Category: Sleep

Beyond Drugs

Other than surgery, drugs are mainstays of disease therapy. We take chemicals to treat ourselves, but why is that? Why chemical, as opposed to light, ultrasound, electricity, odors, or some other type of intervention? The reason is that plants, from which most of our drugs come, have spent millions of years engaged in medicinal chemistry, and have created some of the most potent biological molecules.

But there are exceptions. For example, one group at Harvard recently published that exposing mice to flashing lights cleared beta amyloid plaque in the brain. This was likely because the flashing light drove gamma oscillations in the brain. Continue reading “Beyond Drugs”

Being Sleepy and Tired

There is a fantastic post by luysii on his Chemiotics II blog. In it, he discusses his theory that senescent cell may be producing mediators that cause chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I think it’s a fascinating idea.

CFS is a terrible disease, made worse by the fact that some physicians don’t believe that it exists. Trust me, it does.

An interesting things about the disease is that it tend to occur in high income countries, and almost never in developing countries, and that in my experience, it tends to occur in women from mid to higher socioeconomic strata. This is in contrast to fibromyalgia, which Continue reading “Being Sleepy and Tired”