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Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

theguardian.com

21–30 of 127 posts

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#21
post #5

Previous reporting on the issue; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/30/mystery-brain-... 'Forever Chemicals' are known to get concentrated in shellfish - I wonder if that is an issue? I'd love to see the comparative numbers of similar cases in other environments - this seems very high but I have no idea what the baseline for this sort of thing is. As someone that grew up with the spector of 'mad cow disease'…

You really should never eat shellfish from unknown sources, because these are either from unsustainable farms pumped full with chemicals to keep diseases in check or from the sea. Either way, very dirty food in more than one way. If you really gotta eat shellfish, get it from local closed-cycle industrial farms. That's of course more expensive, because you're paying for what you're getting.

As someone that did a lot of research into aquaculture for work a couple of years back, I'm now very picky about where I get fish, whether finfish or shellfish.

Safety, processes, practices and quality vary wildly by region and farm.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#22

Seems obviously BMAA but clearly the government don’t want to say so because it will destroy the lobster industry. We should all be terrified of BMAA and it’s here because of climate change. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190124110834.h... Climate change is making the oceans and fresh water toxic and very deadly. We’ve seriously fucked the earth. Have you ever heard weasel words more reminiscent of a c…

Not nitpicking but to clarify a bit, that study says "Such blooms are a regular feature of Australian inland waterways and are increasing due to nutrient run-off, reduced river flows and climate change." So while climate change (i.e., warming in targeted areas) doesn't help, it's more of the final nail in a series of nails we've been driving into Mother Nature's heart. The idea we could be so negligent and abusive of…

Thanks for this clarification.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#23

Seems obviously BMAA but clearly the government don’t want to say so because it will destroy the lobster industry. We should all be terrified of BMAA and it’s here because of climate change. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190124110834.h... Climate change is making the oceans and fresh water toxic and very deadly. We’ve seriously fucked the earth. Have you ever heard weasel words more reminiscent of a c…

This compound was new to me. Here's more info on it.

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/10/2/83/htm

Seems to accumulate in bivalves and crustaceans but not fish.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#24
post #9

Canadian healthcare is scary, and it's made worse by these politicians that always go to the US for care. The joke is that it's gotten so progressive that no one gets better, we all have to equally suffer. You can see clearly how this situation was mishandled.

Canadian healthcare is indeed in rough shape. Our health outcomes have plateaued, wait times increased and costs rocketed. The inevitable nature of uncompetitive systems.

Unlike here in the US where we have a mostly private health care system.

Our health outcomes are actually dropping, wait times are bad, and costs are the highest in the world.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#26
post #9

Canadian healthcare is scary, and it's made worse by these politicians that always go to the US for care. The joke is that it's gotten so progressive that no one gets better, we all have to equally suffer. You can see clearly how this situation was mishandled.

Canadians are generally very satisfied with the quality and availability of healthcare in Canada. The issue in this case is not the quality of care but the possibility that the provincial government is suppressing testing that might reveal that a naturally-produced neurotoxin has contaminated bottom-feeding crustaceans such as lobster.

> Canadians are generally very satisfied with the quality and availability of healthcare.

I'd love to see the list of people you surveyed to draw this conclusion. In my metropolitan area availability is abysmal and (in my experience recently) quality is not great. I am contrasting this to my recent experiences in the US system.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#27
post #14

Head to the woods to make a small hike, at least once in a week. Avoid polluted environments.

Upvoted because that's solid advice. The problem is you may not know about polluted environments. This may well be the case of a private contractor burying very dangerous chemicals in a clearing in the woods and polluting the surroundings, in which case hiking there is not gonna do you any good. Environmental pollution is everywhere industrial capitalism is. All the major scandals about waste disposal in Europe (incl…

Environmental pollution is everywhere industrial capitalism is

Also where industrial communism was? Where industrial democratic socialism is?

Wouldn't it be more accurate to just say: where industrial humans are or have been?

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#28
post #7

This was previously discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28979532 The linked article is about how NB went out of their way to shut out federal investigators. If it’s environmental, it’s possible the NB government is trying to cover it up. This is also briefly touched on in this article: > The scientist said teams are ready to begin the research, but “New Brunswick has specifically told us not to go f…

This should be unsurprising. Governments consistently represent business interests over the well-being of their population. As a result the right is already running on populism and the left is not far behind with all the labor organizing that’s happening. We’re in for a wild ride over the next decade.

I’m not sure I disagree with your broader point, but I don’t understand how labor organizing equates with right-wing populism. To me greater efforts at unionization are simply a rational economic response. What am I missing?

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#29
post #5

Previous reporting on the issue; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/30/mystery-brain-... 'Forever Chemicals' are known to get concentrated in shellfish - I wonder if that is an issue? I'd love to see the comparative numbers of similar cases in other environments - this seems very high but I have no idea what the baseline for this sort of thing is. As someone that grew up with the spector of 'mad cow disease'…

You really should never eat shellfish from unknown sources, because these are either from unsustainable farms pumped full with chemicals to keep diseases in check or from the sea. Either way, very dirty food in more than one way. If you really gotta eat shellfish, get it from local closed-cycle industrial farms. That's of course more expensive, because you're paying for what you're getting.

I was pretty impressed with Maine's lobster catch regulations. Most notably, the license holder has to be the one to physically pull up the traps, which puts a very small upper bound on how big a single lobster catching operation can be. They also have catch regulations to keep the practice sustainable, which makes sense given that it's a large part of their economy.

Re: Baffling neurological illness affects growing number of young adults

#30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted because that's solid advice. The problem is you may not know about polluted environments. This may well be the case of a private contractor burying very dangerous chemicals in a clearing in the woods and polluting the surroundings, in which case hiking there is not gonna do you any good. Environmental pollution is everywhere industrial capitalism is. All the major scandals about waste disposal in Europe (incl…

Environmental pollution is everywhere industrial capitalism is Also where industrial communism was? Where industrial democratic socialism is? Wouldn't it be more accurate to just say: where industrial humans are or have been?

Probably true, or perhaps:

Wherever regulators have not been carefully selected and sufficiently empowered.

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