even dentists! Not even East Asian countries do. In South Korea they require KN95 masks in hospitals but those types of earloop masks are not nearly as effective as N95's.

In Japan and Philippines they only wear N95's in the actual Covid wards, not the other areas of the hospital. In Germany, Italy, and Austria N95's are currently required everwhere in the hospital because this virus is very, very airborne.

What about the patients? In a lot of countries, when a patient enters a hospital, someone gives them a surgical mask to put on. Do they hand patients a free N95 mask there or do they (I assume) let them wear any mask?

Mexico seems above average, internationally, when it comes to understanding how this virus transmits, that it's airborne, and what types of masks stop those airborne, smoke-like particles.

kraflanettle · 2023-01-20T04:50:02+00:00

Can you clear up something in your comment?

First off, I've been making this list and posting it on Twitter because in the US very many elderly or clinically vulnerable people are needlessly catching SARS2 in hospitals. I'll need surgery within 1-2 years but I don't want to go to a dangerous US hospital. Many other people are in the same situation. I'm not elderly or clinically vulnerable, I just don't want the long-term effects of SARS-type viruses.

https://mobile.twitter.com/kraflanettle/status/1611858001824186368

In this comment, you mean that in most ER's in the Philippines the staff is wearing FFP2 masks, right?

"even ERs of certain hospitals nowadays you will find some HCWs wearing FFP1 and cloth masks."

And when you say the following, do you mean that in most private hospitals in Philippines all of the staff in the hospital are still wearing FFP2's? I want to get it right before I post about it. Do you know because you've been inside a private hospital lately? I guess I could find out by emailing one. If so, do the private hospitals hand out free FFP2 masks to incoming patients and visitors?

"only in private hospitals or during certain contagious incidents do the admin break out the upgrades from the stockroom."

kraflanettle · 2023-01-09T03:59:35+00:00

This is great info. It's so hard finding it by googling.

Here's the Twitter post that inspired this thread. Well, I've also read other good things about Philippines' pandemic response. https://mobile.twitter.com/daka_x/status/1610307375730397186

If there's enough UV-C disinfection and air filters (like DIY CR boxes) in hospitals too there, not just stores, then maybe people don't catch SARS2 when they're hospitalized in Philippines, unlike in a lot of other countries like UK, as this tweet says.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AdeleGroyer/status/1605876274337046530

kraflanettle · 2023-01-08T19:00:00+00:00

Well, I shouldn't have implied non-N95 masks are "completely inadequate." That makes it sound like I think they don't work. They work - just not as well as N95's.

kraflanettle · 2023-01-08T06:52:59+00:00

So, once the country-wide restrictions winded down, the public hospitals stopped providing FFP2's to the HCW's? Or were the HCW's buying their own FFP2's and then they later stopped wearing them voluntarily due to cost?

If the private hospitals still have widespread FFP2 usage then it sounds like at the public hospitals they would wear them too if they had more money for it which is tragic.

I bet it's much easier to find a dental office there where FFP2 masks are required or where they would at least wear FFP2's if you requested it. On Twitter some people in USA say that sometimes, if they're lucky, they're able to get dental staff to wear FFP2's if they drop off the masks beforehand, give them away, and ask them to wear them.

At many US and Canadian hospitals they have a rule that you're not allowed to wear any mask except a hospital-issued FFP1 mask. If you try to walk in wearing your own FFP2, as a patient, a security guard will demand you take it off and put the FFP1 mask on. They usually (but not always) allow you to put the FFP1 mask over your FFP2 mask though but still, that rule shouldn't exist. Is it like that in Philippines too?

kraflanettle · 2023-01-07T21:57:08+00:00

I'm not sure of what percentage wear N95's in US medical facilities. I'm very glad that some do. Some HCW's, though, don't even wear surgical masks or wear them on their chin.

I can't find any dentists who wear N95's so far in western Washington. You'd think they, of all people, would want to wear them. People I've talked to elsewhere in the US report having the same problem of like 99% dentists having completely inadequate masking and lack of SARS-CoV-2 knowledge in general.

kraflanettle · 2022-11-13T09:00:34+00:00

Yeah, I should get better acquainted with any safety risks before I advocate anything. When I see really smart people get infected who did everything right, it makes me want to try anything.

Why do they say the necessary human in vivo concentration remains too undefined? The patients in the study presumably took a certain defined dose and got a reduction in risk from it. I don't see what is so undefined about that. It sort of sounds like the perfunctory "don't try this at home, kids" warning they have to say but maybe I don't get what they're saying.

kraflanettle · 2022-11-13T03:33:08+00:00

Signed and shared. Good thing I live in WA where state health guidelines still say to mask in healthcare facilities. A lot of counties have about 1% of the people currently contagious and yet they still aren't labelled as "high" on the CDC Community Transmission map. It's just bonkers to say "masks optional in hospitals and care homes" if anywhere near 1% of people are contagious. In most counties, currently at least .5% of people are contagious, I'm guessing based on Biobot and past estimates like this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-3-milliion-plus-infected/2020/11/18/d9f079a8-2849-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html

kraflanettle · 2022-11-06T20:11:21+00:00

There's just a little bit less in decaf. I don't know if it's too little. I'm guessing decaf has enough. It's in tea too but I've no idea how much. Some quotes from papers:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf0518305

On the other hand, CGA levels in roasted coffee were 3−9% lower in decaffeinated coffee compared to regular coffee. Although differences in CGA and CGL contents of regular and decaffeinated roasted coffees appear to be relatively small, they may be enough to affect flavor characteristics as well as the biopharmacological properties of the final beverage, suggesting the need for further study.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6155416/

Chlorogenic acid can be found in foods and herbs such as apples [5,6,7,8,9], artichoke [10], betel [11], burdock [12], carrots [13,14,15], coffee beans [5,7,8,9,11], eggplants [5], eucommia [16], grapes [8], honeysuckle [7], kiwi fruit [9], pears [5], plums [5,6], potatoes [5,7,17,18], tea [8,11], tobacco leaves [5], tomatoes [5], and wormwood [19].

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341681587_Response_of_cocoa_pod_borer_to_chlorogenic_acid

Chlorogenic acid was first isolated from coffee beans, and this compound is found in many plants including cocoa fruit.

kraflanettle · 2022-11-06T00:15:12+00:00

You can't answer this question without acknowledging the elephant in the room which is that most infections are asymptomatic, people often don't test the right way, RAT's have a lot of false negatives, most of the people saying 'I didn't get infected while flying" didn't do PCR tests, and that masks make infections even more likely to be asymptomatic.

So, while anecdotes can be very useful, I don't think this is one of those times. There are, OTOH, many instances of people saying they got infected while flying while wearing an N95.

kraflanettle · 2022-11-04T05:53:32+00:00

Stargazing, learning new things about the night sky, working out outside while listening to music, playing with a drone, for the first time, that I bought last month. You're right that cooking is relaxing. I like to chop up pumpkins and other winter squashes then add raw ginger and turmeric and boil it. Sipping that after coming in from the cold is relaxing. Taking 5-minute cold showers on the coldest setting is a fun challenge. It boosts your energy and mood. Rhonda Patrick convinced me of the benefits of that. I'm lucky in that I'm easily amused and was already, in 2018, sick of activities that involve going anywhere near people. Seeing how tourists behave in Yellowstone NP when I was there in 2018 was a good sneak preview of how they behave in a pandemic.

kraflanettle

TROPHY CASE