Paleo Diabetic

I’ve written previously about how Paul Ingraham helped cure my patello-femoral pain syndrome.

More recently, Paul looked into hiccup cures because his father had an intractable case. What finally worked for dad? Breathing into a plastic bag.

Boosting blood CO2 (hypercapnia) by breathing in a PLASTIC bag. This one is quite plausible and is easy and safe to try. Hypercapnia definitely affects some kinds of hiccups. The story (from a smart source, a good “friend of PainSci”): “There’s an even easier way out of hiccups — at zero cost. Learned it from my uncle, who studied medicine in Brazil in the 50s. Anesthetized patients with hiccups were a pain, so they needed to get rid of it ASAP. Method: breathing in a PLASTIC bag, small enough for you to get to hypercapnia (get higher blood levels of CO2). You have to hold the bag REALLY tight around nose and mouth to prevent air from escaping, and if you have troubles with dizziness, it’s advisable to sit down for it. As soon as it gets uncomfortable, mostly after 4-6 breaths, you can stop, the hiccup will be gone. I don’t know what this does to the phrenic nerve, but it works 100%.”

Safety Note: Obviously there could be some danger with this method. If he’d had low O2 or was struggling for breath, we likely wouldn’t have dared. (On the other hand, if he’d been in that state, he would’ve been at the hospital.) But he was supervised, with no possibility of getting stuck, and a matter of only just a few breaths. Perhaps there was still some risk… but I think not treating those hiccups was also a risk.

I’ve never tried that method for my hiccups. My personal favorite home remedy is “drinking from the far side of the glass.” AKA, drinking water upside down. Watch this video of a good ol’ boy demonstrating the technique although I would aim for drinking at least 6-8 fl oz of water before quitting. Don’t ask me how it works; it may have something to do with the soft palate or diaphragm.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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I just spent an hour laughing at Leanne Morgan videos at YouTube. Her humor is not for young people, but instead for women over 40 who have children. I love her accent.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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DailyMail has an interesting article that promotes eating with your hands instead of forks, knives, and spoons.

Those who are sticklers for etiquette should look away now.

That’s because we’ve all been dining the wrong way and should be eating with our hands, according to a psychologist.

Professor Charles Spence, from the University of Oxford, said giving up cutlery is the secret to enjoying food.

He says eating with our hands can ‘heighten the dining experience’ – even for meals like pasta and messy curries.

The professor also claims that hand-feeding improves food flavor and texture while having myriad health benefits.

Steve Parker, M.D.

h/t Splendid Isolation

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Myopia, aka nearsightedness, is extremely common and can start in childhood or young adults. I myself have had to wear glasses since ~age 9, when I was astonished to see individual blades of grass and leaves on trees. Myopia over time it can lead to early-onset cataract, retinal detachment, and glaucoma. MedPageToday has an eye-opening article on treatments that can prevent myopia progression and complications. For example:

Common evidence-based treatments that offer both statistically significant and clinically meaningful efficacies include daytime multifocal soft contact lenses (MFSCL), overnight orthokeratology (ortho-k), and topical low dose atropine (LDA). Novel spectacle lenses also showed a promising myopia-inhibiting effect, albeit with limited availability in U.S. at the current moment. On average, these options slow myopia progression by 30-70%compared to conventional single vision glasses or contacts. With properly selected early interventions, not only the development of myopia stabilizes at younger ages, the endpoint of the progression is also much lower, resulting in significantly lower risk of complications. Furthermore, with lower level of myopia at stabilization, many myopic patients could be good candidates for refractive surgery with given corneal thickness.

I get the impression from the article than treatments need to be started in childhood.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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From The Lancet Neurology:

Prospective epidemiological studies in industrial societies indicate that 7 h of sleep per night in people aged 18 years or older is optimum, with higher and lower amounts of sleep predicting a shorter lifespan. Humans living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (eg, tribal groups) sleep for 6-8 h per night, with the longest sleep durations in winter. The prevalence of insomnia in hunter-gatherer populations is low (around 2%) compared with the prevalence of insomnia in industrial societies (around 10-30%). 

Fun fact: Adult horses only sleep for 3-5 hours per day. And in a herd, there’s usually one “standing watch” for predators while the others sleep.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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