It is suspect to me that a lot of waste products end up being pushed as supplements. Also, there is a swath of junk science associated with nutrition publishing.
"Fish oil helped save our son" https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/19/health/fish-oil-brain-inj...
> Most of the studies about omega-3 for traumatic brain injury are in animals, but they indicate potential for healing the human brain.
> After a trauma, the brain tends to swell, and the connections between some nerve cells can become damaged, while other cells simply die.
> National Institutes of Health research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may inhibit cell death and could be instrumental for reconnecting damaged neurons.
> Another recent study revealed genes that are activated to contain massive damage – especially inflammation – when the brain is injured. What activates those genes: omega-3.
> “We have strong data that suggest omega-3 will activate good proteins to cope with brain damage and turn off proteins that cause neuroinflammation,” said Dr. Nicolas Bazan, director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health in New Orleans and author of the study.
> Bailes consulted with a fish oil expert and eventually decided that administering 20 grams a day of omega-3 fish oil through a feeding tube might repair the myelin sheath. (For comparison: A typical supplemental dose for someone with an uninjured brain is about 2 grams a day.)
I skimmed the article, but I didn't see any specific medical terms used. The reason I am curious is because I do not think that mTBI like concussions cause brain swelling since the injury is more of a functional injury than a structural injury.
I like to play ice hockey as an adult, and I try to do everything reasonably possible to protect my brain from vulcanized rubber disks flying at my head at 0 < x 100 mph. Perhaps I will add some fish oil back into my diet. I already uses Lion's Mane, but I am not sure if it truly does anything, but I love the taste of the product I use, so I will continue to use it regardless. Not sure if I have ever had a "real" concussion, but definitely some ringers.
I don't understand. "Trauma" was fairly well defined in physical terms: see Trauma Centers specializing in accident/crime victims.
Psychological "trauma" is only by analogy, and not classical "trauma", and the term is rapidly undergoing its own expansion, to a point where high prices at the grocery store can "traumatize" a sane adult with a social media account.
> Psychological "trauma" is only by analogy, and not classical "trauma"
I see what you mean, but I am not sure it's restricted to that term or not (outside of psychology and slang).
------ Edit:
Though, I asked ChatGPT for the hell of it. It says that concussions are mTBI because the "Trauma" part describes the action in which a concussion is acquired. -- external force making contact with the head.
So, I guess I am wrong lol. I thought trauma had to cause physical damage and not necessarily be by physical means.
> and the term is rapidly undergoing its own expansion
No one ever said English was a beautiful language. Especially in its vernacular. Nevertheless, I find such uses of "traumatize" to be traumatizing.
Why would I refer to anecdotes from a medical doctor? If this is a real thing, we should be seeing it by now. The article you linked is nearly 15 years old.
People have been eating fish oil capsules in droves over the last two decades. They are readily accessible to people with TBIs. Where are all the miracles?
I’m not paid by them, and think they overcharge, but the internet seems to trust them (but they have a lot of guerilla Reddit marketing on their subreddit). Maybe this info will save someone time.
Your table salt is a pure and translucent white because it's nutritionally worthless. You can season food, but you're not adding any micronutrients. And this is why low-sodium diets became very important: not because the salt itself was harmful, but because its essence has changed!
Salt's name will not inform you whether it's been refined. Sea salt, Himalayan salt, Kosher salt. The key is inspecting it for dark particles and natural impurities. Beware opaque boxes.
Unrefined salt may carry an FDA-mandated warning that claims it doesn't contain iodide, but welcome to Bizarro World, because they don't remove naturally-occurring iodide, but since it hasn't been added back in, they're obligated to deny it.
Ingesting iodine, much less deliberately fortifying salt for everyone to ingest, is the worst possible way to use it. Ingested iodine can lead to serious trouble, and does not produce the desired effect on the thyroid.
I ordered some potassium iodide from an organic supplement vendor. Indeed, the product directions said to take by mouth. I was directed in no uncertain terms to ignore that. I applied it transdermally.
Transdermal application has great advantage. You can't overdose. The skin will absorb a necessary amount, and no more. Wipe off the excess.
About 20 years ago, an inexperienced but eager PA started me on Levothyroxine for no good reason. It appears that no lasting damage was sustained by my thyroid.
Today, my TSH/T4/T3 levels are completely normal. I've been drug-free for over 12 months. Last week, my PCP agreed that there is no evidence of thyroid dysfunction.
Many places can get enough iodine through vegetables, but many places cannot. The small amount of added iodine in iodized table salts are typically not enough to cause any issues but are enough to backfill any nutritional deficiencies.
There's no value in demonizing something you don't understand. Let people eat their salts. There's no harm in unrefined salts, but normal table salts should likely be consumed occasionally by almost everyone.
You should also consider the inestimable value of salt to the ancient world, and perhaps not merely for its preservative uses. Perhaps salt today is uniformly worse than it was thousands of years ago, because all the really good deposits are tapped out?
Salt is one of the many things that is still trading on its "brand name" and reputation, yet it's been replaced by an impostor.
I don't buy the claim that unrefined salt is less worse than refined salt because we're talking about minute amounts of nutrients. You get the nutrients from the food you eat, not the salt you put on it. Do the math and show me otherwise.