Michael569

@integral I don't want to be telling you what to do man but that's such a HUGE set of red flags that I'd seriously be considering terminating that relationship. I am sorry for the health issues she is facing but we have a system in place to support chronic disease. But I doubt it's right that you are being asked to be the caretaker if you're not even married. Unless you feel this person is ultimately your soulmate and you know "she's the one" but I don't get that vibe from the way you describe her. People can change...but most don't, especially not those with a massive victim mentality and self entitlement issues. And you only have one life and your youth won't last forever.....

Important that the B vitamins are methylated as mentioned by Integral. Homocysteine could be increased due to other things than methylation cycle disruption as well so keep an eye on it. It may take some time (few months) for it to start coming down so be patient and work with someone who will help you explore this from a more holistic perspective, in case you don't see any results from supplementation. Something like this (link) is what I mean. It needs to say B9 as - 5-methyl-tetra-hydro-folate B12 as methyl-cobalamin B6 as P5P Betaine doesn't matter If it also contains a bit of Choline that might be a bonus None of this is a direct supplemental recommendation so work with someone who specialises in functional nutrition locally in France

@integral are they a relationship partner or a family? Could you say more about their direct relationship to you in the hierarchy of the whole family?

@Username hey, sorry for late response. Tests are looking fine except the cholesterol panel. Your Total and your LDL are higher than I would like for a 35 year old male. I'd try to get your LDL as close to 1.8 as possible. But other than that things are alright. How is your blood pressure? How are your anthropometrics? Have they checked your BMi? Weight? Height? From some experience working with c Long Covid and Fibro and what I found nearly always is that there is a reduced stress tolerance so one of the most important things is to plan your energy expenditure. Even like using some kind of numerical evaluation. This is a little bit intuitive and you kinda design it with regards to past onset of PEM but it would go something like this. Assume you have, in the day, 10 units of energy. And if you hit 0, you will experience PEM and severity of symptoms. So your goal is to kinda end your day with 2 or 3. And then you would rate activiities such as. exercise: -5 units walk: -3 units nap: + 3 units cooking session -3 units. And so on. Basically using your intuition by journalling on what activities drain you and sort of observing yourself on how depleted you get if you stack a walk + study session + exercise and how likely it is that you end up with symptoms the next day and then sort of working your way backwards from there. Gradually as you strengthen the body, you will find that you can tolerate more and , for example, exercise may go from 5 to 3 or a session of socialisation will drain 4 instead of 7 and so on. But ignore if this doesn't make sense Also, I didn't ask this but how is your diet? Are you eating a lot of red meat or things like bacon and butter ? Curious if that would explain the elevated cholesterol?

Not everything that is processed or ultra processed is inherently bad. You could make an argument that some ultra processed vegan foods, because they are fortified, is beneficial for people who would have otherwise run into deficiencies on a vegan diet which is quite common in the wholefood plant based communities. Take examples of iron, fibre & soy protein fortified vegan burgers. I'd argue that's a benefit protecting folks from anaemia and protein deficiency (those who are not very good at planning their diet) Also, someone once told me this and it stuck " not all vegans do it for health, some vegans just want to eat cruelty-free Western Style vegan Diet" , I think that's a major factor here. The ethics vs the health side. You could be an ethical 100% vegan, never touch an animal product in your life and be incredibly unhealthy and we've all seen those people

impressive! not everyone is familiar with this complex pathway @thierry maybe you could find a nutritionist locally or a functional medicine doctor who could run something like a methylation panel for you. This is by Genova Diagnostics Methylation panel basically testing all the cofactors

@Something Funny I don't think i have anything else to say. Hope you know what you're doing

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Stepping on a piece of glass, rusted metal, needle or some leftover junk is the biggest concern. Obviously you shouldn't walk outdoors barefoot especially not in overgrown places etc. Beach and your own garden would be only exceptions. Other than that the risks far outweigh any questionable benefits. Definitely wouldn't recommend walking barefoot out in the nature, you may have good intentions but others who have walked there before you may have been smashing bottles, discarding junk like tin cans etc. over time any corrosive metal becomes a severe hazard. We've polluted the planet too much for it to be safe anymore

@Username Welcome back, haven't seen your mushroom avatar for a while I'm curious did you have CFS diagnosed? Did you match the diagnostic criteria for CFS and PEM? Or was it mostly assumption by the doc? Do you know how it was triggered? Seems that it could have been around the time when you had lots of stress with sorting out the storage and maybe that whole resale experience was a p[articularly stressful event. Also, have you had any major infection or covid recently? Long covid can be a trigger for these things as well. Other things I'd be curious to know more about: your iron status, your thyroid health, full blood count, vitamin D levels. I like the supplemental protocol btw, pretty neat combination for deep cellular support! Kuddos on putting that together yourself

If you think it is kidney related, that's best discussed with a professional. Low grade pyelonephritis could go unnoticed but you want to get that checked, there are urinary tests your MD/GP can run. Schedule an appointment with your GP and stress the urgency. As in for overall health improvement, there are many ways to go about that, have a look around this forum subsection, wen discuss lots of cool things and there are of course books you could look into or simply chat to AI how to start taking simple steps.

yeah, that has to be a professional, as this is a patient test interpretation. Weird that they put so much focus on Equol? That's kinda random since half the population of UK probably don't even eat soy.

I'm not loving the bifido/lacto ratio but it has to be taken in context to the rest of the report. Do you think you can post the whole thing in here Alex? Cut out personal details, just printscreens. I think @undeather is more qualified to interpret this than me tho

It took me a long time to truly recognise that some of the things we discuss on this forum and the amount of self development and internal work people around do is soooo out of place for many people in society that even something as simple as being able to sit in silence for 30 minutes a day is completely inconceivable for most. I am not being dismissive, this is result of countless observations and interactions. I think we tend to underestimate how much people struggle with things that we consider 'easily remediable', much of this isn't common knowledge unfortunately Most people in the society do little to no personal development, they don't read meaningful literature, they stop studying after finishing school, they don't have high quality hobbies and they don't devote their time to anything meaningful. It is almost NPC existence and I think that's one of the reasons why usage of social media is so rampant why it is so easy to brainwash and why someone like Trump could get into power. To a ship without a a destination, every wind is favourable.

For someone trying to escape the mechanistic way of thinking you seem to be falling into it over and over I only brought up the polyphenol topic because you hinted at that direction with speculating about mechanisms as to why chocolate is bad/good. I don't think discussing mechanisms (e.g. theobromin does this and that that to adenosin receptors) is a healthy way to talk about nutrition, in fact I think it is one of the worst ways to tackle the topic because people end up making stuff up to confirm their biases or assert a disagreement. Just look at whole Ray Pete forum for example, its like a rollercoaster for the owner's ego with almost no relevance to real life. Mechanistic debates about nutrition are complete garbage because we don't understand nutrition at such stage at all. We have no idea what these things really do. So it comes down to who can remember or google more cool things that have nothing to do with reality. Take seed oils as an example. Ray Pete would tell you they are bad because Linoleic Acid oxidises in vitro when you mix it with copper and he would say "look at this linolenic acid, it is killing you because oxidation has been linked to cancer in rats". Then you take a meta analysis of HUMAN studies and show "look, people who have more circulating linolenic acid in their blood actually do better and they are healthier". And you would present this to Pete and his acolytes and you know know what would happen? You'd get banned from his forum... because that's not how they play. Lol, I think you and I both know that consequences of fruitarian diet have nothing to do with polyphenols and everything with malnutrition, protein deprivation and multinutrient deficiencies. If you starve yourself a cocktail of polyphenols is not going to do anything for you. That's a cheap argument that you yourself don't even believe in more mechanistic speculation. But ok, let's entertain the idea that eating more dark chocolate leads to higher cortisol levels. What is the argument? That dark chocolate leads to....anxiety? bipolar disorder? schizophrenia? major depression? All of those conditions are associated with chronically elevated corstisol. Or let's make the same argument for coffee...that it is associated with, more anxiety and depression? It is interesting because we see the opposite. You feed 100 people cocoa powder in randomized trial where they don't know what they are getting and the group being fed cocoa feels better, has less anxiety and even their salivary cortisol gets better. You could say that science looks at a narrow area of life and you would be right yet if introducing just one thing works in one group and doesn't work in the other while, in general most other things remain the same, isn't that an indication of a positive effect. It is certainly more persuasive to me than saying "you shouldn't eat dark chocolate because in vitro theobromine have been shown to increase cortisol when dripped on a sample of cells from adrenal cortex" EDIT I hit submit a bit earlier than I wanted but I also wanted to address this: "If we really think about the whole picture it doesn't matter at all what you eat it matters more when you eat how often you eat and your overall strategy for health. What you eat is the least important factor." I agree with this argument to some extend. You overall lifestyle matters more than sum of its parts yet I don't agree that it doesn't mater what you eat at all. Every process in your body is dependant on building blocks and those are found only in your food. If you think about it, from the moment of conception, when you were one zygote cell that divided into 2 and then 4 through mitosis and then 8 and 16 and so on...everything has been dependant on receiving energy, nutrients and macronutrients. I agree that in most cases where nutrition is okay, it doesn't matter initially as long as you're eating enough. The nuances become apparent later in life or in cases of people with either genetic defects (for example a mutation of a gene that codes for certain enzyme could lead to issues if some particular molecule in diet is in excess - e.g. Coeliac disease or MTHFR mutation). Another way to look at it is that you could, during life be eating normally yet you always had a tendency to eat, for example a lot of high fat dairy because if was cultural and in your 58 you develop a prostate cancer while being otherwise healthy because you've been stimulating a certain pathway unnecessarily and maybe with more nuanced adaptation it could have been avoided. Or you lived in a culture where meat tends to be grilled a lot because it is hot outside and people tend to do more grilling and barbecuing and because of that you get diagnosed with colorectal adenoma in your 50s and maybe if you were paying a bit more attention to it, it could have been prevented. It is subtleties like this that show us that what you eat matters but the consequences do not always get apparent immediately and often when they do, they might be irreversible. It is also true that some people seem to be able to get away with anything. Personally I don't know many such folks because those who claimed, when they were younger, that they could do anything without consequences, usually end up with shit health. My partner's dad is one such example, my grandfather is another and I know personally a few others...anecdotes, I know but I always struggle to back these arguments up with real life stories. I think a lot of these cultural hearsays are completely made up. Go to a n oncology clinic for respiratory or hepatic diseases and ask "how many of you thought smoking / drinking would never catch up with you when you were young" Some people are incredibly gifted with genetics, they were blessed with powerful immune system, with strong livers, powerful detoxification capacities. Some people are naturally born with a pool of antioxidant that's twice or 3 times the potency of the average person in their region. Folks get born with ApoE mutations or cholesterol reabsorbtion mutations that make them practically immune to heart attacks. All these things matter. On the other side, some people are born with things that make them 10 times likely to experience first heart attack before 45, 13 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's, less likely to be able to absorb vitamin D, more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune condition, more likely to form blood cloths in deep veins - and when these people follow a health advice of some quack on the internet they end up with terrible health problems. Nuances matter

@LastThursday yes, agreed. Thanks for introducing the nuances.

I have an alcoholic in a family and that's exactly what happened. This person would go above and beyond when sober and would give everything to others until they get drunk and destroy everything, trigger conflicts and basically alienate others from them. And this is a cycle that continues for over 15 years. I wouldn't say the alcohol is more important to them, it is that the addiction is such a strong driver that they have no willpower over it anymore. When you put a person with low level of personal development, low level of consciousness, no willpower and shit ton of trauma and put them in an environment where there is easy access to alcohol, they will always lose control. At this point I stopped making effort to change this person because I know I can't. My heart goes out to you and your family. Sometimes creating distance is the answer.

I went down this rabbit hole couple years ago on dental health and how it connects to systemic health. Looking at the mouthwashes, we know that they help. They reduce the risk of periodontitis (chronic inflammation of the gums) which is a major trigger of periodontal disease (receding gums, infection, loss of teeth, appearance of pockets etc) . Older people who loose teeth are more likely to develop frailty and diseases linked to malnutrition but also dementia for some reason so dental health is one of those things that we start appreciating only when we have issues. We also know that poor dental health increases risk of pneumonia, infective endocarditis, diabetes and potentially Alzheimer's , possibly through malnutrition or infection crossing BBB) So going back, for most people who have moderate to mediocre dental hygiene they are important and highly recommended. Also for those who eat a lot of bakery products, sugar, processed food, low fibre diet and generally have a poorer quality of lifestyle, they are highly recommended because the benefits far outweigh the potential costs. It is only once we start entering the realm of people who actually take very good care of their oral health (brushing, flossing, tongue scraping, water pick, regular hygienist) that mouth washes may, in some people, potentially cause harm. There is some evidence that alcohol-containing mouthwashes may increase the risk of oral cancer although the risk is really really low, I think like 1-3% increase in low users vs high users. I contacted one of the leading researchers on this topic some time ago and wanted to interview him but never heard back. When it comes to alcohol-free mouthwashes they seem to be safer yet there is some concern about a harm to oral microbiota. This hasn't really been confirmed because it is incredibly difficult to study this but everything marketed as "antibacterial" immediately raises a potential concern. You want some bacteria in your mouth and in fact they are the essential first line of your oral / gastrointestinal immune system. Same as tonsils. So regularly using antibacts might be helpful in minimising the risk of periodontitis but in people where that risk is extremely low due to great hygiene the risk of damaging oral flora may slowly start outweighing that benefit. So I'd say if your dental health is great, you don't suffer form frequent infections, inflammations , pains, bleeding etc I might consider something like probiotic mouthwashes instead. There is one or two studies showing they are effective for bad breath and for chronic infection. Whether they work the similar way that gastrointestinal probiotics do, is still too early to say although I haven't looked at the literature for 3 years so there might be more new stuff there. Some people also gurgle with green tea? I used to do that but I don't know if it works or not. Most important things when it comes to dental care: (necessary) regular hygienist and dentist checkup (necessary) flossing (manual & water pick if possible) (necessary) electric toothbrush seems superior to manual (probably useful) tongue scraping (maybe useful) probiotic mouthwashes

I can't imagine a worse relationship than being with someone who agrees with everything you say. The small disagreements, daily negotiations and compromises is what makes the relationship interesting because it helps you both grow and develops deep social skills. A high quality woman will challenge you each time you bullshit yourself because she knows you can do better.

Its an interesting question that can be answered in a few ways. Do you want a long answer or a summarised one?

this is EXACTLY what I mean when I said, it isn't a 20-second issue. Its the damage that this is doing to the part of your brain that you are trying to train to pay effortless attention, to be comfortable with silence and stillness. In a world dominated by noise and giant mountain of horse shit created by content "creators" , being able to pay sustained attention, say for 3 hours at one time is almost a superpower and it will make all the difference when you are trying to self actualise, fulfil your life purpose or do any meaningful work. No, honestly if you can burn that extra money, give it a 3-month trial and then reflect on whether it helped or not. or get a family membership if you live with more people that way everybody has to chip in a few bucks.

@Schizophonia yes adds distract you but the issue is much deeper than that. Anyways, let's just drop it, you're right this doesn't need to be a discussion

Imagine if during your set of bench-press or squat when you are trying to be maximally focused and you need individed attention, someone comes and starts tickling you under the armpits or showing a magazine in your face saying "look, you need to read about this facecream!" And you're like "fuck off, I am in the zone" and they are like "no no, just 20 more seconds, look look!" And then they come back at random times again and again and each time you must exert a little bit of your mental wellbeing to say "fuck off" and each time you need to bring yourself back, your mind has to retrace the steps it has already taken, reactivate the correct pathways to get into the zone which completely destroys your deep work effort and significantly reduces your creativity and short term to long term memory conversion. An add interruption lights all of your short term efforts on fire. And now imagine doing this 20-40 times a day, given that most videos have up to 10 add breaks , 7 days a week, that's tens of hours of disruption, annoyance needing to create a headspace for bullshit products that have nothing to do with your art, your life or your life purpose. And I'm not talking about double adds. It is also the cost of having your body flooded with adrenaline each time a bullshit advertiser disrupts you. And now imagine having to pay 12*15 euros a year to make it go away plus getting access to unlimited downloadables and cool interrupted music Worth it every single time. I mean, its not right, I hate that we live in this world but that's the cost of you having an access to free content. You pay with your time and your attention and become a bitch to the advertisers. I'd rather become a bitch to Google and pay them to leave me alone. But it depends on the individual usage of YouTube. It can be a tool of deep learning and it can be a tool of complete horseshit of a content where an add is actually a step up rather than an interruption.

Don't feel like you must choose one thing and stick with it for the rest of your life. Your LP may be changing and shifting over the years and so may your impact statement and the medium. But I understand the desire to get it right, its sort of a competency curse that once you're good at at a lot of things where you are no longer limited by your ability but you are now limited by the abundance of choices, it can be a bit frustrating to have to choose one. Anyways, it seems to me like you already have a pretty decent idea of what both are here: This seems like a powerful vision. Now from here work your way backwards. Where vision is the pinnacle of your Life Purpose Journey, the Impact Statement and Medium are further lines down. You said you like drawing, could that be your primary medium? Maybe you can have primary and secondary medium if you prefer more than one tool. This is a good start and seems more like your Mission Statement. Impact Statement is a little bit closer to your daily grind. Like when you zoom out of the things you do on daily basis (drawing, designing, researching, journalling) , you do that...to what? To help people what? Who are you trying to impact with your art? To generate (what?) and for (whom?) - that's your impact statement It is the bridge between your medium and your mission & vision. It is still a bit vague although it hints at direction (like a sign on a highway that says (Montana 350 miles this way, it helps but if there was no other sign you would probably miss Montana) but a bit specific that it connects to your ideal medium (driving your car on the highway, pressing the pedals, changing the gears, keeping the speed limit etc). For example my LP Statement (when I did this in 2016) was Studying Health & Wellbeing (medium) to help people live longer, better and thrive in life (impact statement) If I had to rewrite it today it would be tiny bit different as my LP has evolved but the essence remains the same, the impact statement is exactly the same 8 years later. The medium communicates to you what you do. The impact statement takes one step away from that communicating who you do it for and who (or what) are you impacting? Its kinda the answer to "what's the point of all this drawing/designingn?" Is this helpful?

Absolutely worth it, I've had it for past 5 years and wouldn't go back. YouTube is essential for my work, relaxation, exercise, learning and so many things and I can't be losing brain cells to those retarded adds. Yeah, go for itl. YouTube music app which comes with it is pretty cool. The cost isn't extreme either