Author: gettingwell4

A rejuvenation therapy and sulforaphane

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Brain development, Cerebellum, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Stress, Telomeres , , , , , , ,

The founder of the epigenetic clock methodology with the coauthor of Aging as an unintended consequence released a 2020 rodent study “Reversing age: dual species measurement of epigenetic age with a single clock” at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.07.082917v1.full.pdf:

“We employed six clocks to investigate the rejuvenation effects of a plasma fraction treatment in different rat tissues. Two of these epigenetic clocks apply to both humans and rats.

The treatment more than halved the epigenetic ages of blood, heart, and liver tissue. A less pronounced, but statistically significant, rejuvenation effect could be observed in the hypothalamus.

The treatment was accompanied by progressive improvement in the function of these organs as ascertained through numerous biochemical/physiological biomarkers and behavioral responses to assess cognitive functions. Cellular senescence, which is not associated with epigenetic aging, was also considerably reduced in vital organs.

Plasma fraction treatment consists of two series of intravenous injections of plasma fraction. Rats were injected four times on alternate days for 8 days. A second identical series of injections were administered 95 days later. In its entirety, the experiment lasted 155 days.

Overall, this study demonstrates that a plasma-derived treatment markedly reverses aging according to epigenetic clocks and benchmark biomarkers of aging.”

The study hasn’t been peer reviewed, so can’t be viewed yet as conclusive. Given that researchers’ single-most valuable asset is their reputations, though, will the findings have major revisions?

I was alerted to the study by Josh Mitteldorf’s blog post Age Reduction Breakthrough, who did his usual excellent curation:

“Most of the explosion in aging research (and virtually all the venture capital startups) are looking to treat aging at the cellular level. Their paradigm is that aging is an accumulation of molecular damage, and they see their job as engineering of appropriate repair mechanisms.

The truth, as Katcher [the lead lab researcher] understands it, is that, to a large extent, aging is coordinated system-wide via signal molecules in the blood. The problem is that there are thousands of constituents represented in tiny concentrations in blood plasma, but conveying messages that cells read. Which of these are responsible for aging?

The two-species clock[s] was [were] a significant innovation, a first bridge for translating results from an animal model into their probable equivalent in humans. Besides the methylation clock[s], the paper presents evidence of rejuvenation by many other measures. For example:

  • IL-6, a marker of inflammation, was restored to low youthful levels;
  • Glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and other antioxidants were restored to higher youthful levels;
  • In tests of cognitive function (Barnes maze), treated rats scored better than old rats, but not as well as young rats.;
  • Blood triglycerides were brought down to youthful levels;
  • HDL cholesterol rose to youthful levels; and
  • Blood glucose fell toward youthful levels.

These results bring together three threads that have been gaining credibility over the last decade. Mutually reinforcing, the three have a strength that none of them could offer separately.

  1. The root cause of aging is epigenetic progression = changes in gene expression over a lifetime.
  2. Methylation patterns in nuclear DNA are not merely a marker of aging, but its primary source. Thus aging can be reversed by reprogramming DNA methylation.
  3. Information about the body’s age state is transmitted system-wide via signal molecules in the blood. Locally, tissues respond to these signals and adopt a young or an old cellular phenotype as they are directed.”

Several of these aging measurements are also positively affected by sulforaphane. Using Sulforaphane: Its “Coming of Age” as a Clinically Relevant Nutraceutical in the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease as a reference:

1. “Chronic inflammation”

“Antioxidants in general and glutathione in particular can be depleted rapidly under conditions of oxidative stress, and this can signal inflammatory pathways associated with NF-κB. SFN [sulforaphane] has been shown to inhibit NF-κB in endothelial cells.

Two key inflammatory cytokines were measured at four time points in forty healthy overweight people [our model clinical trial, Effects of long-term consumption of broccoli sprouts on inflammatory markers in overweight subjects]. The levels of both interleukin-6 (Il-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) declined over the 70 days during which the sprouts were ingested. These biomarkers were measured again at day 90, wherein it was found that Il-6 continued to decline, whereas CRP climbed again. When the final measurement was taken at day 160, CRP, although climbing, had not returned to its baseline value. Il-6 remained significantly below the baseline level at day 160.”

OMCL2019-2716870.010

2. “Oxidative stress”

“As a mediator for amplification of the mammalian defence system against various stressors, Nrf2 [nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2] sits at the interface between our prior understanding of oxidative stress and the endogenous mechanisms cells use to deal with it. Diseases known to be underpinned by oxidative stress are proving to be more responsive to amplification of cellular defences via Nrf2 activation than by administration of direct-acting antioxidant supplements.

SFN, with absolute bioavailability of around 80%, [is] capable of increasing several endogenous antioxidant compounds via the transcription factor, Nrf2.

Nrf2 is ubiquitously expressed with the highest concentrations (in descending order) in the kidney, muscle, lung, heart, liver, and brain. Nrf2 was shown to prevent endothelial cells from exhibiting a proinflammatory state. Nrf2 is required for protection against glucose-induced oxidative stress and cardiomyopathy in the heart.

Well in excess of 500 genes have been identified as being activated by SFN via the Nrf2/ARE [Antioxidant Response Element] pathway, and it is likely that this underestimates the number as others are being discovered. Of the available SFN clinical trials associated with genes induced via Nrf2 activation, many demonstrate a linear dose-response. More recently, it has become apparent that SFN can behave hormetically with different effects responsive to different doses.

It [sulforaphane] is not only a potent Nrf2 inducer but also highly bioavailable so that modest practical doses can produce significant clinical responses. Other Nrf2 activators [shown in the above image] not only lack potency but also lack the bioavailability to be considered as significant intracellular Nrf2 activators.”

The study’s most relentlessly questioned, scrutinized, and criticized findings may be the two new epigenetic clocks that apply to both humans and rats. The researchers invited other researchers to validate these clocks because:

“If validated, this would be a step change in aging research. Although conservation of aging mechanism could be equally deduced from the existence of multiple individual clocks for other mammals (mouse, dog), the single formula of the human-rat clock that is equally applicable to both species effectively demonstrates this fact.”

The commonalities of this study with efforts to change my inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts were summarized in the Discussion section:

“Apart from rejuvenating the vital organs of the treated rats, plasma fraction also impacted two fundamental physiological processes that underlie a great number of pathologies, namely oxidative stress and inflammation. Within a week of treatment, the markers of chronic inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α) were significantly reduced and remained low throughout the entire experiment.

Likewise, markers of oxidative stress in brain, heart, lung and liver, which were very much higher in control old rats, were at the end of the experimental period, indistinguishable between plasma fraction-treated old rats and young ones. Concomitant with this drastic reduction in oxidative stress was the augmented levels of antioxidants (GSH, Catalase and SOD) in these tissues, indicating that modulating the levels of ROS [reactive oxygen species] to that of youthful rats is at least one way by which plasma fraction suppresses oxidative stress. It remains to be ascertained whether the rate of ROS generation is also reduced.

The levels of Nrf2, a transcription factor that impacts on oxidative stress, as well as inflammation, were raised by plasma fraction treatment of old rats to those of the young ones, indicating yet another level by which this treatment modulates these two critical processes. Collectively, these results show that plasma fraction treatment impacts not only the overt performances of organs, but also the underlying physiological processes that are pivotal for optimal organ function and health.”

Great stuff, huh? Are you ready to change your phenotype?

Continued with Part 2 of Rejuvenation therapy and sulforaphane.

Why is Thailand locked down?

gettingwell4 Just me

From the John Hopkins panic map:

John Hopkins isn’t allowed to present other countries’ data without also displaying US data? Is the message to Stay Panicked?

From UN statistics:

Thailand is locked down because fewer than 0.0001% (56 / 69776209) of the population have died from COVID-19?

The Thai people have had their economy and income destroyed, and are standing in food lines because..? To protect their health?

A hundred people in a dozen countries looked at this post today. None of them were in Thailand, which goes a long way toward answering the title’s question. As does this Twitter reply:

“Because here, as in many places, those with power have used the virus panic to seize even more power and demand people obey them without question. The generals can never resist power.”

So Rolling back your rights and making you obey was clearly the goal. Not hard to find examples of the WHO’s involvement in Thailand’s lockdown.

What will people in the US accept?

I’m kind of asleep right now

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs

This should stay up on YouTube for a while since it uses satire. If it used informed opinions like:

YouTube would censor it.

“I’ll stay at home for the rest of my life if they tell me to. Who knows how to make the best choices for my health and my life? Definitely not me.

The last thing you want is for people to have the freedom to make their own choices and then experience the consequences of their choices.

This new scientific data is irrelevant to me. I already made up my mind when I was the most frightened, and I’m going to keep on believing what makes me the most frightened. Because it’s more congruent to my being that way.

The more scared I am, the more obedient I am.

Yes, I would like a mandatory vaccine. Sometimes the best medicine is like the best sex: non-consensual. They work on the same premise.

It’s pretty well proven that being proactive and taking care of your health won’t keep you healthy. Our only hope is in the pharmaceutical companies protecting us. They have a very good track record of never harming anyone.

I’d like two microchips please. Just to keep me extra safe. Or maybe we should just do a baby step, and use a mandatory tracking app on our phone to keep us safe and then go to the microchips.”

Week 6 of Changing an inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Epigenetics, Immune system, Memory, Stress

To follow up Week 5 of Changing an inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts:

1. I had an informative exchange with an author of Microwave broccoli to increase sulforaphane levels. The study provided an optimal sulforaphane end result of “(2.45 µmol/g DW)”. I asked a study author for additional data, and they replied:

“The control GLR and SLR amount was 2.18 and 0.22 µmol/g DW, respectively, while the HL60 GLR amount was 2.78 µmol/g DW.”

Microwaving broccoli florets to 60°C (140°F) increased the sulforaphane amount by 1,114% (2.45 / .22)! That also increased the glucoraphanin amount by 27% (2.78 / 2.18) for further processing into sulforaphane after eating.

I replied: That’s an exciting result, increasing sulforaphane more than 11 times, while also increasing glucoraphanin! I haven’t found similar experiments with broccoli sprouts. Would you expect similar results?

The study author responded:

“We didn’t expect this result, and think microwave irradiation might help to release more conjugated forms of glucosinolates and then get hydrolyzed by released myrosinase. Further studies are being carried out.”

2. I stopped panning out spent broccoli seed coats. The 3-day-old broccoli sprouts have the optimal yields study didn’t directly address coats, and coats were presumably discarded before broccoli sprout analyses.

However, since broccoli seeds were ground, coats were part of broccoli seed analyses. Broccoli seeds had higher sulforaphane weights than did broccoli sprouts. So 3-day-old spent broccoli seed coats probably don’t reduce sulforaphane amounts.

“The SF [sulforaphane] contents were calculated and expressed by mg SF per gram of seeds or fresh sprouts. Furthermore, to be comparable with the seeds, the contents of SF and the following bioactive compounds in 100 fresh sprouts were divided by the weight of 100 seeds and then the contents of bioactive compounds in fresh sprout were expressed as mg per gram of seeds.

Although germination reduces SF yield to some extent, it is beneficial to the formation and accumulation of total phenol and flavonoids, ensuring the health properties of sprouts. SF contents in sprouts were 46% – 97% of seeds, whereas TP [total phenolic] and TF [total flavonoid] contents in sprouts were 1.12 – 3.58 times higher than seeds among varieties.”

3. Doubling the starting amount of broccoli seeds from one to two tablespoons is going well. My traveling companion’s latest measurement of yield for a batch of 3-day-old broccoli sprouts was 84.6 grams. She immersed broccoli sprouts in 350 ml water and microwaved them on full 1000W power for 2 minutes to achieve 61°C.

I put daily batches in 100 ml distilled water, and microwave on full 1000W power for 45 seconds to achieve 58°C. For comparison with the 3-day-old point of starting with one tablespoon of broccoli seeds, that took 35 seconds to achieve 57°C.

Two tablespoons of broccoli seeds produce a lot of broccoli sprouts for me to eat in a single serving. I mix in spicy brown mustard after microwaving and cooling them down. It complements the taste and makes them more palatable. The mixture goes better with a meal than eating it by itself.

4. Not sure what went on with last week’s inflammatory problems after four-to-six-mile-long beach walks. I did similar walks on Thursday and Saturday, and didn’t have those problems afterwards.

Did a small amount of running in Weeks 3 and 4 trigger something? Did my body adapt to a one tablespoon starting amount of broccoli seeds dosage, such that it wasn’t effective anymore?

Did raising the starting amount of broccoli seeds to two tablespoons cause the problems to quiet down this week? Or was the quiescence because I didn’t run even a short distance? This week’s occasional left ankle / left knee twinge makes me think that running, like golf, may not be a future activity.

5. I intend to follow the model clinical trial Effects of long-term consumption of broccoli sprouts on inflammatory markers in overweight subjects curated in How much sulforaphane is suitable for healthy people? and measure IL-6 and C-reactive protein after Week 10. These two weren’t among the 50+ measurements taken during last June’s annual physical, so I’ll request them along with HbA1c.

6. I credit my son for getting me started on the current investigation into broccoli sprouts. He repeatedly asked me for evidence of minimum effective sulforaphane dosage. Still haven’t found complete answers.

The treatments mentioned in Week 1, and the unmentioned months of physical therapy and years of periodic cortisone injections hadn’t worked. I could have been doing more to better address the causes of a long-term problem rather than just treat the symptoms. Now I am, thank you.

See Week 7 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts for follow ups.

Papayas and goats test positive for COVID-19

gettingwell4 Just me

The President of Tanzania John Magufuli exposed one part of the worldwide power grab:

The WHO doesn’t like criticism:

“We are convinced that the tests are not contaminated with the virus.”

Nevermind that this isn’t the cause of all false positives!

And there’s no possibility of test results being wrong because:

“Tanzania was using test kits supplied by the Africa CDC in collaboration with the Chinese Jack Ma Foundation.”

WHO rejects Tanzania claim tests faulty

What happens next with the worldwide lockdown?

gettingwell4 Just me

1. I’ve been wrong for over a month about young people becoming the driving force to lead us out of this worldwide lockdown. I’d guess that their lifelong behavioral conditioning was too high of a hurdle to overcome.

I’m disappointed when people can’t accurately see what’s in front of them, and expressed that recently with Wake up, young people!! But I also often misperceive, so I understand.

2. Another recent post – It was known to everybody that the lockdown would cause a catastrophe – presented an epidemiologist’s arguments to support that the worldwide lockdowns’ destructive effects were known to everybody beforehand. I agree, and add that when both economic analysis like 1 above and this epidemiologist’s public health analysis show that political actions couldn’t be more wrong, there’s some other agenda going on.

I don’t fully agree with the interviewee, though, as he didn’t adequately present aspects of human behavior. For example, he cited a CDC chart of a drop in hospital reporting of influenza-like symptoms for his arguments without also citing the media frenzy to scare people away from hospitals for fear that they would catch COVID-19. So of course there were fewer instances of influenza-like symptoms reported by hospitals.

The Professor misunderstood the United States form of government. As a general principle, the federal government doesn’t order the states to do such and such.

The state of Florida, for example, did exactly what the Professor suggested, “protect the elderly.” Other states didn’t, like Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and especially New York. Don’t know why those states’ residents don’t demand responsibility and accountability.

He also said “The virus is gone” but that statement had qualifications. Parts of this interview misplaced their relevant contexts.

3. Let me start this third item by acknowledging that I often make a half-dozen mistakes before lunch every workday. Just ask my coworkers. 🙂

I’ll suggest how to prepare for whatever happens next rather then predict what happens next. This suggestion to economically protect yourself is based on cycles, but may not work if aspects of what’s unfolding worldwide are unprecedented.

Harry Browne and Terry Coxon introduced the Permanent Portfolio concept in 1981. The concept is that there’s a best “investment” for each economic cycle. I quote “investment” because I consider positions in both cash and gold as forms of holding – saving – money, which means opting out of investing.

The economic cycle – “investment” matched pairs are:

  • Prosperity – Stocks
  • Inflation – Gold
  • Deflation – Long-term government bonds
  • Recession – Cash

The Permanent Portfolio has four equal 25% positions with periodic rebalancing to those percentages. I suggest investigating the concept, as I’ve always seen it as a way to largely remove one’s own emotions from investing and money.

The most recent search result of “harry browne permanent portfolio” is here from April 8, 2020. That post was fairly informative, and funny in that almost all commentaries on the Permanent Portfolio include similar wording:

“I don’t invest in Harry Browne’s portfolio, but my own asset allocation takes cues from this approach.”

Everybody who talks about the concept thinks they can do better. But who actually does better over the long term?

It was known to everybody that the lockdown would cause a catastrophe

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Immune system, Memory, Stress

To follow up If people don’t stand up for their rights, their rights will be forgotten which YouTube has taken down, here are excerpts from a subsequent interview which YouTube has also taken down:

“If you don’t present bad news, that’s not good news for the media.

On April 17, the Director of the CDC presented at the Presidential Briefing, this graph. Its a count of hospitals reporting some sort of symptom that might be influenza. If the number of people who show up at the hospital peaked around March 18th, that means the number of infections peaked around March 8th.

People don’t go to the hospital for their first symptoms. They give it three or four days, and if it doesn’t get better, then they go to the hospital.

If infections peaked around March 8th, then shutting down schools and the economy ten days later is totally absurd. Shutting down the economy ten days after the curve had already turned down is heartless.

New York hospitals were not overflowing. They were laying off people. 500 sick people is a drop in the bucket for the New York City hospital system.

It may have been unfortunate for the patients that there were so many respirators. That’s a different story.

Double-checking never happened with these models. You’re never off by orders of magnitude. You’re off by 10, 20, 30%. [The Imperial College model for UK deaths from COVID-19 changed from 510,000 to 20,000 IIRC] That was more than two orders of magnitude.

It was known to everybody that the lockdown would cause a catastrophe.

Isolating the nursing homes would have been the thing that would have prevented deaths, and would have prevented hospitals from becoming overloaded. Not letting children and young adults from becoming infected and developing immunity would not prevent the load on hospitals.

You don’t need to do anything to prevent a respiratory disease from running. What you should do – and what was not done in the United States – was to protect the elderly. From the experience in Italy, we already knew that the vast majority of people who died were people in their seventies, eighties, nineties, who had comorbidities.

We also had that in Seattle, people with comorbidities died in nursing homes. At that point in time, one should have isolated at least the nursing homes.

To isolate the children, who are not at risk, and put those at risk at risk, is a catastrophe. It’s a human catastrophe that should have never, ever, happened.

I don’t know where the government finds these so-called experts who don’t understand the very basics about epidemiology.

I have never heard of him and never read any publications on epidemiology by Bill Gates but maybe I overlooked some of his qualifications.

I don’t understand this mantra that ‘We will never go back to normal.’ Why not? The virus is gone. Let’s go back and have a life.

If people would be more active. If they would take part in political decisions. If they would be more awake. If they would fight for their democratic rights. This would never have happened.

It’s a failure of the people to take control of the government, and let the government take control of them.”

The Professor misunderstood the United States form of government. As a general principle, the federal government doesn’t order states to do such and such.

Florida, for example, did exactly what the Professor suggested, “protect the elderly.” Other states didn’t, like Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and especially New York. Don’t know why those states’ residents don’t demand responsibility and accountability.

The Professor didn’t adequately present aspects of human behavior. For example, he cited a CDC chart of a drop in hospital reporting of influenza-like symptoms for his arguments without also citing the media frenzy to scare people away from hospitals for fear that they would catch COVID-19. So of course there were fewer instances of influenza-like symptoms reported by hospitals.

He also said “The virus is gone” but that statement had qualifications. Parts of this interview misplaced their relevant contexts.

Wake up, young people!!

gettingwell4 Just me

One continuing aspect of the coronavirus is how it’s being used for economic upheavals that weren’t previously acceptable. A view from a Hong Kong analyst in The COVID-19 Trade-Off:

“Allocating scarce resources to satisfy one need in the present means that these resources will not be available to satisfy another need in the present or the future. [Referenced Frederic Bastiat’s Broken Window parable which illustrated why destruction, and the money spent to recover from destruction, was not actually a net benefit to society].

The trade-off associated with the COVID-19 threat is between [your] lives today and [your] lives in the future. Decision makers are clueless about the long-term costs, in terms of lost lives and lowered living standards, that likely will result from the lockdowns.“

Wake up, young people!! Your future lives are being destroyed by this worldwide political power grab.

Unless you were / are already seriously ill with some other disease, you have had / will have very little chance of becoming a COVID-19 fatality.

Young people have been forced into receiving no benefits to their present lives in order to receive less than nothing in their future lives!

  • People who are herding you couldn’t care less about you. They won’t voluntarily understand Frederic Bastiat’s point from 170 years ago.
  • Their control over you has no current or future benefit to you. They’ve demonstrated that your present and future lives mean nothing to them.
  • Sitting around, doing nothing, is interpreted as you consenting to their actions. They’ll just add more skulls to their collection.

Image from Rare Historical Photos

Week 5 of Changing an inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Epigenetics, Immune system, Memory, Stress

To follow up Week 4 of Changing an inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts:

1. I didn’t get around to curating a 2019 Spanish review Sorting out the Value of Cruciferous Sprouts as Sources of Bioactive Compounds for Nutrition and Health. Some highlights:

“Sprouts represent a valuable source of diverse micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and amino acids), macronutrients (proteins, low in carbohydrates, and a high content of dietary fiber), and plant secondary metabolites (mainly phenolic compounds and glucosinolates (GLSs)). Due to this composition, edible sprouts are a valuable vehicle and opportunity to impact health, delivering beneficial bioactive compounds once incorporated in the diet on a regular basis.

This range of molecular mechanisms, which is susceptible to activation or inhibition by the GLSs, ITCs [isothiocyanates], and (poly)phenols present in cruciferous sprouts triggers diverse pathways governed by expression of a broad variety of genes. Among them, to date, the following pathways have been identified:

  • Inhibition of DNA binding of carcinogens,
  • Stimulation of detoxification of potentially damaging compounds,
  • DNA repair,
  • Repression of cell proliferation and angiogenesis (directly related to tumor growth and metastasis),
  • Induction of apoptosis of malignant cells, and
  • Ability to enhance the antioxidant tools of cells and promote free radical scavenging.

Regarding this biological activity, modulation of the inflammatory cascade, and more specifically, transcription factor NF-κB by GLSs, ITCs, and (poly)phenols, are also involved in anticancer activity.”


See these reviewers’ 2020 Reviewing clinical trials of broccoli sprouts and their compounds for further examples of why “Not determined” frequently occurred.

2. Inflammatory problems mentioned in Week 1 twinged throughout Week 5 and flared up yesterday. I didn’t run during my four-to-six-mile-long beach walks this week in case that aggravated things.

Not sure what’s going on, because these problems were quiescent during Weeks 3 and 4 with the same levels of exercise and diet. Maybe this development was a result of homeostatic adjustments to the previous month’s daily broccoli sprout dosage?

Two days ago I began doubling the starting amount of broccoli seeds from one to two tablespoons. I’ll see what effects eating 120 grams of 3-day-old broccoli sprouts have during the coming week.

3. I was stonewalled twice by a commercial supplier of broccoli sprout powder who advertised:

“Independent assays confirm that EnduraCELL yields more Sulforaphane per gram and per dose than any other broccoli sprout ingredient available! These assays showed that EnduraCell yields around 3.5 times more SULFORAPHANE than the next highest broccoli sprout product.”

They wouldn’t provide evidence of their claim to a prospective customer?

Sulforaphane is immediately produced by combining glucoraphanin and myrosinase. Sulforaphane degrades relatively quickly, and requires special handling in commercial products.

It costs me very little to grow broccoli sprouts, < $0.50 USD per day. Could a commercial product even deliver equivalent benefits at a competitive price?

4. I reactivated my Twitter account after a year’s dormancy. I credit my traveling companion for having better things to do. I blame this political power grab for me becoming bored enough to be herded back onto Twitter.

Rolling back your rights and making you obey was clearly the goal

gettingwell4 Just me

“The virus itself destroyed virtually no jobs. Those jobs, these families, were destroyed by lockdowns ordered by politicians. The most destructive economic event since the second World War.

Now we’ve been assured repeatedly that all of this was absolutely necessary. After months of incalculable damage to hundreds of millions of families, the WHO is now telling us – almost casually – that actually, our model should be Sweden.

Who is the man you just saw speaking? Just a month ago, that guy’s model was not Sweden. It was the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia.

We’re glad that the WHO is now admitting that it was insane. But it isn’t much comfort now.

The World Health Organization has always been wrong about coronavirus:

  • WHO told us it couldn’t spread from person to person. A lie.
  • They said the virus had stopped and couldn’t spread worldwide. A lie.
  • They said it was racist to talk about where the virus came from. Okay.
  • They said face masks were ineffective – indeed, counterproductive.

Again, those weren’t simply wrong statements. They were lies.

Has there ever been a bigger screw up?

Being wrong on the single most important policy decision in living memory is no reason to abandon a sweeping power grab.

Protecting public health – as it turns out – was just an excuse, a pretext. Rolling back your rights and making you obey was clearly the goal.”

https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/30/tucker-carlson-who-coronavirus-sweden-lockdown-model/

The herding continues. What will it take for people to question why their future has been destroyed?

We believe what we need to believe

gettingwell4 5+ stars Premium, Beliefs, Brain development, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Primal Therapy, Stress , , , ,

While getting ready for bed tonight, I mused about how my younger brother had such an idealized postmortem view of our father. As he expressed six years ago in an obituary for our high school Literature teacher:

“I’ll remember my favorite teacher and how much he’s meant to my life. My father and Martin Obrentz were the two people who made me care about the things that make me the person I am today.”

Believe what you need to believe, David. But like I said five years ago in Reflections on my four-year anniversary of spine surgery:

“I don’t remember that my three siblings ever received a paddling or belting, although they were spanked. Even before he retired, 17 years before he died, the Miami-Dade County public school system stopped him and the rest of their employees from spanking, whipping, beating, and paddling children.”

It’s extremely important for a child to have a witness to their adverse childhood experiences. Otherwise, it’s crazy-making when these experiences aren’t acknowledged as truths by anyone else.

Especially by those who saw but disavow what they saw.

It didn’t really drum into my conscious awareness until tonight that I had such a witness. It wasn’t my mother, of course, since she directed most of my being whipped with a belt, and beaten with a paddle that had holes in it to produce welts. She has denied and deflected my childhood experiences of her ever since then.

It wasn’t my siblings, regrettably for all of us. It wasn’t our Miami neighbors.

When I was twenty, I ran across a guy 300 miles north in Gainesville, Florida, named David Eisenberg, if I remember correctly. A couple of weeks after we met, he asked if my father was Fred Rice, Dean of Boys, West Miami Junior High School. He said he had been beaten by my father several times!

Those weren’t early childhood memories like mine. Those were experiences of a young man during grades 7-9 that he remembered more than a decade later.

I was shocked. It came at a time when I wasn’t ready to face facts about my life, though. I needed fantasies, beliefs to smother what I felt.

I don’t expect that the impacts of my childhood experiences will ever go away. After three years of Primal Therapy that ended a decade ago, at least mine don’t completely control my life anymore.

Dr. Arthur Janov put self-narratives of several patients’ experiences into his May 2016 book Beyond Belief which I partially curated in February 2017. It was partial because I couldn’t read much past Frank’s horrendous story in pages 89 – 105, “The Myth of a Happy Childhood.”