Posts by Joseph Jones85

The stuff our grandmas used to smoke back in the day was actual tobacco, not this factory-made poison they sell now.

By the way, don't let them fool you—light or ultra-light versions are just as bad as the regular ones, if not worse. There really isn't any difference...

Just go talk to your doctor; they’ll give you the full rundown. 🙂

Look, sure, it could be diabetes, but don't jump straight to the worst-case scenario... It might just be that you're spending way too much time in those air-conditioned offices with the super dry air and you're just dehydrated.

Colostrum is that first burst of milk a mother produces right after giving birth, which is why getting a newborn on breast milk from day one is so critical. Usually, mothers produce this stuff for about the first 48 hours postpartum.

Getting that colostrum early on basically sets up a solid immune system for life. I see people who missed out during infancy trying to play catch-up later by popping supplements or tablets, but let’s be real... while bovine colostrum is the closest thing we have, you can't truly replicate the real deal. Sometimes it’s actually more effective to just stick to a high-quality American multivitamin or mineral blend instead of chasing a substitute that isn't quite there...🙂

Drew Young10, I think there’s a mountain of reasons for this. It starts with the fact that organ donation isn't even a real conversation here in the States—people just aren't educated on it—but then you have the government being... well, let's just say they have their own opinions. Here’s what I’ve picked up firsthand from people working in the medical field: when I mentioned I wanted to sign up as an organ donor, a doctor friend of mine straight up told me, "Don't you dare." Apparently, alongside the official transplant waiting lists, there are these shadow lists. You know, the ones where surgeons pocket tens of thousands of dollars in cold, hard cash directly into their private accounts. If someone gets into a horrific car wreck and ends up near death, and their organs happen to be a match for some wealthy patient ready to pay for a spot at the top of the list... they don't even try to save the victim. Instead, they just call the paying patient, prep them for surgery, put a cooler in the drawer, let the poor soul die, and the whole shady transplant operation begins for a massive payday.

I used to hear these stories all the time and figured it was just baseless paranoia, but once a doctor actually sat me down and told me the truth... 🙄 😲 😠

quietharbor2 said:Because psychiatric care still carries such a massive social stigma out there.

Look, stigma is definitely part of the problem, sure... but it's not the whole story. There's way more going on. You've got people who don't even recognize the symptoms when they see them, and then you have everyone else who just decides their issues aren't "serious enough" to actually go talk to a doctor...

I’m totally on board with being against pills—they just mask the symptoms without ever touching the actual root of the problem. And look, if you don't fix the cause, the fallout is just going to keep coming back... and then what? You'll end up needing more and more medication because you're basically training your body to rely on them.

You should try any kind of relaxation method—everyone finds something different that works for them. For instance, you could get active with sports or even just go for a walk. When it snows out, make sure you actually get out in it. You don't have to go skiing or sledding or anything, just walking through it is enough. It’s scientifically proven that being in the snow helps melt away stress.

Beyond that, you could experiment with different techniques—yoga, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, or even just something personal like visualizing a happy memory or whatever...

The main thing is learning how to find some inner peace. Life is always going to throw problems at you. Are you really planning on popping pills every single time you get frustrated?😕

Stretch marks aren't ever going to completely vanish, but if you actually stick to a solid moisturizing routine or use stuff specifically for skin elasticity, they’ll definitely fade over time.

Moving forward, just try to avoid those crazy, rapid weight fluctuations. And seriously, take care of your skin—especially during the winter months when everything gets way drier because of the indoor heating and all that...

Bradley Bailey8 said:Eating five or six meals a day is way too much. Honestly, two meals a day is plenty—it’s actually ideal. And honestly, leaning too hard on meat and eggs isn't even the best move.

My doctor always cracks these sarcastic jokes about how only dogs eat once a day. He insists humans really ought to be sticking to lots of small meals instead...

Anyway, if you actually want to eat right, you should probably just follow the food pyramid. It’s the gold standard for a reason. You gotta balance it out with plenty of exercise too, otherwise you're just turning all that fuel into fat instead of building actual muscle...

It all really depends on why they’re even opening you up in the first place.

I mean, if they can just get in there with some kind of tiny probe or a minimally invasive tool, the incision might be nothing... but then again, it could be much larger... and obviously, your recovery time is going to scale right along with that...

steelsailor17 said:Don't bother trying to step up. It looks like the guy just vanished, or maybe he just doesn't care anymore.

Look, who cares if the person who started the thread isn't hanging around anymore? There are plenty of other people here who can benefit from the exact same advice. That’s literally the whole point of an online forum.

As for bragging about being appreciated... honestly, you'll feel a lot better if you just stop expecting people to say thanks.

I mean, what can you even say? Ever since money was invented, "thank you" has basically become a useless phrase. 😁

Hemorrhoids—if you rule out any underlying medical conditions—usually stem from one of two things, as far as I can tell:
1. Sitting on your butt way too much, being a total couch potato, and eating like garbage (I'm talking greasy, spicy junk food)
2. Extreme physical strain. For example, rowers often talk about getting "the surge"... basically, they push so hard they end up with torn veins or hemorrhoids that just pop.

Most people have already covered the treatment side of things, so there's not much more to say there. Personally, I once picked up this herbal cream at the "Celikovic" apothecary (over on Gracanin Street, just before you hit Paul's)... and honestly, it actually worked. It was probably the best stuff I've ever tried.

But look, I'm only talking about the cases where they're caused by the stuff I mentioned above. If they're a symptom of some other actual illness... then you need to focus on treating the primary disease first.

If you’d actually hit a nerve, the reaction would be INSTANT, not showing up a few days later.
Are you absolutely sure it isn't just some kind of allergic reaction to whatever you took or something?

I’m obsessed with Britney Spears!

Mostly because I don't have to deal with constantly dumping acid into my kettle just to melt away all that limescale buildup. 😁

I don't know, look, I get that filtered water isn't some bacteriologically sterile miracle juice, but I can't bring myself to agree with people who want to strip all the minerals out of water just to put them back in later... I mean, tap water is already processed pretty heavily by the local utility companies anyway, so I highly doubt there’s even any decent amount of minerals left in it to begin with.

I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty skeptical about this whole chiropractic adjustment thing... I don't know, maybe it's just my old-school way of thinking.

Has anyone actually had a good experience with it...?

I definitely wouldn't recommend that chiropractor Pavlovic. 😉

Run your finger along your neck once you’ve got a little stubble growing in. You’ll feel the grain... it usually grows in a different direction than the rest of your face, mostly against the main flow.

I dealt with the exact same thing myself, but honestly, it just cleared up over time... as long as you stay consistent with shaving. I heard this one tip about using a soft brush to massage those sensitive spots after you shave—basically trying to coax the hairs to grow upward. Shaving can sometimes push the hair slightly under the skin surface, which is probably why it happens, but I’ve never actually given the brushing thing a shot myself.

I’d take those numbers with a massive grain of salt.

Water-soluble vitamins are incredibly unstable compared to other nutrients. For a chart like this to actually mean anything, you’d have to specify the exact type of potato used (because let's face it, nutrient density varies wildly between varieties) and—this is probably the most critical part—exactly when those measurements were taken. Was it raw? And if so, was it tested right after harvest, or after sitting in storage for a week? Because if it sat around for a few days, how was it stored? Or was it measured after being cooked?

Honestly, there's zero point in providing data on a raw ingredient that you can't even eat raw in the first place.

Personally, I think these kinds of charts are extremely unreliable... and I'm pretty sure anyone with even a basic understanding of measurement science would agree with me.

Bradley Fisher20 said:Joseph Jones85, have you actually looked at the RDA levels? Did you check the levels found in fruits and vegetables? To sum it up, when you total everything up—assuming you eat plenty of produce that’s been processed with decent quality—it still turns out the doses are below the RDA. Even if we consider a diet that we call "healthy" (packed with vitamins, fiber, etc.), it ends up being insufficient according to the RDA. And that just isn't right.

Look, even if we pretend the RDA is some kind of holy law, which we can just ignore for a second... just look at all those supplements out there. All those vitamin pills. Look at the dosages. It turns out those doses are, say, 3 to 20 times higher than what we could ever possibly get from a healthy diet that we consider an "optimum." Once you train your body to deal with quantities that are way above the RDA, your system doesn't even absorb much of it anymore. Because we're talking about pharmacologically active substances here that shift the dynamic balance within the body. And the end result is the exact opposite of what was intended.

The RDA amounts are minimum doses required for the normal functioning of a healthy organism under ideal conditions.

Now, let me repeat what I said earlier: fruit and vegetables grown under perfect conditions (meaning, no chemicals, clean air, stuff like that) that are picked immediately and aren't chemically, thermally, or mechanically processed, contain the vitamin levels cited in most places. However, I'll give you an example using Vitamin C: Vitamin C is incredibly unstable and sensitive to oxygen, light, heat and even contact with metal. The conclusion is simple: an orange that sat on a grocery shelf for a few days, then got peeled and sliced with a metal knife, simply cannot hold anywhere near the Vitamin C levels it had the moment it was picked. What’s left is just inactive ascorbic acid or, quite frankly, just acid.

I'm not claiming we shouldn't eat healthy food that's prepared properly, and I'm not saying there aren't vitamins and minerals in it, but my point is that the fruits and veggies we buy at the local farmer's market or the supermarket don't have nearly the amount of vitamins that someone calculated ages ago (which everyone just keeps copying). Especially when that same produce gets mechanically processed (like in a fruit salad) or, even worse, when it's roasted, boiled, and so on. This stuff has been proven over and over again; it's nothing new.

Kudos to everyone trying to live healthy and prepare their food the right way, but honestly, the foods most of us have access to are becoming lower and lower in quality (even if they look prettier and prettier on the shelf)... and no matter how hard you try, you're basically starting with compromised ingredients.

And besides that, we live nowhere near "ideal" conditions, especially those of us living in the city.

So, when you take all that into account: the vitamin amounts recommended by the RDA are simply too low in today's world (that number hasn't changed in decades, while the atmosphere and food quality have plummeted), and at best, we're only getting the bare minimum from our food.

I read a lot of studies back in the day on individual vitamins, and the only undesirable side effects described were from overdosing on the "fat-soluble" ones (A, D, E, K). But since those vitamins can be stored in the body, the amounts needed to see initial symptoms are actually massive. For instance, to overdose on Vitamin A just by eating carrots, you'd have to eat 3kg of carrots every single day for 3 months (specifically, over 50,000 IU daily for 3 months)!! And even if that happened, the symptoms vanish within a couple of days after you stop taking them. As for Vitamin C, the only issue is that it's an acid—excessive amounts can irritate the stomach lining. But modern manufacturers (and I'm not talking about Pfizer here) make substances that release slowly into the body so there's no chance of a problem. Personally, I have an incredibly sensitive stomach and gut, but I can swallow a KAL calcium pill or 2 grams of Vitamin C without any issues (whereas with 500mg from Pfizer, I actually get pains).

Look, bottom line is you can't just paint everyone with the same brush. You have to actually look at the bigger picture and consider a whole lot more factors than just one thing...

darkbison81 said:2. I don't get it. Where's the proof?
Haven't we already established that oxidation is caused by oxygen? So what does urban smog have to do with oxidation? (I mean, it affects everything else, but specifically oxidation?)

What part of this is confusing you?

Yeah, oxidation IS caused by oxygen. That's just how it works—it's the process where cells release the energy they need to actually function.

The problem is that city air has oxygen, sure, but it's also packed with all kinds of junk that turns that cellular oxidation process into something absolutely lethal for the cell.

An "antioxidant" isn't some magic element that stops oxidation entirely (despite the "smart" sounding name)... it's an element that manages the process so it doesn't end up destroying the cell.

Kenneth Hernandez67 said:It’s pretty wild, but in my neck of the woods, I know three different people who ended up with elevated bilirubin levels—basically all signs pointing to liver issues—and every single one of them was slamming Kraft powder several times a day...🙄

Coincidence? I think not. 😕

Hardly.

Look, Kraft tastes great, sure, but let’s call it what it is: total garbage. Consuming more than a single serving a day is highly questionable... and I'm getting this from someone who actually tested it out firsthand. Of course, you won't see a "top-tier" product like this ever admitting it's junk in public.

And don't get me started on the nutrition. Kraft isn't some actual vitamin supplement because the amount of vitamins they throw in there is a complete joke. But on the flip side? All those other filler ingredients make it an incredibly unhealthy mess.

You seriously believe everything you see in those commercials?

Every salesman thinks his horse is the fastest... 😉

Kenneth Hernandez67 said:I learned the hard way that you absolutely cannot maintain a healthy balance in your body EXCLUSIVELY through supplements. If there’s a deficiency somewhere, you HAVE to address it from a different angle. Sure, a vitamin pill might give you a temporary fix, but you really need to find the root cause and change your habits. If you don't, eventually your body is just going to view those expensive, high-quality supplements 😉 as nothing more than excess waste and flush them right out of your system.

For me personally, this was exactly what happened with iron. Until I actually figured out why I was anemic, nothing worked. Every supplement I tried would help for maybe a month or two, and then—bam—it would end in nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and my blood work looking even worse than before.

This is spot on. Most of the time, a vitamin or mineral deficiency isn't caused by not eating enough of it; it's because your body can't actually absorb it. Iron is the classic example of that.

Exactly. You can't expect supplements to do all the heavy lifting if you haven't "prepared the ground" first.

But here's the kicker: even when everything else is fine, we still aren't getting nearly enough. Sometimes it's one specific thing, but often it's a lack of almost all essential vitamins and minerals simply because the food available to us today doesn't have the nutrient density it used to.

Fruits and veggies just aren't what they used to be... 😢