4 ms·

A few points in response: - He's already been to doctors, and if he's asking HN he has probably tried all reasonably probable medical treatments and spoken to

A few points in response: - He's already been to doctors, and if he's asking HN he has probably tried all reasonably probable medical treatments and spoken to at least a few doctors about his concerns/symptom. - The nutrition regimen I suggested is quite similar to one that is used by some doctors to treat a variety of diseases. Don't underestimate the health impact of the lifestyle stuff I suggested. - The projects/surprises angle is my version of mild psychotherapy, and if combined with some vigorous physical exercise and good nutrition will put his emotional system in tip top shape. At best, this will help his body heal itself, at worst having the conditions he describes would be very depressing and it would help with that. Planning nice things for others is a surefire way to cheer one's self up. Generally when you go to a doctor and are otherwise young and healthy and you present with bizarre symptoms they take it VERY seriously. So unless there has been some very poor medical decision making going on he's probably failed all the diagnostic tests for the most severe possible culprits known to his doctors. And, if I had three months to live I could think of worse ways to spend it then with a few good books enjoying surf and sun, and rewarding my physical body with the sort of pampering few of us ever take the time to undertake. Also, it's generally not all that hot right near the ocean. Finally, I thing it's important to realize that medical science is just not very good and most medical treatments are scarcely better than placebos. Also, medicine is often very narrowly focused and very rarely advocates nutrition or exercise because typically the 70 year old with a heart problem isn't considered able to make significant lifestyle changes.

jacquesm 16y ago
You are assuming much based on little information and the risks to the OP if he would follow your advice to the letter are grave, I really don't understand why you are so steadfast in this. He's already tested positive for at least one disease that is both chronic, severe, progressive and downright (+) dangerous, he's had one anti-biotic treatment for it which did not have the desired result but that does not mean that that option is off the table, merely that he may have a resistant strain of it. More clinical tests are needed, some of them urgently so. I'm not a doctor but I know bad advice when I see it and I really wonder whether you are considering the consequences of your actions here. Please, there is a time and a place to advise people to change their lifestyle, if any of the top contenders of what the OP ails is 'it' then by following your advice you could cause some pretty serious damage. A change of scene will make anybody feel better, for a while. But given his heat sensitivity Costa Rica is about as bad as it gets (I spent three months in Panama last year, the climate is pretty comparable on the coast), that's the last place the OP would be comfortable, unless he parked himself on a local mountain top. Besides that, he should be finding out what ails him and sooner is better. Ruling out which diseases are not 'it' is just as important as finding out what it is at this stage and none of that is going to happen lying on the beach. That's just playing ostrich and is eventually going to make the problems worse, not better. "Follow these instructions to the letter" indeed. edit: + expletive deleted, apologies to those of a sensitive nature that saw it before.
- grandalf 16y ago
  I actually gave this guy different advice a few years ago on Slashdot. At the time, I told him to go to the most prestigious academic medical center in his area and not to trust the average primary care doctors. So I assume he's done that already. How else do you explain 18 years of going to doctor after doctor without any improvement. Suppose he'd instead said that he'd been to astrologer after astrologer and found no improvement, in spite of the recent realization of the placement of Mars. You'd probably not tell him to keep trying to find an astrological explanation... so why are you so confident that there is a medical explanation right around the corner? The body has incredible ability to heal itself. By following my advice (after 18 years of following yours) he may actually stumble upon some information that helps lead toward a solution. For example: - Maybe he gets no exercise at present because he uses what energy he has for work. - Maybe he has a rare food sensitivity. If so, eating the diet I suggested may make it much better or much worse. In either case he gains information. - Going to a relaxing place (CR has the happiest population in the world) will help alleviate all the existential stress he's taken on after 18 years of dealing with this illness. My suggestions are based on big picture lifestyle approaches that actually do work. Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it. I predict that if you could do a study where people followed the therapy I proposed you'd find it was more effective than many of the most lauded pharmaceuticals and surgical techniques in use today for a variety of ailments. There is also the chance that this guy has some exceptionally rare condition that is not even known/understood by medical science. If so my advice would be to just enjoy life as much as possible rather than become a human lab rat.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    > I actually gave this guy different advice a few years ago on Slashdot. I can't tell one anonymous poster from another. > At the time, I told him to go to the most prestigious academic medical center in his area and not to trust the average primary care doctors. What changed your mind ? > So I assume he's done that already. How can you be sure ? How do you know for sure it is the same person ? > How else do you explain 18 years of going to doctor after doctor without any improvement. Mis-diagnosis. Possibly unresponsive to treatment. Mistakes can and do happen. > Suppose he'd instead said that he'd been to astrologer after astrologer and found no improvement, in spite of the recent realization of the placement of Mars. You'd probably not tell him to keep trying to find an astrological explanation... so why are you so confident that there is a medical explanation right around the corner? Because each and every of his symptoms ties in with at least two fairly common and very serious conditions that are in spite of being so common routinely mis-diagnosed and/or mistreated. > The body has incredible ability to heal itself. Right, let's use the power of our minds to heal. Some guy not personally known to you comes with a veritable laundry list of symptoms and instead of sticking to tried and true medicine you want him to practice yoga. > By following my advice (after 18 years of following yours) he may actually stumble upon some information that helps lead toward a solution. Or he may waste 3 more months on a trajectory that seems to be deteriorating to the point that he's asking total strangers for help. Not that we're going to be able to give him concrete advice, only a very qualified doctor could do that. But instead you advise him to get away from it all. > - Maybe he gets no exercise at present because he uses what energy he has for work. > - Maybe he has a rare food sensitivity. If so, eating the diet I suggested may make it much better or much worse. In either case he gains information. It may be, or it may not be. But changing so many variables at once is never going to give him information, you do that by keeping a diary and slow variation over time so you can isolate a cause. > - Going to a relaxing place (CR has the happiest population in the world) will help alleviate all the existential stress he's taken on after 18 years of dealing with this illness. That's great, and I'm sure the Tourist Board of Costa Rica approves of your message. But that's not medical advice. > My suggestions are based on big picture lifestyle approaches that actually do work. Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it. I predict that if you could do a study where people followed the therapy I proposed you'd find it was more effective than many of the most lauded pharmaceuticals and surgical techniques in use today for a variety of ailments. Poppycock. Surgery and medication when needed are effective ways of dealing with a large variety of ailments, and good lifestyle can help you avoid those for a long time. Lots of people die on an annual basis because of following the well meant advice of quacks that have little knowledge and too much self confidence. Red flag right there "Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it", if a change in life style was all that is needed to treat Chron's, Lyme's and a whole pile of other serious diseases you can bet that plenty of people would be following it. I'm not saying that there are no individuals that would not benefit from changing their lifestyle, but we can't all live in Costa Rica and even some of those that could follow it might end up seriously dead if their conditions are not treated by an application of medical knowledge. > There is also the chance that this guy has some exceptionally rare condition that is not even known/understood by medical science. If so my advice would be to just enjoy life as much as possible rather than become a human lab rat. Then say that, and qualify it.

jacquesm 16y ago

You are assuming much based on little information and the risks to the OP if he would follow your advice to the letter are grave, I really don't understand why you are so steadfast in this. He's already tested positive for at least one disease that is both chronic, severe, progressive and downright (+) dangerous, he's had one anti-biotic treatment for it which did not have the desired result but that does not mean that that option is off the table, merely that he may have a resistant strain of it. More clinical tests are needed, some of them urgently so. I'm not a doctor but I know bad advice when I see it and I really wonder whether you are considering the consequences of your actions here. Please, there is a time and a place to advise people to change their lifestyle, if any of the top contenders of what the OP ails is 'it' then by following your advice you could cause some pretty serious damage. A change of scene will make anybody feel better, for a while. But given his heat sensitivity Costa Rica is about as bad as it gets (I spent three months in Panama last year, the climate is pretty comparable on the coast), that's the last place the OP would be comfortable, unless he parked himself on a local mountain top. Besides that, he should be finding out what ails him and sooner is better. Ruling out which diseases are not 'it' is just as important as finding out what it is at this stage and none of that is going to happen lying on the beach. That's just playing ostrich and is eventually going to make the problems worse, not better. "Follow these instructions to the letter" indeed. edit: + expletive deleted, apologies to those of a sensitive nature that saw it before.

grandalf 16y ago
I actually gave this guy different advice a few years ago on Slashdot. At the time, I told him to go to the most prestigious academic medical center in his area and not to trust the average primary care doctors. So I assume he's done that already. How else do you explain 18 years of going to doctor after doctor without any improvement. Suppose he'd instead said that he'd been to astrologer after astrologer and found no improvement, in spite of the recent realization of the placement of Mars. You'd probably not tell him to keep trying to find an astrological explanation... so why are you so confident that there is a medical explanation right around the corner? The body has incredible ability to heal itself. By following my advice (after 18 years of following yours) he may actually stumble upon some information that helps lead toward a solution. For example: - Maybe he gets no exercise at present because he uses what energy he has for work. - Maybe he has a rare food sensitivity. If so, eating the diet I suggested may make it much better or much worse. In either case he gains information. - Going to a relaxing place (CR has the happiest population in the world) will help alleviate all the existential stress he's taken on after 18 years of dealing with this illness. My suggestions are based on big picture lifestyle approaches that actually do work. Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it. I predict that if you could do a study where people followed the therapy I proposed you'd find it was more effective than many of the most lauded pharmaceuticals and surgical techniques in use today for a variety of ailments. There is also the chance that this guy has some exceptionally rare condition that is not even known/understood by medical science. If so my advice would be to just enjoy life as much as possible rather than become a human lab rat.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  > I actually gave this guy different advice a few years ago on Slashdot. I can't tell one anonymous poster from another. > At the time, I told him to go to the most prestigious academic medical center in his area and not to trust the average primary care doctors. What changed your mind ? > So I assume he's done that already. How can you be sure ? How do you know for sure it is the same person ? > How else do you explain 18 years of going to doctor after doctor without any improvement. Mis-diagnosis. Possibly unresponsive to treatment. Mistakes can and do happen. > Suppose he'd instead said that he'd been to astrologer after astrologer and found no improvement, in spite of the recent realization of the placement of Mars. You'd probably not tell him to keep trying to find an astrological explanation... so why are you so confident that there is a medical explanation right around the corner? Because each and every of his symptoms ties in with at least two fairly common and very serious conditions that are in spite of being so common routinely mis-diagnosed and/or mistreated. > The body has incredible ability to heal itself. Right, let's use the power of our minds to heal. Some guy not personally known to you comes with a veritable laundry list of symptoms and instead of sticking to tried and true medicine you want him to practice yoga. > By following my advice (after 18 years of following yours) he may actually stumble upon some information that helps lead toward a solution. Or he may waste 3 more months on a trajectory that seems to be deteriorating to the point that he's asking total strangers for help. Not that we're going to be able to give him concrete advice, only a very qualified doctor could do that. But instead you advise him to get away from it all. > - Maybe he gets no exercise at present because he uses what energy he has for work. > - Maybe he has a rare food sensitivity. If so, eating the diet I suggested may make it much better or much worse. In either case he gains information. It may be, or it may not be. But changing so many variables at once is never going to give him information, you do that by keeping a diary and slow variation over time so you can isolate a cause. > - Going to a relaxing place (CR has the happiest population in the world) will help alleviate all the existential stress he's taken on after 18 years of dealing with this illness. That's great, and I'm sure the Tourist Board of Costa Rica approves of your message. But that's not medical advice. > My suggestions are based on big picture lifestyle approaches that actually do work. Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it. I predict that if you could do a study where people followed the therapy I proposed you'd find it was more effective than many of the most lauded pharmaceuticals and surgical techniques in use today for a variety of ailments. Poppycock. Surgery and medication when needed are effective ways of dealing with a large variety of ailments, and good lifestyle can help you avoid those for a long time. Lots of people die on an annual basis because of following the well meant advice of quacks that have little knowledge and too much self confidence. Red flag right there "Medicine does not even remotely consider suggesting such a therapy because most people could never actually follow it", if a change in life style was all that is needed to treat Chron's, Lyme's and a whole pile of other serious diseases you can bet that plenty of people would be following it. I'm not saying that there are no individuals that would not benefit from changing their lifestyle, but we can't all live in Costa Rica and even some of those that could follow it might end up seriously dead if their conditions are not treated by an application of medical knowledge. > There is also the chance that this guy has some exceptionally rare condition that is not even known/understood by medical science. If so my advice would be to just enjoy life as much as possible rather than become a human lab rat. Then say that, and qualify it.