Autism Spectrum Disorder describes a complex of many symptoms that appear in children, often first noticed by parents when the child is three years old. Some report having noticed a change in what they thought was normal development much earlier. New research shows that there may be indicators other than behavior that might help us to intervene and possibly prevent the worst of symptoms.
An NPR report on some of the genetic research sparked my wish to wrangle with some of the assumptions being made by many researchers. Much of the discussion of autism centers on genetic “causes,” despite the fact that genes do not “cause” anything. However, genetics research can give us many insights into how the brain is put together. I also present new research that suggests an environmental association and criticize both kinds of research for not asking the right questions.
All sorts of reasons for the “obesity epidemic” have been surfacing. Some have blamed the television for promoting “couch potatoes,” others the increasing number of families who eat only fast food, which tends to be high in fat and salt, others blame a lack of exercise, starting in school-aged children who do not have any kind of daily exercise plan or who lost gym classes in the efforts by schools to increase grades or scores on tests. Still others look to a much bigger picture and suspect that the U.S. government is actually fueling the obesity epidemic by its own policies.
Comment on “Is U.S. Farm Policy Feeding The Obesity Epidemic?” on All Things Considered 10 Aug 2011. A look at one possible cause of the obesity epidemic in this country. Farm subsidies were examined to see if they promoted unhealthy eating. A reasoned understanding of what these subsidies do suggests that they do not promote unhealthy eating. This report suggested that the processing and marketing of foods may have a bigger effect, although no study confirms this. A very different take on the problem suggests that the U.S. farm policy supports obesity-promoting farm practices by encouraging the use of pesticides in genetically modified food crops, and not encouraging organic farming practices. There is scientific evidence showing that pesticides can be strongly linked to, if not cause, diabetes and obesity. It is time to take a closer look at these reasons and consider other reasons that have not gotten much attention.
Are we missing something by calling it “postpartum depression?” Or are we medicalizing a sociological pathology? Are we confusing a hormone problem with something else?
Comment on “Stigma Hinders Treatment For Postpartum Depression” reported on All Things considered 1 Aug 2011. I suggest that some of postpartum depression is misnamed, and actually reflects a rejection of the infant by the mother. By calling all “numbness toward the infant” PPD, doctors are ignoring a real sociological problem where the mother is just not ready to give birth to or care for an infant. Calling the symptoms PPD suggests a temporary problem probably due to the tremendous hormonal shifts that occur in the mother during and after pregnancy, when these shifts may have nothing to do with the problem. I discuss the different types of depression and how they have to be treated differently.
Can mind-body medicine techniques heal tennis elbow? Yes! Along with herbal medicine, these techniques can heal, with practice. So what causes this pain? Is it “overuse?” Does that make sense? What about our mental state when we use a joint? Does that play a role?
This is a comment on “A Rubber Twist on Treating Tennis Elbow Pain” on Morning Edition 25 July 2011. Both conscious and unconscious thought may play a role in both the cause of the pain, as well as its treatment.
Updated: 4 Sept 2014
Summary:
Elbow Joint with Ligaments (Minus muscle and aponeurosis which also attach over the ligaments near the joint)
NPR reporter Allison Aubrey talks about a new kind of treatment for tennis elbow pain. She interviews a friend, Larry Holzman, who got tennis elbow from playing his guitar, and his physical therapist, Barton Bishop. He shows Larry a simple test for tennis elbow as a “cause” of his pain. He also has Larry use a Thera-Band FlexBar to twist to gradually strengthen and lengthen muscles crossing the elbow. Lifting weights, it seems, tends to cause pain at the same time as the contraction . The Flex-bar does not do this. However, some therapists are not convinced that the Flex-bar is the solution, regardless of the recent article published showing its effectiveness. Continue reading →
This is a personal story, an example of the how I discovered where damage was done by toxins, using mind-body techniques such asVisualization (or Guided Imagery),Mindfulness, andMuscle Reflex Testing (Applied Kinesiology). In addition to relieving symptoms, the removal of toxins allowed local tissues to repair which had never been able to since I was born, in some cases.
Furthermore, by finding the emotional links to the toxins, I was able to find out what happened to me as a baby, and all of the puzzle pieces of my life started to fall into place. I understood so much more than just what was wrong physically, why I felt the symptoms that I had felt, why they were not constantly bothering me, why they seemed to get worse under emotional stress, why I constantly had the feeling that I had to devote so much of my resources to “surviving” when no one would think that I should have that kind of difficulty. Adults are not supposed to feel that way, not if they are not starving or not so sick they had to be hospitalized.
These methods taught me how the brain thought at different levels of consciousness, how ideas, as well as language were constructed in the brain. These discoveries only come from extensive use of mindfulness and other mind-body medicine techniques, which trains the nervous system to write new programs for healing and to eventually execute them unconsciously.Continue reading →
Human Left Ear, from David Benbennick at Wikimedia
Bothered by “ringing in the ears?” Mindfulness meditation may help relieve tinnitus, but there are extra things a person can do. This is a comment on “Rethinking Tinnitus: When The Ringing Won’t Stop, Clear Your Mind” on Morning Edition 18 July 2011. I suggest that the mindfulness meditation that is being promoted by these doctors as a method for stress reduction is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the level of training of the nervous system using mindfulness techniques that can be achieved. I bring in the different levels of consciousness that can be tapped using this technique. I discuss the possibility that toxins are causing the tinnitus and how mindfulness along with other mind-body medicine techniques can relieve the symptoms, possibly getting rid of the tinnitus altogether.
Updated: 18 July 2013
Summary
NPR Reporter Allison Aubrey reports on research at the University of California, San Francisco using mindfulness techniques learned in meditation to treat tinnitus sufferers. The researchers used MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) that was previously successful in treating patients with chronic pain or arthritis. The emphasis was on using breathing to control and direct the focus of the mind away from the ringing in the ears. It does not get rid of the ringing. Critical to this technique is developing the ability to separate all the “anxiety, thoughts and emotions” about the ringing from the physical sensation of the ringing. Continue reading →
This post will provide information to guide a person when using Muscle Release Testing (Applied Kinesiology) or MRT for short to treat trauma. This is NOT Maximum Restraint Technique (as was demonstrated by Officer Chauvin on George Floyd on May 26, 2020). To learn how to use MRT, go to that website for instructions. Since all emotional trauma registers as physical damage to neurons and circuits in the brain (sometimes in the spinal cord), then “mind” = body here. I will use the case of Jaycee Dugard throughout this post as an example. I will also emphasize the repair of the brain and body parts most likely to have been damaged as a result of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) that she suffered. I will also refer to the kind of nervous system damage that probably occurred in her that needs to be addressed using mind-body medicine techniques. Continue reading →
What is going on when a baby is shaken? A recent report suggests that shaking a baby can cause a subdural hematoma, which can lead to death. Some parents may be wrongfully accused of shaking their baby, when toxins running under the skin might have caused the hematoma.
This is part of a series of reports on child deaths, done in collaboration with ProPublica and PBS Frontline. NPR reporter Joseph Shapiro discussed findings on Shaken Baby Syndrome with Dr. Norman Guthkelch, who wrote the paper defining Shaken Baby Syndrome (Guthkelch 1971). He was trying to explain an odd symptom that appeared in babies who died suddenly without any evidence of abuse. He explained its possible occurrence from the observation that parents at that time in Northern England often punished their children by shaking them. He found to his horror that prosecuting attorneys were using his paper as evidence against a person accused of shaking a baby to death. Even though most prosecutors use subdural hematoma as evidence they also use two other symptoms, bleeding behind the retina and brain swelling. However Guthkelch is still alarmed that a cause of death as Shaken Baby Syndrome is reached based upon only this triad of symptoms. Some experts think that there is already too much science so that abusers get away with killing their infants. Continue reading →
Do potatoes cause weight gain? A longitudinal study following people and their lifestyle choices (foods, exercise, smoking, etc.) so concluded. Theoretical and methodological reasons can be used to dispute their conclusions, since the researchers never investigated cause and effect with a controlled experiment.
In an epidemiological study, Dr. Mozaffarian, et. al. (2011) followed 120,877 people over a period of over 20 years to see what they ate and if it was associated with whether they gained or lost weight. They were not obese at the start of the study. Lifestyle factors were also followed: smoking, physical activity, alcohol use, sleep cycle, TV watching. It is an important epidemiological study which helps give us basic information that could help us devise better experimental studies on what causes weight gain. Every four years an evaluation was made. Results: participants gained an average of 3.35 lb every four years which was most strongly correlated with eating potato chips (1.69 lb), potatoes (1.28 lb), sugar-sweetened drinks (1 lb), and meats (0.93-0.95 lb). Weight loss was most closely associated with eating vegetables (-0.22 lb), whole grains (-0.37 lb), fruits (-0.49 lb), and nuts (-0.57 lb) and yogurt (-0.82 lb). [So those commercials are right, after all?] The other lifestyle variables were also associated with gain or loss of weight. Continue reading →
Sexual abuse by someone known to the victim, either in the case of incest or family friend or neighbor can cause symptoms of PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) that fall within the category of Type I PTSD (as I defined in Types of PTSD). There is one particular case that has been in the news this year, that of Casey Anthony, who claimed that her father abused her. I discuss as many of the behaviors ascribed to Casey Anthony as evidence of guilt of murdering her daughter in the light of the possibility that she was in fact, abused sexually by her father.
Normal Breast with empty ducts (purple circles/ellipses), by Itayba at WikimediaBreast cancer (fibroadenoma) which has infiltrated the duct (large purple regular or irregular circles), by KGH at Wikimedia
What does “risk” mean when they say that some behavior is a “risk” for some health disorder? How do the latest breast cancer surveys stack up in our quest for answers?
This is an extended comment on “Drug Shows Promise In Reducing Breast Cancer Risk” posted on NPR for 6 June 2011. No experiment shows that the drug prevents breast cancer, only a survey suggests a link between exemestane and lower breast cancer rates. Much of what was said in this report suggest causes of breast cancer have never been studied in a controlled experiment. By not doing so, the doctors can only suggest that exercise, eating healthy meals, losing weight or taking this drug might be good for the patient. We just do not know what exactly these factors have to do with the occurrence of breast cancer.
Summary
A study in post-menopausal women found that a hormone-blocking drug, exemestane, which helps prevent re-occurrence of breast cancer may help prevent it. It cuts “risk of invasive breast cancer” by 65%. NPR reporter Michele Norris interviewed Dr. Otis Brawley. Exemestane will not work in pre-menopausal women. Tamoxifen and raloxifene do seem to work in pre-menopausal. This study lasted only three years. Most of these drugs only work to reduce risk while women are taking it, so none are a cure. Tamoxifen increases risk of uterine cancer, blood clots and pulmonary emboli, but all of these drugs have serious side effects. So it is critical to understand the risks of taking any of these drugs. Most women may not want to take it for the prescribed five years, and most must also take drugs for osteoporosis. Continue reading →
Sometimes we need to think outside of the box” when it comes to finding answers to many of our health questions. The case of cholesterol, heart disease, and the medications used to combat it illustrates this principle very strongly.
Comment on “Study: Boosting Good Cholesterol With Niacin Did Not Cut Heart Risks” on All Things Considered 27 May 2011. It appears there are multiple causes for cardiovascular disorders. There is strong theoretical work that suggests cholesterol is a response by normal cells to an assault on cell membranes. So people who continue to claim that high cholesterol is a cause for cardiovascular disease are misinforming the public, and putting research on the wrong track. We need to use our understanding of basic chemistry to study what may be the cause of disease. By recognizing multiple causes of high LDL (low density lipids, a type of cholesterol), we can treat it in multiple ways, like diet, exercise, taking niacin and calcium supplements, and getting rid of toxins.
Updated: 2 Sept 2014
Summary
A study of Niaspan showed that it did raise “good cholesterol” (HDL, High Density Lipids), but it did not lower the rate of heart attacks. Patients on Niaspan were more likely to have a stroke than those on placebo. NIH halted a big study of this drug early as a result. NPR reporter Scott Hensley tells us that even though earlier observational studies (not experimental) show that high levels of HDL in people have been associated with “a lower risk of heart attack,” this does not mean that HDL helps to get rid of a cause of a heart attack. Based upon the assumption of causation, the HDL hypothesis states that raising HDL cholesterol should lower the risk of heart disease (it is hard to avoid thinking that “risk” does not mean “cause” in this hypothesis). More than 3400 patients were studied and all were also taking cholesterol-lowering drugs to control LDL (Low Density Lipids). However, the FDA wants more studies, and does not recommend that patients stop taking niacin. Continue reading →
Obese Woman (1612), page 377 from Michael Stolberg: ‘Abhorreas pinguedinem’: Fat and obesity in early modern medicine (c. 1500–1750). In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (2012), pages 370–378. Taken from PD at Wikimedia
Does high blood pressure cause heart disease? Or does something else cause both? Shouldn’t we be using the best methods that science can offer to answer this question?
Comment on “Nearly 1 In 5 Young Adults Have High Blood Pressure” on Morning Edition on 26 May 2011. This is a report on some of the results of a 13 year survey of adolescent lifestyles, attitudes, nutrition, and health outcomes. I caution the reader against reaching the same conclusions as the researchers did about high blood pressure being caused by obesity. No one has tested the possibility that something else might be causing both, since both conditions involve a breakdown or foul-up in cellular metabolism.
Updated: 2 Sept 2014
Summary:
NPR reporter Patti Neighmond interviewed sociologist Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina, one of several researchers (Nguyen et al., 2011) who found that the prevalence of hypertension (>140/90 mm Hg blood pressure) was greater than previously thought–one out of five 24-to-32-yr-olds (most recent data was from 2008). This report was one of many reports using data gathered on 14,000 teenagers, starting in 1995, as part of a larger study on health and social aspects of life in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, NIH). The findings in this study are serious because high blood pressure eventually can make the body more vulnerable to ruptured blood vessels, blood clots, internal bleeding, diabetes and heart disease (Dr. Steven Hirschfeld, NIH). In 1995 only 11% of 12-19-yr-olds were obese. On follow-up five years later (study population =17-24), 22% were obese. By 2008, 67% of all young adults (which reflects national trends for all young adults) were overweight or obese. Patti Neighmond says that obesity “is known to cause high blood pressure”. However, a note of caution–other federal studies show less than one out of five young adults had hypertension, so more study is needed. Dr. Hirschfeld says that everyone should have checkups where their weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar and other measurements are made. However, a typical 20-something won’t get regular checkups or check their blood pressure. Continue reading →
In vitro fertilization method. Eggs are taken from the woman at their peak of production, placed in a petri dish, sperm (from the sperm donor) are injected into each egg with a hollow needle to mechanically fertilize the egg. A narrated animation is available. Made by BruceBlaus at Wikimedia, where a natural fertilization video is available.
What are the latest reproductive technologies, and what is their impact on our social systems? It has been a complaint for many years that technological innovation often surpasses the capabilities of our social system to adapt to it. Is this the case also with new methods of reproduction?
Comment on “Egg Freezing Puts The Biological Clock On Hold” on Morning Edition 31 May 2011. This report on the latest reproductive technologies of egg-freezing did not address the sociological and psychological effects of such technology. Instead, it informed how it was done and what the success rate in fertility was for the women who chose this method. I also discuss sperm donation, and the social effects of sexual selection in China.
Updated: 2 Sept 2014
Summary
NPR reporter Jennifer Ludden interviews women who froze their eggs and had children later in life, and doctors who use or do research on fertility methods involved with egg freezing. They speak about whether it is possible to get pregnant from frozen eggs, what kind of child is born as a result, success rates of pregnancy, age limits for donating eggs. Nothing was said about the lives of children born to women having children late in life. The implications of genetic engineering could also be considered. Continue reading →
When it comes to the chemistry of what we eat, we need to understand the chemistry of our own bodies. A calcium supplement is not the same from one form to the next. We never take “elemental” calcium. Instead we can take a supplement made of calcium bonded with some other chemical element(s). Which are appropriate? News reports do not tell us much about that.
Comment on “Extra Calcium May Not Do Older Women Much Good” on All Things Considered 25 May 2011. I raise questions about this study in an attempt to show how important our understanding of physiology is to the planning of studies. This was not an experiment reported on but a survey, with the lack of controls inherent in such a method of inquiry. Thus we have to be careful about the conclusions reached in the title to the study above.
Updated: June 19, 2011
Summary:
NPR reporter Nancy Shute reports on studies of the benefits of calcium supplements on bones in women. A recent study in the British Medical Journal followed 61,000 Swedish women over a period of 19 years and found that they gained no benefit in their bones by taking more than 750 mg of calcium per day. Other studies in the US and other countries appear to find little benefit either, but this did not stop the Institute of Medicine from recommending that women over 50 take 1200 mg per day, regardless of no signs of bone loss. There are also problems with taking large amounts of calcium, leading to kidney stones and possibly cardiovascular problems.Continue reading →
Embryonic Brain, (looking down on it from above) before it folds up into what we recognize today, from Wikimedia
Updated: Oct 15, 2011
The nervous system is “segmented”, a critical property of vertebrate bodies that allowed the building of modular designs in different parts of the body, in a kind of “conservation” of developmental processes. This method of building a vertebrate body conserved successful designs and promoted small changes in that design to cause major adaptations in vertebrates to different habitats. Once scientists realized that segmentation occurred as a basic property of vertebrate design, its discovery in different systems (skeletal, muscular, urinary, reproductive, and digestive) allows us to study evolution more efficiently. The modular building of segments in the brain and spinal cord mimics the modules formed from bone, muscle, and parts of the body. Thus, keeping segmentation in mind, we can understand how certain basic principles of form and function are kept in the spinal cord and brain during development, even if the final form of the brain appears to have changed so drastically. Continue reading →
Ever wonder if that pain under the arm is in any way related to the pain in the groin? Why do the soles of my feet hurt when I first start walking upon waking up? Why in some people, but not in others, especially children, can you see very clear veins on the back of the hands and in the antecubital fossa (where nurses [in the US] or doctors [in Australia] take blood samples)? How does acupuncture work? The answer: hypodermal fluids, or more specifically, the anatomy of the skin and hypodermis. Continue reading →
The latest report on coffee and prostate cancer may mislead those who cannot tell the difference between causation and correlation. Beware of observational studies that propose “preventions” of any disorder.
Comment on “Coffee May Lower Risk Of Deadliest Prostate Cancer” on Morning Edition 18 May 2011. This study shows there is a link between people who drink coffee and not dying from prostate cancer. I discuss how news media reports have distorted the findings to suggest that drinking coffee may prevent dying from prostate cancer. I discuss possible controlled experiments that could be done to show the latter conclusion, as well as the kind of thinking that must be done before doing a study like this to make sure that the methods are based upon well-grounded physiological theory.
Updated: 2 Sept 2014
Summary
NPR reporter John Knox talked with Harvard researchers who took information from almost 50,000 male health professionals about their coffee-drinking habits and found that those who drank at least six cups of coffee a day formed a statistical group that developed prostate cancer at a level of 60% below that in a statistical group of men who drank less. This is a very clear restatement of what John Knox said. He, and the researcher he interviewed, used the term “risk”, which implies that to avoid the likelihood (“risk”) of developing prostate cancer, you could drink six cups of coffee per day, thus reducing the “risk” of prostate cancer. They cite a study done by Wilson et. al., (2011). The study did not find any difference in the occurrence of or presence of sub-lethal stages of prostate cancer. Continue reading →
Does the human voice have more meaning to others than words do? If not, then why do humans respond differently to spoken language than to the written word? A report in the news offers new information that might help explain the difference, although some may have missed the significance of this news.
You Bug Me. Now Science Explains Whyon Morning Edition 17 May 2011, tells us why some are so annoyed with cell phone users when trapped in the same room, vehicle, or outdoor space as the user. It describes research which suggests how the brain might work to understand words in not so optimum an environment for hearing, how what is heard in a conversation affects the mood. Since speech can be more effective than a written essay with the same words in it, some of the unconscious content might include more than an emotion. This post includes both straight reporting and the author’s observations and opinions on this research.
One town’s decision to combat obesity may be misdirected because it fails to consider the environmental causes of obesity.
Comment on “Mississippi Losing The War With Obesity” on All Things Considered 19 May 2011. I discuss how the problems with obesity in this rural town may have to do with more than just what these people eat. I suggest methods for educating the people there about food, its effects on their body, as well as how they perform in exercise tests may help them realize that their physical health could be better once they understand the performance level expected of them.
Updated: 1 Sept 2014
Fatty Bacon, from Tamorlan on Wikimedia
Summary
This is part of a continuing series that NPR is running on the prevalence, treatment and prevention of obesity. You can do a search at that site for other reports about obesity. NPR reporter Debbie Elliott spoke with several people living in Mississippi about their obesity problem and the diets they have, along with health professionals and state legislators. There are few places where a person can buy a cooked meal, (they interviewed people who ate at a Double-Quick [gas station/convenience store/lunch counter], where fatty, fried foods predominate), and only one small grocery store with little choice in fresh vegetables and fruit. The perception of healthy to people here means having substantial weight, they have gotten so used to the excess weight. They also assume that being overweight means having difficulty breathing and moving around. State legislators said they had difficulty getting any laws passed that affect food choices.Continue reading →
Mind-Body Medicine in Research and Practice 
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