D's ACCHS page

Class Discussion: "From bionics to brain chips, hacking humanity has never been more ethically fraught"  I tried to research a bit deeper into the Belgian company Orionis Biosciences.  Unfortunately, their website is down.  My understanding is that the company is focusing on drug design at the genomic scale, especially for autoimmune-related cancers.  The statement from Sabatini that "the immune system is one of the most advanced and evolved weapons that we know today" particularly interested me - sort of a loaded statement, excuse the pun.  The company is based on monetizing tech developed by Prof. Jan Tavernier of Ghent University and the Cytokine Receptor Lab he established there.  Cytokines are likened to 'software' that run the immune system, which is why the company was included in the 'bionic hacking' article.  I thought the line between gene therapy and nanowarfare was particularly apt here. Cytokines [from  Worldofmolecules.com ]...

Examine your own diet for the coming week and use the four NOVA Food Classifications: I eat from all four of these food groups, and I am fine with that.  I keep mostly to the unprocessed or minimally processed group, which I think is mostly beneficial to maintaining a healthy diet.  I love hot sauces, which helps keep the processed food industry in the kitchen at all times. “ Researchers have identified some 700 microbial species that inhabit the human mouth": It doesn't seem to matter how diverse, or what percentage of what species is there, there's going to be around 6 billion bacteria in your mouth.  It's estimated that the biodiversity of the bacteria is about 700 species.  The percentage of healthy bacteria should counteract the unhealthy, to stay healthy, and the ones that like cane sugar aren't always the healthiest.  So we should probably think about which ones we're feeding.  This article discusses how some of these bacteria may relea...

Went online to research Dr. Yan Xing because the links to the articles posted are completely self-referential, which hints toward poor research science. This article clarifies my point: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/stephaniemlee/external-qi-cancer-cells-studies I’m not saying qigong isn’t valuable, but this research is suspect.

Class Discussion Just wanted to follow-up on our conversation concerning low-dose radiation, and Obama's support of the US nuclear program: FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Announces Actions to Ensure that Nuclear Energy Remains a Vibrant Component of the United States’ Clean Energy Strategy Low-dose radiation from A-bombs elongated lifespan and reduced cancer mortality relative to un-irradiated individuals (this article is also interesting because it mentions the fossil fuel industry's involvement in legislating against nuclear power) Impressions of Links on Cell Biology: Viruses are weird entities, somewhere between living and non-living. Consider the following quotes from the link on Virus Structure: "...viruses are not living organisms in the strict sense of the word."  "Some scientists speculate that viruses started as rogue segments of genetic code that adapted to a parasitic existence." Also, viruses are geometric: ...

" People should still eat healthy food " - do we rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants? I buy a kid's multivitamin for my daughter, that I also take, pretty regularly, but I wouldn't say daily.  When she was in preschool, both she and I would catch the bug of the week, it was fairly cyclic, twice a month I'd say.  I was looking a remedies at the health food store and also looked at the multivitamins available, and actually hadn't realized that most of the formulations were not maximum dosages, but bumps in key vitamins and minerals.  For what it's worth, it broke the cycle of sickness, in my mind, providing our bodies more foundational support for immune responses.  Is it the cure-all, no, and there are certainly other routes to go by.  Our diet is fairy dense in phytonutrients, but if you look at the intake level that you need for each and every, on the daily, a little supplementation might not hurt here or there.   " Aspirin...

Discussion I went camping this weekend with some friends, one of them a doctor at La Clinica , one of the largest community health centers in California. I asked her what she thought about TCM integrating with conventional Western Medicine and there were a couple key points she made that I thought were worth sharing.  1st, she agreed that integration usually equates to dominance by the institutionally-favored model. In the United States, conventional Western medicine is the institutionally-favored model. She referenced her close friend who had been an acupuncturist for Kaiser Permanente, and although she applauded KP for allowing their patients access to an alternative pain treatment to opioids, her friend ultimately did not stay due to the fact that she was completely unable to practice her actual craft. Her friend was forced to comply with a limited number of set and contrived needle protocols, and absolutely no herbal medicine. She also said that althou...