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A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

bbc.com

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Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#141

Post by roryirvine »

Waterluvian wrote: post #124
jacquesm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was one of the more surprising things to me when I lived in Canada: that there is so much of this. Depending on which region you are in you will either have state monopolies on the strangest things and/or a couple of families that have their fingers in just about every pie. And don't get me started on the telecommunications sector.

I wonder if this is largely a function of geography and population. Do we see similar strange things in countries like Australia, Sweden, etc.? Kind of like a small town effect at the national scale.

Sweden has a fair amount of it - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systembolaget and (formerly) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoteket as examples.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#142

Post by gopher_space »

subpixel wrote: post #111
patcon wrote: post #77

I grew up in New Brunswick. It is a strange place politically. I find it wild that the BBC never mentioned the most glaring underbelly of this: New Brunswicks most significant employer for the past 100 years is Irving Oil & Irving Paper and Irving Forestry. They are different arms of a privately held family-run business, run by the descendants of the original founder (whose records are not as public as a traded compa…

After reading about the mysterious firing and payoff of glysophate studying scientists it seems obvious what stone is going unturned here.

I mean look at the number of industry apologists in this thread alone.

Strikingly similar to the reaction around cancer clusters, including the witch doctors who still think “mass hysteria” is a thing.

It’s not always environmental, but it’s usually environmental and weird to not start with that assumption.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#143

Post by jamesblonde »

roryirvine wrote: post #141
Waterluvian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is largely a function of geography and population. Do we see similar strange things in countries like Australia, Sweden, etc.? Kind of like a small town effect at the national scale.

Sweden has a fair amount of it - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systembolaget and (formerly) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoteket as examples.

And the Wallenberg family.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#144

Post by [deleted] »

sevensor wrote: post #121
unsupp0rted wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“FND”… I bet they need to exercise, eat a balanced breakfast, sleep more and lower stress. That’ll definitely pause the rapidly progressing dementia and loss of muscle control in patients in their 20s. When doctors have no idea what something is and aren’t willing to keep trying diagnostics and interventions, it’s always “hey maybe get some more cardio and go easy on the peanut butter cups”.

To be fair, this is also what I hear from my GP when I have no complaints at all. It’s not bad advice, but I think it’s what most doctors tell patients they deem basically healthy. Nobody gets hurt by eating fewer peanut butter cups and taking the dog for a longer walk.

[deleted]

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#145

Post by oofbey »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #107
ajb wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy is probably chasing moonshine, but TBH "functional neurological disorder" sounds like one of those face-saving labels that doctors use when they don't have any idea what's going on.

“FND”… I bet they need to exercise, eat a balanced breakfast, sleep more and lower stress. That’ll definitely pause the rapidly progressing dementia and loss of muscle control in patients in their 20s. When doctors have no idea what something is and aren’t willing to keep trying diagnostics and interventions, it’s always “hey maybe get some more cardio and go easy on the peanut butter cups”.

Solid MAHA advice right there. Just eat French fries fried in beef tallow, avoid all vaccines, and whatever ails you will surely go away. Medicine isn’t actually that complicated. /s

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#146

Post by evenil »

ajb wrote: post #63
throwaway_9879 wrote: post #29

The answer is "nothing" The only common factor between these patients is Dr. Marrero. It is notable that he is not the only physician who works in that clinic, but is the only one diagnosing this condition. The most likely cause is weak diagnostic skills for challenging patients. Unfortunately, a majority of these patients likely have Functional Neurologic Disorder https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/conve…

This guy is probably chasing moonshine, but TBH "functional neurological disorder" sounds like one of those face-saving labels that doctors use when they don't have any idea what's going on.

There are actually specific diagnostic criteria for FND. The BBC article mentions that the young patient showed impairment in voluntary motor behaviors, but not in involuntary behaviors (e.g. reflexes). That is characteristic of FND. Similarly, there are clear ways to distinguish FND seizures from epileptic seizures. It is not a wastebasket diagnosis at all.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#147

Post by evenil »

ggm wrote: post #39
closewith wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did ME and what post covid syndrome show?

The NIH/RECOVER programme and equivalents worldwide provide a path to treatment for ME/CFS. Prior to covid, substantive funding for ME research was too small to explore disease pathways and diagnostics. Many ME sufferers were told their disease was solely treatable with CBT, and lacked aetiology. Basically, they were denied any validation of having a disease. The NB thing, right now is "no common cause" and probably…

> Many ME sufferers were told their disease was solely treatable with CBT, and lacked aetiology.

This is true? CBT and related treatments were pretty much the only thing that had been shown to be effective at reducing the severity of symptoms (no one should be making claims about whether it is changing an underlying disease process, but improving symptoms is a huge deal), and the etiology was unknown. Any responsible clinician or scientist should have been telling patients exactly that.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#148

Post by patcon »

subpixel wrote: post #111
patcon wrote: post #77

I grew up in New Brunswick. It is a strange place politically. I find it wild that the BBC never mentioned the most glaring underbelly of this: New Brunswicks most significant employer for the past 100 years is Irving Oil & Irving Paper and Irving Forestry. They are different arms of a privately held family-run business, run by the descendants of the original founder (whose records are not as public as a traded compa…

After reading about the mysterious firing and payoff of glysophate studying scientists it seems obvious what stone is going unturned here.

They are very litigious.

They are also strangely generous. They fund a lot of good, as they know how to conceive of "good". They are more like mostly-benevolent-but-controlling royalty of sorts. Including the "everyone has an opinion" part of royalty. Whether they are good or bad for the region, there are polarizing views.

I understand the general vibe as a learned helplessness of sorts.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#149

Post by alephnerd »

Sevrene wrote: post #57
alephnerd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Margins in the House of Commons have been paper thin for decades, and this gives inordinate power for MPs to threaten a no-confidence motion behind closed doors. In a province like NB where most politicians from both parties either solicits donations from Irving or are former Irving careerists(eg. the former Premier Higgs who was Irving's CFO), it gives Irving's leadership an inordinate amount of power. My relative w…

It feels like now you're saying it's not because it's parliament's nature to be like this, but rather these other factors that occure within parliaments and other systems? Can't you unelect the MPs? Doesn't the paper thin margins increase those odds? Honestly, it doesn't sound like the issue is a parliamentry system, but rather people either aren't aware of the issues (media), or have decided (wrongly or rightly) not…

> Can't you unelect the MPs

All MPs in NB need to kiss the ring, otherwise they'll face a well funded challenger.

Furthermore, 1 out of every 7 NBers are employed by JDI and Irving Oil.

> Either way I still don't get how that's the parliamentry nature as much as it's the people's. That's kind of the point of these systems

The ability to threaten a no-confidence motion means individual MPs can have an outsized impact on the executive branch.

Re: A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease

#150

Post by whimsicalism »

skrebbel wrote: post #138
whimsicalism wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are stating is considerably more controversial among medical researchers than you claim. I find HN tends towards these sort of views.

Fwiw I downvoted you because you didn't even bother to specify which of the GP’s many statements you think are controversial, nor why.

fair enough. i didn't really feel like getting in a back-and-forth about ME/CFS as i find they generally never end. CFS does not appear to impact energy to engage in online arguments.
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