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I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

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Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#81
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science is not conducted through public debate. Full stop. There's a reason why it's peer review, and not talk show host review. During COVID, most everybody was operating from an incomplete data set. Public officials were wrong about some things. You can choose to see this as a conspiracy set up by big pharma, or you can see it as imperfect people doing what they could to mitigate a public health crisis. And yes, cr…

>Science is not conducted through public debate. Full stop. There's a reason why it's peer review, and not talk show host review. You're only saying that because you happen to disagree with what is being said. Full stop.

The scientific principle is based on proving thing by experimentation.

it is empirical that means that you should be able to re-produce the results of a thing or assertion by following the details in a paper.

The public might be able to do it themselves. But the point is, its not about who says what, its about can it be reproduced.

scientist "A" says that the sky is blue because of "x". devises an experiment to prove that. writes up the experiment, publishes it, asserts that the sky is blue because of x, and that the experiment proves this.

Scientist "B" says it bollocks, reproduces the experiment, but also extends the experiment to show that the data also says that the sky is green. Paper is published with data and method.

The process repeats until a consensus is reached where everyone can reproduce the data, and no one can disprove the hypothesis that the sky is blue because of x.

None of that requires asserting bollocks on a chat show. Sure science outreach is great, but its not _really_ part of the method.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#82

You don't need to eat it. A well-known phenomenon in the US military is that some of the sites for Basic Training of new recruits have prodigious quantities of poison oak/ivy/sumac as the local flora. As consequence of the military training, you are rolling around in those plants daily. Initially, a large percentage of people have the usual reaction but it quickly disappears after a few weeks and it never happens aga…

This is not how it works with these plants. Prolonged, sustained exposure results in worse symptoms over time as your immune response increases in intensity. https://www.pbsnc.org/blogs/science/poison-ivy-and-its-pals-...

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Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#83
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link doesn't make a claim quite that strong. I also don't know anyone that has eaten it. Given that I know dozens of people who demonstrably lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen I outlined above, at the very least it should raise a scientific question. It would be easier to dismiss if it was an isolated case or two. No one exposes themselves like that intentionally.

> lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen This is not how the immune system is known to work. Sensitivity does not downregulate. Increased exposure enhances detection and response. Recognition proliferates. Once you're allergic to something, it'll only worsen. You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely…

I've lost allergies to chocolate and soy.

If you can't lose allergies, why is exposure therapy a thing?

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very much like something that someone might hear on Joe Rogan's podcast and think it's a good idea because someone who knows how to put two sentences together sounded like they knew what they were talking about.

Same with vitamin d self-medication here on HN

Vitamin D deficiency (and while we're at it, B12 deficiency and iron deficiency) are real deficiency issues that have risen in numbers across Western societies for quite the time now - IIRC, a large contributor is our change in diets and living habits.

Basically, we're spending far less time working out in the open so our body doesn't generate vitamin D on its own in sufficient quantities, and the trend towards highly processed, nutritionally inflexible diets on one side and vegetarianism/veganism on the other side leads to a whole host of malnutrition issues.

Unfortunately, the "malnutrition" levels in bloodwork are mostly calibrated on white European males... so similar to BMI [1] and a few medications and diseases [2], there is a "vitamin D paradox" in Black people who seem to not be that sensitive to lower vit-D levels than White people [3].

Human bodies and genetics are fascinating, even if you're not an expert in it.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9877251/

[2] https://academic.oup.com/ehjcvp/article/8/7/738/6644872

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954269/

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#85
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen This is not how the immune system is known to work. Sensitivity does not downregulate. Increased exposure enhances detection and response. Recognition proliferates. Once you're allergic to something, it'll only worsen. You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely…

I've lost allergies to chocolate and soy. If you can't lose allergies, why is exposure therapy a thing?

You're training a different kind of immune sensitivity. You're still inducing inflammation, and you're still allergic, you just see less IgE response.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#86
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link doesn't make a claim quite that strong. I also don't know anyone that has eaten it. Given that I know dozens of people who demonstrably lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen I outlined above, at the very least it should raise a scientific question. It would be easier to dismiss if it was an isolated case or two. No one exposes themselves like that intentionally.

> lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen This is not how the immune system is known to work. Sensitivity does not downregulate. Increased exposure enhances detection and response. Recognition proliferates. Once you're allergic to something, it'll only worsen. You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely…

How do allergy shots work?

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ivermectin doesn't work though, and we knew that then even if he did find a single quack doctor to promote it. And vaccines do reduce transmission, which is all I ever heard about it. Not sure what side effects you're talking about.

[flagged]

> Authorities were told from the top to not prescribe it

They were also told not to prescribe Metamizole, because it kills people. there is no controversy there (well apart from spain who still have it on license.)

> How about the fact it killed some people within minutes?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/697... No drug is 100% safe. How many people were killed per 100k doses?

>That the actual data was slated to be suppressed for 75 years for bullshit reasons

https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/ you mean published quarterly

> The dictionary even changed the definition of "vaccine"

Which dictionary? Also, bear in mind that the dictionary isn't static. Its updated to reflect how english is spoken now, by the public.

> In the years since the vaccine came out, many young people have suspiciously dropped dead or at least lost consciousness on live TV

Do you have data for that? what does it corrolate to? also depending on the country, some places its the younger that have less uptake.

Do you know how hard it is to run a project with 10 people?

Do you know how exponentially harder it is to run it for 1000 people? How on earth, looking at how shit the US government is at functioning, can they organise something like that?

Moreover, if its the "MSM", who are holding the secrets, do you know how fucking chatty those pricks are? (I used to work for a finance newspaper) All you have to do is take them to the pub and you can find out who's doing what illegal shit. or whos flogging synthetic opioids to the rust belt

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#88

Several kids in our family's social group have successfully undergone desensitization therapy for severe nut allergies. It was much more rigorous than the author's approach, with weekly doctor visits and taking increasingly large amounts of whatever they were allergic to (starting with micrograms of nut powder). I think my niece had the best time as she eventually was advised to start eating daily measured amounts of…

I have direct experience with this and it is indeed a miracle. What's interesting is that the protocol largely emerged outside the regulatory channels, with a handful of doctors worldwide developing it once the science became clear that exposure could help and more and more offering it to patients every year. These allergists have carefully figured out regimens that work and it can take a year of daily dosing, with d…

I asked our doctor about immunotherapy and she urged against it saying it was lots of trips each week, risky, unlikely to work and the benefits were limited.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#89
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link doesn't make a claim quite that strong. I also don't know anyone that has eaten it. Given that I know dozens of people who demonstrably lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen I outlined above, at the very least it should raise a scientific question. It would be easier to dismiss if it was an isolated case or two. No one exposes themselves like that intentionally.

> lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen This is not how the immune system is known to work. Sensitivity does not downregulate. Increased exposure enhances detection and response. Recognition proliferates. Once you're allergic to something, it'll only worsen. You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely…

Looks like you are giving "Ackshually" technically correct points, when it's clear what others are trying to say. Please engage with what they are trying to convey instead of coming up with technical gotchas.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#90
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link doesn't make a claim quite that strong. I also don't know anyone that has eaten it. Given that I know dozens of people who demonstrably lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen I outlined above, at the very least it should raise a scientific question. It would be easier to dismiss if it was an isolated case or two. No one exposes themselves like that intentionally.

> lost their sensitivity to poison oak via the accidental chronic exposure regimen This is not how the immune system is known to work. Sensitivity does not downregulate. Increased exposure enhances detection and response. Recognition proliferates. Once you're allergic to something, it'll only worsen. You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely…

> You can become allergic to new things, but you won't lose allergies unless the recognizer population dies off entirely.

That's not true. Desensitization therapy often works.

The trick is to introduce the allergens into the bloodstream, bypassing the skin.

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