Live data from Hacker News

Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

pnas.org

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#61
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And most commonly-available salsas (even labeled "hot") tops out at not-actually-very-hot. Yeah, that's what I always thought. Then I moved to New Mexico, and got my tongue, gums and throat handed to me on a plate.

Gordon Ramsay did some food shows in India. In one of them there is a hot pepper eating contest. He tests and bows out. A woman won by eating the most in a given time (maybe a minute), she beat the other contestants but not the record; so to up it, she rubbed the peppers into her eyes to win a bonus prize. WTF!! The audience seemed to “appreciate” it.

Apparently there is a gene for pain sensitivity, this Norwegian talk show[1] hosts [2] got their tested and their sidekick has a higher tolerance for pain. They tested this by putting their hands above some tea lights from 9:30 onwards.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQBs2xPDGKU (English subtitles available) [2] Incidentally they're the ones who made the hit "What Does the Fox Say?"

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#62
post #12
post #9

Suggestion works on taste buds too. In the nineties I had a thing for salsa and ate it most days at the office over things I steamed in the microwave. But I ate the mild salsas and couldn't tolerate the hot stuff. Still can't. So my boss decides to spice it up a bit, and mixes in some hot salsa. I didn't notice. Each day he gradually added more until it was all the hot stuff. I didn't notice. He went out and bought h…

You build up tolerance to hot stuff pretty quickly (and lose it pretty quickly). And most commonly-available salsas (even labeled "hot") top out at not-actually-very-hot. If your boss was only gradually adding more and more of the hot stuff, I absolutely believe that he could have just built up your tolerance such that you didn't notice; regardless of suggestion.

I despise the trend of having "hot" mean "mild", "very hot" mean "mildly hot", etc. Possibly the most ridiculous is Sabra hummus where the Supremely Spicy flavor is less spicy than the jalapeño flavor. Hats off to Cheetos for having possibly the most mainstream product of all but still managing to put actual heat in their "Exxxtra Flamin' Hot" version.

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#63

Important note! > Another potential confounding factor concerns the imbalanced number of times each group switched video games. Participants switched games every 15 min, according to the clocks they were given, so participants in the fast clock group switched more frequently than participants in other groups. One might propose that the increased switching in the fast clock group might have led to greater activity and…

The study suggests the context switching shouldnt have had much effect as the control group (who switched 6 times) had BGL decrease consistent with normal rest (so by extension those who switched only 3 times must have had lower than normal rates of BGL decrease at rest over the real life 90 minutes, which is potentially the most interesting part of the correlation they found)

They also claim no effect on subjective reported stress level (but those who switched more times did report more stress, just not to a statistically significant degree...)

Although the games were reportedly "easy" I do think it'd be interesting to see whether there were any meaningful differences in the approaches to the game and levels of performance of the different cohorts. And if they performed similarly but those on a slower "subjective timescale" received vastly more "reward" indicators like higher scores, "you wins" or proportions of a grid/map ticked off because they played each game for longer, that would also be a confounding factor

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#64
post #44
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rubbing a pepper in her eyes seems foolish. That could blind someone.

I looked it up and can’t find anything that claims what you do that a pepper can blind you. I did find one article that said it can not after one exposure but possibly long term exposure could it just wasn’t tested. Do you have any sources on that claim? Thank you. I ask because we used to prank with peppers when I was young never worried about blinding someone though it was good if they rubbed their eyes or took a p…

Pepper spray also uses capsaicin, and in much higher concentrations than even the hottest peppers.

If that's considered safe enough to be used by police and the general public then I'm pretty sure peppers are fine.

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#65
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you suggesting the causation is exactly? That blood sugar levels affect our perception of time?

Take it a step further. Does our blood sugar affect the rate at which clocks advance? Because, according to the (rather digestible) article, that was the controlled variable.

[deleted]

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#66
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You build up tolerance to hot stuff pretty quickly (and lose it pretty quickly). And most commonly-available salsas (even labeled "hot") top out at not-actually-very-hot. If your boss was only gradually adding more and more of the hot stuff, I absolutely believe that he could have just built up your tolerance such that you didn't notice; regardless of suggestion.

I despise the trend of having "hot" mean "mild", "very hot" mean "mildly hot", etc. Possibly the most ridiculous is Sabra hummus where the Supremely Spicy flavor is less spicy than the jalapeño flavor. Hats off to Cheetos for having possibly the most mainstream product of all but still managing to put actual heat in their "Exxxtra Flamin' Hot" version.

At least in NYC most immigrant establishments will serve you "white people hot" if you don't ask for "regular hot". Saying this as a white Polish, it took me a while after moving there to realize that I was being served a "white people hot" hot, and also that apparently Poles love their food way hotter than other (most?) European nations. That's even more interesting if you consider our otherwise fairly bland national cuisine. It's rather unusual for a Pole to avoid spicy food at all – if someone does, it is a notable exception.

Once I learned it, I would place my orders saying: "– Yes, hot please. Your hot, not mine."

As for spicy snacks, nothing can beat Takis Fuego! :)

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#68
post #30
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is there a biological mechanism for "building up a tolerance"? Seems possible that building up a tolerance is merely a mental exercise as well. Perhaps in the subconscious part of the brain at least.

Good question, one that I don't know the answer to. But I know an experiment that can help us find out! Spicy-hot is a complex phenomenon, but it is my understanding that a large part of it is that the capsaicinoids react with the heat receptors in your mouth to adjust their baseline temperature; making them react to normal temperatures inside your mouth as if they were physically burning hot. If tolerance is a purel…

I eat very spicy food and I've noticed for a while now I've lost the ability to detect when I'm being burned in my mouth (at all, it's actually a bit of an issue sometimes). The rest of my body is the same as it always was - save for my fingers, which I can use to flip things in hot oil (probably a result of exposure to hot oil). Perhaps you are on to something :)

Re: Blood sugar level follows perceived time rather than actual time in diabetics

#70
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your story "proves" all the studies with sommeliers where they duped them into rating white wines (with red food coloring) as fancy red wines. All the sommeliers failed the blind tests. In fact all those studies showed was that the taste of wine stemmed primarily from the perception of the bottle rather than the actual taste.

Might want to refresh your reading on this. AFAIK this is reference to one (unpublished) study where undergrad wine science students tended to choose from a list of descriptive terms usually associated with red wine to refer to dyed white wine, most of the time . It's certainly true that suggestion can change ones perception of wine (or any flavor), but I don't think it's clear that it's the primary factor.

I have lost count of the studies that can't tell the difference between a Fine wine, vs 2 buck chuck.

(To the alcoholics out there, whom have tried all the programs, etc., to no avail, but want to cut back.

There's a box white wine in most large grocery stores that has 9% alcohol. Most wine is 12% up to 17% I believe.

It doesn't taste great, but that's a good thing, and it's pretty hard to develop a problem with it.)

Post reply on HN