Why it’s “almost useless and misleading.”
No, actually, it’s worse than useless.
Category Archives: Health
Vitamin D
Should we be supplementing, or not?
As is often the case, the science is iffy. I’m taking 5000 IU of D3 daily (or at least when I remember to take anything). No idea if it’s helping, but I don’t generally spend a lot of time in the sun. In fact, I have a solar-powered watch whose battery occasionally runs down because I spend so much time in my office. So it seems likely that I’m somewhat deficient.
The Seratonin Transporter Gene And Depression
Time to throw in the towel on the theory. Like climate, genetics remains a lot more complicated than we’d like to think.
Deuterized Drugs
The first one has arrived. The big advantage of this, according to a Twitter discussion with Derek, is that dosage times are much less critical.
Human Heart Tissue
…grown from a spinach leaf. Well, that’s…different. But whatever works.
A New Lung Function
Turns out that bone marrow isn’t the only place that blood is made.
I think a little humility is in order on how much we still don’t understand about the human body.
[Update later morning]
Surprise, surprise, the testes are connected to the immune system.
NAD+
In the latest paper, the scientists revealed new details on how NAD+ works to keep cells young. Sinclair put drops of NAD+ into the water of a group of mice, and within a couple of hours, their NAD+ levels started to rise. Within the first week, the scientists saw obvious age reversal in muscle and improvements in DNA repair. “We can’t tell the difference between the tissues from an old mouse that is two years old versus a young mouse that is three to four months old,” Sinclair says.
I’ve started taking it myself. And this is interesting, too:
“The idea is to protect the body from radiation exposure here on earth, either naturally occurring or doctor-inflicted,” he says. “If I were going to have an X-ray or a CT scan, I would take NMN beforehand.” He already has plans to go even farther than earth: NASA is collaborating with Sinclair’s group on the human tests to see if it’s possible to insulate astronauts from the effects of cosmic radiation in space.
That would be nice.
[Sunday-afternoon update]
This looks like a promising similar breakthrough.
[Bumped]
The Republican ObamaCare Debacle
Byron York has a good analysis. This is a key point, which was entirely predictable:
‘The Art of the Deal’ doesn’t work with ideologically-driven politicians. The pundits mentioned Trump’s most famous book thousands of times during the Obamacare negotiations. But in dealing with the doctrinaire conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, Trump was facing differently-motivated partners than in the deal-making recounted in his 1987 book. If the president wants to succeed in Washington, he’ll have to learn how to deal with people who aren’t in it just for the money.
I'd also note that today was the day that Trump finally figured out that he's not the CEO of the country, and the limits of the presidency.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) March 25, 2017
[Update a few minutes later]
Inside the Trumpcare meltdown.
Rookies.
The Benefits Of Sperm
I don’t care how many there are, still nope. Also not going to cook with it. But it might be useful news for women (and some men).
Health Care And Life Expectancy
Why the argument for single payer is economically ignorant. Health-care expenditures are only one factor among many that affect life expectancy.