10 Easy Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to Reduce Stress from Debbie Hampton

 You can't extrapolate this to the vagus nerve stimulation for stroke recovery. That would be practicing medicine without a license. Unless your doctor creates these protocols for you.

• vagus nerve (56 posts to July 2012)

10 Easy Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to Reduce Stress from Debbie Hampton

Science has confirmed that the vagus nerve is important to your mental and physical health. Stimulating it has many health benefits. Here’s how and why to do that.

What Is the Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is the longest of the cranial nerves in your body. It runs through your belly, diaphragm, lungs, throat, inner ear, and facial muscles. Practices that stimulate or relax these areas of the body can influence the tone of your vagus nerve. It is the body’s major parasympathetic nerve responsible for basic functions, like the gag reflex, slowing the heart rate, controlling sweating, regulating blood pressure, stimulating digestion, and determining vascular tone.

There are twelve cranial nerves in the human body. They come in pairs and link the brain with other areas of the body and some send sensory information, like smells, sights, and tastes. Some cranial nerves control motor functions, including the movement of muscles and the operation of certain glands. Some cranial nerves have either sensory or motor functions, while others have both. The vagus nerve has both.

Vagus nerve anatomy and function

The sensory functions of the Vagus nerve are divided into two types:

• Somatic components – sensations felt on the skin or in the muscles, and
• Visceral components – sensations felt in the organs of the body.

Sensory functions of the Vagus nerve include:

• Providing somatic sensation information for the skin behind the ear, the external part of the ear canal, and certain parts of the throat.
• Supplying visceral sensation information for the larynx, esophagus, lungs, trachea, heart, and most of the digestive tract.
• Playing a small role in the sensation of taste near the root of the tongue.

Motor functions of the Vagus nerve include stimulating:

• muscles in the pharynx, larynx, and the soft palate;
• muscles in the heart, where it helps to lower resting heart rate;
• involuntary contractions in the digestive tract, including the esophagus, stomach, and most of the intestines.

The Vagus Nerve’s Role in Stress

During periods of chronic stress, your body stays in a heightened state, with stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol, pumping through your body.  A regular overabundance of these hormones can cause damage all over your body — especially your brain. Over time, chronic stress can cause a multitude of mental and physical health problems, such as chronic pain, anxiety, mood swings, gut and brain inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and more.

The vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system can come to your rescue in times of stress. Stimulating the vagus nerve initiates the calming, relaxation response of your parasympathetic nervous system. And it turns down your sympathetic nervous system’s fight-or-flight stress response. 

Because it is the main cranial nerve that connects the brain and body, the vagus nerve is a vital part of how your body and brain communicate and function together. Without it, your body would not be able to perform basic tasks. And by stimulating it, you can receive powerful health benefits.

The vagus nerve can come to your rescue when your brain and body are stressed.

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Here’s How to DIY Vagus Nerve Stimulation

By stimulating your vagus nerve, you can send the message to your body to relax and reduce stress. Learning to calm your brain and body has many mental and physical health benefits which can lead to long-term improvements in mental health, mood, and resilience.

1. Cold Exposure

Acute cold exposure has been shown to activate the vagus nerve and cholinergic neurons, capable of producing, altering, and/or releasing acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the main neurotransmitter of your calming parasympathetic nervous system. Researchers found that exposing yourself to cold on a regular basis can turn down your sympathetic nervous system and the stress response while increasing the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system through vagus nerve stimulation.

You can accomplish this easily way by taking cold showers. If the idea of a cold shower doesn’t appeal to you, you can simply splash your face with ice-cold water or try finishing your next shower with a few minutes of cold water. 

2. Deep and Slow Breathing

Slow relaxed breathing has been shown to reduce anxiety and increase the parasympathetic system by activating the vagus nerve.  Usually, most people take about 10-14 breaths per minute. Slowing down your breathing to around six breaths a minute activates your vagus nerve and engages the parasympathetic nervous system.  

Your breathing is usually managed subconsciously – most of the time – but at any moment, you can take control and change how you breathe which immediately alters your emotions and nervous system. Therefore, slow, deep breathing is the fastest way to calm down and reduce anxiety on the spot.

3. Singing, Humming, Chanting, and Gargling

Your vocal cords and the muscles at the back of your throat and the pallet of your mouth are directly connected to the vagus nerve. Therefore, singing, humming, chanting, and gargling activate these muscles and stimulate the nerve. Humming, mantra chanting, hymn singing, and upbeat energetic singing are similar to initiating a vagal pump sending out relaxing waves.

4. Probiotics

In research, it has become increasingly clear that gut bacteria improve brain function by affecting the vagus nerve. In one study, animals were given the probiotic, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, and researchers found positive changes to the GABA receptors in the brain, a reduction in stress hormones, and decreased depression and anxiety-like behavior.

5. Meditation

Research shows that meditation increases vagal tone, which is the activity of the vagus nerve and positive emotions and promotes good feelings towards yourself. Another study found that meditation reduces sympathetic fight-or-flight activity and increases vagal modulation. Meditation improves your brain in many ways. 

6. Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fats that your body cannot produce itself and they are essential for the normal electrical functioning of your brain and nervous system. Fish are a primary source. Omega-3s are critical for brain and mental health and affect many aspects of wellness. Supplementing with Omega-3s has proven to help people overcome addiction, repair a ‘leaky brain’, and even reverse cognitive decline.

Researchers have also discovered that omega-3 fatty acids increase vagal tone and activity. Studies show that they reduce heart rate and increase heart rate variability, which is the time and consistency between heartbeats. They most likely do this by stimulating the vagus nerve. 

7. Exercise

Exercise helps your brain in so many ways. Research shows that physical exercise improves memory and thinking skills, mood and creativity, and learning while reducing depression, age-related decline, and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some research has also shown that it stimulates the vagus nerve, which may be partially responsible for some of the positive brain and mental health effects. Many brain health experts recommend exercise as the best thing a person can do to improve brain health.

8. Massage

Research shows that massage stimulates the vagus nerve and increases vagal activity and tone. The vagus nerve can be stimulated by massaging specific areas of the body. For example, foot or hand massages (reflexology) have been shown to increase vagal modulation and heart rate variability while decreasing the stress response. Carotid sinus massage, a technique involving digital pressure on the richly innervated carotid sinus, an area located near the right side of your throat, can stimulate the vagus nerve to reduce seizures.

9. Socializing and Laughing

Socializing and laughing can reduce cortisol levels. These activities are likely doing that by stimulating the vagus nerve. Researchers discovered that even just reflecting on positive social connections improves vagal tone and increases positive emotions. An interesting note is that vagus nerve stimulation often leads to laughter as a side effect, suggesting that they are connected and influence one another.

10. Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting has many health benefits, but it’s especially good for your brain. Fasting affects fat metabolism and ketogenesis, synaptic plasticity, mitochondrial health, neurogenesis, and these, in turn, influence brain function. Research shows that fasting and caloric restriction increases heart rate variability, which is an indicator that it increases parasympathetic activity and vagal tone.

Guest Author 

Patricia Faust is a gerontologist specializing in brain aging, brain health, and brain function. She has a Master’s degree in Gerontological Studies from Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Patricia is a certified brain health coach as well as having a certification in Neuroscience and Wellness. She has been a co-author of various research studies through the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. Her newsletter, My Boomer Brain, has an international readership, and she is regularly published in local and social media.

 

Under the circumstances from Seth Godin

 Trying to beak the complete failure of the status quo in stroke is nigh impossible.

Under the circumstances from Seth Godin

The circumstances are heavy indeed. Systems work hard to maintain the status quo.

The teacher is doing the best they can. But the principal and the board and the regents and the parents…

The board member got elected with great intentions. But the state and the unions and the parents…

The textbook publishers want to do better, but the boards and…

You get the idea.

The circumstances conspire to put us under them.

The option is to start small, as small as possible. Small enough to work, big enough to put you on the hook. Build something that works.

And then, the challenging task begins: Get someone else to do it too.

See if You Have Enough Balance to Pass This 60-Second ‘Old Man Test’

I never passed the Berg Balance Scale because of the standing on one leg part. Even after failing it multiple times my PT never gave me any exercises to solve that problem, I guess I was supposed to figure it out on my own.  This is a totally bogus test, I likely will never be able to do this and I'm going to hit 100.

See if You Have Enough Balance to Pass This 60-Second ‘Old Man Test’

Philip Ellis

Sat, November 27, 2021, 7:33 AM

Photo credit: Mark Bell - YouTube

There are a number of ways you can tell you're getting older, especially when it comes to your personal fitness, aches and pains notwithstanding. In a new video on powerlifter Mark Bell's YouTube channel, legendary fitness coach Chris Hinshaw shows off what he believes to be the definitive gage of longevity.

"This is the decider of whether or not you're still in the game," he says.

Begin the challenge barefoot. Then, while standing on one foot, put your sock and shoe back onto your elevated foot. You're not allowed to bring that foot back down to the ground until the shoe is on, with the shoelaces fully tied. "You have to do it in one move," says Hinshaw. Then, switch feet and repeat on the other side.

Not only does this require the individual to have good balance, but they must also have good mobility, in order to engage a full range of motion while putting on and tying the shoes. Hinshaw demonstrates the test first, and then powerlifter Chris "Boar" Bell must complete it himself.

"My balance is really bad," says Bell, who repeatedly struggles to even pick up his sock from the floor of the gym while standing on one leg. "I could practice this all day for the next 10 years, then maybe I'll get it."

"This is an amazing test," he continues. "I want to get better at doing just bodyweight and simple things... It's going to be hard for me to get my socks on because I'm just not that flexible, but I feel like I want to work on it."

 

Blood Pressure in the First 6 Hours Following Endovascular Treatment for Ischemic Stroke Is Associated With Outcome

 So we still have NO FUCKING CLUE what a blood pressure management protocol is. Hope you don't mind dying because of the incompetence of the complete stroke medical world.  Unless YOU hold your stroke hospital's feet to the fire you are allowing your children and grandchildren to die or become disabled.

Blood Pressure in the First 6 Hours Following Endovascular Treatment for Ischemic Stroke Is Associated With Outcome

Noor Samuels

,

Rob A. van de Graaf

,

Carlijn A.L. van den Berg

,

Simone M. Uniken Venema

,

Kujtesa Bala

,

Pieter Jan van Doormaal

,

Wouter van der Steen

,

Elbert Witvoet

,

Jelis Boiten

, … See all authors

Originally published20 Sep 2021https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.033657Stroke. 2021;52:3514–3522

• is related to

Abstract

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• Download PowerPoint

Background and Purpose:

Optimal blood pressure (BP) management in the acute phase of ischemic stroke remains an unresolved issue. It is uncertain whether guidelines for BP management during and after intravenous alteplase can be extrapolated to endovascular treatment (EVT) for stroke due to large artery occlusion in the anterior circulation. We evaluated the associations between systolic BP (SBP) in the first 6 hours following EVT and functional outcome as well as symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage.

Methods:

Patients of 8 MR CLEAN (Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Netherlands) Registry centers, with available data on SBP in the 6 hours following EVT, were analyzed. We evaluated maximum, minimum, and mean SBP. Study outcomes were functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale) at 90 days and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. We used multivariable ordinal and binary regression analysis to adjust for important prognostic factors and studied possible effect modification by successful reperfusion.

Results:

Post-EVT SBP data were available for 1161/1796 patients. Higher maximum SBP (per 10 mm Hg increments) was associated with worse functional outcome (adjusted common odds ratio, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.88–0.98]) and a higher rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (adjusted odds ratio, 1.17 [95% CI, 1.02–1.36]). The association between minimum SBP and functional outcome was nonlinear with an inflection point at 124 mm Hg. Minimum SBP lower and higher than the inflection point were associated with worse functional outcomes (adjusted common odds ratio, 0.85 per 10 mm Hg decrements [95% CI, 0.76–0.95] and adjusted common odds ratio, 0.81 per 10 mm Hg increments [95% CI, 0.71–0.92]). No association between mean SBP and functional outcome was observed. Successful reperfusion did not modify the relation of SBP with any of the outcomes.

Conclusions:

Maximum SBP in the first 6 hours following EVT is positively associated with worse functional outcome and an increased risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Both lower and higher minimum SBP are associated with worse outcomes. A randomized trial to evaluate whether modifying post-intervention SBP results in better outcomes after EVT for ischemic stroke seems justified.

 

 

Posttreatment Ischemic Lesion Evolution Is Associated With Reduced Favorable Functional Outcome in Patients With Stroke

My God, these people along with their mentors and senior researchers are so out-of-date.

Posttreatment Ischemic Lesion Evolution Is Associated With Reduced Favorable Functional Outcome in Patients With Stroke

Praneeta Konduri

,

Henk van Voorst

,

Amber Bucker

,

Katinka van Kranendonk

,

Anna Boers

,

Kilian Treurniet

,

Olvert Berkhemer

,

Albert J. Yoo

,

Wim van Zwam

,

Robert van Oostenbrugge

,

Aad van der Lugt

,

Diederik Dippel

, … See all authors

Originally published22 Jul 2021https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.032331Stroke. 2021;52:3523–3531

Abstract

• Download figure
• Download PowerPoint

Background and Purpose:

Ischemic lesion volume can increase even 24 hours after onset of an acute ischemic stroke(Well,duh; You have done nothing to stop the neuronal cascade of death). In this study, we investigated the association of lesion evolution with functional outcome and the influence of successful recanalization on this association.

Methods:

We included patients from the MR CLEAN trial (Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Netherlands) who received good quality noncontrast CT images 24 hours and 1 week after stroke onset. The ischemic lesion delineations included infarct, edema, and hemorrhagic transformation. Lesion evolution was defined as the difference between the volumes measured on the 1-week and 24-hour noncontrast CTs. The association of lesion evolution with functional outcome was evaluated using unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression. Adjustments were made for baseline, clinical, and imaging parameters that were associated P<0.10) in univariate analysis with favorable functional outcome, defined as modified Rankin Scale score of ≤2. Interaction analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of successful recanalization, defined as modified Arterial Occlusion Lesion score of 3 points, on this association.

Results:

Of the 226 patients who were included, 69 (31%) patients achieved the favorable functional outcome. Median lesion evolution was 22 (interquartile range, 10–45) mL. Lesion evolution was significantly inversely correlated with favourable functional outcome: unadjusted odds ratio, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.66–0.86; per 10 mL of lesion evolution; P<0.01) and adjusted odds ratio: 0.85 (95% CI, 0.72–0.97; per 10 mL of lesion evolution; P=0.03). There was no significant interaction of successful recanalization on the association of lesion evolution and favorable functional outcome (odds ratio, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.77–1.36]; P=0.94).

Conclusions:

In our population, subacute ischemic lesion evolution is associated with unfavorable functional outcome. This study suggests that even 24 hours after onset of stroke, deterioration of the brain continues, which has a negative effect on functional outcome(Really; you somehow missed the Rockefeller University explanation of the cascade of death in 2009? You are that fucking incompetent?). This finding may warrant additional treatment in the subacute phase.

 

 

 

 

 

Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity Explains The World Perfectly

This is easily applied to why stroke is not being solved and we get crapola like this meme from World Stroke Day a few years ago.  

What a lying piece of shit.

Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity Explains The World Perfectly

The phenomenon that is at the root of all problems.

Peter Burns

Nov 10 · 10 min read

Photo by Brandi Alexandra on Unsplash

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than evil,” wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian. Penning this sentence ten years after the accession of Adolf Hitler to supreme power, these words reflected tough lessons soaked in blood. Bonhoeffer formed part of a small circle of resistance to the dictator in Germany, risking his life for an ideal.

It was a dark time in his homeland. Total war had engulfed the world, and a totalitarian regime was controlling the country. Bonhoeffer pondered how this came to be. He thought about the nature of evil, but came to the conclusion it was not evil itself that was the most dangerous enemy of the good. Rather, it was stupidity.

For you can fight against evil. You can expose it. Evil makes people uneasy. As Bonhoeffer continued, “evil carries with itself the seeds of its own destruction.” To prevent willful malice, you can always erect barriers to stop its spread. Against stupidity you are defenseless.

“Against stupidity we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it. Reasoning is of no use. Facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied. In fact, they can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make them aggressive. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Understanding the nature of stupidity

After writing down those words, Bonhoeffer was soon arrested. He died two years later, executed in a concentration camp by Nazi henchmen. The man lived in what now seems like a completely different era. Yet, the ideas he left us with have an application in any century. For stupidity hasn’t disappeared. It is eternal.

“If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature,” wrote Bonhoeffer in his treatise. And the nature of stupidity has its roots deep in the subconscious. It is driven by the fundamental mechanics of the human experience. As ancient philosophers noted, humans are social animals. It is this very sociability that is at the base of stupidity.

“We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Stupidity is a group phenomenon. An individual can act stupidly, but that has no effect on the greater whole. However, when a group acts stupidly, that greatly impacts the individual, compounding the entire effect. In many ways, something with initially positive ramifications, ended up stabbing humanity in the back.

Human nature doesn’t change as the years pass by. The inner workings of individual people are the same as those of their remote ancestors living on the savannas of Africa 50 thousand years ago. Some of these internal processes stretch even further back, millions of years into the past when primitive brains started to develop.

Numerous heuristics evolved in order to help individuals navigate the world. Among these, following the herd is arguably the most prominent. It makes sense. When information is scarce, doing what others are doing is probably the best course of action. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work all the time. In some cases it can bring about bad results, due to cognitive biases.

Herd behavior is among the pre-eminent causes of stupidity. Numerous scientific studies have shown how individual humans can be swayed by the crowd to adopt positions which go against all logic. In a classic examination of human folly, psychologist Solomon Asch looked at how individual people respond to the majority group around them.

Do they conform to the group’s view? Or do they strike out on their own contrarian (but ultimately correct) path? The results were mind-boggling, but incredibly telling for showing how stupidity arises. In the course of the 12 experiments on conformity, around 75% of the participants conformed to the majority view at least once.

This means 3/4ths of the people doing the study were pushed to say an answer which was clearly wrong, just by peer pressure from the group around them. This type of a process is at the core of how stupidity allows evil to rise up.

“The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As Bonhoeffer quipped, “the power of the one needs the stupidity of the other.” All kinds of populists, political entrepreneurs, and bullshitters take advantage of this mental state of the masses. Without support from the wider aspects of society, none of these power-hungry individuals would be able to access power.

People overcome with stupidity act as if possessed. Their logical part of the brain is shut down. Such a person starts acting as a political zombie, with whom any type of logic or discussion of facts fails. Instead, they function on the level of slogans, catchwords, and low-level rallying cries.

“In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Stupidity facilitates the process of the capture of society by spineless, evil forces. A narrative is created that incorporates simple explanations for complex problems, offering “solutions” and scapegoats. Whoever doesn’t conform to this standard orthodoxy becomes the “other”, an enemy to be destroyed.

Of course these stories would never amount to anything if people didn’t believe them. Unfortunately, they do. Stupidity wins out over reason.

Stupidity in our times

The 21st century is seeing these internal failures of the human mind unfold in full swing. The first decade saw cognitive biases create economic bubbles which resulted in the crash of 2008. The second and third decades are seeing malicious forces from different sides of the political aisle hijack the world at large.

While a combination of ideological true-believers and political bullshitters is leading the charge, all this is facilitated by stupidity. Bonhoeffer observed how historical forces and external conditions can exacerbate the problem of stupidity.

“It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The German’s reflections describe the current situation in the US and the world perfectly. Even more than 70 years later, they illuminate the forces at play. Recent upsurges of power have infected certain swathes of the population with great amounts of stupidity.

We have witnessed it in the pro-Trump rallies, which resulted in an attack on the US Capitol. We have seen it in the BLM protests, which degenerated into wanton looting. We come across it every day in the filter bubbles on the internet, which often foster vitriolic groupthink. Stupidity is an ever-present danger, lurking at every corner of the political spectrum.

Yet, argue with the individual actors using logic and facts, and you get nowhere. Their brains are locked, captive to pre-conceived notions and biases. As Bonhoeffer noted, it is wiser to abandon all attempts at convincing the stupid person. It’s of no use.

“We must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Brexit is Brexit” was the slogan often repeated by those in power in the UK. What Brexit actually meant, no one knew. Not even them. The impossibility of the entire Northern Ireland situation should have helped them smell the coffee from the get-go, but it appears as if people were on drugs.

Even now, when it became apparent that quitting the EU has meant empty shelves, disrupted supply chains, and more red tape, the Brexiteers haven’t woken up to reality. The same Brexit slogans and chants are still being shouted. The European Union is still the big bad bogeyman at fault with everything. The same thought patterns as in many a cult repeat themselves.

When Leon Festinger studied a UFO cult back in the 1950’s, he came across a curious thing. The cult leader, Dorothy Martin, a housewife from Chicago, foresaw that the world was going to end on the 21st of December, 1954. Seeing that we are still here, it is evident the prophesy was BS. Yet, many people believed it and gathered on that fateful day in a non-descript house.

They sat there, waiting for doomsday. To their great astonishment, it never came. When the hour for the end of the world arrived, nothing happened. What amazed the researchers who infiltrated the group were the reactions of many of the members. Faced with this apparent negation of their beliefs, many of the faithful did not abandon them.

Instead, their belief in Dorothy Martin’s BS grew even stronger. Festinger and his fellow researchers called this the backfire effect. Journalist David McRaney has a great definition of it. “When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.”

Stupidity in full view. Yet, the case of the whacky UFO cult is nothing out of the ordinary. These types of processes are at play every day with ordinary people. Ordinary people get constantly confronted with facts that prove their dearly held beliefs are not true. Yet, most just ignore them.

This effect is magnified many fold in today’s age. The world is full of chaos. There is too much junk passing around masquerading as information. This makes people confused. Another German who lived through the dark times of Nazism, psychologist Erich Fromm described how trash polluting the ether can mess with a person’s psyche.

“The result of this kind of influence is twofold: one is a skepticism and cynicism towards everything which is said or printed, while the other is a childish belief in anything that a person is told with authority. This combination of cynicism and naïveté is very typical of the modern individual. Its essential result is to discourage him from doing his own thinking and deciding.” — Erich Fromm

Of Jewish descent, Fromm experienced the stupidity of other people on his own skin. Forced to flee his homeland, the psychologist ended up spending his lifetime studying the behavior of people in chaotic times. He posited that the individual’s use of mental escape mechanisms was at the root of psychological conflicts.

Fromm tried to understand the laws that govern society. He argued that modern society brought with it freedom, but this very thing was also the seed of its destruction. Individuals received a new sense of independence, but this filled them with anxiety and doubt. People end up getting alienated, and seek a sense of security with other like-minded people.

This is what promotes the rise of authoritarianism and other sick ideologies. In a way, you could argue that this sense of alienation leads to a rise in stupidity.

“The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society.” — Erich Fromm in “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”

We are living in an insane society. On one hand, you have people believing Trump won the presidency, despite evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, you have people ruminating on the eternal sin of “white people”, whoever they are. As an individual who tries to use reason and common sense, you often end up feeling isolated amid all the madness.

Stupidity reigns supreme

In his book “Fall or, Dodge in Hell”, novelist Neal Stephenson has one of his characters say a very telling phrase, “the mass of people are stupid, so gullible, because they want to be misled.” This captures perfectly why stupidity reigns supreme.

“The mass of people are so stupid, so gullible, because they want to be misled. There’s no way to make them not want it. You have to work with the human race as it exists, with all of its flaws. Getting them to see reason is a fool’s errand.” — Neal Stephenson in “Fall or, Dodge in Hell”

The average person acts as if they willfully wanted to be misled. They fall for lies, cons, and half-truths. The political entrepreneurs, the populists, can come and play them at will. The power of the bullshitters is a direct result of the stupidity of the masses who fall for their BS.

As Bonhoeffer sat in his cell writing his personal reflections, waiting for his final day, the world around him was stuck in madness. While overcome with despair, he did see flashes of light. For him, the majority of people were not stupid in every circumstance. Rather, it was a matter of what those in power expect.

“But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom.” — Friedrich Bonhoeffer

For Bonhoeffer, stupidity was not the problem of the individual. Instead, it was a matter of groups of individuals coming together. Madness finds its force in crowds.

This echoes Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous aphorism, that while insanity might be rare in individuals, it is generally the rule in groups, parties, nations, and epochs.

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Put down the coconut oil, red wine in new heart health dietary guidelines

 Not for me, my reasons for coconut oil and red wine are below. But I'm not medically trained like these people supposedly are so don't listen to me. Your appeal to authority doesn't work since you don't give the science to back it up.

• coconut oil (64 posts to March 2014)

• red wine (100 posts to September 2012) 

Put down the coconut oil, red wine in new heart health dietary guidelines

Nicole Villalpando, Austin American-Statesman

Sat, November 27, 2021, 5:00 AM·3 min read

The American Heart Association has released new dietary guidelines for heart health, as part of its mission to reduce heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

The change, said Dr. Stanley Wang, a cardiologist at Austin Heart and Heart Hospital of Austin, is really about making the guidelines more user-friendly. Instead of telling people how many grams of something to eat,(Exact amounts are what is needed, do the research that tells us that!) the guidelines(We need EXACT PROTOCOLS YOU BLITHERING IDIOTS, guidelines are pretty much useless.) talk in broad strokes about making healthier choices.

"These 10 bullet points, we hope that will get absorbed by the public," Wang said. "The previous discoveries don't go away, but this is more approachable(No it's not)."

The guidelines closely follow a Mediterranean diet, one that emphases plants, healthy fats and lean proteins.

The two really eye-opening things, Wang said, are how strongly the American Heart Association comes out against tropical oils like coconut and palm, which became popular under ketogenic diet plans, and against alcohol use.

That theory that a glass or two of red wine is a heart healthy practice isn't found in these new recommendations. It's also a practice that many cardiologists, like Wang, have been trying to counsel against. "There are beaucoups of studies that (alcohol is) really bad for you in so many different ways," he said. Those include an increased risk of certain cancers and dementia, not just heart disease.

Flu season: How having the flu could damage your heart, increase risk for attack or disease

Here are the guidelines:

1. Adjust energy intake (calories) and expenditure (activity) to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.

2. Eat plenty of and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

3. Choose whole-grain foods and products.

4. Choose healthy sources of protein (mostly plants; regular intake of fish and seafood; low-fat or fat-free dairy products; and if meat or poultry is desired, choose lean cuts and unprocessed forms).

5. Use liquid plant oils rather than tropical oils and partially hydrogenated fats.

6. Choose minimally processed foods instead of ultraprocessed foods.

7. Minimize the intake of beverages and foods with added sugars.

8. Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.

9. If you do not drink alcohol, do not start; if you choose to drink alcohol, limit intake.

10. Adhere to this guidance regardless of where food is prepared or consumed.

Heart health: Do not stop taking aspirin: Let risk factors, not age be guide for doctors' recommendations

These guidelines are coming out just weeks after the Food and Drug Administration recommended that manufacturers and restaurants reduce the amount of sodium in their food. The recommended daily allowance is 2,300 milligrams a day, but most people ages 2 and older are consuming 3,400 milligrams a day and 70% of that is added in the manufacturing of the food, not in salt that a person adds to a meal or is naturally in food.(So your recommendation to switch to a salt substitute doesn't work.)

The FDA is trying to get manufacturers to reduce the salt added to food. The American Heart Association also recommends choosing foods that are low in sodium.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Put down the coconut oil, red wine, American Heart Association says

 

Stroke unit one of three to receive Platinum status - Gosford Hospital, Australia

 

Big fucking whoopee.

 

 But you tell us NOTHING ABOUT RESULTS. They remind us they 'care' about us multiple times but never tell us how many 100% recovered.  You have to ask yourself why they are hiding their incompetency by not disclosing recovery results.  ARE THEY THAT FUCKING BAD?

Three measurements will tell me if the stroke hospital is possibly not completely incompetent; DO YOU MEASURE ANYTHING?  I would start cleaning the hospital by firing the board of directors, you can't let incompetency continue for years at a time.

There is no quality here if you don't measure the right things.

1. tPA full recovery? Better than 12%?
2. 30 day deaths? Better than competitors?

3. rehab full recovery? Better than 10%?

 

You'll want to know results so call that hospital president(Whoever that is) RESULTS are; tPA efficacy, 30 day deaths, 100% recovery. Because there is no point in going to that hospital if they are not willing to publish results.

 The latest invalid chest thumping here:

Stroke unit one of three to receive Platinum status - Gosford Hospital, Australia

TOPICS:AwardGosford Hospitalplatinumstroke unit

The team from Gosford Hospital’s stroke unit: Lauren Wheeler, Gemma Walker, Samantha Dagasso, Dianne Livermore, Dr Bill O’Brien, Dr James Evans (holding the award) Katie Ercan, Kim Malkin, Jade Edwards, Rhonda O’Neil and Elise Pendlebury

November 26, 2021

Gosford Hospital’s stroke unit is celebrating after being recognised with a second international award for meeting the highest standards in treatment and care.

After being recognised recently with Gold status by the World Stroke Organisation, the unit has now been upgraded to Platinum status– making it one of just three Australian hospitals to receive the higher ranking.

The award initiative, a partnership between the World Stroke Organization and European Stroke Organisation, aims to optimise the standard of treatment(NOT RESULTS!) in stroke centres worldwide and improve patient outcomes by setting global benchmarks for best practice in stroke care.

The hospital’s stroke lead, Dr James Evans, said the awards were recognition of the team approach taken to enhance stroke care and its use of data to continually improve.

“We are dedicated to continuously improving stroke care standards,” Evans said.

“Our patient-centred approach involves the whole team – the emergency department, CT, the neurology team, including doctors, nurses, physio, speech, occupational therapists, social work and rehabilitation.

‘It means everyone is focused on improving patient care.

“We have a dashboard of information we monitor daily, allowing us to look at a patient’s whole journey, from
emergency through to recovery and rehabilitation.”

Gosford Hospital treats around 550 stroke patients a year, with up to 150 of these having brain bleeds.

Training, protocols and the hospital’s stroke unit performance were assessed as part of the initiative.

For Platinum status, the unit had a target of restoring blood-flow to the brain to more than 75 per cent of eligible patients within 60 minutes of arrival.

Dr Bill O’Brien, who has been a neurologist at Gosford Hospital for 10 years, said the awards were the result of years of hard work.

“We’ve spent years creating and honing a truly integrated multidisciplinary team; one where everyone is equally valued and the focus is on using live data to achieve best practice outcomes for our patients,” he said.

“It’s fantastic to see all of that hard work recognised through not one, but two global awards.”

To achieve Platinum status a hospital must show a range of outcomes, including optimum time to treatment, coordinated care, appropriate scans and screening, and ensuring discharged patients are on medications to minimise their risk of further stroke.

The initiative’s Medical Project Manager in Australia, Kim Malkin, said every step toward improving care and outcomes for stroke patients was worth celebrating, as there were approximately 38,000 stroke events across Australia each year – around 100 every day.

“To date, only a handful of Australian hospitals have achieved WSO Platinum status so Gosford Hospital should be immensely proud of this achievement,” Malkin said.

Source:
Media release, Nov 24
Central Coast Local Health District