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5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

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Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#11
post #7

> Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter — signs of injury or degeneration In case it wasn’t clear: Neuroimaging can’t visualize every possible problem. They performed one type of testing and didn’t find anything. That’s not the same as concluding that there are no problems. It should go without saying that a clean MRI isn’t proof that other neurolog…

You can't for example see ME/CFS or Long Covid neural damage on a typical MRI but when you do autopsies you find a host of problems including complete viral RNA and intrusion of the immune system that shouldn't be there. Given the similar presentation of Havana syndrome to ME/CFS it would seem sensible to look for some of the similar markers of vascular brain damage with the process developed there by Jared Younger and we will likely find a similar type of brain abnormalities. Just because it doesn't appear on MRI doesn't mean its the only type of test that can be done to find abnormalities in the brain, there are a lot of possibilities for further tests in similar presentations of symptoms.

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#12
post #7

> Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter — signs of injury or degeneration In case it wasn’t clear: Neuroimaging can’t visualize every possible problem. They performed one type of testing and didn’t find anything. That’s not the same as concluding that there are no problems. It should go without saying that a clean MRI isn’t proof that other neurolog…

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#13
post #2

The symptoms sounded like burnout from the beginning. Hypochondria is a common symptom of stress, depression, and other mental disorders. A scary and confusion symptom when one does not have tendencies for it normally. There isn't one clean piece of evidence for any energy weapon or attack hypothesis. It's about time the mass hysteria surrounding Havana syndrome is laid to rest.

This study isn't evidence against it. > The NIH study, which began in 2018 and included more than 80 Havana syndrome patients, wasn't designed to examine the likelihood of some weapon or other trigger for Havana syndrome symptoms.

[deleted]

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#14
post #2

The symptoms sounded like burnout from the beginning. Hypochondria is a common symptom of stress, depression, and other mental disorders. A scary and confusion symptom when one does not have tendencies for it normally. There isn't one clean piece of evidence for any energy weapon or attack hypothesis. It's about time the mass hysteria surrounding Havana syndrome is laid to rest.

This study isn't evidence against it. > The NIH study, which began in 2018 and included more than 80 Havana syndrome patients, wasn't designed to examine the likelihood of some weapon or other trigger for Havana syndrome symptoms.

I know. I wrote "no evidence for".

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#15
post #7

> Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter — signs of injury or degeneration In case it wasn’t clear: Neuroimaging can’t visualize every possible problem. They performed one type of testing and didn’t find anything. That’s not the same as concluding that there are no problems. It should go without saying that a clean MRI isn’t proof that other neurolog…

You can't for example see ME/CFS or Long Covid neural damage on a typical MRI but when you do autopsies you find a host of problems including complete viral RNA and intrusion of the immune system that shouldn't be there. Given the similar presentation of Havana syndrome to ME/CFS it would seem sensible to look for some of the similar markers of vascular brain damage with the process developed there by Jared Younger a…

Very unrelated but if anyone reading this is dealing with long covid/brain fog related symptoms, try famotidine (pepcid).

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#17

[flagged]

It seems to be a uniquely American thing. In my country at least (Australia), anything that benefits the common man isn't labelled as communism. It's probably related to hysteria induced by McCarthyism.

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#18
post #7

> Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter — signs of injury or degeneration In case it wasn’t clear: Neuroimaging can’t visualize every possible problem. They performed one type of testing and didn’t find anything. That’s not the same as concluding that there are no problems. It should go without saying that a clean MRI isn’t proof that other neurolog…

[dead]

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#19
post #9

Everyone who looked at Havana Syndrome when it came out with a critical eye realized immediately it was a BS story. Sonic weapons? Oh please. Thing is, this sort of thing happens all the time. A prominent and current example is cops and fentanyl. If you listen to cops, they will tell you that just being in the rom with fentanyl can be deadly, breathing it in can be deadly. I'm not sure where this started but it's bec…

This sort of thing isn't unheard of. It's not like the USA wouldn't do the same to diplomats from other countries if it wanted to. It's not like every pair of nearby embassies and the host country don't have various radio beams pointed at each other all the time. You can easily imagine at least one simple possibility: Cuba replicated The Thing and is using a microwave beam to power it which is too strong.

Re: 5-year study finds no brain abnormalities in 'Havana Syndrome' patients

#20

[flagged]

It is, but Havana Syndrome doesn't seem to have much to do with communism. Every country spies on every other country - even allies - and embassies are good places to do that - so there are all sorts of radio beams flying around those areas. The simplest hypothesis is that one of them accidentally also interacts with humans and Cuba doesn't really care much to fix it (wouldn't blame them).
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