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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

#141

Post by Out_of_Characte »

lapetitejort wrote: post #59
Out_of_Characte wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Can you share an example of an unproven treatment that works better than standard care?

I can come up with examples but know its ironic to try to proof treatments that are, scientifically or medically, not verified.

Theres diet, sleep, exercise. Which require no studies to know that taking better care of yourself will help you regardless of the pathology.

Then there's the somewhat strange case of orthodontist John Mew, who advocates for setting your tongue posture to the roof of your mouth in order to close the jaw properly, to prevent standard treatment of various braces, teeth alignment issues and corrective jaw surgery.

Other strange therapies that I've come across that seem unhealthy but have some backing are intentional sleep deprivation to improve depressive symptoms. prolonged fasting to reduce scar tissue. Or one I personally use alot, extremely cold showers after allergene exposure.

There are alot of silly things the human body can do that at first glance might seem irresponsible or dangerous but are about as dangerous as people in the 1900's might imagine airplanes would be.

One more thing I might add, standard care does not mean 'in your best interest' some standard practise might be too cruel to accept, like chemotherapy. Even though its proven to extend your life, it might not be proven to be in your best interest.

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

#142

Post by LoganDark »

oefnak wrote: post #117
tablespoon wrote: post #29

> Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source The use of "hacking" in the title is unfortunate, since it strongly brings to mind software engineers confidently loading up on weird supplements to do stuff like "boost intelligence" without much understanding of what they're doing. This article is very much not that, and is very sensible.

Me it reminds of that guy who DIY genetically modified a virus to cure his lactose intolerance (for a year).

> reminds of that guy who DIY genetically modified a virus to cure his lactose intolerance (for a year)

That's awesome, have a link?

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

#143

Post by goodpoint »

jonhohle wrote: post #100

I’m going through this right now and it feels like everything Americans have complained about socialized healthcare is now true in the US as well: long wait times to see providers, providers that churn through patients like their doing oil changes, providers that just push you along to the next step in a playbook without considering individual needs. I’ve been dealing with fatigue for about two years and had to preem…

> everything Americans have complained about socialized healthcare is now true in the US as well

With the added bonus of paying completely insane amounts.

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

#144

Post by colordrops »

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 shouldn't be controversial that you should be responsible for your own body and health.

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

#145

Post by LoganDark »

ghusbands wrote: post #68
senectus1 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You sleep better by consciously breathing through your nose at night? Or during the day?

Probably by falling asleep with their mouth closed so that they breathe through their nose for the night.

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

#146

Post by aidenn0 »

version_five wrote: post #136
jonhohle wrote: post #100

I’m going through this right now and it feels like everything Americans have complained about socialized healthcare is now true in the US as well: long wait times to see providers, providers that churn through patients like their doing oil changes, providers that just push you along to the next step in a playbook without considering individual needs. I’ve been dealing with fatigue for about two years and had to preem…

I don't have any experience with US healthcare, but presumably having insurance and whatever conditions they enforce is basically a form of socialized healthcare, no? If one wanted to, couldn't they find a provider they could pay to deal with whatever issue immediately?

There are three main types of insurance in the US: HMO, PPO, and EPO.

HMO works a lot like my understanding of the UK system (except the government doesn't pay for it); if you want to see a specialist, you need to get permission from the insurance provider, either directly, or (more typically) by having your GP (a.k.a "primary care provider) write you a referral.

PPO and EPO do not require referrals. A PPO typically has high deductibles for doctors that are not contracted with the PPO, and an EPO does not provide any coverage for doctors that aare not contracted with it (the P vs E is "preferred" vs "exclusive").

PPOs tend to have the highest premiums. Anecdotally, HMOs used to be a pretty good deal. From my earliest memories of how health-care worked HMOs didn't add too large of a delay. However, more recently it has been harder to get a referral, and once I get the referral, there are so few local places that accept the HMO (perhaps because of below-market rates paid out?) that a 6+ month wait list to see a specialist is not uncommon (some things like physical therapy having such a long wait-list that it's hardly worth it; I was quoted an 8 month wait list for PT for a shoulder injury, at which point I just googled for exercises I could do).

Also twice now I have been hit by the HMO refusing to pay for emergency care because even though the ER I took my kid to was "in-network" one of the doctors who saw the kid at the ER was an independent contractor which isn't covered by the HMO. Over $1k out-of-pocket each time.

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

#148

Post by mabbo »

br3akaway wrote: post #108
mabbo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diagnosed at 24 with sleep apnea. I tried a bunch of things. What worked for me was regular cardio exercise and daily doses of high absorption magnesium. The magnesium is absolutely unproven pseudoscience nonsense that can't possibly work. But if I stop taking it my sleep suffers massively.

Could you share your magnesium preparation and dose? If you are deficient in magnesium, the mechanism I would guess is that neck muscles are unable to relax and constrict the action of weaker muscles used for breathing.

https://drbvitamins.com/products/doctor-s-best-high-absorpti...

That's the good stuff. Constantly hard to find in Canada.

Edit: also this is literally the first time anyone has ever provided me with any idea if why it might actually work. So seriously, thank you for that.

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

#149

Post by aszantu »

For me, green vegetables seem to trigger nervousness and sleeplessness, when I still ate them, I'd wake up at night and think someone is in my room to murder me. I'd get up and wander through my flat, go pee, and sometimes it took like 3-10 Minutes until the feeling of somebody being there would go away.

Been on an elimination diet and trying around for 5 years now, there seem to be some pointers towards SIBO, but I haven't managed to fast long enough to do the test yet.

When I eat the wrong thing, it usually takes 3-4 days for any effects to show. Would make sense if it's fermentation or rot in the intestines that's triggering this. Hope you'll get well soon!

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

#150

Post by Enginerrrd »

meindnoch wrote: post #115
Enginerrrd wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's no remotely significant way that this thing will hurt you even if used improperly Eh... I've talked to RT's and the occasional pulmonologist enough about ventilators out of idle curiosity to learn that the pressures involved do need to be carefully set within certain envelopes to minimize risks, and I'm not quite as confident as you are in this statement.

Ventilator != CPAP machine

Oh, I know that! I'm familar with CPAP's and BiPAPs and ventilators, etc. I was a paramedic before I became an engineer. My point was just that, within the context of ventilators, I learned just how little I actually knew about the field of pulmonology and how many things I didn't think would be an issue are actually quite dangerous. What little I picked up would be enough to give me pause about the confident statement made in the comment I responded to about DIY CPAPs.
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