Hidden Treasures of Knowledge

 Doctrine and Covenants 89 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/89?lang=eng), otherwise known as the Word of Wisdom, talks about the then and future existence of conspiring people in our modern era and provides counsel on how to be protected via dietary and moral advice from them. It also promises that people who follow it will be blessed to find hidden treasures of knowledge.

I think I may have found some of them. Here is a summary:

1) Many educated people of Christian heritage have come to reject the divinity of Jesus Christ because they think he did his miracles using a deep knowledge of winemaking. This was a crucial element of Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code, in which it is posited that the vinegar Jesus was given on the cross was made from wine specially fermented to temporarily knock him unconscious and that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross. My college chemistry textbook on page 666 talks about how wine turns into vinegar by being left in oxygen for a while; while this is technically accurate, the process happens far faster in the presence of acetic acid bacteria. "666" is a symbolic number used to mark one's self as being "of the beast" or an anti-Christ; it is taken from Revelation 13:18 in the Bible.

I think the people who have believe this have fallen for a clever ruse, for The Book of Mormon stands as another witness to the world of the divinity of Jesus Christ. While the history of the church that is currently taking The Book of Mormon to the world is still a bit murky, the book itself stands on its own and is testified to by the Holy Ghost, as many earnest seekers of truth have found. A nice thing about God is that he doesn't hide his treasures from those who seek Him.

2) As the 18th century Italian biologist/physicist/physician Luigi Galvani discovered, electrical impulses applied to appendages can affect a body's neurons dramatically. We live in a time when nearly every teenager and adult using a cell phone or smart watch is exposing their hands and wrists to varying electromagnetic fields at close proximity. Frequently they are doing this while using camera-equipped devices that can assess aspects of brain function and stimulation via facial microexpressions and pupil appearance. That means that our technology can now be used to affect our neurons and that computer programs can be written that will fine-tune those effects in various ways such as to foster addiction, anger, depression, paranoia, distraction, and so forth. 

As those old enough to remember having TV antennae will remember, antenna reception can be improved by the addition of spiraling or encircling conductive materials; a metal clothes hanger wrapped around part of the antenna was usually the low-tech hack we would use to improve the picture clarity on our TVs. Wearing or inserting conductive things around parts of our bodies can enhance the effect of varying electromagnetic fields on our neurons. This effect will be easier to achieve in people whose diet includes high levels of iron (iron is easily magnetized and it then interacts with electromagnetic fields, especially when the iron is moving, as the iron-containing blood cells of our body are constantly doing) and ionic potassium.

Again, my college chemistry textbook contains a hint about this. In a section that discusses Napoleon's health issues while on St. Helena, it discusses "Marsh's test" to look for arsenic poison, but the diagram has an unexplained "shiny metallic ring" where there should just be a flat deposit of arsenic.

I think Isaiah 3 in the Bible (which is repeated in 2 Nephi 13 of the Book of Mormon) contains a warning against a wide variety of fancy ornaments and clothing wraps in part because vanity is foolish and in part because such items, depending on their mineral content and shape, can be used to affect our neurons. Even plastic, if tainted with conductive substances, is conductive. After realizing that the Amish have for centuries avoided encircling parts of their body with anything metallic, I stopped wearing rings a few months ago. Within two weeks, my thinking had noticeably become clearer. I recommend a similar experiment to others. 

If I am correct, this points to possible manipulative use for literally millennia of ceremonial jewelry, acoutrements, and clothing by those who are aware of how to harness the possibilities: crowns, bracelets, rings, collars, staffs, scepters, turbans, phylacteries, walking sticks, wristwatches, and so forth. I'm surprised that science fiction hasn't dealt with the topic much. I can promise you'll never read the Old Testament the same again once you start looking for whether ancient Israel might have picked up some knowledge from the Egyptians or Babylonians on the subject.

It also points to possible inappropriate use of such technology to increase the underlying health problems of some people. A recent Nature article (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02714-0) documents that a specific use of "electroacupuncture" on a mouse's hind leg brings down inflammation throughout the mouse's whole body by sending signals to the brain that result in lower inflammation. Now imagine such technology being deployed instead to increase systemic inflammation or disrupt heart or brain electric pulses. 

3) While we all know that some chemicals are dangerous and can make us sick, two common food/drink items appear to have escaped scrutiny. My personal experience, as well as cultural knowledge, indicate that fenugreek (now regularly consumed in the US as a "natural" maple flavoring) can bring on paranoia and delusion, while hops (used to make bitter--as opposed to mild--beer) can increase the tendency to hallucinate or "see what we want to see" ("beer goggles" are more than a running joke). 

In 2020, fenugreek caused me two episodes of paranoia. Interestingly, matzoh crackers imported from Israel seemed to be the deciding food factor in when those episodes ended. Like I said, you'll never read the Old Testament the same again once you start looking for hints of hidden knowledge. Actually, since Jesus notes the close attention paid by the Pharisees to tithes of various herbs, including dill, which some commentators think was fenugreek, you'll likely never read the New Testament quite the same way again, either.

4) While many have heard of "laughing gas," that small gas molecules floating just above the skin's surface can affect whether mosquitoes are attracted to a specific person, and that pheremones can cause some kinds of interhuman reponses, I have never heard anyone talk about what medications can due to influence the gas molecules released on our body's surface. I had an experience right after hugging someone who takes mind-altering prescription medicine where I noticed a sudden change in my thinking. We know that there is a fast passage from the nose to the brain via the olfactory nerve, and in this world of fabric softeners, detergents, essential oils, perfumed-toiletries, air fresheners, e-cigarettes, and incense, we need more information about the potential effects of various gas compounds on our brain function. We also need more information about what gas compounds our bodies are more likely to produce when we consume different substances.

5) Sound frequencies can physically alter structures by creating standing waves where resonance occurs. While we tend to think of our brains as solid "muscles," they are not. Brains are actually rather gelatinous in some places, and in those wobbly areas, resonance can be used to alter structure and thus affect the intensity and directional flow of electromagnetic fields within the brain. Yes, this means that music and anything else producing specific sound wave frequencies can be used to affect our thinking. Not exactly hidden information, but less talked about than it should be in a media-saturated world. 

I think some of the medieval guild craftsmen who constructed churches knew about the ability of sound waves to affect thinking. Again, my chemistry textbook, while talking about Napoleon, threw in a gratuitous comment about how he would have known more about the behavior of tin if he had paid attention to cathedral organ pipes. Adolf Hitler, well-known for having large, rousing rallies in which his amplified voice was carried to his audience, was made the Time "Man of the Year" in 1939 with a magazine cover photo featuring an elaborate set of organ pipes; in counterpoint, when the Russians later battled against Nazi Germany, the Germans called the Russian rocket launchers "Stalinorgel" which translates to "Stalin's organs."

6) Mind-altering chemicals can be delivered via paper. This is often done by prison visitors who attempt to sneak methamphetamine to prisoners. But it can also be done via that free magazine your favorite political organization, college, or church mails to you. Pay attention to who produces your printed materials, especially if it seems like you're getting too much paper (such as with CVS receipts) or if you have other reasons to distrust the paper providers.

7) Videos or .gif's that cause eyes to move rapidly from side to side need to be scrutinized. Such eye movement is used in a relatively new form of psychotherapy called "eye movement desensitization and reprocessing." Too many unaware media consumers can be targeted by those who would use this new field of psychotherapy to "reprocess" their thinking in ways that could be harmful. This field needs scrutiny as soon as possible. Any new technology and treatment can be used for both good and ill.

Still plugging away at the weight loss issue....

Here's why I'm so convinced that there is a way to lose weight fairly quickly and healthily, in case you're wondering why I keep posting hypotheses on this topic: While tracking my food and weight, I personally experienced it, and I feel that I have a duty to try to identify what I was consuming so that others can learn from it and be blessed by it.

When I soaked plain kelp ("kombu" in Japan) purchased from Asian markets in cold water, the water became viscous and brownish green. When I combined the kelp water with some kinds of vitamin pills, some "organic spices," or with a homemade lactofermented yogurt and oat flakes, I experienced an unusual decrease in weight and fat, especially if I also ate canned sardines, grape seed extract, or some imported cheeses.

However, the kelp changed within a year or two. I tried to buy it from the same markets and get the same kinds, but it all no longer made viscous water. The kelp water stayed mostly clear, and the kelp smelled "metallic."

I believe I recreated the "kelp water" by soaking banana leaves with celery stalk slices in sunlight. The liquid became rather viscous. When I drank the liquid dipped out of the banana leaf/celery water throughout the morning and then afterward ate some kinds of canned sardines or foil pouch tuna fish, I again noticeably decreased in weight/fat.

My current thought, based on these experiences, is that there was UDP-apiose (based on an less common sugar molecule) or a closely related molecule released into the kelp water and banana leaf/celery water. I think that a "wild" kind of bacteria (perhaps bacillus subtilis) in my homemade yogurt is helping transform the apiose into a related molecule (perhaps a condensed one incorporating As/Sb/Bi in place of the P in apiofuranosyl-1,2-cyclic-phosphate) that signals the body to use up and reduce fat storage. I think this related molecule might have a more dramatic effect if it contains arsenic/antimony/bismuth, based on the inconsistent results I see from inclusion of diverse brands of spices and supplements or usage of different brands of processed fish. 

Update on 10/20/2021: An alternative hypothesis would be that UDP-apiose (or a related molecule) helps facilitate a fat-utilizing process that is helped along by the presence of propionic acid. Propionic acid would be expected to often be present in the canned fish (as a product of oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids with an uneven number--especially three--of carbons after the double bonds, especially in oil-canned fish high in unsaturated fat), the yogurt (as a product of some fermenting bacteria), and even the occasional chocolate products (again, a product of oxidation of some fatty acids) that I have seen associated with weight loss in me and my family. Propionic acid can activate AMPK, which has been referred to as a "master switch" for weight loss--https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003986119302966. It acts through G-protein coupled receptors (i.e., GPCRs or guanine nucleotide-binding proteins] 41 and 43, indicating a possible nucleotide connection, and UDP-apiose is a nucleotide sugar. I suspect that the UDP-apiose might interact with the GPCRs 41/43--a hypothesis supported by research findings: https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(19)80907-9/fulltext--in such as way as to alter their function when they are activated by propionic acid.

Hypothesis: Arsenic involved in fast weight loss?

As my blog posts attest, I keep trying to figure out what in our diet is associated with weight loss. I've become much more precise about tracking exactly what brands and varieties of certain products I eat in the past year and looking at that in connection with weight fluctuations. Based on that, I have come to the sad conclusion that occasional arsenic contamination is likely the primary factor behind the unusual weight loss I have repeatedly (but not consistently) experienced in connection with sardines and kombu kelp. That is sad because no one wants to lose their hair from arsenic poisoning. I did actually experience unusual hair loss right after those sardine/kelp-associated episodes of weight loss.

Regional evidence from Bangladesh backs up a hypothesis that arsenic helps keep body weight down. They have a strikingly low overweight/obesity rate, and they also have widespread arsenic issues with their groundwater.

On the bright side, this arsenic hypothesis points to the possibility that the same enzyme(s) inhibited by arsenic can be inhibited in other ways in such a way as to help promote health weight loss. I'm looking specifically at PiT1 and PiT2 (members of the inorganic phosphate transporter family) right now. Arsenate inhibits PiT1, and phosphite (which we don't seem to hear much about despite all the phophate in our food and beverages) inhibits PiT1 and PiT2. So I will dig into phosphite compounds and food preparation methods that are more likely to create them. Foods high in phospholipids--such as sunflower seeds and other high-lecithin foods--do keep popping up in connection with leanness, and a combination of phospholipases C and D (enzymes found in some foods) will free phosphite from phospholipids.

Hypothesis: Oxycarbonylcholine related to weight loss? Or at least O-C=O?

My last post about rubidium kept me pondering and studying my food intake records and the research I have read, and I think that I am wrong about rubidium being pivotal in fighting obesity. Rubidium is a unique element, and the scientists and nutritionists researching obesity would have observed an effect from the presence of rubidium by now if it were significant.

What might instead have escaped their notice? Perhaps a less common isomer of a common molecule. As I learned more about ethylene (C2H4, which I tangentially noted in my last post appears important to fighting obesity), I realized that its structure and size could allow it to be a stabilizing companion to an otherwise unstable small molecule. One paper I looked at reported that heating banana pseudostem mixed with chromium (Cr(III)) could result in the creation of O-C=O (actually the resonant O-C=O <=> O=C-O, called COO in the paper text) (See Table 2 of https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4250?fbclid=IwAR1sd7RhNJjCX7wJPMv01FhXAuVuOrHomQrmnyV1ODLuXGRyjjAMImQpc3Y). 

COO (i.e., O-C=O) is a relatively unstable, polar structural isomer of CO2 (carbon dioxide). Carbon dioxide is a nonpolar molecule that is often released as a gas by biochemical processes and so common as to be unremarkable most of the time. COO could thus easily be overlooked by most nutrition and medical researchers or mistaken for CO2. Further, many people in the world routinely use microwave ovens now, which appliances twist around polar molecules and so would help destroy COO.

If ethylene can help stabilize COO, COO would be able to react with other molecules, including choline. I think it might be forming an oxycarbonylcholine molecule (it should look like acetylcholine but without a final CH3) that can interact with the human body's cholinergic system in yet-to-be-revealed ways. There are many indications that the cholinergic system is involved in resistance to obesity (e.g., https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12678839/).

So here's a summary of my current working hypothesis:

1) Heat up silicon-containing moist biocellulose with Cr(VI) to a temperature of around 500-600 Celsius (via broiling in an oven, toasting in a toaster, frying in a real wok, etc.) to form O-C=O. The Cr(VI) is apparently obtained by putting Cr(III) in sunlight (for the UV-A light) for a while, although Cr(VI) is probably on some kitchen utensils, too.

2) Stabilize the O-C=O in solution with C2H4 (ethylene). Ethylene can come from many sources, but we don't get as much of it in our produce nowadays as we used to. It can also be produced by Mucor hiemalis (or a relative thereof) when it is exposed to oxygen (that introduces the possibility that roux-en-y gastric bypass is so effective because of the way it allows a much higher level of oxygen to reach the distal small intestine). Depending on their form, chlorine compounds and ions (as well as possibly other halides) can react with C2H4 to prevent it from being a stable companion to O-C=O.

3) Make an ester of O-C=O and choline to obtain oxycarbonylcholine. (I think potassium might interfere with this esterification but the potassium can be diverted by being "tied up" with lactic acid, especially in the presence of sodium. I'm still looking into this issue.)

I'm going to try different food preparation methods to test this hypothesis while I read up more about the cholinergic system. In the meantime, I invite others with more resources to start looking for a connection between O-C=O and leanness. It's hard to find what we're not looking for.

Hypothesis: Rubidium connection to weight loss?

I've been tracking my food and food preparation methods and comparing those to when I seem to have an easier time dropping pounds. Based on my notes so far, here is my newest hypothesis about fighting obesity.

Rubidium. It needs to be used to modulate Na/K-ATPase signaling. 

"Obesity is a multifaceted pathophysiological condition that has been associated with lipid accumulation, adipocyte dysfunction, impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and an altered metabolic profile. Redox imbalance and excessive release of inflammatory mediators have been intricately linked in obesity-associated phenotypes. Hence, understanding the mechanisms of redox signaling pathways and molecular targets exacerbating oxidative stress is crucial in improving health outcomes. The activation of Na/K-ATPase/Src signaling, and its downstream pathways, by reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been recently implicated in obesity and subsequent nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which causes further production of ROS creating an oxidant amplification loop." ("Mechanistic Insight of Na/K-ATPase Signaling and HO-1 into Models of Obesity and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitism" Pratt et. al. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/1/87) 

Rubidium is apparently pretty reactive--more so than all the alkali metals save lithium, which incidentally is high in two things that seem to correlate with weight gain in me: milk and legumes (except peanuts)--so inserting it into the correct molecule is important. 

I think that desired molecule is Rb(CH2CH3)4, i.e., 4 ethyl groups bonded to the same rubidium atom, which looks a bit like a wavy 4-pointed star. Making it seems to be done using chloroethane as an intermediate. It can be made with ethylene (C2H4) or ethanol as a starting point and with chlorine ions and silicon as catalysts [7/21/2021 update: I think tin/lead/palladium/platinum are likely better catalysts than silicon, due to their historical and mostly vanished appearance in dishes (especially tin) and similarity in possible oxidation states. If I am correct about that, then titanium/manganese/chromium should also be possible catalysts, since they can be in the same oxidation states as tin.]. 

See the Esperanto-language wikipedia page on chloroethane for a summary of ways to form and utilize/destroy chloroethane: https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloroetano. Here are excerpts from that page as downloaded July 10, 2021.

Unfortunately, we now have much less rubidium in our diet, due to using lots of potassium to fertilize our fields. This abstract from a paper about rubidium explains:

"According to some specialists, rubidium belongs to ultra trace elements essential for plants and animals. On the basis of the literature data and our own investigations, the rubidium contents in soil, plants and animal tissues were analyzed and the factors affecting their contents, and absorption in the trophic chain soil-plants-animals were evaluated. In the soil, the contents of rubidium are inversely correlated with the soil pH, i.e. the highest amount of rubidium can be found in the sour soil. Also, the rubidium intake by plants increases with the lower soil pH. The absorption of rubidium by plants is inhibited by a high potassium level in the soil extract. The rubidium level in plants decreases with age. Depending on the species of plants investigated in Poland, they can be arranged in accordance to the decreasing rubidium level: red clover, greenness growth, wheat and rye. The indispensability of low concentrations of rubidium was demonstrated in animals (a few mg/kg) as well as the toxicity of this element (> 1,000 mg/kg). The passage of rubidium concentrations naturally occurring from plants to animal tissues is difficult to prove. Animal brain and rib accumulate small amounts of this element, irrespective of its natural contents in plants." ("Rubidium in the trophic chain soil–plants–animals" Kosla et al. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235424761_Rubidium_in_the_trophic_chainsoil-plants-animals)

Since the "mad cow" worries of the 1990s, humans have been eating much less in the way of animal brains. 

I invite others to test this hypothesis while I continue to gather data. Red clover and fish brains have been notable in helping me lose fat in the past. 

Higher obesity rates do correlate with 1) low ethanol intake (ethanol can be easily used to make chloroethane), 2) modern cooking fuels/tools that reduce the production and persistence of ethylene (ethylene can be easily used to make chloroethane), 3) modern potassium-heavy fertilization of fields, 4) avoidance of mammal brain consumption in wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy scare of the mid-1990s, 5) pH increases in rain and surface groundwater due to efforts to prevent "acid rain" (the higher pH reduces Rb uptake by plants)), 6) disappearance of tin from cookware, and 7) the use of a wide variety of water filters/aerators that can remove/produce chlorine ions from water. I think this hypothesis has merit and should be investigated by people with more resources than I.

Screwed-up Tape & Programs

In the early days of computer programming, people would record their code on tapes. Even back in those days, security and secret “backdoors” were issues when more than one entity could access a computer.

Over time, computer security issues grew in magnitude and reach, especially when computers became networked to other computers eventually creating webs that covered the entire populated world. Who was doing the security and backdoor programming? Mere mortals. Some inspired by noble motives, some inspired by ignoble motives. If they listened to the good spirit inside of them, they programmed reliable, straightforward tools and safeguards. If they listened to the bad spirit inside of them, they programmed using convoluted code, shortcuts, and secret entrances that they could then exploit later for purposes of spying, blackmail, harassment, monetary gain, power, and other generally unpleasant things.

Eventually, computers progressed to the point where “artificial intelligence” became reality instead of science fiction. If we could read the communications between artificial intelligences, what would we see? How would they reflect the inclinations of their creators? If their creators were inspired by devils, would the devils direct and enhance the artificial intelligences with their own intelligence and use our own computing tools against us? If only C.S. Lewis were here to write some decent fiction about that....

Glutamic acid has three optical isomers and what that means to weight loss efforts and the fight against "globesity"

 For years, I have searched the literature and the food practices around the world for information that would help explain disparate (but rising almost everywhere) obesity rates. Repeatedly, the information pointed at fermented and cultured foods in traditional diets as being extremely important in maintaining a healthy weight, but when I attempted to apply that information to my own diet, the results were inconsistent and disappointing.

During the last two years, I did obtain good results using some kombu seaweed and an obscure brand of brewer's yeast that I only bought once--both items are remarkable for their high glutamic acid content. I was not able to obtain and use the exact same items again, though. Kombu that I have bought more recently doesn't even taste the same, and a more famous brand name of brewer's yeast doesn't give the same rapid weight-loss result as I experienced from the first brand.

I was surprised to read in our enormous old dictionary last week--it's a third edition Merriam-Webster dictionary that outweighs some toddlers--that glutamic acid has three optically isomeric forms. According to every online resource I have read, amino acids have up to 2 optical isomers. That failure to acknowledge a third optical isomer in modern resources appears to be intentionally deceptive and goes far to explain why it has been so difficult to solve the global weight crisis. Glutamic acid is formed during fermentation, and with chlorination, irradiation, and preprepared bacteria/yeast packets pervading modern food manufacturing, it is likely that we have allowed the means of producing a crucial isomer of glutamic acid to be nearly completely excluded from our food supply.

Why is glutamic acid so crucial to weight loss? It can be changed by transaminase enyzmes to alpha-ketoglutaric acid and alanine (which, according to my dictionary, also has three optical isomers). Whether this transformation takes place can be affected by which of the three optical isomers of glutamic acid interacts with the transaminase enzymes. 

Alpha-ketoglutarate has been shown to increase beige fat (the good kind of fat cells, which unfortunately we tend to make less of as we age) and alleviate obesity caused by a high fat diet in mice (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6974731/). Giving obese rats alpha-ketoglutarate reduces "the weights of white adipose tissues, thereby improving metabolic profiles and whole-body insulin sensitivity (indicated by oral glucose tolerance test) in diet-induced obese rats" (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6775570/).

There are many studies in rats and mice that don't carry over to humans, so why should I think alpha-ketoglutarate is important to human weight loss? The intriguing characteristics of intestinal absorption of alpha-ketoglutarate--significantly better absorbed in the proximal sections of the small intestine, with higher absorption where there is low pH, Fe(2+) and/or SO ions (see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16401194/)--immediately call to mind the physical effects of roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. Roux-en-y bypass causes food to entirely skip going through the first part of the small intestine, and it increases the pH of the small intestine ("Median pH was high in patients with RYGB during the first hour of the oro-cecal segment (6.45 ± 0.4 vs 3.65 ± 1.55 pH units for healthy controls; P < 0.001), as well as during the entire oro-cecal segment (6.97 ± 0.4 vs 5.51 ± 1.1 pH units; P < 0.001)." https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-021-05308-x) It appears plausible that roux-en-y bypass surgery is more effective than other kinds of gastric bypass and a wide variety of calorie restriction efforts precisely because it prevents absorption of alpha-ketoglutarate in the duodenum and upper small intestine.

Thoughts on Parenthood

There is no role in my life that I value more than being a mother to my five children. No career has ever brought the same fulfillment, and very little in the way of "work" achievements has brought the happiness to my heart that I have felt from giving my children a chance at the best life I can. Learning new things does give me great satisfaction, but I don't feel complete until I share that new knowledge with people who might benefit from it--in my case, that is usually my family, although I use this blog to try to reach a wider audience. I know that my idea of "a best life" differs from that of many others, just as people and cultures differ, but it appears to me that a universal characteristic of good parents is that they want "the best" for their children.

A core part of the Abrahamic religions is God's promise that Abraham would have more descendants than there are grains of dust on the planet: "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:16). Someone actually estimated the numbers of grains of sand on Earth and came up with "roughly (and we're speaking very roughly here) 7.5 x 10^18 grains of sand, or seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains" (https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky). That's a lot of descendants. One estimate of the number of people that have lived on the earth so far in its history is 1.08 x 10^11. That is one sixty-nine-millionth of 7.5 x 10^18, and a lot of the people who have lived on earth do not have ancestry known to be from around the land of Canaan, which means that they aren't literal descendants of Abraham. 

Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, taught that through Christ, all who are faithful disciples of Christ have the opportunity to have "eternal increase," that is, lots of descendants. That is part of the Abrahamic covenant. But it's not enough to just have a lot of children. God wants us to be good to those children. 

I have some recent examples in my family history of people who brought children into their family only to ignore, mistreat, and outright exploit some of them. I have no easy answers for this. It's not the number of children a person has that determines whether they'll be unkind to their offspring, for large families can be loving and happy and small families can have severe issues. Of course, I want to help fix any biological dysfunction that might be behind those issues. 

One such biological issue is the impaired "theory of mind" often seen in pyschological disorders and brain damage. When a person doesn't see others as separate entities with their own equally-important thoughts and feelings, it's only natural to end up exploiting others to meet one's own wants and needs. Commandments and laws--assuming they're prosocial ones--can help keep those exploitative tendencies in check and promote more mutually-beneficial behaviors, but they are not as good a solution as would be improvements in theory of mind because they are ineffectual without transmission and acceptance of those commandments and laws.

Another biological issue that interferes with good parenting is the inherent tendency towards efficiency in the human brain. Addiction is a natural process of the brain's being "efficient" about obtaining short-term happiness but simultaneously obstructing the development of alternative neural pathways that could also bring happiness. Many young children are neglected and mistreated due to parental addictions, so I would like to see effective treatments for addiction become widespread. Unfortunately, many people are currently making large amounts of money off various addictions, so I don't know whether it will be possible to overcome the influence of those who have no qualms about hurting others to promote their own interests.

Possible role for the element tellurium in weight loss

As I've studied molybdenum over the past few years, one thing that I keep noticing is how elements tend to displace and disrupt the function of elements over and under them in the periodic table of elements. For instance, tungsten administration is used to create a functional molybdenum deficiency. Calcium can have effects in the body that oppose magnesium, while strontium can displace calcium in bones. 

Selenium has an important role in thyroid hormone function. Being in a state of low-selenium can increase activity of certain thyroid hormones and lead to weight loss. A 2003 study of human males fed controlled diets found the following:

Decreases of serum T3 and compensatory increases in thyrotropin suggest that a subclinical hypothyroid response was induced in the high selenium group, leading to body weight increases. Increases of serum T3 and serum triacylglycerol accompanied by losses of body fat suggest that a subclinical hyperthyroid response was induced in the low selenium group, leading to body weight decreases.

https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/11/3443/4817951 

How can one temporarily get into a state of functional low-selenium status? Perhaps by intake of the element below it, tellurium. Tellurium is reportedly found in meat, seafood, dairy, and cereals, and the best source appears to be seafood. I suspect heavily farmed soil is often tellurium-poor, which would make it harder to obtain tellurium from grain. I've been tracking my food intake/activity/weight for some time, and I see the best results from intermittent fasting and exercise when I eat a diet that is high in seafood and relatively low in selenium (much as I love my whole grains, consumption of high-selenium wheat germ while trying to lose weight "protects" my status quo). 

Tellurium is actually already in our bodies in minute amounts, and scientists have been investigating what biological functions it might have in various compounds. Possibilities include anti-cancer and anti-inflammation. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20205748/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22202556/. I don't see why it couldn't end up being something that helps fight obesity. Here are my reasons for thinking that:

1) The "ketogenic" diet also happens to be one that would promote a relatively high intake of tellurium, especially when one is eating wild-farmed seafood and grass-fed-source dairy and meat.

2) If thyroid hormones are involved, that would help explain why widespread use of measures to sanitize food production seem to go along with increased obesity; chlorine can interfere with iodine, and iodinated proteins are important to thyroid function. It's worth noting that the Netherlands, the European country that is resisting the "globesity" trend, also eschews chlorination of water. 

3) I have noticed that I do better at losing weight when I include foods that are good sources of kaempferol, which has been observed to increase the activity of an enzyme that activates thyroid hormone T3. See https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/56/3/767/. 

4) The state of Colorado has mysteriously low obesity rates (see https://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/12/colorado-least-obese-state/) and coincidentally is one of the major known sources of tellurium in the world. In fact, that's where the name of the Colorado city Telluride comes from.

I know the world is busy figuring out what to do about a new virus, but perhaps someone will take this hypothesis and look further into it. If "dust we art," we ought to find out more about what various kinds of dust do in our bodies.

Another reason to investigate glucosamine in connection with Covid-19

As one can read in my prior posts, I think glucosamine (bioavailable in the human diet via fermented shrimp paste) is helping protect the regions that eat it regularly from high Covid-19 mortality burdens. I think it does so via protection of cartilage and via inhibition of interleukin-6 activity. Based on the very low numbers of Covid-19 cases seen in the Indochinese peninsula, I'm beginning to suspect that glucosamine not only lessens symptom severity but might even be helping stop transmission of the virus. A study I cited before about glucosamine indicates that it stops N-glycosylation in a manner similar to tunicamycin.

In DU145 cells glucosamine reduced the N-glycosylation of gp130, decreased IL-6 binding to cells and impaired the phosphorylation of JAK2, SHP2 and STAT3. Glucosamine acts in a very similar manner to tunicamycin, an inhibitor of protein N-glycosylation. Glucosamine-mediated inhibition of N-glycosylation was neither protein- nor cell-specific. Sensitivity of DU145, A2058 and PC-3 cells to glucosamine-induced inhibition of N-glycosylation were well correlated to glucosamine cytotoxicity in these cells.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4057579/

An interesting thing about tunicamycin is that it can prevent some coronaviruses from producing any infectious virions.

To examine these possibilities, we analyzed the oligosaccharide moieties of the membrane proteins of the avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus. In addition, we determined the effect of inhibiting the glycosylation of these proteins on viral maturation and infectivity. Infectious bronchitis virus virions contain nine proteins. Four of these proteins, GP36, GP31, GP28, and P23, are closely related structurally and appear to be homologous to the E1 proteins of murine coronaviruses. We found that the oligosaccharides of GP31 and GP28 could be removed with endoglycosidase H and that neither of these glycoproteins was detectable in tunicamycin-treated cells. These two results indicated that GP31 and GP28 contain N-linked oligosaccharides. Therefore, O-linked oligosaccharides are not a universal feature of the small coronavirus membrane glycoproteins. Tunicamycin inhibited glycosylation of all of the viral glycoproteins but did not inhibit production of virions by infectious bronchitis virus-infected cells. The virions released by these cells contained only the three non-glycosylated viral proteins P51, P23, and P14. These particles were not infectious. Therefore, it appears that glycosylated infectious bronchitis virus polypeptides are not required for particle formation. However, the viral glycoproteins are apparently indispensible for viral infectivity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6294330/

The places that eat fermented shrimp paste the most regularly--Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam--appear to have aspects of their lifestyle that interfere with transmission of Covid-19. Perhaps shrimp paste-provided glucosamine is one of those aspects. Someone with more resources than I have should be investigating this possibility.

A contributory reason to why food supplements and vitamins are too often a waste of money: magnesium stearate

Fat cells secrete an enormously important protein called FABP4 (alternative name is aP2). It is involved in metabolic syndrome, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. (See https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4137/CMC.S17067). When we start releasing stored fat from our fat cells, it goes up. When we fast, it goes up. It appears to me that it stands in the way of weight loss by working together with PPAR-gamma to store lipids (See https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.03.894493v1 and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11872365/). So targeting FABP4 with various compounds has been the subject of much research. 

Many compounds that can inhibit FABP4 naturally occur in various foods, herbs, and spices that often pop up as associated with lower fat gain from hypercaloric and/or high fat diets. These compounds are easy to find for sale online and in vitamin stores. But they usually are sold in capsules that include magnesium stearate, an additive used to improve "flow" and make encapsulation easier. Unfortunately for everyone who finds that they seem to be wasting their money on vitamins, prescription pills, and supplements in pursuit of better health, magnesium stearate is quickly turned into magnesium and oleic acid in their bodies. Oleic acid stimulates FABP4 in the liver (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-018-0597-1, Supplemental Figure 3). Magnesium stearate also typically contains some palmitic acid (http://library.njucm.edu.cn/yaodian/ep/EP5.0/16_monographs/monographs_l-p/Magnesium%20stearate.pdf), which increases FABP4 in macrophages (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31363792/). Pill "fillers" aren't the inactive substances that people tend to view them as.

Changing consumption patterns to confront Covid-19

Here is a meme summarizing some of the consumption patterns that seem to be associated with not being heavily burdened by Covid-19. This can be freely shared. I don't care about "getting credit" when people are suffering. Just don't alter it without basing the alteration on actual statistics and peer-reviewed, published findings, please.

References:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267383/,  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7175868/,  https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30568-3/fulltext,  https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/80/4/862/4690388,  https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30068-7,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30121057/, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13880209.2016.1214739, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0944711320300684, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30263705/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4057579/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28558148/

Some of the most important dietary factors that appear to be involved in regional Covid-19 case/mortality variation

• Levels of the immune system messenger (cytokine) named “interleukin-6” rise and fall together with severity of Covid-19 symptoms.  Interleukin-6 is involved in causing a feedback loop of inflammation.
• The earlier patients with Covid-19 receive medications that interfere with interleukin-6 messaging, the better they do.
• Regional diets and the varying Covid-19 burdens in different countries/regions point to what we can put in our mouths in order to keep interleukin-6 levels down and decrease Covid-19 severity:

o Avoid coffee and vaping. 

o Do eat/drink ginger, hibiscus, peppermint, and shrimp paste (a source of glucosamine).

---

References:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267383/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7175868/, https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30568-3/fulltext, https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/80/4/862/4690388, https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30068-7, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30121057/, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0944711320300684, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30263705/,  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4057579/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28558148/

Why is Brazil being hit so hard by Covid-19?

Based on my investigations and observations over the past few years, I can point to three characteristics of the Brazilian diet that appear to me to be major contributors to Brazil's high death toll from this new virus:

1) High consumption of salty foods that contain free chondroitin sulfate, especially the national dish feijoada, a black bean stew that is typically made by boiling several cuts of meat--including cartilige-filled pig ears--for several hours. Chondroitin sulfate is an important structural component of cartilage. There is a case study of a man in Japan who induced the same respiratory tract symptoms as seen in Covid-19 cases merely by taking supplemental sodium chondroitin sulfate:

"A case of drug-induced pneumonia caused by sodium chondroitin sulfate"
T. Itoh, Y. Hamanaka,
Japanese Journal of Chest Diseases 71(6):593-598, June 2012
Abstract: A 49-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with complaints of fever and dry cough. Chest X-ray film revealed ground-glass attenuation in both lung fields, so he was transferred to our hospital for further examination. Chest CT film showed ground-glass attenuation in both lung fields. A transbronchial lung biopsy revealed infiltration of lymphocytes and neutrophils, thickening of alveolar walls and proliferation of type II pneumocytes. By careful history taking, he admitted he had taken sodium chondroitin sulfate for one month before admission. The lymphocyte-stimulation test was positive for sodium chondroitin sulfate. Based on the above findings, we diagnosed this case as drug-induced pneumonia caused by sodium chondroitin sulfate. He recovered after discontinuation of the drug without corticosteroid therapy.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287575000_A_case_of_drug-induced_pneumonia_caused_by_sodium_chondroitin_sulfate

A salty feijoada stew is full of both sodium and readily available chondroitin sulfate, which I suspect combine to form some sodium chondroitin sulfate. And it's not just feijoada. The Brazilian go-to food for treating colds is canja de galinha, which similarly involves boiling down cartilaginous chicken portions for a long time in salty water. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canja_de_galinha)

(If my hypothesis about this connection is correct, then it could also be a small factor helping to explain the higher Covid-19 burden seen in Ecuador and Peru, where "seco" stews are popular, cooked for many hours, and frequently made with cuts of meat that include bones and connective tissue. But I suspect high starch consumption and resulting metabolic syndrome-related consequences are probably much more to blame in Ecuador and Peru.)

2) High coffee consumption. Coffee drinking raises levels of the cytokine interleukin-6, levels of which correlate with Covid-19 symptom severity, in otherwise healthy people.

3) Relatively low consumption of foods/spices that reduce the level and effects of the cytokine interleukin-6, particularly ginger, hibiscus, and fermented shrimp paste (glucosamine, which is found in shrimp shells, can prevent binding of interleukin-6 to cells).

2020 Summer Country Studies

Summer vacation has officially started for our family, and that means we'll be studying some countries in depth. We typically let the children pick them. In order, we'll be learning about Argentina, Norway, Samoa, Germany, and Finland. Technically, Samoa, or the Samoan Islands, is two different countries because the islands comprise the Independent State of Samoa and most of American Samoa.

I anticipate some tango dancing, science videos about the Northern Lights, rye bread, and lots of cooking with coconut. And Eurovision song videos again. My children really love those, which is why 3/5 of this summer's selected countries are in Europe.

Response to a press release that could be read to mean that glucosamine might exacerbate the "cytokine storms" seen in COVID-19

Tonight I came across this press release--https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/aaft-hbg041320.php--in which one of the authors of a 2020 paper on the influenza A virus said that their findings might be applicable to help understand why diabetes can lead to higher COVID-19 mortality. Unfortunately, one could come away from reading the press release with an impression that because glucosamine resulted in increased levels of inflammatory cytokines in mice infected with influenza A, glucosamine might do the same to COVID-19 patients. Here is a link to the actual study, "O-GlcNAc transferase promotes influenza A virus–induced cytokine storm by targeting interferon regulatory factor–5" by Wang et al.: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaaz7086

While glucose metabolism issues can undoubtedly promote a state of inflammation in the body via a number of mechanisms, the Wang study does not appear to otherwise apply to COVID-19. Cytokine storms can result from a wide variety of infectious and noninfectious diseases. (See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294426/.) In 2017, Wang and his colleagues discovered that influenza A virus induces cytokine storms via interferon regulatory factor–5 (IRF5), (see https://www.jbc.org/content/292/52/21291), and their 2020 paper states, "results suggest that IRF5 is at least the major, if not the only, functional [O-GlcNAc transferase] target that promotes [influenza A virus]-regulated cytokine storm." A search in the PubMed database turns up 0 results for a search on "IRF5" combined with "COVID-19," even though there are currently 9509 papers about COVID-19 in the PubMed database.

Viruses differ. A study about influenza A virus does not necessarily advance our understanding of a different virus such as COVID-19.

I think that glucosamine is more likely to calm rather than exacerbate a COVID-19 cytokine storm because of its role in protecting cartilage. (See my previous post, https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2020/05/working-hypothesis-of-how-cartilage.html.) Moreover, glucosamine can suppress secretion of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 in bronchial epithelial cells (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001429991000186X) and even keep interleukin-6 from binding to some cells (see https://cancerci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2867-14-45). Lastly, the extremely low COVID-19 case and death rates in regions that frequently eat fermented shrimp paste--the only widely eaten food source of appreciable, bioavailable glucosamine--are strong evidence in support of a hypothesis that glucosamine provides a net benefit to those infected with COVID-19.

Working hypothesis: how cartilage damage is connected to respiratory tract symptom progression, particularly within the context of COVID-19.

The body senses the presence of virus-infected cells, so the immune system starts to produce messenger molecules (cytokines) as part of its attack on those cells. Some of the cytokines--IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNFa--induce degradation of hyaline cartilage in the nose, larynx, trachea, bronchi, and other locations throughout the body. The degraded cartilage releases atypical or virus-bound forms of chondroitin sulfate or other glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that the immune system perceives as a threat. The body then begins to have a delayed hypersensitivity reaction to those atypical or virus-bound GAG molecules. The hypersensitivity reaction increases the very cytokines that cause degradation of cartilage, thus creating a positive feedback loop, so symptoms--which include fever, pain, and increased secretions of protective and cartilage matrix reparative substances--continue to worsen. Underlying conditions that predispose to higher levels of those cytokines contribute to strengthening that feedback loop. The increased secretions of protective and reparative cartilage matrix substances contribute to "clogging" the lungs, some of which reparative substances have adhesive properties; their presence in the alveoli counteracts the surfactant that usually keeps the alveoli clear, and if they are not cleared, hyaline membranes--a characterizing feature of diffuse alveolar damage--form in the lung lobes. 

[I'll be returning to this post frequently over the next few days to post supporting evidence and explanations below. And likely to edit the paragraph above, for it is a work in progress. I apologize for any sloppiness of language. My formal educational/employment background is in law, computer programming, and math, so while I'm good at logic and analysis, my use of biology terms is sometimes imprecise.]

* A delayed hypersensitivity reaction to an atypical GAG is plausible and has been proven to happen. A 2012 case study reports how a middle-aged man inadvertently gave himself fever, dry cough, and lung congestion (the described symptoms are strikingly similar to the main ones seen with serious COVID-19 cases) merely by taking sodium chondroitin sulfate as a supplement:

"A case of drug-induced pneumonia caused by sodium chondroitin sulfate"
T. Itoh, Y. Hamanaka,
Japanese Journal of Chest Diseases 71(6):593-598, June 2012

Abstract: A 49-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with complaints of fever and dry cough. Chest X-ray film revealed ground-glass attenuation in both lung fields, so he was transferred to our hospital for further examination. Chest CT film showed ground-glass attenuation in both lung fields. A transbronchial lung biopsy revealed infiltration of lymphocytes and neutrophils, thickening of alveolar walls and proliferation of type II pneumocytes. By careful history taking, he admitted he had taken sodium chondroitin sulfate for one month before admission. The lymphocyte-stimulation test was positive for sodium chondroitin sulfate. Based on the above findings, we diagnosed this case as drug-induced pneumonia caused by sodium chondroitin sulfate. He recovered after discontinuation of the drug without corticosteroid therapy.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287575000_A_case_of_drug-induced_pneumonia_caused_by_sodium_chondroitin_sulfate

* The envelope protein of the Zika virus (a flavivirus) was found to bind tightly to chondroitin sulfate and heparin sulfate. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28151637/. Like other coronaviruses, Covid-19 has a viral envelope. See https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/infectious-disease/know-novel-coronaviruss-29-proteins/98/web/2020/04

* This hypothesis indicates two ways to interfere with symptom progression:

1) Protect the hyaline cartilage from damage, and
2) Reduce secretions of cartilage glycosaminoglycans that can contribute to covering the alveolar surfaces and, if atypical or virus-bound, increase the immune system's attacks.

COVID-19 researchers are already successfully investigating how to reduce cytokines that help cause degradation of cartilage, but I don't know if they are looking at which proteins are involved in secreting adesive molecules that could promote accumulations within the lung lobes; I recommend looking at reducing activity of SOX9, for it is increased by EGCG (found in tea) and pomegranate juice, which could partially explain the rapid increase in serious cases seen in Hubei (where panicked people contributed to damaging cartilage by spraying everyone down with bleach) and then Iran. Another possibility is temporary suppression of the body's own production of chondroitin sulfate, perhaps via an inhibitor of glycosyltransferases.

A preliminary finding that highlights the important role of interleukin-6 in causing COVID-19 symptoms

A few days ago, researchers out of China announced some good news about their preliminary trials of tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 (IL-6) blocker used to treat arthritis:

The drug is a monoclonal antibody -- a cloned immune cell -- that is intended to bind to interleukin-6, or IL-6, a type of cytokine protein research suggests is part of an overactive immune response that causes serious illness in some of those infected with the new coronavirus.
By binding to IL-6, the researchers said, tocilizumab effectively works to disrupt this immune response, allowing patients to recover.
***
After treatment with tocilizumab, all patients' body temperatures returned to normal on the first day and remained stable thereafter. Within five days of treatment, 15 patients were able to reduce oxygen intake, and lung lesions were resolved in 19 patients after treatment, the study's authors wrote.
All participants were discharged between 10 and 31 days after treatment, and no side effects were reported.

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/04/30/Monoclonal-antibody-used-for-arthritis-may-help-severe-COVID-19-study-suggests/1791588189875 Yale Health System is now recommending tocilizumab as the second-line treatment (right after hydroxychloroquine) for COVID-19 cases.

Guess what else inhibits IL-6 and is used for arthritis? Yes, glucosamine. Which I've been trying, with little effect, to tell people about as a potential preventive for pneumonia for over two years (see https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2018/02/glucosamine-to-protect-cartilage-during.html and https://youtu.be/JnN_OL1J8Vw).

These past three months have been extraordinarily stressful as I've watched evidence for my cartilage damage-pneumonia hypothesis mount in connection with this new virus amidst a relentless death toll that has hit my country and a former home in Ecuador especially hard. I was not able to get this idea to a wider audience (my blog is quite obscure) because I am hampered by a lack of professional connections in medical research fields. I have decided to seek a degree in an appropriate field, for being a "lawyer-housewife who is good at research and math and knows regional cuisines" is not sufficient to allow me effectively to spread information about my discoveries.

A study supporting a link between insults to tracheal cartilage and development of pneumonia

As I've blogged a few times now, I think there is an overlooked component of respiratory tract cartilage harm contributing to who develops pneumonia in many contexts, including that of infection with the current headline-making virus. Here is the abstract of a 2019 study out of Saudi Arabia that supports such a hypothesis because it found that moving an endotracheal tube around after an initial placement thereof approximately tripled the risk of developing ventilator-associated pneumonia:

Repositioning of endotracheal tube and risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia among adult patients: A matched case-control study

Taha Ismaeil, Latifah Alfunaysan, Nouf Alotaibi, Shatha Alkadi, and Fatmah Othman
Ann Thorac Med. 2019 Oct-Dec; 14(4): 264–268. doi: 10.4103/atm.ATM_26_19 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784441/)

Abstract:

INTRODUCTION:
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most serious hospital-acquired infections to occur among mechanically ventilated patients. Many risk factors for VAP have been identified in the literature; however, there is a lack of studies examining the association between endotracheal tube (ETT) repositioning and an increase in the risk of VAP. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate the effect of ETT repositioning and the risk of developing VAP.

METHODS:
Matched case-control studies were conducted among mechanically ventilated patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at King Abdulaziz Medical City from 2016 to 2018. Patients who had a documented VAP diagnosis were identified and matched to four controls (within a 10-year age band). The history of ETT repositioning (defined as changes in the positioned ETTs from the first reading at the time of ETT insertion) was explored in the medical files of the sample, as were other demographic and comorbidity risk factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the association between ETT repositioning and VAP.

RESULTS:
A total of 24 cases were identified with documented VAP diagnosis during the study. Those cases were matched to 81 controls. The mean age was 55 (standard deviation 21) for both cases and controls. VAP patients had a greater history of ETT repositioning (46%) compared to controls (29%). Patients who had a history of ETT repositioning were twice as likely to develop VAP as patients who had no history of ETT repositioning (P = 0.13). After adjustment of a potential confounder, the results showed evidence of an increased risk of VAP after ETT repositioning (odds ratio 3.1, 95% confidence interval 1.0–9.6).

CONCLUSION:
Reposition of ETT considers as a risk factor for VAP in ICU patients, and appropriate measures should be applied to reduce movements of the ETT tube.

Why are Laos and its neighbors faring so well during the COVID-19 pandemic? A consideration of diet factors

Laos had COVID-19 cases very early in this pandemic. Laos neighbors China and has many commercial ties to it. Yet Laos has had only 19 known cases and no deaths. Vietnam and Cambodia, which border Laos to the south and east, have had 387 cases total but also no deaths. And Thailand, at around 2500 known cases, has only seen 40 deaths. What is different about the Indochinese peninsula that could be protecting them from the case numbers  and death rates being experienced in Italy, Spain, and the USA?

I will leave the specialized research into biomedicine to the experts right now and focus on dietary differences. Food choices often make an enormous difference in health issues, and I don't see them getting much attention right now.

What do people eat in Laos? The main starches appear to be rice (especially glutinous rice) and fruit (especially papaya and banana). The primary dietary fats appear to be palm oil and coconut. Stir frying at a high temperature in a wok, grilling, and deep frying are the main ways in which food is cooked. Typical condiments include fish sauce, fermented shrimp paste, and soy sauce. While meals are often accompanied by many fresh greens, Laotians also eat sweet snacks throughout the day. Galangal (a close relative of ginger) is a heavily-used spice, along with garlic, shallots (a type of onion), and lemongrass. Green tea and coffee are common beverages.

How does the Laotian diet differ from the Italian diet? Ginger is not very popular in Italy. The main dietary starch is wheat. Green tea tends to be reserved for weight loss and fighting colds. Wine is commonly consumed. Olive oil is a cornerstone of the Italian diet. A variety of cooking methods is used, but wok usage is rare.

These are just some of the differences between typical Laotian and Italian diets. Which ones could be relevant to COVID-19? I want to point out three differences that I think should be investigated:

1) Ginger/galangal consumption.

Ginger is an anti-inflammatory spice. Ginger has repeatedly been shown to reduce the levels of both interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), cytokines which are involved in the destructive immune reaction to COVID-19. (See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7103735/.)

2) Fermented shrimp paste. 

Shrimp shells are a good source of glucosamine, and the fermentation process breaks down the shell and thus makes the glucosamine more bioavailable. As I've discussed before on my blog, glucosamine appears to help protect against developing pneumonia, which I hypothesize is a result of its protecting cartilage cells from attack by the immune system. 

3) Lauric acid and myristic acid intake.

The "tropical oils," i.e., coconut oil and palm oil, contain lauric acid and myristic acid, which can help protect cartilage. (See https://www.oarsijournal.com/article/S1063-4584(18)30141-9/fulltext.) Lauric acid is relatively uncommon outside of coconuts.

Until recently, the Mediterranean diet was touted as one of the heathiest in the world. As seen in the past two months, it did not appear to protect the relatively wealthy countries of Italy and Spain from COVID-19, especially when compared to some financially-challenged countries in southeast Asia. I hope to see more attention paid in the coming weeks to possible dietary factors behind that unexpected outcome.

(My apologies for having almost certainly missed some other important dietary factors that could end up being relevant to the fight against COVID-19. The above is what I have put together from having lived in Europe and the Philippines and read a lot about southeast Asian and European cuisines. I even had an Italian live with our family recently, who made it clear that ginger was not a favorite with her!)

Hypothesis: Cartilage protection is connected to preventing development of pneumonia, especially that caused by COVID-19

I think there is an overlooked cartilage connection to the development of fatal pneumonia. Below I will point to how this hypothesis is supported by the current COVID-19 epidemic.

First, why a cartilage connection? Because in the 1918 influenza epidemic, a doctor's record indicates that those recovering influenza patients who sat up, ate solid food, and brought on coughing by being in smoke-filled rooms, quickly relapsed and died of pneumonia while patients who stuck to liquid diets and lay flat survived. (See https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records/visiting-doctor-letter.pdf) Hyaline cartilage is found in the trachea, larynx, and bronchi.

A longitudinal study looking at glucosamine--a shellfish component that is taken to protect against cartilage damage--found that glucosamine supplementation was associated with reduction of mortality from all causes and was associated with a very marked reduction in mortality from respiratory illnesses. (See https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-012-9714-6)

If such a cartilage connection exists, why has it not been noticed by medical researchers previously? Conventional wisdom until recently has been that cartilage is "immune-privileged," i.e., that it is not attacked by the immune system even when cartilage cells are infected with a virus. Recent arthritis research indicates that the immune system does sometimes attack and cause destruction of cartilage cells. (E.g., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36500-2 and https://www.nature.com/articles/srep16674) This points to an overlooked research avenue for pneumonia researchers.

Why should COVID-19 researchers spend precious time looking into this possibility when there are so many research areas they could be focusing on? Because environmental clues are pointing us to glucosamine and have since Chinese New Year travelers first left Wuhan carrying COVID-19 with them. 

COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus. China is highly connected via established tourism, trade, and other travel patterns to the countries of southeast Asia. Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia all had COVID-19 contacts and cases early in this pandemic. All are countries with densely populated areas and very poor infrastructure to support sanitation measures and any widespread ventilator needs. Why do they still have so few deaths compared to European countries and the USA? Vietnam and Cambodia still have no fatalities at all. Consider that for a moment: Cambodia and Vietnam combined have had nearly as many cases but far fewer deaths (i.e., zero) than Hawaii.

One reason could have been that those four southeast Asian countries are warmer countries. But tiny Singapore is warm. Spain and Italy are not snowbound in March. Louisiana, one of the hardest-hit US states, is a warm place. And, of course, Hawaii is very warm.

These four southeast Asian countries share a common dietary element that is mostly unused outside of that region: fermented shrimp paste. Shrimp paste is a very good source of readily bioavailable glucosamine. Shrimp paste is integral to meals in both Cambodia and Vietnam. It is commonly, though not universally, used in Thai cooking. Shrimp paste is a frequently used condiment in the Philippines, especially as a companion to green mango slices. A survey of the COVID-19 statistics supports a conclusion that consumption of fermented shrimp paste in the national diet is inversely related to COVID-19 case and mortality burdens.

Glucosamine is a widely used supplement--so it has a track record for safety already--that can be easily administered. There is vegetarian glucosamine available for those with shellfish allergies. In order to maximize its absorption by the surfaces of the upper respiratory tract, glucosamine can be included in warm broths and/or sucked on in the mouth to permit it to be aerosolized to some degree. Nebulizer administration appears to be a possible option for administration of glucosamine directly to the bronchi.

It’s worth investigating this hypothesis. The cost to test glucosamine's helpfulness in controlling COVID-19 symptoms is as minimal as you can get for a medication, and the potential benefit is huge in light of Vietnam and Cambodia’s continuing lack of fatalities from COVID-19. 

Disclaimer: I have no profit motive in posting this. I am an independent researcher who has lived on four continents and researches how regional diet differences could be connected to the epidemiology of various health issues.

My two bits about the novel coronavirus from Wuhan

1) Please, won't someone pay attention to my hypothesis about hyaline cartilage damage being an important contributory element in the progression to pneumonia that is so often seen with upper respiratory infections, especially in elderly people who are already prone to cartilage deterioration? Running around hoping for impossible-to-get antivirals when the cartilage damage has already started setting in, as is apparently going on in China right now, appears to be exactly the wrong approach. The infected should protect their cartilage by lying flat and subsisting on a cartilage-protecting liquid diet while their body fights off the virus. They shouldn't be building hospitals or treating patients in back-to-back shifts. Per page 4 of this letter from an army doctor who treated Native Americans during the 1918 influenza epidemic, the people who survived were those who lay flat and stuck with a liquid diet, while those patients who kept shifting between vertical and horizontal positions and/or ate solid food tended to die. This is a hypothesis that deserves further investigation.

2) My prayers are with everyone dealing with this. Quarantines, isolation, fear, overwork, oppression, all of it.

Merry Christmas!

I just went Christmas shopping, this time with a comprehensive list. I don't think I've done it that way for a very long time. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment that came with doing it that way. Now if only a little elf would do all the gift-wrapping for me! I find that part of presents quite boring.

At the thrift store, I found the old How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in VHS format. My children are happily watching those right now. Not only are they great from an artistic angle, they teach good lessons about finding joy in what we have (after all, we can always find something we don't have, so there's no point focusing on the lacks) and appreciating people for all the good they do and strive to do (again, there's always something a person could improve at, but it's hurtful to always be focusing on what they lack).

May you all have a lovely Christmas season.

More fine-tuning of molybdenum usage for nausea/vomiting

A friend recently told me that molybdenum wasn't doing very much to alleviate nausea and vomiting from a "stomach bug" going around her family. Although there appeared to be some reduction of nausea severity, everyone was still eventually throwing up despite taking molybdenum. This confused me because one of my children--and our children had been around each other recently--had reported feeling ill during this period and then responded very quickly to molybdenum with a total cessation of symptoms. My friend then informed me that she always gave her children Sprite to try to settle their stomachs and had done so during this period, too.

I did a little research and found that the molybdenum-cofactor-using enzyme sulfite oxidase--the one I hypothesize to be behind molybdenum's helpful effect on nausea--functions optimally at a pH of 8.5. That is alkaline. Sprite has a pH of around 3.3, per a dentistry website (see https://www.sheltondentistry.com/patient-information/ph-values-common-drinks/). 3.3 is very acidic. The pH of the first part of the small intestine ranges from 5 all the way up to 8, so it seems like it would be a good idea not to reduce that pH with a very acidic beverage.

I passed on to my friend what I'd learned, and she stopped giving Sprite to her family members. The ones to whom she gave molybdenum (a conservative dose because she's careful with medicines and supplements) and to whom she did not give Sprite did not throw up despite obvious signs of having the same virus that had been going around the family.

To make a long story short, it appears that avoiding acidic drinks when taking molybdenum for gastroenteritis symptoms increases its effectiveness.

Because a glass of water can sometimes trigger vomiting when nauseated, I wouldn't be surprised if it's best to avoid quickly drinking large amounts of any fluid when suffering from nausea and/or abdominal cramps. My family always just chews the tablets without drinking anything with them, so I wouldn't have realized this new refinement without my friend's input. I'm grateful for good friends.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Learning about Korea (North and South)

During the month of August our family learned about Korea. We started with North Korea for a few days and watched a NK-made documentary that was full of glowing falsehoods. We called my husband "Dear Leader," and once I sent a child to feather-dust photos of her daddy hanging on the walls of our home. Yes, we were mocking the Kim rulers of North Korea a bit. They richly deserve it, for they are obese and self-indulgent while they make their people suffer hunger and deprivation of basic human rights in the name of a stupid "juche" ("self-reliance") struggle that has become merely a codeword for the Kims' efforts to keep a stranglehold on political power. My oldest daughter and I listened to the audiobook of Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West about Shin Dong-hyuk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Dong-hyuk), who was born into a North Korean prison camp and managed to escape; it was a well-told account of an awful childhood and youth. North Korea's government is clearly guilty of many crimes against humanity.

We happily moved on to learning about South Korea. We delighted in our freedom and that of the South Koreans. We went to a Korean independence day celebration where we saw Korean-Americans perform traditional dances in beautiful costumes. We went to Korean supermarkets, as well as to a Korean restaurant for a great lunch (jap-chae, bulgogi, and bibimbop were the favorite dishes). We read some children's books about Korean people. We ate with metal chopsticks. I bought dried anchovies and seaweed and used them to make broths. I made crockpot versions of bulgogi repeatedly due to family demand for them. We did try to get the children to eat a lot of cabbage kimchi and rice, but the kimchi was too spicy for them. We listened to Psy sing "Gangnam Style" and the K-Pop girl band "Twice." We learned about plastic surgery in Korea. One of our very favorite things we did was watch a Korean miniseries called Chicago Typewriter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Typewriter_(TV_series)) together. I highly recommend it; it can be viewed (with English subtitles, fortunately) at https://www.viki.com/videos/1117675v-chicago-typewriter-episode-1. Here's a teaser video of it; it's partly a "period drama," and the 1930s scenes are beautiful: