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Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

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Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#41

Post by Smaug123 »

nerdix wrote: post #26
jnwatson wrote: post #14

In the US, the author would have had a sleep study done and it would have been diagnosed in a day. Do they not have those in the UK?

Isn't a full sleep study test pretty expensive in the US? I went to a sleep specialist once and the cost of a full overnight polysomnogram was nearly $3000. I opted for a much cheaper at home test from my GP. Showed no signs of sleep apnea but I worry about the accuracy compared to a full study.

They're pretty damn expensive in the UK, certainly - around £2500 a couple of years ago in central London. (It would have been much cheaper for me to just buy a CPAP and try it out, than to have a polysomnography, but it's notionally forbidden.)

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#42

Post by senectus1 »

EvanKnowles wrote: post #40
lmohseni wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a book called Breath by James Nestor, it’s all about the benefits of nose breathing. Anecdotally this has completely fixed my sleep apnea/ snoring/ energy levels/ etc. Highly recommended!

Wait, people aren't breathing through noses?

I found that I have to consciously close my mouth and "tell myself" to breath only through my nose.

When I do this i sleep better.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#43

Post by xlii »

I find it somewhat odd that modern medicine don't screen for stuff like sleep apnea or ADHD (and similar).

They're quite frequent (sleep apnea - 17% from the article, ADHD - 5-20% depending on the study) and impact peoples' lives quite severely both on quality and productivity fronts.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#44

Post by Out_of_Characte »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #24
yosito wrote: post #13

> The morale of the story, you need to sometimes tackle your own health and take matters into your own hands The frustrating thing for me is that doing so is often labeled as being anti-science, when the truth is, this guy was actually doing the science himself. It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.

He recognized the signs of sleep apnea and pursued treatment with sleep apnea devices, getting confirmation of the problem with the help of his doctor. The DIY part was largely related to pushing the process forward, not doing novel experimentation. Nobody would call that “anti-science”. Anti-science would be something like ignoring the common treatments and trying to solve the problem with natural supplements or som…

On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#45

Post by s5300 »

Dealing with untreated sleep apnea right now & it fucking sucks

Breathing properly through your nose when awake & asleep turns out to be really important. I’m incredibly curious on how previous generations knew & the term mouth-breather became a thing, as they were obviously (well, if you’ve never experienced long-term inability to breathe through your nose, maybe it would be hard to understand the severity of the cognitive impact this has) quite right.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#46

Post by nawgz »

Out_of_Characte wrote: post #44
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He recognized the signs of sleep apnea and pursued treatment with sleep apnea devices, getting confirmation of the problem with the help of his doctor. The DIY part was largely related to pushing the process forward, not doing novel experimentation. Nobody would call that “anti-science”. Anti-science would be something like ignoring the common treatments and trying to solve the problem with natural supplements or som…

On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.

...

That's not the flipside, that's the "exception to the rule". Of course the system's not perfect, but people don't live way longer now because our medicine is worse than before...

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#47

Post by pixl97 »

hakunin wrote: post #17
yosito wrote: post #13

> The morale of the story, you need to sometimes tackle your own health and take matters into your own hands The frustrating thing for me is that doing so is often labeled as being anti-science, when the truth is, this guy was actually doing the science himself. It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.

> It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It depends on how exactly it was taken into one’s hands right? Can’t really know if it’s pro-science or anti-science until you see what a person is doing. Most people do pretty irrational stuff, based on stories of a doctor in my family.

Working with the healthcare system is like a marriage, it requires 100% from both sides.

I've had friends with relatively common illnesses like high blood pressure just not take care of themselves via diet, medicine, and exercise, then blame the medical system when their conditions got worse.

At the same time I watched my sisters health degrade over years while she fervently tried to do everything possible to make it better and saw many specialists when they said nothing was wrong and she was being a hypochondriac. It was finally after very effectively documenting everything about her condition and keeping it in a binder and keeping daily charts of her vitals, that a doctor stated "You have some very rare condition, now we have to figure out what it is".

Healthcare is deeply personal and individualized at the end of the day. The problem is we don't have the trained doctors and systems to give the level of care needed. And on the other hand, a lot of individuals don't put for one reason or another, the needed work to ensure they have good health outcomes.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#48

Post by notahacker »

mordae wrote: post #38

Here's a story. We lived in a "commie block" and we could hear our neighbor snoring super loudly during summer when we all had our windows open for the night. One night, we heard him repeatedly stop breathing and then gasp for breath. So when I've seen him the next day by the elevator I told him: "Sorry to bother you, but we can hear you snoring" and he has gotten super apologetic. But I continued, "yeah, we are used…

I remember sharing a room with my snoring grandfather as a kid, and the shortness of breath pauses, which were much, much more disturbing than the snoring itself, especially to a young person who's aware that old people sometimes die in their sleep. Wasn't until a lot later I made the sleep apnea connection (he lived another couple of decades to a grand old age. When the cancer did get him, the neighbours said the cessation of his notoriously loud daytime sneezes should in hindsight have been a giveaway about the change in his general health...)

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#49

Post by ianai »

yosito wrote: post #13

> The morale of the story, you need to sometimes tackle your own health and take matters into your own hands The frustrating thing for me is that doing so is often labeled as being anti-science, when the truth is, this guy was actually doing the science himself. It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.

It could also be labeled “self advocacy” with a light scientific oversight. Ie don’t do the same thing twice and expect different results, and detailed, intricate logs, etc. “Giving a crap” about your health is definitely not anti-science.

I’ve routinely had to do this with my own health. It was especially bad before Botox for migraine was around. Heard a lot of “men don’t get migraines, I don’t believe you” from neurologists.

For sleep apnea, it was an adverse reaction to a medication that led me to strongly request my doctor send me for a sleep study. Found out during the sleep study that I needed a good bit of air pressure and I’ve been benefiting greatly since. But it did take me doing some online research into side effects of the medication (from high quality sources), being insistent, and establishing some report with my doctor through logs, candor, and listening.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#50

Post by mancerayder »

I have a chance of having sleep apnea since my sleep is atrocious and extremely light, but I'm not overweight and I also can't sleep on my back or side, meaning a machine with mask ain't gonna cut it. Thus I've not even bothered. Also I wouldn't fall asleep in a sleep study location (I can't sleep outside of my bed, with any noise, lights, etc)
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