Since fibromyalgia can be associated with undertreated or borderline hypothyroidism, my guess is that those cases are misfiring nerves due to some metabolic process that isn't running at full speed, whether due to low thyroid or some other issue.
Friend's wife had tired legs and numb hands, and been thought to have some problem in her lower back and wrists... turned out she had bone spurs in her neck and required surgery ASAP (otherwise the eventual prognosis was quadraplegia, if that's a word). Now much better.
Statins can cause a sort of drug-induced multiple sclerosis (the fatty "insulation" on the nerves being partly based on cholesterol... you can see the problem).
A peculiarity I discovered upon moving to an area with a LOT of selenium in the ground water... I can no longer take vitamin supplements that contain selenium; if I do, I get gawdawful muscle pain in my back.
Fibromyalgia and RLS can both be secondary symptoms of borderline hypothyroidism. Occurs to me that arthritis, being essentially an autoimmune condition, could be related to Hashimoto's, ie. autoimmune thyroiditis. [I inherited low thyroid from one parent and some sort of mild autoimmune syndrome from the other, and the net result was Hashimoto's.] One of the problems here is that what's commonly called the normal range for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) probably is not truly normal, since many patients have symptoms until their T4 dosage is increased to the point that TSH is completely suppressed. [TSH levels have never been studied in *normal* people, only in thyroid patients following T4 replacement treatment, so the truth is, they don't really KNOW what's normal.]
Anyway, point is that a complete (not just TSH) thyroid workup is a good idea for these mystery patients, and even if the results are nominally normal, it may be worthwhile to try very low T4 doses and see if it helps.
I think today's parents/teachers/doctors have forgotten than when we (here defined as the "get off my lawn" generation) were kids, we were all positively *frenetic* compared to adults -- that's what *normal* kids are like. They aren't deskbound, chairbound, schedule-constrained robots.
Having read reams of research (mostly NEJM and JClinEndocrinology, not fruitcake sites)... one thing that came up semi-regularly in borderline hypothyroid patients was restless leg syndrome. -- I have Hashimoto's, and when my levothyroxine dosage is too low, I get jerking and twitching legs at night (made worse if I hold them still or try to enforce muscle relaxation). The T4 dosage intially prescribed was, indeed, too low, despite being "correct" per the usual tests. Increased dosage and the problem went away (among other problems that also went away). Your diseases may vary.
Must be young enough to still be a prospective taxpayer... my Canadian friend's mother died of bone cancer after treatment was delayed and delayed for some 5 YEARS, because she was retired and no longer a taxpayer.
While there is some irrigated pasture, the majority of meat animals live most of their lives in semi-arid grasslands (unsuitable for any other agriculture), and the only water they use is what they drink from the reservoir or the river twice a day.
Also, the major chunk of wheat and barley, and some corn, are from dryland farming, not irrigated at all.
[speaking from a family of dryland wheat/cattle ranchers]
It's too late for houses with conventional foundations, but for new houses, what about those foundations that "float", which I gather have been used somewhat in Siberia? Similar problem (ground shifts a lot seasonally) even tho the cause is different (freeze/thaw of bogland).
I learned more about how to write fiction from reading Cherryh than from all other anythings combined. One of the handful that I do a complete reread of everything every few years.
I loved The Skinner -- one of the very few works I've seen come close to Jack Vance for making the outrageous and absurd seem perfectly plausible and normal to its world. (And Sable Keech is a finely unique character.) Read some others of his and found them so-so, but someday I hope he'll produce more that compare with this'un.
I used to read a lot of Delany... all of his early stuff in the order it was written... thus I realised all his books up to Dhalgren (and the next one he wrote after that) were actually the *same* book, simply further developed. Same characters, same basics despite differing details, but each one goes further into the guts and underpinnings. It's interesting to watch him progress, then suddenly (after the Towers) move on to another world. But those later books, I found a tough slog, no longer interesting.:(
Something he said in (I think) The Jewel-Hinged Jaw -- -"No one was writing what I wanted to read, so I had to write it myself."- He also goes over the fine points of language and precise visual cues to the reader, such as using the ellipses to draw out... and the m-dash to cut off--
I read a couple of those Culture novels, and... I found his "enlightened" Culture to be absolutely frightening. The dark fringes are the last gasp of real freedom in that universe. Yet it seems to me the books are all about defeating those fringes and speading universal utopia.
It's been said that every utopia is a dystopia to the society it replaced. Iain Banks is certainly an example of that, to my mind.
At one point Simak was very, very popular; I myself own probably 90% of his works that can be had in paperback, and used to read him voraciously. Then my tastes changed, matured, whatever, and now I find a great deal of this older stuff, that I used to devour, utterly unreadable.:/
Jack Vance, the original libertarian SF writer... not only underappreciated, but to those who do appreciate him, commonly our absolute favourite. Certainly the one I reread most often, and every book still seems fresh every time around (some are on read # 6 or 7 by now).
And the next-most underappreciated SF writer is, of course, myself.:D
Friend's mother was born with two complete sets of reproductive organs, including ovaries. Whether she was a "failed twin" or something else, I don't know. Had two kids then a hysterectomy, since having two sets firing all the time was wearing her out.
Oddly, her daughter has only one ovary... I guess making up for mom having four!
Omega-3, fancy name for a common component of animal fat. I don't doubt today's low-fat diets cause excitable (nutrient-seeking) behaviour in humans just as they do in animals. [I am a pro dog trainer.]
As to your note that victims participate in the bullying cycle -- yes, and we've made that worse by telling our kids that fighting is not allowed, defending yourself is not allowed, etc. The best way to cure a bully is to give him the shock of his life back, not to bend over and take it. But what do we teach today? You're not allowed to hit back; you're required to get Mommy To Make Him Stop. (See my post above.) Which just proves to all involved kids that you're a wuss who deserves to be bullied.
As to just walking away, that only works if you can get away entirely. If you can be followed, it may make matters worse (prey flees from the predator).
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Some brain farts generated by your post:
Since fibromyalgia can be associated with undertreated or borderline hypothyroidism, my guess is that those cases are misfiring nerves due to some metabolic process that isn't running at full speed, whether due to low thyroid or some other issue.
Friend's wife had tired legs and numb hands, and been thought to have some problem in her lower back and wrists... turned out she had bone spurs in her neck and required surgery ASAP (otherwise the eventual prognosis was quadraplegia, if that's a word). Now much better.
Statins can cause a sort of drug-induced multiple sclerosis (the fatty "insulation" on the nerves being partly based on cholesterol ... you can see the problem).
A peculiarity I discovered upon moving to an area with a LOT of selenium in the ground water... I can no longer take vitamin supplements that contain selenium; if I do, I get gawdawful muscle pain in my back.
Fibromyalgia and RLS can both be secondary symptoms of borderline hypothyroidism. Occurs to me that arthritis, being essentially an autoimmune condition, could be related to Hashimoto's, ie. autoimmune thyroiditis. [I inherited low thyroid from one parent and some sort of mild autoimmune syndrome from the other, and the net result was Hashimoto's.] One of the problems here is that what's commonly called the normal range for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) probably is not truly normal, since many patients have symptoms until their T4 dosage is increased to the point that TSH is completely suppressed. [TSH levels have never been studied in *normal* people, only in thyroid patients following T4 replacement treatment, so the truth is, they don't really KNOW what's normal.]
Anyway, point is that a complete (not just TSH) thyroid workup is a good idea for these mystery patients, and even if the results are nominally normal, it may be worthwhile to try very low T4 doses and see if it helps.
I think today's parents/teachers/doctors have forgotten than when we (here defined as the "get off my lawn" generation) were kids, we were all positively *frenetic* compared to adults -- that's what *normal* kids are like. They aren't deskbound, chairbound, schedule-constrained robots.
Having read reams of research (mostly NEJM and JClinEndocrinology, not fruitcake sites) ... one thing that came up semi-regularly in borderline hypothyroid patients was restless leg syndrome. -- I have Hashimoto's, and when my levothyroxine dosage is too low, I get jerking and twitching legs at night (made worse if I hold them still or try to enforce muscle relaxation). The T4 dosage intially prescribed was, indeed, too low, despite being "correct" per the usual tests. Increased dosage and the problem went away (among other problems that also went away). Your diseases may vary.
Dunno about other causes, but at least one cause of "restless leg syndrome" appears to be borderline hypothyroidism.
"If you've got nothing to hide, then you've nothing to fear."
If I've got nothing to hide, then why are you watching me??
I'm wondering what sort of ...fun... could be had with a recording of gunshots and a nice car stereo system...
If you keep poor people poor, then give them a welfare handout, you have absolutely bought and can count on their votes.
Keeping them poor without a reward will, conversely, bring out the flaming pitchforks.
Must be young enough to still be a prospective taxpayer... my Canadian friend's mother died of bone cancer after treatment was delayed and delayed for some 5 YEARS, because she was retired and no longer a taxpayer.
While there is some irrigated pasture, the majority of meat animals live most of their lives in semi-arid grasslands (unsuitable for any other agriculture), and the only water they use is what they drink from the reservoir or the river twice a day.
Also, the major chunk of wheat and barley, and some corn, are from dryland farming, not irrigated at all.
[speaking from a family of dryland wheat/cattle ranchers]
It's too late for houses with conventional foundations, but for new houses, what about those foundations that "float", which I gather have been used somewhat in Siberia? Similar problem (ground shifts a lot seasonally) even tho the cause is different (freeze/thaw of bogland).
Interesting that you should mention it... when I read Cyrano lo those many years ago, it struck me as SF, of a sort.
I learned more about how to write fiction from reading Cherryh than from all other anythings combined. One of the handful that I do a complete reread of everything every few years.
Your list reminded me of Rosemary Kirstein, we should live long enough for her to finish her Steerswoman series??! http://www.rosemarykirstein.com/the-books/
I loved The Skinner -- one of the very few works I've seen come close to Jack Vance for making the outrageous and absurd seem perfectly plausible and normal to its world. (And Sable Keech is a finely unique character.) Read some others of his and found them so-so, but someday I hope he'll produce more that compare with this'un.
I used to read a lot of Delany... all of his early stuff in the order it was written... thus I realised all his books up to Dhalgren (and the next one he wrote after that) were actually the *same* book, simply further developed. Same characters, same basics despite differing details, but each one goes further into the guts and underpinnings. It's interesting to watch him progress, then suddenly (after the Towers) move on to another world. But those later books, I found a tough slog, no longer interesting. :(
Something he said in (I think) The Jewel-Hinged Jaw -- -"No one was writing what I wanted to read, so I had to write it myself."- He also goes over the fine points of language and precise visual cues to the reader, such as using the ellipses to draw out... and the m-dash to cut off--
Geez, yeah, especially _Wasp_. Ooh, that's a fun book...
I read a couple of those Culture novels, and... I found his "enlightened" Culture to be absolutely frightening. The dark fringes are the last gasp of real freedom in that universe. Yet it seems to me the books are all about defeating those fringes and speading universal utopia.
It's been said that every utopia is a dystopia to the society it replaced. Iain Banks is certainly an example of that, to my mind.
At one point Simak was very, very popular; I myself own probably 90% of his works that can be had in paperback, and used to read him voraciously. Then my tastes changed, matured, whatever, and now I find a great deal of this older stuff, that I used to devour, utterly unreadable. :/
Jack Vance, the original libertarian SF writer... not only underappreciated, but to those who do appreciate him, commonly our absolute favourite. Certainly the one I reread most often, and every book still seems fresh every time around (some are on read # 6 or 7 by now).
And the next-most underappreciated SF writer is, of course, myself. :D
That's an interesting question... consider that consuming too much phytoestrogen can cause feminizing birth defects in male infants.
Friend's mother was born with two complete sets of reproductive organs, including ovaries. Whether she was a "failed twin" or something else, I don't know. Had two kids then a hysterectomy, since having two sets firing all the time was wearing her out.
Oddly, her daughter has only one ovary... I guess making up for mom having four!
That's what I was getting at above... why not simply have classes based on your proportion of muscle to body mass?
So how about a different class setup, based on muscle mass proportional to body weight?
Wimpy geek guys could find themselves competing with the dames... well, at least that way they'd meet girls ;)
Omega-3, fancy name for a common component of animal fat. I don't doubt today's low-fat diets cause excitable (nutrient-seeking) behaviour in humans just as they do in animals. [I am a pro dog trainer.]
As to your note that victims participate in the bullying cycle -- yes, and we've made that worse by telling our kids that fighting is not allowed, defending yourself is not allowed, etc. The best way to cure a bully is to give him the shock of his life back, not to bend over and take it. But what do we teach today? You're not allowed to hit back; you're required to get Mommy To Make Him Stop. (See my post above.) Which just proves to all involved kids that you're a wuss who deserves to be bullied.
As to just walking away, that only works if you can get away entirely. If you can be followed, it may make matters worse (prey flees from the predator).