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Neurology - Blog Posts
Just made an account on Medium so I could read this. Made it about 1/3 through and I'm absolutely hooked and excited to finish it!! But first, time for a nap.
For the longest time, I have had trouble understanding FND - specifically whether it's just a shitty diagnosis made up by the medical system to gaslight people or if it's a genuine medical condition. This essay is rly helpful and has already broadened my understanding. It's incredibly well written, particularly bc of the extremely thorough research it's a result of
I am one of the most medically examined people in North America. For over a decade, no one could explain why I lost my ability to walk, speak, and use my hands. Why the lightning-like headaches? Why the ringing in my ears? Test after test came back negative. Doctors thought I might have a genetic abnormality no one's ever seen before, or a condition so rare that it had previously escaped medical classification. Then I got accepted to the top undiagnosed disease research program in the world, and they told me the only diagnosis I was unprepared to hear: it was Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a much-misunderstood condition which was once known as Conversion Disorder, and before that, as Hysteria. And that was only the beginning of things getting weird. The essay above is the product of three years of research into the history, neuroscience, and politics of FND. It touches on the many medical failures that define the history of the disorder, the pervasive sexism and lazy mind-body dualism that prevented scholars from seeing it clearly, and why - finally - a better understanding may be at hand, with revolutionary implications for how we understand human consciousness and the experience of having a body.
FND fucked my life up. This is my reply. Thanks for reading.
✨molecular naturecore.✨
Scan of 1 cubic millimeter of the human brain
Full scan of 1 cubic millimeter of brain tissue that took 1.4 petabytes of data, equivalent to 14,000 4K movies.
Slime Molds and Intelligence
Okay, despite going into a biology related field, I only just learned about slime molds, and hang on, because it gets WILD.
This guy in the picture is called Physarum polycephalum, one of the more commonly studied types of slime mold. It was originally thought to be a fungus, though we now know it to actually be a type of protist (a sort of catch-all group for any eukaryotic organism that isn't a plant, animal, or a fungus). As protists go, it's pretty smart. It is very good at finding the most efficient way to get to a food source, or multiple food sources. In fact, placing a slime mold on a map with food sources at all of the major cities can give a pretty good idea of an efficient transportation system. Here is a slime mold growing over a map of Tokyo compared to the actual Tokyo railway system:
Pretty good, right? Though they don't have eyes, ears, or noses, the slime molds are able to sense objects at a distance kind of like a spider using tiny differences in tension and vibrations to sense a fly caught in its web. Instead of a spiderweb, though, this organism relies on proteins called TRP channels. The slime mold can then make decisions about where it wants to grow. In one experiment, a slime mold was put in a petri dish with one glass disk on one side and 3 glass disks on the other side. Even though the disks weren't a food source, the slime mold chose to grow towards and investigate the side with 3 disks over 70% of the time.
Even more impressive is that these organisms have some sense of time. If you blow cold air on them every hour on the hour, they'll start to shrink away in anticipation when before the air hits after only 3 hours.
Now, I hear you say, this is cool and all, but like, I can do all those things too. The slime mold isn't special...
To which I would like to point out that you have a significant advantage over the slime mold, seeing as you have a brain.
Yeah, these protists can accomplish all of the things I just talked about, and they just... don't have any sort of neural architecture whatsoever? They don't even have brain cells, let alone the structures that should allow them to process sensory information and make decisions because of it. Nothing that should give them a sense of time. Scientists literally have no idea how this thing is able to "think'. But however it does, it is sure to be a form of cognition that is completely and utterly different from anything that we're familiar with.
Enjoy this First-Year-Anniversary compilation of all of my works in one title: A Cosmic Legacy: From Earth to the Stars This title includes the following works wrapped up into one story: Further Than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 1 Further Than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 2 Pathway to the Stars: Part 1, Vesha Celeste Pathway to the Stars: Part 2, Eliza Williams Pathway to the Stars: Part 3, James Cooper Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party Pathway to the Stars: Part 5, Amber Blythe Pathway to the Stars: Part 6, Erin Carter "Our beautiful mother world ached for a reprieve from the injustices of many, courtesy of cultures and governance systems, that forgot how to love, how to be kind, how to include others, and how to think beyond the scope of greed and power, but within the visions of shared joy and well-being." Together with the organization Eliza Williams founded, called Pathway, she and her growing team will take us on a fantastical and Utopian journey to get us out and into the farthest reaches of space. There are dilemmas such as the physiological effects of space on each of us, as well as the need for longevity and a desire to still be able to visit loved ones following long journeys. Eliza and her team develop capabilities, so we can overcome the challenges ahead and are determined to stabilize a rocky economy, wipe away suffering, violence, disease, cartels, terrorism, and trafficking in persons. They work together to tame seismic activity, weather, and fires. She and her friends tackle ways to prevent extinction and provide solutions to quality of life concerns. They even consider the longevity of our Sun and our Earth's capacity to preserve life. Eliza tackles each of these issues to get us out, and into the stars, so we can begin our biggest quest--to help our Universe breathe ever so lightly. #amazing #science #fiction #novels #best #new #books #scifi #online #read #longevity #CRISPR #physiology #neurology #physics #theoretical #philosphical #politcal #educational #STEM #AmazonAuthor #BarnesAndNobleAuthor #wellbeing #quality #biotech #nanotech #SpaceOpera #astronomy #selfpublished https://www.instagram.com/p/B2GkDbYBs0y/?igshid=ufavr7j6lsy1
Curl up, read a new series of books, and be edified! Out now, Part 1, Vesha Celeste, and Part 2, Eliza Williams, have been paired together, and are available for those interested in the types and directions of science and the speculation that lead to well-being and quality of life. Please feel free to follow, message, share ideas, and be a part of a positive future where, if we choose, we can prepare properly to navigate the stars. This is just the beginning of this series and prequel, “Pathway to the Stars,” to an even more giant series, “Further than Before!” Please enjoy. https://www.amazon.com/author/matthewopdyke #sciencefiction #scifi #sciencefictionfantasy #scififantasy #politicalscifi #physiology #neurology #physics #Apolitical #strongfemalelead #biotechnology #neuroscience #theoreticalphysics #problemresolution #productivepursuits #spaceopera #cerebraldrama #sophisticateddialogue #solarsystem #spacemining #physiologicaloptimization, #neurologicaloptimization #transhumanism #universalethics #wellbeing #genetherapy #CRISPR #politicalsciencefiction #matthewopdyke https://www.instagram.com/p/BpUMW6ZgB1I/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wy078mgrbgmm
Covid Findings, a Lay Person’s Account.
Hello,
I have popped back to share my own personal experience, and to help heal myself after watching a snippet of a recent BBC Question Time television programme, which I felt only served to try to shame people who were making their own free choices as a human being.
Just a small snippet, where there first guest did not appear to be able to articulate well what he was saying, and had made an unfortunate mistake in a fact (perhaps a victim of actual disinformation), and a second guest who got all of her valid points across, only to be shamed for it on national television in front of a panel of professionals? I thought that the days of barbarianism were over in the UK at least, yet here they are still today only in a different format on television.
I felt like I had just watched a small snippet of abuse, unfortunately this is spread over an entire length of a program involving many more guests than the ones that I have mentioned. It was painful to watch, and I felt that it was aiming to get the monetary audiences in, not just those present to discuss.
I have never spoken about my own experiences with Covid-19, I wanted to ensure that I was not influencing anyone else’s freedoms, but since the BBC are okay to try and shape peoples opinions that I at least should be permitted to write what I am about to write.
At this point, which is Friday 4th of February, 2022, and after hearing many different peoples experiences as well as re-experiencing the same, slight differing problem over the years myself, I can feel safe in the knowledge that I first came across Covid-19 in whatever form that it was in, in November / December 2015.
I then picked up the same thing in February 2016, and lasted a bit longer until I got it again in February 2020, March 2020, October 2020, June 2021, and January 2022 - the recent episodes in January lasted me two days at most, and was not as rough terrain like previous experiences.
Throughout that time I had no help or understanding as to what was going on, until 2021 when I began to wonder if what I had been troubled with all this time was in fact Covid-19, so I started listening to others experiences and keeping up with what was happening for people globally in the news.
There were a few things that stood out to me along that journey;
* the affect that Covid-19 was having on peoples gut
* the re-circulation of old or dormant virus and associated symptoms
* the ability of Covid-19 to cross the brain barrier
Having plenty of time on my hands during lock down, I certainly kept my eye on the world news for updates and noticed more and more that symptoms of things like long Covid fatigue, matched with those of the known Epstein Barr virus, which is common and can lay harmlessly dormant in the guts of anyone.
I also noticed that fungus was a big player in Covid-19 mortality, as fungus is one of the causes of pneumonia. Various fungus can also be the cause of many rash like symptoms that people experience.
In looking at my own experience at least, fungus and bacteria are not just big players in Covid-19 symptoms, but the main ones, leading me to personally (as a lay person) come to understand that Covid-19 is likely a liberator of whatever lays dormant, and perhaps not so dormant, in the guts of the host that it comes to exploit. This includes the transportation and crossing of some of those things over the brain barrier, which explains why so many accounts of Covid-19 experiences include those of neurological symptoms.
Like any public transport service, Covid-19 is nothing without it’s passengers. Taking care of our general health and reducing susceptibility to the overgrowth, overexposure, and resistance to overcoming various fungus and bacteria that are naturally occurring in ourselves and in the environment, may well help in promoting the permanent closure of Covid-19′s business.
The experiences of people matter, as does the free choice for people to have a vaccine, or to not have a vaccine.
Stay well :)
Why do so many neurologists suck bro. I'm so glad I'm getting a new one