Health and BRAINZZZ GAINZZZ

Commenters kept telling me that diet soda was almost as bad, or as bad, as regular sugar water soda, and I kept not believing them.

A new study says that diet drinks with artificial sweeteners cause fatty liver disease -- a disease that 30% of the public has -- just like sugar water drinks do.

People could be at higher risk of fatty liver disease from both sugary sodas and diet drinks, a new study says.

In fact, artificially sweetened drinks might pose a greater threat to liver health than sugary beverages, researchers reported Monday at the United European Gastroenterology's annual meeting in Berlin.

The team also found that replacing these drinks with water significantly reduced people's risk of fatty liver disease.

I mean, it sounds so drastic, but I might have to give it a shot.

...

Fatty liver disease occurs when fat accumulates in the liver, which over time can cause liver damage. It's the most common chronic liver disease, researchers said, affecting more than 30% of people worldwide.

I was diagnosed with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease -- i.e., Fatty Liver Disease because you're fat, not because you drink liquor -- five or six years ago.

After I shed a bunch of weight, I went in for a follow-up, and had no more fatty liver disease. So it can be cured just by shedding fat.

I don't know to what extent I have it now. I guess I have to get it checked again.

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Results show that drinking about nine or more ounces of artificially sweetened beverages every day was associated with a 60% increased risk of fatty liver disease.

Likewise, drinking sugary beverages daily was associated with a 50% increased risk, researchers said.

"Our study shows that low- or non-sugar-sweetened beverages were actually linked to a higher risk of (fatty liver disease), even at modest intake levels such as a single can per day," Liu said.

Drinking water instead of an artificially sweetened beverage lowered a person's fatty liver disease risk by more than 15%. Likewise, replacing sugary beverages with water reduced people's risk by nearly 13%.

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On the other hand, artificially sweetened beverages might affect liver health by altering a person's gut microbiome, driving cravings for sweets and stimulating insulin secretion, Liu said.

Via Instapundit, who says that we're probably close to a cure for obesity: scientists discover a switch controlling hunger.

Through the use of advanced fluorescence microscopy and single-cell imaging, researchers discovered that a protein called MRAP2 plays a key role in shaping how MC4R is positioned and behaves inside cells. Fluorescent biosensors and confocal imaging revealed that MRAP2 is essential for moving MC4R to the surface of cells, allowing it to more effectively send appetite-suppressing signals.

This discovery reveals an additional layer of control in how hunger is regulated and could inspire new therapies that imitate or adjust MRAP2's activity to treat obesity and related metabolic diseases. Professor Heike Biebermann, project leader at CRC 1423 and co-lead author of the study from the Institute of Experimental Pediatric Endocrinology at Charité, notes that this international and interdisciplinary effort combined multiple experimental methods and perspectives to uncover key physiological and pathophysiological insights into appetite regulation with potential clinical impact.

VodkaPundit: It's been six years since weed was legalized in Ohio and the damage report is in.

A new Wright State University study showed that more than four out of 10 deadly car crashes included a driver with high levels of THC in their bloodstream.

The study, just published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, reviewed data for 246 deceased Ohio drivers, and found an average THC blood level of 30.7 ng/ML -- 15 times the state's legal limit -- in 41.9% of dead drivers. Ohio is a fairly typical state in most regards, so I'd take that 42% as a good-enough approximation of trends in states with legal weed.

Almost a dozen years have passed since legal weed first went on sale in Colorado and Oregon, so the numbers, high as they are (heh), don't surprise me. But the report is also frustrating in the context that it lacks. What percentage of fatal crashes involved weed before 24 states legalized recreational sales?

The closest we get to that side of the issue is this item from the ACS writeup: "The rate of drivers who tested positive for THC did not change significantly before or after legalization (42.1% vs. 45.2%), indicating that legal status did not influence the behavior of those who chose to drive after use."

The study only reaches back six years -- by which time medical marijuana, often a fig leaf for recreational use, had already been legal for four years. Prior to medical (and then recreational marijuana) becoming more widely available, there wasn't nearly as much testing -- making the data frustratingly incomplete.

Green discusses the potency of today's weed. I remember reading about this when the Legalize Pot movement was really making strides. Pot growers had really cultivated the marijuana plant, just like we did with corn and grapes and wheat, making it produce far more "fruit" than it ever had in nature. I remember DEA agents warning people who thought it would be cool to just light up a J in the street: Today's pot is definitely not the pot you remember from 1977. It's basically an entirely new species.

Green notes that 36 years ago, the pot in his area was prized across the country for having a super-strong THC content of 14-15%. Today, merely-average pot has a 21% TCH content.

Frogurt -- a name-brand grown and sold in Michigan -- tests at 41%. Something called Future #1 is up to 37% THC, and the Permanent Marker brand runs at an average of 34%. Back in the day, the hard-to-find 15% stuff was the much-sought-after "one-hit weed." The average pot today is 50% stronger. But for people willing to pay a little more, they can get stuff four times more powerful than much of anything your typical 1990 dorm-room smoker enjoyed behind the Redwood Curtain.

Speaking of Mind-Expanding Drugs: I have some drugs to recommend.

I've been craving some kind of nootropic since I first heard of them -- well, since I saw Bradley Cooper change his entire life by taking a fictional nootropic (brain-boosting drug) in Limitless.

Months ago I saw Thomas DeLauer touting creatine as a nootropic.

I also saw Rhonda Patrick talking about dosing herself with 20 grams of creatine when she wanted a mental boost.

She claims it's like speed. I've tried speed -- well, Ritalin -- for the nootropic effect and I will say, no, it's not like speed. If you take speed, you know for a fact that your brain has been hit with a drug. It's potent stimulant that leaves no doubt you have been stimulated.

Creatine's effect is more subtle.

Note that weightlifters usually take around 5mg-10 grams per day (for the effect of boosting energy storage in cells). So 20 grams is a high dose.

For the past couple of months, I've been trying to get at least 5-10 grams of creatine per day and sometimes trying to get 20 grams when I could remember to do it. Sometimes I would just have 5 g. Other days, ten. But I tried to hit 15-20.

Based on my own N=1 study: I do notice significantly improved focus and ability to just churn out work when I get 20 grams of creatine. As I've started to notice the effects, I've been better about trying to make sure I get 15-20 grams consistently.

My usual working day is 6 to 7 hours. I'm not saying I work efficiently for 6 or 7 hours. I do a lot of dicking around, a lot of scrolling through stories without ever bothering to post about them, and just wasting a lot of time. The amount of time-wasting I typically do is, well, embarrassing and just wildly sub-optimal.

When I've got a good 15-20 grams of creatine, I work 4 and a half or five hours. I'm not really working better or harder, it's just that I don't waste as much time. No mid-day perusal of Busty Lesbian Porn. I'm more able to just say, "Here is the pile of stories I have to crank out, so let's get to it."

I think that's a benefit. I haven't tried it with trying to work on that novel I've picked up and put down one hundred times before, but I'd like to.

As you may know, creatine is cheap and legal and is well-tested and there are few negative effects. I've seen people say "Talk to your doctor first if you have kidney problems," and of course pregnant women and kids should probably not use it at all.

This guy talks about possible health problems, including the possibility that low-quality producers may sell you powder containing a lot of dangerous heavy metals.

One problem with it is possible GI distress. I don't know if this is a real problem or just one that Mac put into my head. Assuming it's a real danger, you probably don't want to just start on a 20 grams per day regimen and you wouldn't want to take 20 mg all in one sitting. Your GI system may need to build a tolerance for it. I built up to the 20 g over a couple of weeks and usually have 5 g per drink (coffee or diet soda, or, in the future, just water) for the first couple of hours of the day.

Update: I had to go to Ikea earlier today so I drank two cups of coffee and took about 8 grams of creatine over an hour. I did in fact get a bout of Intestinal Urgency. I don't know if it was the coffee or creatine or just both at once. But I think Mac might be right. Or it could have been caused by eating Ikea Swedish meatballs early in the day and then doing the Ikea Death March for four hours.

Back to post:

It's not a wonderdrug. It's not the Limitless drug, unfortunately. (Damn I want to take that pill.)

But I'm pretty sure there is a real benefit. The reason weightlifters and athletes use it is because it helps cells regenerate energy (ATP) during exercise. It also does this for brain cells. So maybe the better focus I'm experiencing is due to brain cells being able to regenerate ATP more quickly. I guess it just helps in recovery when you burn energy, including in your brain.

Obviously I'm not a doctor and you should consult with your blah-blah before making any medical blah-blahs.

But if you try it, let me know after four or six weeks if you think there are genuine BRAINZZZ GAINZZZ or if I'm just experiencing a placebo effect.

Since I'm now in Joe Rogan mode: Say, pyramids are weird, right?!!?! The blocks are so big they only could have been moved by enslaved Bigfeet under the direction of Space Reptiles, right?

So: Do you have any GAINZZZ?

My own GAINZZZ: No real GAINZZZ, because I've had a lot of personal work I've had to do, but I also haven't regained the weight I lost during the fast. I'm counting that MAINTAINZZZ as GAINZZZ.

By the way: Limitless is free on YouTube. There are a ton of good movies free on YouTube now.

posted by Ace at 04:35 PM

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