Beth Wulfeck

Mom, Creative

[Lorwen Harris Nagle, PhD @LORWEN108]

A Stanford neuroscientist warns high cortisol wrecks memory, enlarges your fear center, and make your brain feel broken.

If I wanted to fix it naturally, I'd do these 8 things every day:

1. Walk barefoot on grass for 5–7 minutes.

[Suneel Dhand MD @DrSuneelDhand]

LIFE SAVING: Please Do This EARLY If You're Ever Hospitalized

[Craig Caudill @NatureReliance]

If you only learn 3 knots for the woods, start here:

• Bowline
• Two Half Hitches
• Trucker's Hitch

A fixed loop, a tie-off, and a tensioning system will handle a huge percentage of outdoor tasks.

#Bushcraft #Knots

[Afshine Emrani MD FACC @afshineemrani]

I'm a cardiologist. I prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs every single day. They save lives. That science is settled and I will never tell you otherwise.
But I'm going to say something that will make a lot of my colleagues uncomfortable — because someone needs to say it, and your doctor probably won't.
Too many physicians make you feel crazy when you bring up statin side effects.
You walk into your appointment and say "my muscles ache constantly" — and you're told it's in your head. You say "I'm exhausted all the time" — and you're told it's your age. You say "my sex drive disappeared" — and you get an awkward silence followed by a subject change. You say "I don't feel like myself anymore" — and you're told the benefits outweigh the risks, take the pill, stop reading the internet.
I've watched it happen in my own field for twenty years. The conversation gets shut down. The patient gets dismissed. And then they do the one thing we should be most afraid of — they stop the medication entirely, without telling us, and lose the cardiovascular protection that's keeping them alive.
That is the real cost of not being honest. Not the side effects themselves — the silence that drives patients away from treatment.
In my practice, I see statin-related complications in at least 25% of my patients. Muscle pain. Fatigue that doesn't resolve with sleep. Reduced sexual drive. Brain fog. Cramping. Joint stiffness. Weakness that makes exercise — the very thing we tell them to do — feel impossible.
Some of these improve with CoQ10 supplementation and optimizing vitamin D. Many do not.
I wrote about the diabetes risk of statins in a New York Times op-ed in 2012. The backlash from the cardiology establishment was immediate. I was told I was undermining trust in a life-saving drug class. Fourteen years later, every major guideline acknowledges the risk I warned about. It's in the prescribing information. The physicians who attacked me for saying it now teach it to their residents.
The truth doesn't care about professional comfort. It never has.
Now a paper published this week in Science Advances has finally explained the mechanism behind statin myopathy — and the finding validates what millions of patients have been telling their doctors for years.
Researchers discovered that statins activate the NLRP3 inflammasome in muscle cells — triggering an inflammatory cascade that causes muscle cell death, activates atrophy pathways, and disrupts muscle metabolism. This is entirely independent of the drug's cholesterol-lowering effect.
The muscle damage isn't caused by lowering cholesterol. It's caused by a completely separate pharmacological action through a different pathway.
The critical implication: the side effect can potentially be separated from the benefit.
Blocking NLRP3 or restoring isoprenoids prevented muscle cell death without interfering with cholesterol reduction. Future therapies could preserve the cardiovascular protection while eliminating the muscle toxicity.
Even more striking — the researchers found that background systemic inflammation significantly lowered the statin dose needed to trigger muscle damage. Patients with chronic inflammation, gut dysbiosis, or metabolic syndrome may be experiencing myopathy at doses their doctors consider "too low to cause problems." They're not imagining it. Their inflammatory state is priming the pathway.
The muscle pain was never in their heads. It was in their NLRP3 inflammasome. And we finally have the molecular proof.
Here's what I actually do in my practice — because I refuse to choose between protecting the heart and respecting the patient.
Whenever possible, I avoid statins as my first-line approach for eligible patients by using alternatives that lower LDL through entirely different mechanisms with no muscle toxicity:
PCSK9 inhibitors — Repatha and Praluent. Injections every 2-4 weeks that dramatically lower LDL without touching muscle tissue. No myopathy. No fatigue. No brain fog. For patients who can access them, these are transformative.
Inclisiran — Leqvio. An siRNA injection I administer twice a year in my office. It silences the PCSK9 gene in the liver. Two shots a year. LDL drops roughly 50%. No muscle side effects. No daily pills. Now approved as first-line monotherapy. This is the future of lipid management and I use it aggressively.
When statins ARE clinically necessary — and sometimes they are, especially post-heart attack or in combination therapy — I choose hydrophilic statins like rosuvastatin or pravastatin. These do not easily cross the blood-brain barrier. The cognitive complaints — the fog, the memory issues, the feeling of "not being yourself" — are substantially less common with these formulations because the drug stays out of the central nervous system.
I never prescribe a statin without CoQ10. 100-300mg daily. Statins deplete the cellular energy molecule your muscles and heart depend on. Replenishing it reduces muscle symptoms in many patients. It should be standard practice. The fact that it isn't is a failure of our field.
I check vitamin D and optimize it aggressively. Low vitamin D — which is epidemic — worsens muscle symptoms independently and compounds whatever the statin is doing. Target 50-80 ng/mL, not the bare minimum of 30.
Bempedoic acid — Nexletol — for patients who can't tolerate any statin. Works upstream in the cholesterol pathway and is not active in muscle tissue. Specifically designed to avoid myopathy.
Ezetimibe added to a lower statin dose. Cut the statin intensity, add ezetimibe to maintain the LDL reduction, and halve the muscle exposure.
There is no excuse in 2026 for telling a patient "just deal with the muscle pain." The toolbox is deep. The alternatives exist. The only barrier is a physician's willingness to listen and adapt.
I want to speak directly to every patient who has been dismissed.
Your muscle pain is real. Your fatigue is real. Your cognitive changes are real. Your loss of drive — in every sense of the word — is real. A paper in Science Advances just proved the mechanism. You were never crazy. You were experiencing a documented inflammatory response in your muscle tissue that your doctor didn't have the science to explain — until this week.
And I want to speak directly to my colleagues.
We have to be honest. Not just about the benefits — which are enormous and undeniable — but about the side effects, the mechanism, and the alternatives. Patients who feel heard stay on treatment. Patients who feel dismissed stop their medications in silence — and die from the heart attacks we could have prevented if we'd simply been willing to have an honest conversation and switch the approach.
The cardiologist who tells you statins are flawless is not protecting you. The wellness influencer who tells you statins are poison is not protecting you either. The truth lives in the middle — where it always has.
Statins save lives. The side effects are real. The mechanism is now proven. The alternatives exist. And you deserve a doctor who holds all four of those truths at the same time.
Both things can be true. They always could.
Now we have the science to prove it.

[Students For Liberty @sfliberty]

In July 1985, over a billion people watched Live Aid.

Months earlier, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie had written "We Are the World." All of it was a response to a famine in Ethiopia.

Almost nobody remembers who actually caused the famine. 🧵

[A Paradise for Parents @HalCranmer]

I interviewed a doctor of physical therapy with 14 years of experience who helps seniors live independently at home.

Dr. Amber Enright shared 8 actionable insights on how to keep the elderly physically fit at home:

1) Resistance training is the most important thing after 40

[A Midwestern Doctor @MidwesternDoc]

Dr. Andrew Huberman just confirmed a “wild conspiracy theory” about incandescent lights and LED bulbs.

The long wavelengths found in incandescents increase your metabolism and “charge your mitochondria.”

Conversely, the LED bulbs that most of you have in your house are “causing disruptions in mitochondrial function.”

DR. ANDREW HUBERMAN: “Your mitochondria function better, you increase ATP production, your metabolism increases in the presence of red light, long wavelength light to the skin.”

“Shine long wavelength light on somebody, watch blood glucose levels in a blood glucose test, and it’s blunted.”

“Now, the LED lights that are commonly used now… that short wavelength light, in the absence of long wavelength light, has been shown to damage the mitochondria.”

“This used to be considered crazy. This was like chemtrail crazy, right?”

“But now we’re starting to see from animal studies and human studies, from Glenn Jeffreys and others, that people’s vision gets better when they get in front of an incandescent bulb once a day.”

“If they get sunlight, which also has long-wavelength light, your vision improves because of improvements in mitochondria.”

The Biden administration quietly pushed incandescents out of the market through aggressive energy regulations.

But you can still find them online today if you look hard enough.

If that health insight stood out to you, there’s a lot more where that came from.

[Laura Bartlett - I DO NOT CONSENT FORM™ @ourptrights]

My #1 Pro Tip: I DO NOT CONSENT FORM™,
a legally binding, adult-patient protecting, refusal form for any drug, vaccine, test, treatment, protocol you don't want to "accidentally" or "on purpose" receive while in a hospital, LTAC, rehab, or nursing home.

Dr. Margaret and I provide it - FREE of charge
at our website https://t.co/u86C3hAJG8

Provides protection before any hospital bracelet is applied or IV has been adminstered.

Thank God! It's yet to fail.

Nobody has reported receiving ANY vaccine or drug when used as directed, per the attorney/nurse who created this first-of-its' kind CURRENT CONSENT form.

And God forbid - if any doctor ever did administer a drug or vaccine after being NOTICED, the patient can NOW sue for intentional medical battery.

Delivered in 2 ways with Proof of receipt:
1. Hired Courier Delivery Service
2. Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested

"Notice is everything."
"Evidence is everything."

@HISGLORYME @laralogan @DrKatLindley @drawandstrike @GodsRiddles @DiedSuddenly_

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Matthew McConaughey cuts through the “do what you love” hype.

Sometimes the job sucks. Sometimes the relationship needs work. Sometimes you don’t feel like tending the fire you’ve been building for years.

But that doesn’t always mean it’s wrong, it might just mean it’s hard.

He says do the sweaty, bloody work anyway. Put out the small smoke before it becomes a blaze. Sacrifice today so you can sleep better tomorrow, still connected to who you set out to be.

Real life isn’t all passion. Sometimes it’s tending the garden even when you’d rather walk away.

[Afshine Emrani MD FACC @afshineemrani]

I'm a cardiologist. I've held dying hearts in my hands in the cath lab at 3 AM. And I need to tell you something that changes everything about how we prevent heart attacks.

For decades, the entire field was built on one target: lower LDL cholesterol. Statins save lives — that's settled science. But too many of my patients did everything right — took their statins, hit their numbers, lived clean — and still ended up on my table with a ruptured artery.

We were treating the smoke while the fire kept burning.
The fire is inflammation. And the evidence is now overwhelming.

The CANTOS trial proved it first — lowering inflammation independent of cholesterol reduced cardiac events. But the newer data is what keeps me up at night.

AI-enhanced CT angiography can now detect inflamed arteries by measuring changes in the fat surrounding your coronary vessels — the perivascular fat attenuation index. Higher inflammation in the fat around even one artery independently predicts cardiac death. When multiple arteries show inflammation, the risk multiplies dramatically — even in patients whose cholesterol looks perfect.

This isn't theoretical. This is measurable. Right now. On a scan you can get this month.

Low-dose colchicine — a drug that's been around for centuries for gout — is now FDA-approved specifically for reducing cardiovascular events. It works by quieting the inflammatory cascade that destabilizes the plaque sitting in your arteries. A pill that costs pennies is saving lives the statins couldn't reach.

And the next wave is already in Phase 3 trials. Ziltivekimab — an IL-6 inhibitor — targets the central inflammatory pathway driving atherosclerosis. Phase 2 data showed a 90% reduction in hsCRP. The ZEUS cardiovascular outcomes trial is enrolling now, with results expected late 2026 into 2027. If positive, anti-inflammatory therapy will become standard in managing heart disease alongside lipid-lowering. The era of inflammation-targeted cardiology is arriving.
But it goes deeper than drugs. AI is now predicting heart failure and cardiac events 5+ years before symptoms — integrating CT imaging, electronic health records, and genetic data with accuracy that jumps far beyond traditional risk calculators.

And polygenic risk scores — a simple genetic test that flags inherited cardiovascular risk — are now formally recognized as a risk-enhancing factor in the 2026 ACC/AHA guidelines. A single blood draw can reveal risk that's been silently building since birth. Decades before the first chest pain.

Here's what this means for you right now — today:
Ask your doctor for a high-sensitivity CRP test. It's cheap, routine, and measures the systemic inflammation that standard cholesterol panels completely miss. You can have perfect LDL and inflamed arteries that are quietly preparing to rupture.
If your hsCRP is elevated, discuss low-dose colchicine with your physician. It's FDA-approved for exactly this.
Push for a coronary CT angiography with AI plaque and inflammation analysis if you have risk factors. This isn't the stress test your parents got. This is 3D visualization of your actual arteries — with AI quantifying not just how much plaque you have, but what kind it is and whether the surrounding tissue is inflamed.
Consider polygenic risk score testing — especially with a family history of early heart disease. It's now guideline-supported.

And the foundation that never changes: move daily, eat real food, sleep 7-9 hours, manage stress, and know your numbers — ApoB, Lp(a), hsCRP, fasting insulin.
I left Iran as a child with nothing. I rebuilt everything in a country that gave me the freedom to become a physician. I've spent twenty years watching patients get second chances.

The ones who haunt me aren't the ones who died on my table. They're the ones who survived but never acted on what the science was telling them — years before the event that didn't have to happen.

You can have perfect cholesterol and still have a heart attack. Inflammation plus genetics can drive plaque rupture in arteries that look "fine" on a standard panel.
The myth that normal cholesterol means you're safe has cost more lives than I can count.

We now have the tools to detect the fire — not just the smoke. AI to see it. Genetics to predict it. Drugs to quiet it. And the ancient basics — movement, real food, sleep, purpose — to prevent it from starting.

Prevention is the new cure. And the science to make it real is no longer coming.
It's here.

[Joe Kent @joekent16jan19]

What happened to President Trump?

From the Iran war to the Epstein files, to MAHA & mass deportations- what explains all of the reversals?

It is critical that we look past the emotions & ask the hard questions, because the answers will tell us who truly runs our nation.

[Julie_married_to_Thomas_but_not_a_Thomist @gmk_julie]

3 years ago this month our son Joel (then 17) bought himself a plane ticket to Des Moines because he had heard there was a guy making a killing out there cleaning windows. He asked this stranger if he could come stay a few weeks and learn the business from him and the guy said yes.

Joel came back and started his own window cleaning business. It took off so fast he left it in the hands of his younger brother Nate and moved to Montana to start another branch. They both started offering other services by just saying yes whenever someone asked if they did something else, until Nate hit the jackpot installing Christmas lights.

A little over a year ago, Joel (newly married) and Nate (newly engaged) met up in Utah to get trained on these new permeant outdoor LED lights they were seeing around. Soon that's all they were doing. But they both felt they could be doing it a lot better if they had a better product to work with.

So they sold their other businesses, joined forces, designed their own product, and started manufacturing the steel tracking for it themselves. This year their younger brother Sam moved to Montana to take over Joel's location while Joel and his wife moved to Hawaii to start a new location there.

This past weekend they hosted their first seminar for dealers to come learn how to sell and install their product. Now bluEmber Lights could be coming to your state too!

This is not a commercial for their company. They obviously don't need mom's help in marketing.

This is a pep talk for everyone who has lost faith in the next generation of young men. It's a pep talk for those young men themselves. And it's a pep talk for their moms.

Teenage boys are gifted with an extraordinary amount of energy, drive, stamina, competitiveness, ambition, risk-taking, courage, and optimism. That is their natural state and unfortunately our culture seems to do everything it can to kill all of it. What we tend to see instead is laziness, complacency, entitlement, uncertainty, fear, anger, and blame-shifting. Such a state is a demoralizing, paralyzing trap. But I think many could break free by the grace of God. Dads obviously play the most crucial role in this but moms are often the main decision makers regarding education and training.

To those moms I would just ask them to reexamine their sons' educational environment. Is it making or breaking him? No amount of learning will be of any use if the process has left your son weaker, less capable, anxious, bitter, and unmotivated. The problem is as women, we tend to look at an environment through the lens of our own wants and needs. What would be the making of us could have the opposite effect on our sons. It could be the breaking of them.

Today is Memorial Day. Many of those who have bravely fought and died to protect us and pave the way for young men like yours to provide in freedom, were the same age as this month's high school graduates. Our country is still full of that caliber of youthful bravery. Let's not burry it too.

[Love Classical Music and Movies 🎺🎻💖🎥🎬 @AlexTran677026]

Behind-the-scenes footage of Top Gun: Maverick

[Jeremy Carl @realJeremyCarl]

For Memorial Day, do yourself a favor and take three minutes of your time to listen to this Civil War letter from Maj. Sullivan Ballou to his wife.

I just started re-watching the Ken Burns series, which debuted in 1990 to a record-breaking audience of 40 million, for the first time since it originally aired.

While I had forgotten all of the specifics of the show over the years, I NEVER forgot this letter or this moment, which closed the first episode.

Burns kept a copy of the letter in his wallet for 25 years.

[Mastery Mindset @_masterymindset]

He literally explained How to manifest with little no effort.

[Kelly Guy @KellyGuy]

Protect yourself from ticks!

[Chef Andrew Gruel @ChefGruel]

Chicken Salad on the go. In a cone. Full Video.

[Rob Benson @BuckhornCliffs]

A homemade castor oil and cayenne pepper salve combined with DMSO might be the best one two punch for pain relief I've ever used.

The recipe: 1 cup castor oil, 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder. Heat in a double boiler for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The goal is to infuse the castor oil with capsaicin (the active compound in cayenne) without overheating it. Strain, cool, and store in a sealed jar.

A few things worth knowing:

Capsaicin works by binding to TRPV1 receptors and depleting Substance P, the chemical that signals pain to your brain. That's the science behind why it actually works, not just feels warm.

Castor oil is loaded with ricinoleic acid, which has its own anti-inflammatory effect and helps drive the cayenne deeper into tissue.

Layer DMSO on top after the salve absorbs and the relief reaches deeper. Just make sure your skin is clean first since DMSO carries whatever is on the surface into your body.

Store away from light and heat. Capsaicin breaks down with UV exposure.

https://t.co/mYaSllSF3N

[Restricted Daily @RestrictedDaily]

WARNING: do not make smoked shotgun shells unless you’re prepared to eat way too many of them. These things should honestly be illegal at a backyard cookout. Absolute 10/10.