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

decodebytes.substack.com

181–190 of 334 posts

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

#181
post #49
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 It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.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 neu…

I'm sorry, but "don't do the same thing twice and expect different results" is not science at all, and might even be described as anti-science.

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

#182

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…

If it takes 4 days to show, I would never be able to associate with my eating habits :(

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

#183
post #174
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…

Unfortunately, there are many things it could be.

Doctors are only so helpful (and most are even less so)

Here's a list of things I tried that sorta helped with my tiredness spells. Recommend doing any of these changes separately:

- Sugar fast for 4 weeks (helps reset your cravings)

- Switched from coffee to green tea

- Reduced caffeine intake to one a day or 3x a week

- Acupuncture

- 15 min walks or bike ride every day

- Omega 3 oils

- Higher intake of minerals I was deficient in (eating more green vegetables)

(spoiler alert, I had undiagnosed ADHD which contributed to my high anxiety, which gave me waves of alert/exhausted)

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

#184
post #49
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 neu…

I agree and think it's interesting that we find a very similar article about finding a slow electrical leak in a car. Most of the experts are interested in taking the cream off the top of diagnosis, because most of the time you have the common condition that responds to the common treatment.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35513636

But when it's not and they have to look at a lot of details and spend a lot of time figuring out the problem many aren't interested, if only because they're pressed for time (by insurers) and trying to reduce cognitive load.

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

#185

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 > 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 don't have any idea what that has to do with "socialized care." If anything, most of those factors resemble the way businesses scale up.

I disagree- socialized care is like insurance. The incentive is to pay out as little as possible. This is true whether it's a government health care program or actual health insurance.

An actual "market" system encourages consumption and competes on price and quality.

Health insurance (public or private) makes sense for catastrophic events (major illnesses) but for regular ongoing things like GP visits and common prescriptions, it's just a middleman that drives up prices and discourages prevention and primary healthcare.

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

#186
post #174
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…

1. Check your Vitamin D levels, if deficient use liquid drops to supplement. Lot of people suffer from this in winter, especially in the northern hemisphere.

2. Do you suffer from a stiff neck? If 1 does not help to release muscle tension, check for Intracranial hypertension or Intracranial pressure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracranial_pressure).

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

#188
post #27

Sleep apnea is strange. Good news! We have a diagnosis, sleep apnea. You're bad at sleeping now, the thing everybody has to do all night long every day since birth. The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever. Many times it's because people are overweight but you aren't. Is that really all there is for treatment? No throat exercises or therapeutic sleeping positions? No diets…

> The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever Calling it an iron lung is extremely disingenuous. The Iron Lung uses negative pressure and had to be used 24x7 to keep the patient alive because their lungs weren't able work on their own. They had no mobility and were confined to a bed for the rest of their lives. CPAP / APAP machines use positive pressure and only assist with b…

It's hyperbole, but the comparison isn't without some merit. My grandma stopped using it because it's troublesome, and I've heard many people voice the same. Getting into an iron lung each night would also be ... troublesome.

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

#189
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.

Talk to a doctor. Idk why OP spent so much time solving what a doctor could tell them. I had similar symptoms and doc pinned it on narcolepsy before I could finish explaining. Googling symptoms never turned it up. Getting tested for sleep apnea is very easy with an at-home device. Narcolepsy is more involved. Long COVID is another candidate. So is thyroid which requires a blood test.

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look into the EASE procedure by Dr. Kasey Li

Have you tried this? does this work?

It helped me. I no longer wake up feeling congested. The impact on sleep was more subtle. I had some prior complications so I wasn’t able to expand as much as the avg patient.
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