There is never going to be a good time to say that glyphosate is unhealthy

 

Business practices that are established are likely to be more difficult to change or stop than strategies that are first being introduced. And it isn’t easy to be one of the few people saying “Wait a second, there seems to be a problem.

Satire or dark humor may take a blunt look at uncomfortable reality and laugh rather than cry about the pain or feeling of futility of the situation. The Onion is a satire magazine that moved online and responds rapidly to news of the day, but sometimes with the same old story — reinforcing the feeling of futility that real world tragedies can leave: [Read more.]

How we communicate with each other tends to be different depending on who is speaking to whom. Research suggests that men and women tend to communicate differently with each other and with their peers and peer groups. This tendency is discussed in the following article: [read more.]

We learn from our parents and siblings but many of the lessons we learned about communication styles tend to go all the way back to the interactions and childhood games  that we played with our peers. Boys tend to play in larger groups and have a clear leader or leaders within their groups while girls tend to play in smaller groups and value working together without emphasizing any one girl as being more dominant within the group.

Observational research suggests that girls seem to value building each other up within a team while boys  seem to support having a more dominant male or small group of males that take on the decision making roles for the whole team. A group with all girls might not appreciate a girl who is more forceful about speaking up while a group with all boys might not appreciate a boy who is more forceful about speaking up if he is not within the smaller group of boys who are accepted as the leaders of the group.

We tend to listen to each other differently based on gender or level of authority also and that can be life threatening in dangerous situations.

There can be risks to not accepting information from people in positions of lower authority. An excerpt from the linked article is about an airplane crash that would have been easily prevented if the captain had listened more closely to his copilot’s tentative concerns about ice build up on the aircraft:

“Shortly thereafter, the plane took off, with tragic results. In other instances as well as this one, Linde observed that copilots, who are second in command, are more likely to express themselves indirectly or otherwise mitigate, or soften, their communication when they are suggesting courses of action to the pilot. In an effort to avert similar disasters, some airlines now offer training for copilots to express themselves in more assertive ways.”

“This solution seems self-evidently appropriate to most Americans. But when I assigned Linde’s article in a graduate seminar I taught, a Japanese student pointed out that it would be just as effective to train pilots to pick up on hints. This approach reflects assumptions about communication that typify Japanese culture, which places great value on the ability of people to understand one another without putting everything into words. Either directness or indirectness can be a successful means of communication as long as the linguistic style is understood by the participants.” [https://hbr.org/1995/09/the-power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and-why]

So is our society better off when women and men in positions of lower authority are expected to hint or to suggest and cajole regarding issues they consider dangerous? Or would our society be better off if we had more of an open suggestion box where anyone could speak up and say “Danger, Will Robinson,” (to quote a robot from “Lost in Space,” wikiquote)?

So our food supply is just fine and our health care system is just fine then we don’t have any problems do we. And vaccinations are guaranteed to be safe by our government and if there are any adverse reactions then our government will be there for individuals who apply for help (except for veterans of the Gulf War who have symptoms of the “emotional disorder” Gulf War Syndrome – a syndrome that has only occurred in American soldiers who in the early 1990s received an experimental series of vaccinations intended to protect against anthrax and not in any troops from other nations who fought in the Gulf War) but you might need a lawyer to negotiate with the government for you — possibly for years. Actually vaccinations are probably not the biggest issue, but they may be part of the problem for those who are also at greater risk for autism for other reasons.

The rapidly changing rates of obesity and autism and Alzheimer’s Disease in modern society all have suggested to me for a while that something in the environment changed because the biology of a whole group doesn’t change that rapidly. Genetic adaptation as suggested by theories about evolution can occasionally have sudden changes show up in a population but more typically changes in biology are small and occur over many generations.

Around 1985 increasing rates and severity of chronic health issues started to escalate in the U.S.. The accepted reason has been attributed to people eating too much and exercising too little. So if you are one of those people who has been frustrated by stubborn health issues that don’t seem to respond to your dedicated attempts to “eat healthier and exercise more” than you may need to change your definition of what eating healthier means. If avoiding glyphosate is something you’re interested or sick enough to be willing to try then avoiding the crops that use a lot of glysophate might help with weight loss by increasing your exercise too. Avoiding “corn, soy, sugar beets, canola oil, and cottonseed oil, as well as wheat and sugar cane” is enough of a challenge that your level of exercise is also likely to increase due to spending more time cooking whole foods and cleaning up afterwards. [http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/roundup-the-nontoxic-chemical-that-may-be-destroying-our-health/]

That kind of dietary change is kind of unreasonable to expect from anyone — unless they are already so sick that they are willing to try anything to feel better. Having been in that position myself though, and having helped others resolve their health issues with simple dietary changes, I have continued to share information that I’ve found helpful and strategies that I’ve found helpful.

Changing the safety rating of some of the genetically modified crops and herbicides and pesticides that are in common usage seems like it would be easier for individuals but before a problem can be solved it has to be recognized as a problem and currently our U.S. food supply is considered safe and we as a group seem to be considered unhealthy due to our own habits and possibly our emotions.

I love avoiding most of the food supply and it makes me emotionally feel very safe to enter grocery stores or to drive near agricultural fields where herbicides and pesticides might have been sprayed — not really. If you like traditional marriage and traditional genders then caring about traditional food supplies and traditional agricultural methods would probably be a good idea. Infertility is increasing along with obesity, autism and Alzheimer’s Disease so maybe we won’t have to worry about chronic health issues in children if we just stop having as many children — or maybe we’ll have a few generations with fewer children who have more severe health issues before we have to be concerned about infertility problems being severe enough to lead to no more new children being born at all. Or maybe we should start doing something about it now.

Glysophate has been associated with male infertility and erectile dysfunction — “Danger Will Robinson,” 60-80 million couples are now having difficulties with fertility: [http://naturalsociety.com/new-study-pesticides-a-major-cause-of-infertility-male-erectile-dysfunction/]

So if you are a tourist interested in visiting the U.S. you probably do not have to worry too much about chronic health issues associated with our food supply, as a short term use may not immediately cause long term health issues – animal studies on short term use of glysophate suggested that it is safe over the short term — studies performed by the chemical company. For those of us who live here, then there’s always satire.

Thank goodness it’s Friday, that at least gives me something I can be thankful about.

/Disclosure: Opinions are my own and this information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

Change takes time, talking about issues can be a place to start

Difficult issues change over time when enough people have worked through their own changes and then start raising the next generation to have different attitudes in the first place.

Teamwork between men and women is what sensible office standards strive for with a preference for moderate clothing and for professional topics of conversation during work hours. Biological instincts don’t have to be a problem if they are simply recognized and set aside for the moment. Think about cold showers and get on with the workday.

Of course we’re ready for female leaders, just some may be more ready than others. Talking about issues can be a start to recognizing a need for change. The following quote attributed to Jon Stewart says a lot:

Nobody says, hey, men should not drink. It’s all about women must dress differently, women must walk differently, women must drink differently. Why are we not able to hold men to account for this behavior?

– Jon Stewart (Source- a meme.)

Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. /

Magnesium deficiency can cause irritability, anxiety, and chronic degeneration

Inspirational quote: “Whenever I have a problem I sing, then I realize that my voice is a lot worse than my problem.” (and I feel better about my problem).

And then I take an Epsom salt bath to help treat irritability and the muscle cramps that can result from a magnesium deficiency. Some people may be more at risk for chronic magnesium deficiency due to intestinal malabsorption of the nutrient. Calcium may be preferentially absorbed within the intestines instead of magnesium.

Magnesium deficiency may affect levels of the brain neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which may cause mood changes if it is not in balance with other more calming neurotransmitters. [Neurotransmitters and mood] The supplement choline is a precursor for acetylcholine and some users have noticed depressive affects with use of a high dose. [Acetylcholine and mood]

Taking the calcium supplements seemed to help reduce the elevated parathyroid hormone level but more recently they have seemed to cause a very rapid increase in muscle cramps and severe irritability. A magnesium bath every morning helped my mood change from rage to feeling like singing. It was kind of incredible to have my mood change so rapidly for reasons that were actually physical events — first I felt extremely angry shortly after swallowing a 100 mg calcium supplement and then I felt joyful after soaking in a bathtub for twenty minutes (soaking forty minutes or more can actually be dangerous because too elevated magnesium blood levels can cause an extreme slowing of the heart rate — don’t try that at home).

I haven’t had a psychiatrist tell me about the risks of magnesium deficiency to the mood or the benefits of an Epsom salt bath for the mood but I can hope, I can share information, and I can enjoy the benefits of Epsom salt baths while I wait. Eventually maybe psychiatry will recognize that the brain is connected to the body and that it is built out of nutrients, not out of pharmaceuticals.

Not surprising: People Reward Angry Men But Punish Angry Women, Study Suggests. Magnesium is effective and inexpensive and proton pump inhibitors are dangerous but patent protected. Get angry because the advice being sold as healthcare at an expensive profit may be causing harm over time. [PPIs and fracture risk, C difficile risk, FDA warning]

There may also be a gender bias regarding creativity, and provision of pain medication. There is also gender inequality in autoimmune disease — the majority of sufferers are female and the length of time between first onset of symptoms and diagnosis can be many years or even decades. Fifty million Americans are estimated to be suffering from some type of autoimmune disease (AD) and 75% of them are estimated to be female for reasons that are not clear at this time. [AARDA, Autoimmune disease in women]

“AARDA-conducted studies reveal a lack of trust in prescribing physicians, very likely fostered by the fact that the average AD patient may see more than four doctors in as many years before receiving a correct diagnosis. Also, more than 40 percent of AD patient report they have been told they were “too concerned about their health” or that they were hypochondriacs.”   –AARDA Launches “3-Second Adherence” Public Service Campaign.

I have been told that my physical symptoms are all psychosomatic so often that I really have no desire to go back  to anyone claiming to provide evidence based medicine. The evidence suggests to me that fifty million people are at risk from a system that doesn’t know what causes their condition or how to help them but who at the same time are willing to make random expensive guesses because after all they are just gambling with the patient’s time, money and long term health not their own.

Maybe eventually more health professionals will succumb to autoimmune illness themselves and then they will be more motivated to find more effective treatments that actually work on the underlying problems of nutrient deficiencies and metabolic imbalances. The body needs to be well nourished in order to make sialic acid for white blood cells to be able to properly identify damaged or improperly labeled cells such as the improperly labeled autoimmune antibodies and then to destroy the defective cells with a magnesium fueled enzymatic death (apoptosis).

I can hope, and I can share, and I can continue to try to take care of my own health.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

 

Calciphylaxis may be caused by several different nutrient issues

Calciphylaxis usually includes an imbalance of calcium and phosphate and a deficiency of protein C may also be involved. Protein C deficiency may be caused by genetic or acquired reasons. Protein C is involved in blood clotting. Vascular and soft tissue calcification frequently is also present in patients with calciphylaxis symptoms. The mineral content of the calciphylaxis sores has been found to resemble the mineral balance of bone.

Imbalance in vitamin D and hormone D metabolism might affect magnesium levels in some unusual cases and may promote intestinal malabsorption of magnesium. However elevated magnesium is more typically found in patients who have calciphylaxis as a side effect of dialysis in end stage renal disease. The kidney disease causes an abnormal lack of hormone D because the kidneys in normal health are the only place where vitamin D is activated into the hormone D form.

These are copies of links that I was reading and Tweeted last night:

  1. Mineral substance of bone tissue and of experimental cutaneous calcinosis in rats: chemical analysis and ESR study.
  2. Calciphylaxis assoc w cholangiocarcinoma… /heparin & vit K didn’t help/ Thrombosis & protein C deficiency involved/
  3. Retrospective analysis of tissue plasminogen activator as an adjuvant treatment for calciphylaxis. /Ca P homeostasis/
  4. Calciphylaxis… “the reported median survival time is 2.6 months after diagnosis,”
  5. Aggressive calciphylaxis in end-stage renal disease… /assoc w vascular & soft tissue calcification/
  6. Calciphylaxis is a cutaneous process without involvement of internal organs… /assoc w vascular calcification/
  7. Net-like pattern of calcification on plain soft-tissue radiographs in patients with calciphylaxis. – PubMed – NCBI
  8. Is calciphylaxis best treated surgically or medically? – PubMed – NCBI
  9. Calciphylaxis in a morbidly obese woman w RA presenting w severe weight loss & vit D def. /pamidronate & D tx worked/
  10. Calciphylaxis in the absence of end-stage renal disease. – PubMed – NCBI /low vit D but tx surgery/
  11. The surgical management of renal hyperparathyroidism. – PubMed – NCBI
  12. Secondary hyperparathyroidism in children with chronic renal failure: pathogenesis and treatment. – PubMed – NCBI
  13. Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, and acroosteolysis in systemic sclerosis. /low 25D w 2ndary hyperPTH in sunny climate

  14. Bone metabolism in celiac disease. – /following gluten free diet for 6 mo normalized 25D, calcium & PTH levels/

  15. Hypomagnesemia. Suppression of secondary hyperparathyroidism in chronic renal failure. – PubMed – NCBI

  16. Magnesium deficiency: possible role in osteoporosis associated with gluten-sensitive enteropathy. – PubMed – NCBI
  17. Recent data on magnesium & osteoporosis. “Mg def in post-menopausal osteoporosis, prob caused by Mg malabsorption.”
  18. [The significance of magnesium in medicine. (II) Disturbances of Mg metabolism & their treatment (author’s transl)].
  19. Metabolic disorders of cattle. /pellagra discussed, zinc, B6 Cu Mg def, malabsorption, iron overload can deplete B3/

Why do I care? because even though my symptoms are unusual I feel that I still deserve individualized health care. As a dietitian I was taught to look up information about any unusual diagnoses that patients might have and to provide individualized guidance if available or provide background information to help patients be able to make more informed choices about their treatment plan.

I also care because I think women deserve individualized healthcare even if we may get emotional or moody. Physical and mental illness symptoms can be related to underlying issues and simply medicating a symptom not only fails to address the underlying issue but it also fails to look for an underlying issue which can be life threatening if care is delayed in acute situations:

Whether male or female in a for-profit health industry being your own patient advocate or hiring a professional patient advocate may be life saving when navigating the increasingly complex health care system.

See the previous post for my own patient struggles with symptoms of hyperparathyroidism and calciphylaxis like sores: Secondary hyperparathyroidism and calciphylaxis symptoms; an update with lab values

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./