Posts by placidfox55

Kyle Nelson2 said:some device where you stick your feet in a tub and they run an electric current through it to pull toxins like heavy metals out of your skin and into the water

Anyone know if this stuff actually works? Has anyone tried it, or seen any proof—or maybe an article somewhere—proving it’s just a scam?

Thank God they finally started selling those. Now we don't have to worry about pollution, and nobody'll even need dialysis anymore... 🙄 😬

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

brightmarlin44 said:Then you're stuck in bed because if your liver swells, there's a risk of your spleen rupturing... basically, if you have mono, prepare for downtime and a fat-free diet, though you can probably load up on sugar-free treats.

Honestly, rest is recommended, but it doesn't mean you have to be glued to your bed.
Regarding the whole spleen rupture thing—you can still head to school, just stay away from contact sports.

brightmarlin44 said:Reynaud's is basically a circulation glitch. Smoking starves your tissues of oxygen, so it’s definitely going to make things worse, just like getting stuck in the cold. placidfox55, does that sound crazy? I can't believe if you have any medical background, you'd think smoking wouldn't tank the prognosis for Reynaud's.😲 🙄 👎

Don't just dismiss me—find some actual sources and prove me wrong. 🙂 😎

Besides, go back and read what I wrote above. 🙂

And yeah... "cutting back" on cigarettes isn't going to fix Reynaud's. You really need to stay away from smoke entirely.

That smells amazing. Usually, I stick to tea when I need a caffeine fix—black or green, mostly. Or maybe some Yerba mate. I really only touch coffee when I’m hitting a wall. If it’s drip or a small espresso, I usually just mix half regular beans with half decaf.

Taroth said:Shouldn't excess glucose just be converted into glycogen?

Yeah, and? What's your point there? Where does the glycogen actually go? When does it get released? What happens to the glucose that doesn't make the cut for glycogen storage? And what happens when the liver's capacity to turn glucose into glycogen hits its limit?

What happens to a liver that's packed with glycogen during a fasting state? How long can that glucose release actually last?

Think about a metabolism that’s basically "optimized" to shove glucose into the liver as glycogen just so it can dump it back into the bloodstream during periods of starvation—but then those starving days never come. Where does all that extra glucose end up? What happens to the surplus glycogen? How do stress hormones factor in? Cortisol? High blood pressure?

Does physical activity actually help mobilize glycogen and lower cortisol levels? And what's the deal with angiotensin?

Taroth said:don't get it..
What do you mean by it having a protective function through evolution? Shouldn't excess glucose just be converted into glycogen?
If this was a survival mechanism throughout history, what does that actually look like? Like, if some guy overindulged once, would all that extra sugar just sit there as deposits in his arteries? 😉
Assuming he didn't drop dead from hyperglycemia first.

Hardly anyone dies from hyperglycemia. That’s usually Type 1 diabetics slipping into a diabetic coma.

A diabetic with high blood sugar will eventually deal with vascular complications and might kick the bucket in their early 40s or 50s—which, honestly, is plenty of time to ensure the next generation survives. 😉 😎

With Type 2 diabetes, the reduced insulin secretion basically allows sugar to slowly seep into the cells. This helps them survive those rare, massive feasts—think about an ancestor catching a large animal every few days and then just snacking on berries or roots in between.

Anyway, don't take my word for it. Go dig up some papers and prove me wrong. 😎

smješka said:a pack of Marlboros a week
I’m dropping about $80 a month just on that.

That doesn't even cover half a gym membership.😳

The best way to stay active—and honestly enough for most people—is just walking for 30 minutes, three to five times a week. You definitely don't need your parents to foot the bill for that.😎

Also, smoking habits aren't directly linked to Raynaud's phenomenon. That said, you really ought to avoid any exposure to smoke, whether you're lighting up yourself or just breathing it in around others.

Kyle Nelson2 said:yeah...
what about dust, mites, and stuff?
they've been living with us forever...

Not really. I mean, can you actually picture a caveman sitting in a cave surrounded by dust? Or mites?

If anything, they were probably crawling with parasites. 😬

Sure, maybe some dust from moisture leaking through the cave walls. And mites? Probably. They live on dead skin cells. But most mites today thrive in quiet, suburban bedrooms where nothing moves—not even a cat or a mouse, let alone a draft from a farmhouse window...

And then there’s the big question: why are we all so allergic to everything now? It seems like because we're obsessed with avoiding infections these days—washing our hands constantly, using disposable wipes, washing brand-new clothes before wearing them, or sanitizing a baby's toy after it hits the floor—our immune systems have lost the plot. There's nothing left to fight, so it starts attacking random, harmless things. There are theories that autoimmune diseases are spiking lately specifically because our immune systems are basically bored to death in our "sterile" modern society.

Kyle Nelson2 said:look...
...
basically,
if diabetes is genetic, think about what kind of natural selection that would have been for the human race over hundreds of thousands of years?
Think about how many people back before writing existed would have died from hyperglycemia just by eating a bit too much? Would those people have died off, leaving room for those with healthy genes? If all that were true, we wouldn't simply have people with genes for diabetes today...

they would've gone extinct...

I won't argue with that... but today we know that diabetes actually played a PROTECTIVE role during evolution. It basically allowed people who didn't have a constant food supply to prevent the sugar in their blood from being dumped (and burned up) into their cells. That way, people who only ate every other day—maybe they caught a quail... or found some nutritious root—could feast and store that energy...

When you take someone with that genetic makeup and drop them into an environment full of bags of chips and cans of Coca-Cola, you get a mismatch... 😬

It's similar to sickle cell anemia—common in the Mediterranean and Middle East—which offers some protection against the more severe consequences of malaria. In the exact same geographic regions where malaria is widespread, you find people with sickle cell. Now... once we wipe out malaria, or when a Black person moves to North America, we forget about the malaria part and wonder why they have sickle cell. Why? Because sickle cell is what saved them a long time ago through evolution...🙂

A decade or two ago, the medical consensus was that performing an episiotomy helped prevent long-term issues like uterine prolapse or bladder problems.

The data we have now shows that just isn't true. Still, you’ve got plenty of old-school practitioners who would rather reach for the scalpel than risk a woman tearing naturally.

To be fair, an episiotomy is still justifiable if the baby simply can't clear the birth canal.

In Europe, they used to favor lateral cuts—aiming toward the thigh—whereas here in America, the standard has been a midline incision toward the anus.

That midline approach has its perks: it tends to heal faster and causes less structural damage. The downside? If the cut slips and extends too far, you're looking at potential anal incontinence.

The lateral cut avoids messing with the anus, but it often fails to heal cleanly, leaving behind scarring and significantly dragging out the recovery time.

Sensitivity and itching can hang around for a few weeks. Taking an antihistamine—something like Benadryl or whatever you've got in the medicine cabinet—usually helps smooth things over.

I don't want to go overboard by painting all Americans with the same brush.

I’ve seen plenty of wealthy, well-informed people here who eat incredibly strictly. No mindless scoops of ice cream, no bags of chips in hand.

To be honest, I’ve even started forming my own little stereotype... when I see a woman at work snacking on a bag of chips during her break, I just assume she comes from a lower-income, less health-conscious demographic.

Meanwhile, you see the wealthiest ones in tight athletic gear, diving into fresh salads. And they're often working the exact same jobs.

There’s definitely a whole ecosystem of health food stores and restaurants out there. Even for kids—if they want healthy options, they can get them.

In fact, even federal programs like WIC, which help parents and kids access basic groceries, take certain things into account regarding what kind of foods they offer to their low-income clients.

Sandra Hayes88 said:And that brings me to my main point.
Doctors should be the ones giving parents the lowdown on proper nutrition, but they just aren't doing it.
It's just preventative maintenance.

Yeah, doctors.

What can a doctor actually accomplish during a fifteen-minute annual checkup? Sure, they can give you the standard pep talk about healthy eating—and honestly, I hope they do that every single time. But is that enough to take on the massive machine of psychologists and marketing gurus constantly bombarding us through TV, news feeds, storefronts, and Hollywood blockbusters? It feels like bringing a toothpick to a tank fight.

Linda Hernandez15 said:chill out, stefica, you're wearing me out this late at night 😉

I just asked a simple question:
what do people feed babies?

Sorry, it's not that late for me. 😁

But it’s true. This kind of info is boring. That's why it's easier to just swallow whatever comes in a flashy ad—you know, those scenes drenched in golden light promoting Kraft Heinz frozen meals or Coca-Cola pizzas—rather than actually quoting a dry textbook or tuning into non-commercial channels for "real information."

And honestly, I'm guilty too. I’d much rather binge some mindless sitcom than sit through the heavy news on PBS. It’s just easier to grab a coffee and rush out to work a little earlier just to scrape together an extra five bucks. Then, when we hit old age and deal with chronic issues, we'll probably just convince ourselves it was inevitable anyway...

Linda Hernandez15 said:Honestly, I find it way cheaper to just grab kale, carrots, chard, and stuff like that at the farmer's market rather than buying pre-made meals at the store. I don't get it.

How on earth is a takeout box in Canada cheaper than a single head of kale? 😢

I live in California, but I assume it’s pretty much the same deal in Canada.

With the pace of life out here, nobody has the luxury of hitting the grocery store two or three times a week. You end up buying stuff that lasts, stays cheap, and is easy to grab.

A head of fresh kale is going to run you at least two or three bucks. Then you still have to wash it, prep it, cook it, and mix it with other ingredients.

For a buck, you can pick up a whole box of some "Hamburger Helper" type side dish that feeds five people until they're stuffed. It’s ready in fifteen minutes—no washing, no dirt, no chopping, no boiling.

Or you could just buy that same produce frozen and pre-cooked. But then you're definitely dealing with added sugar or hydrogenated oils. Without those fats, the sauce would be too thin and messy, and nobody would bother buying that brand of frozen meal anyway.

Linda Hernandez15 said:but it’s obvious they aren’t doing that. I mean, look at how many people live in Canada—everyone there already has kids, or will soon, which means generations have been growing up on this junk. It's a nightmare.

That’s the catch. Here in America, we still have those memories of grandmothers cooking traditional, healthy meals. With the right info, it’s easy to pivot back to those old recipes.

But now, we’ve got a third generation growing up fueled by industrial sludge. For them, "food" is artificial white bread smeared with what they call peanut butter—which is really just a cocktail of chemicals, since actual, nutritious peanut butter is surprisingly hard to find—or that powdered cheese disaster you just toss into pasta for a quick mac and cheese.

While I remember spinach or kale reminding me of afternoons when my mom would get home early from work and we'd eat together, they associate their moms with those processed meals.

Food is deeply tied to social experiences and childhood nostalgia. Once bad habits are baked in, they are incredibly hard to shake, no matter how much data you throw at them.

Especially in a country where government guidance is viewed through a "Big Brother" lens, and information from private corporations is driven strictly by the bottom line.

So where is anyone supposed to learn about nutrition? On some niche public station like PBS, or in schools where the curriculum gets watered down every year because the prevailing democratic consensus thinks kids shouldn't be burdened with complex information???????

Linda Hernandez15 said:man, where is this world even headed

Where's it going?

Straight toward whatever saves a buck or a few minutes.

Unfortunately, that's usually the losing move in the long run.

Sandra Hayes88 said:Look, you could always just whip up some burgers and fries at home. At least then you actually know what’s inside them. Just fry them in fresh oil and call it a day—you wouldn't even have to worry about the trout or veggies.👍

Sure, if you've got an hour to kill on prep work. Most Americans just grab a frozen stack of 12 to 20 patties, toss them in a pan, and move on. Same goes for the potatoes—they buy those pre-cut, par-cooked frozen wedges soaked in hydrogenated oils so they stay crispy. Throw them in the oven and they're done in ten minutes. No peeling, no slicing, no mess left over. Dinner is served in 15 minutes flat.

Hardly anyone thinks to actually peel a real potato for mash or roasting these days.

Not to mention all the ways those hydrogenated oils absolutely wreck your body...

Linda Hernandez15 said:Sandra Hayes88, you've gotta be kidding me😢

you can't survive on that stuff😲

so what does your family actually eat?😲

Nah. 😢

It’s the honest truth. 😢

The worst part is that people struggling most financially don't even get the chance to learn about—or taste—actual healthy, delicious food.

They just grab everything from one spot—Walmart—a store packed with cheap, processed junk straight from freezers and cardboard boxes.

When you try to bring up the fact that kids should be drinking water instead, they hit you with, "Oh, I always give my little one apple juice" (as if that's supposed to convince you they're feeding him fruit or anything healthy).

But how much juice is a kid actually drinking in a day? Probably 4 to 6 glasses. That's roughly 480-600 calories right there. Then we act surprised when kids are overweight.

Linda Hernandez15 said:I live by this rhythm: a round of junk food, a round of healthy stuff, a round of junk, a round of healthy, a round of junk, a round of healthy 😁 until I kick the bucket.

Case in point: I hit up McDonald's yesterday, then had trout and veggies today. 👍

As if that's supposed to convince us you're some perfectly balanced human being!! 😂