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

decodebytes.substack.com

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

#301

Post by goldenkey »

CapstanRoller wrote: post #276
sawyna wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have pretty bad sinus. I used to take antibiotics for 10 days a month and would be good for 20 days and this goes on each month. After 6 months, my immunity has gone to shit. The doctor recommended clearing out my sinus by a surgery but apparently that doesn't solve the root cause. It can happen again and again. I tried multiple doctors, treatments, tips etc and etc nothing worked. I finally visited a homeo…

How does coconut water deviate one's septum or cause sinus infections? What's the mechanism behind this?

It tends to spoil or already be spoiled. Even the pink phenolic young coconut travels a long way to its final consumption. It's overall just not really meant to be consumed so far from the source. Sourness means bacteria, and sinuses are infamous for falling prey to weaker or sparse bacteria in the orifices.

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

#302

Post by goldenkey »

halostatue wrote: post #288
Spooky23 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unproven doesn’t mean ineffective. Cranberry juice isn’t FDA approved to help with urinary tract infections, but is frequently recommended by urologists and works. Another example is that isopropyl alcohol, which is an effective disinfectant, doesn’t meet the EPA standards for being a pesticide… which is because it’s existence predates the process. It’s expensive to go through that rigorous process, and there’s no ec…

Funnily enough, cranberry juice does not show any clinical benefit for treating UTIs over and above simple hydration, and it shows minimal benefit for UTI prevention. https://www.healthline.com/health/baking-soda-for-uti#bottom...

That really doesn't mean shit since it anecdotally works to all the folks that have had UTIs. Whether the causal effect is indirect is really asides the point. It works.

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

#303

Post by salad-tycoon »

goldenkey wrote: post #301
CapstanRoller wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does coconut water deviate one's septum or cause sinus infections? What's the mechanism behind this?

It tends to spoil or already be spoiled. Even the pink phenolic young coconut travels a long way to its final consumption. It's overall just not really meant to be consumed so far from the source. Sourness means bacteria, and sinuses are infamous for falling prey to weaker or sparse bacteria in the orifices.

I wonder if this is why it’s recommended to put the lime in the coconut, and then you drink 'em both together,

some people say to they put the lime in the coconut, then then they feel better.

Slightly related, I lived in the 3rd world with coconuts for a while growing up. Coconut water from a roadside stand practically put me in the hospital. I wish they had put the lime in the coconut.

Also line with mangoes is wonderful. =============

Anyways I self diagnosed with a fit bit a number of years ago. Doctors skeptical but yes I had sleep apnea. And it’s been a journey since then to self manage the machines and trouble shoot treatment. I was not blessed with great dme suppliers or providers.

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

#304

Post by decodebytes »

netman21 wrote: post #231

Why not look at the underlying cause? I was diagnosed with sleep apnea when I was 50. An oral surgeon wanted to carve out my tonsils and uvula. I changed my diet and began exercising. Lost 50 pounds. My sleep apnea went away and I no longer even snore. The downside of getting diagnosed is my life insurance company dropped me.

> I changed my diet and began exercising. Lost 50 pounds. My sleep apnea went away and I no longer even snore.

That's because you have OSA (obstructive sleep apnea). I (OP) have central sleep apnea, there is no obstruction, its related to the nervous system. I am already very lean (I run ultra marathons as a hobby).

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

#305

Post by sawyna »

CapstanRoller wrote: post #276
sawyna wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have pretty bad sinus. I used to take antibiotics for 10 days a month and would be good for 20 days and this goes on each month. After 6 months, my immunity has gone to shit. The doctor recommended clearing out my sinus by a surgery but apparently that doesn't solve the root cause. It can happen again and again. I tried multiple doctors, treatments, tips etc and etc nothing worked. I finally visited a homeo…

How does coconut water deviate one's septum or cause sinus infections? What's the mechanism behind this?

I don't know the mechanism behind this. Coconut is accentuating the sinus infection in my case? My situation (deviated septum) makes me allergic to coconut water?

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

#306

Post by themoonisachees »

swah wrote: post #174
rolisz wrote: post #168

Anyone got any other experiences with things that cause brain fog? I don't think I have sleep apnea (my wife often falls asleep after I do and she doesn't report any kind of weird breathing issues for me, nor snoring). But even though I generally sleep 8 hours a night, I am quite tired during the day and I often have trouble focusing. At night, I fall asleep like a log and I don't wake up during the night.

Same. Also not super tired, can go through with coffee, etc. But I don't feel rested when I wake up, almost never. [1] The things I never tried: giving up caffeine completely, eliminating sugar completely, eliminating carbs completely, losing 20 kgs (I'm a bit overweight like BMI 27). What didn't work: Ritalin, Venvanse, Modafinil... [1] I feel like it could just be "stress" ie don't know how to relax and let go (bee…

I don't mean to diagnose you with a mental illness from a passing comment in an HN thread, but your footnote rings the same bell my partners (diagnosed) anxiety does. They were prescribed xanax for it which helped but made them very lethargic, so they stopped.

Since you were prescribed ritalin at one point i'm guessing you went to see a mental health professional, maybe try to get a second opinion?

Other things they find effective (that don't require a diagnosis) include breathing exercises (flavor of the month is a free(no ads!) app called RespiRelax+), grounding exercises (name 3 things you can touch, etc) and indulging in dopamine activities (for them it's gaming and cooking, for you it might be sport and model aircraft). Last point is not really going to help you sleep but they find that if they can't sleep because of anxiety, it's better to try to forget about it by doing something they like rather than lay awake in bed.

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

#307

Post by rolisz »

ignite wrote: post #234
rolisz wrote: post #168

Anyone got any other experiences with things that cause brain fog? I don't think I have sleep apnea (my wife often falls asleep after I do and she doesn't report any kind of weird breathing issues for me, nor snoring). But even though I generally sleep 8 hours a night, I am quite tired during the day and I often have trouble focusing. At night, I fall asleep like a log and I don't wake up during the night.

How are the CO2 levels in your room? Do you sleep with a window open?

I have a Withings Scale that measures CO2 levels. During the night, it goes up to 1600ppm. It used to go over 2000, but now we leave the door half open.

I can't sleep with a window open most of the year. In winter it's too cold, in summer it's too hot.

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

#308

Post by LoganDark »

senectus1 wrote: post #272
LoganDark wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

yes this

I know someone who has to make a "vacuum seal" with their mouth, that is, make some slight suction on the inside so that they won't drool in the night. Is it anything like that?

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

#309

Post by elric »

dantheman0207 wrote: post #296
elric wrote: post #218

A couple of things: 1. Sleeprider deserves to be raised to knighthood or some kind of medal or something. The man is a hero and a living legend, who has helped untold number of people with their apnea. I'm not kidding. Thank you, Sleeprider, for all that you do. 2. OP really should pursue the NHS route. Maybe it'll take a while, but once the gears are in motion he'll at least get access to a steady supply of ASV mach…

Any references or links on AHI and bad sleep? Seems like that is the gold standard for measuring severity of sleep apnea but I haven’t found it a very good measure for my own experiences.

No references I'm afraid. AHI is convenient because it's a single number, but just like BMI, it ignores a lot of context. RDI (RERA, respiratory effort related arousal index) might be a slightly better measure, but still imperfect. Intuitively, AHI doesn't make much sense. There are multiple sleep stages, if an AHI of 4 prevents you from entering REM sleep, or if it keeps knocking you out of deep sleep, you're going to have a bad time even though the numbers look good.

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

#310

Post by elric »

agrue wrote: post #230
elric wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing works anywhere near as well as PAP therapy. Certainly not diets (overweight is often an effect of apnea, not a cause). Sleeping positions can help in the case of positional apnea, but certainly not for everyone. Botox injections anywhere will have to be repeated regularly. Fucking with the uvala (like in UPPP surgery) can actually worsen sleep apnea and has all kinds of nasty infection and side effect risks.…

Thanks for your detailed response, but the things I listed were entirely in jest. I don't think the uvula causes sleep apnea and don't believe a pill would be able to obviate breathing while sleeping.

Haha I totally missed that, my bad! The uvula thing is pretty scary, some people have it removed entirely in an effort to treat sleep apnea, and from what I hear it seems to help at first, but then often gets worse again (maybe because scar tissue is less strong than regular tissue?).
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