Reality Check Marker

Lifelong Learner. Award-winning Objective Thinker. Certified outer spectrum enthusiast. Social mediaholic. Yes, my profile pic is middle finger of Galileo.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

The reality Omikron is masking:
Purposeful minimizers portray SARS as just a seasonal cold that clears like any other virus, to justify the recklessness of Let'ER R.I.P. (Re-Infection Policy). SARS is forcing a violent, structural culling of the next generation in-utero. 🧵

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

Let'ER R.I.P. (Re-Infection Policy) created conditions where SARS clearance is no longer possible. SARS has not evolved to be permanently persistent; the Re-Infection Policy has created conditions where SARS will never clear. #ZeroCOVID
#LongCOVID is #AirborneAIDS so #WearN95

[Daniel Tawfik @dantawfik]

Lactate was blamed for muscle fatigue for a century. A seminal review by Dr. George Brooks at Berkeley formalized the opposite: it's one of the most powerful metabolic signals in human physiology, operating across every organ system from conception through aging.

How?

Published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Brooks synthesized decades of research demonstrating that lactate functions as a signaling molecule that affects cells locally and travels through the bloodstream to influence distant organs. The scope is broader than muscle metabolism. Lactate regulates mitochondrial growth, cardiovascular function, new brain cell formation, appetite control, insulin secretion, and inflammatory response.

The scale matters because other muscle-released signaling molecules like IL-6 exist at tiny concentrations measured in trillionths of a gram per liter. Lactate exists at concentrations roughly a million times higher. And lactate concentrations can swing more than tenfold under normal conditions.

This isn't trace signaling. It's mass action operating at concentrations high enough to drive biochemical processes directly.

Brooks distinguished between lactate as a myokine versus an exerkine based on production context. A myokine is a signaling molecule released by muscle tissue. An exerkine is specifically released during exercise.

As a myokine, lactate operates continuously during rest, particularly after eating carbohydrates when red skeletal muscle takes up glucose and releases lactate. As an exerkine, lactate is released from contracting muscles during exercise, signaling to distant tissues.

But the myokine function may be more fundamental. Exercise increases lactate production, but lactate holds continuous importance during rest and recovery. The signaling persists across all metabolic states.

The mechanisms operate through multiple pathways simultaneously.

First, direct metabolic influence. Lactate exists at concentrations sufficient to shift the balance in metabolic reactions. The ratio of lactate to pyruvate alters cellular energy state by changing the balance between NAD+ and NADH, two molecules that hundreds of enzymes depend on. This isn't receptor-mediated signaling. It's direct thermodynamic influence on how cells produce and use energy.

Second, receptor activation. Lactate binds a receptor called HCAR1 on fat cells, neurons, and skeletal muscle. When activated, this receptor inhibits fat breakdown, suppresses inflammation, and promotes muscle growth. The same lactate molecule that serves as fuel also signals through standard pathways to alter which genes get turned on or off.

Third, functional protein binding. Lactate binds myoglobin, a protein that stores oxygen in muscle, and shifts how readily oxygen gets released in working muscle. It activates sensory nerve fibers that stimulate breathing during exercise. It triggers receptors in the carotid body, an oxygen-sensing organ in the neck, that create another breathing feedback loop. Multiple independent pathways converge on the same physiological outcome.

Fourth, direct gene regulation. Lactate modifies histones, the proteins that DNA wraps around, through a process called lactylation. This alters how DNA is packaged and which genes get transcribed. The fuel molecule becomes an epigenetic signal, linking metabolic state directly to genomic regulation without requiring intermediate messengers.

The downstream effects span organ systems.

In skeletal muscle, lactate stimulates proteins that drive the creation of new mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses that produce energy. It upregulates IGF-1, a growth factor that promotes muscle growth. These adaptations aren't acute responses to single exercise sessions. They're cumulative changes that occur over weeks and months of repeated lactate signaling.

In the brain, lactate crosses the blood-brain barrier and fuels neurons preferentially over glucose during high metabolic demand. It stimulates BDNF, a protein that supports neuron survival and growth in the hippocampus, the brain region involved in memory and learning. Exercise-induced cognitive benefits may be mediated by lactate shuttling from muscle to brain.

In fat tissue, lactate binding to HCAR1 inhibits fat breakdown, creating negative feedback when lactate concentrations rise during carbohydrate availability. This coordinates fuel selection across tissues. When glucose-derived lactate is abundant, fat oxidation is suppressed. When lactate drops, fat breakdown resumes.

In the gut, lactate stimulates GLP-1 secretion from intestinal cells and activates receptors in the intestinal lining that trigger incretin release. Incretins are hormones that stimulate insulin secretion when you eat. This links muscle and gut lactate production to insulin secretion and glucose disposal. Lactate becomes part of how the body regulates blood sugar after meals.

In the cardiovascular system, lactate works with other factors to control cardiac output and breathing during exercise through multiple feedback loops. It's not the sole regulator, but it operates alongside CO2, pH, and neural input to match oxygen delivery to metabolic demand.

The timing matters because lactate signaling operates on different timescales depending on the pathway.

Acute signaling through receptors and nerve activation occurs within seconds to minutes. Energy state changes and protein binding happen on similarly rapid timescales. These are immediate metabolic responses to changing lactate concentrations.

The creation of new mitochondria through gene activation requires hours to days of repeated lactate exposure. Histone modification and subsequent gene expression changes occur over hours but create adaptations that persist for days to weeks.

Structural changes like new blood vessel formation and sustained shifts in metabolic capacity require months of chronic lactate production and signaling. The cumulative effect of daily lactate shuttling during both rest and exercise shapes tissue function over the lifespan.

The pathophysiological implications are equally broad.

Lactate can be disruptive when regulatory mechanisms fail. Inappropriate placement of lactate transporters in pancreatic β-cells can impair insulin secretion. In cancer, lactate promotes tumor growth through multiple mechanisms: it decreases autophagy, a cellular cleanup process, in tumor-supporting tissue. It modifies histones in ways that activate cancer-promoting pathways. And it creates an acidic environment that suppresses immune surveillance.

But exogenous lactate also shows therapeutic potential. Sodium lactate infusion after traumatic brain injury may provide neuroprotection by supplying fuel during metabolic crisis. Lactate treatment of immune cells inhibits certain enzymes and improved tumor suppression in some models. The same molecule that supports cancer progression under chronic exposure may enhance immune function under acute administration.

The reproductive biology findings are particularly striking. Lactate fuels sperm motility and supports embryonic development. Timing of lactate availability during early development influences outcomes. This extends lactate signaling to the earliest stages of life, suggesting it operates as a metabolic signal from conception forward.

Brooks proposed expanding the nomenclature beyond myokine and exerkine to include tissue-specific terms: integumentokine from skin, enterokine from intestines, neurokine from brain, hepatokine from liver, spermatokine from sperm. The suggestion reflects how broadly lactate is produced and consumed across tissues. Nearly every metabolically active cell can be both a lactate producer and consumer depending on conditions.

This producer-consumer framework is central to understanding lactate shuttling. At exercise onset, muscle beds release lactate. As blood flow and oxygen increase to meet demand, the same muscle beds switch to net lactate uptake. Meanwhile, the skin becomes a lactate producer. After eating carbohydrates, red skeletal muscle takes up glucose and releases lactate, which is then taken up by liver, kidney, and heart muscle.

Cells and tissues switch between producing and consuming lactate based on oxygen availability, substrate delivery, enzyme expression, and metabolic demand. This isn't static fuel allocation. It's dynamic metabolic communication.

The implications for exercise physiology, metabolic disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer biology are substantial. Lactate isn't a waste product that happens to get recycled. It's a central coordinator of multi-organ metabolic regulation that operates continuously across the lifespan.

From sperm motility to brain aging, lactate functions as both fuel and signal. The mechanisms are diverse: thermodynamic, receptor-mediated, functional binding, and epigenetic. The timescales range from seconds to decades. And the tissues involved encompass nearly every organ system.

The century-long view of lactate as metabolic waste delayed recognition of its regulatory roles. Brooks' review formalizes the paradigm shift and maps the breadth of lactate biology. The molecule that was blamed for muscle fatigue is now recognized as essential to muscle adaptation, cognitive function, metabolic health, and physiological regulation from conception through aging.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@atranscendedman "people who reported feeling fully recovered"
If SARS persistent infection doesn't have asymptomatic (latent) stages, it would be the first virus ever to only show symptomatic persistence.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

"people who reported feeling fully recovered"
Asymptomatic LongCOVID is a reality that's as real as every other persistent viral infection with latent stages. #AsymptomaticLongCOVID is #AIrborneAIDS so #WearN95

[PolyBio @polybioRF]

Breaking: New Study Reveals Substantial Tissue-Level Immune Dysfunction Near Persistent Viral Reservoirs in Long COVID

👉🏻PolyBio-funded UCSF research finds persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA alongside an altered gut immune response that may impair viral clearance 1/

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@Parsifaler If the goal is to pre-determine which #LongCOVID immune response will be triggered by SARS reservoirs and chronic tissue inflammation, to target specific drugs, you only need to look so far as how we did this with HIV.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@Parsifaler We've known for decades that HLA genotypes (specifically Class I like HLA-B*57 or HLA-B*35) dictate disease progression in the face of persistent viral infection. They are a good predictor of what will be inscribed as the CoD on the death certificate.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

Pancreatic cancer diagnosis is no longer a guaranteed short life sentence like it used to be. Amazing work such as this which advances our ability to treat #PancreaticCancer is no longer being funded. That's why they are turning to the public for funding.
https://t.co/BQQ7q9YWi6

[Anirban Maitra @Aiims1742]

Congratulations to the @RevMedicines & @break_cancer KRAS team for this collaboration in @NatureMedicine:

Acquired resistance to the RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitor daraxonrasib guides rational combination therapy strategies in #PancreaticCancer
https://t.co/ohZhC1Jk7P

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

"But the biggest barriers to even swifter progress are not scientific"
If only we had the wherewithal to fund health research to save money on healthcare. What would also be awesome is if all the scientists were attracted to work for this one big nation that funded research.

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

We have made tremendous progress in curing the worst diseases. Childhood leukemia has gone from being a death sentence to being highly treatable in a generation. Pancreatic cancer would almost certainly kill you just a few years ago, and now it is on the way to being quite treatable.

But the biggest barriers to even swifter progress are not scientific. They are regulatory and financial, and simply about the shortage of people working on them.

That is a hugely optimistic message because it implies that we can make massive strides via fairly mundane improvements. You can just cure things!

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

What if we told you: China was the only nation to have true numbers because they count those who die of #LongCOVID? Unlike America, China gives more than half a rat's ass about counting how many people are disabled by #LongCOVID. #NotJustEstimates
https://t.co/dfIHHkWlPh

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

For 2020, China reported 87,071 COVID-19 cases and 4,634 deaths, for a CFR of 5.3%.

What China did here that no other country has done, is associate #LongCOVID deaths which have resulted after SARS-CoV infections in 2020.

#AirborneAIDS

https://t.co/2My7HzUuon

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

We're old enough to remember a time when "Excess Mortality" wasn't a category that applied to children.

[Gregory Travis @greg_travis]

In all of the younger demographics, the excess death counts paint a picture of systematic under-reporting of COVID mortality

Let's look at children. 0-4 (preschool) and 5-17 (school) aged:

Preschool: 1,372 excess deaths 2020-2025. 1,150 COVID deaths

School: 2,197 excess deaths. 1,040 COVID deaths

If we total them together we get 3,569 excess deaths from disease in children 2020-25 and 2,190 COVID deaths in children

So no possibility that COVID deaths in children are UNDER-reported

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

The irony of Americans lying about their numbers is that this was all happening when Americans were accusing China of lying about its numbers.
https://t.co/hUyrLDafKA

[Gregory Travis @greg_travis]

The COVID undercount is even worse in the 18-44 year old demographic

89,040 excess deaths in 18-44 year olds 2020-2025
46,831 official COVID deaths

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@terryrus99 @greg_travis Nobody except China lists #LongCOVID as a possible CoD. China, the only nation that isn't lying about its numbers.
https://t.co/dfIHHkWlPh

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

For 2020, China reported 87,071 COVID-19 cases and 4,634 deaths, for a CFR of 5.3%.

What China did here that no other country has done, is associate #LongCOVID deaths which have resulted after SARS-CoV infections in 2020.

#AirborneAIDS

https://t.co/2My7HzUuon

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@JackHadfield14 "Instead, politicians claimed the vaccines all but stopped infection, reinfection and death."
Being able to distinguish the politicalization of Public Health can be difficult. So few understand how Dr. Fauci was not in charge.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@WHO If you look at the math of our previous post and notice we're off by a billion or so, to the global population, it's because we are not including China. There are a multitude of IHR nations which will be influenced by US abandonment of Public Health, but not China.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

USAID cuts to poor nations & POTUS47 defunding of @WHO are going to add 4.5 billion people to this population-level vaccine RCT of 350 unwilling American study participants. A resurgence of the viruses in this graphic is entirely plausible. #ZeroSmallPox #ZeroPolio

[Dr Richard Hirschson @richardhirschs1]

TRUMP AND RFK ARE GOING TO PROVE THAT VACCINES WORK BEYOND A SHADOW OF DOUBT.

The US is embarking on the LARGEST non-blinded, non-randomised, uncontrolled, prospective trial EVER, with a control arm (the UNVACCINATED) that wouldn’t pass an ethics committee ANYWHERE.
This will be the MOST costly trial EVER (money and lives).

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

Brain damage from seasonal cold & flu infections has been known for decades. We continually minimize NDDs for the sake of the economy. The #TobaccoPlaybook abuses our #NormalcyBias desire to ignore the room filling with smoke. #NeuroCOVID #AirborneNDDs #DontLookUP #WearN95

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

How did we already have DECADES of knowledge that ANY VIRAL infection-driven gut dysbiosis leads to permanent brain damage? AIDS research. There's no such thing as "just the flu". Temporary AIDS still kills a chunk of your brain. #LongCOVID is #AirborneAIDS so #WearN95 1/

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@richardhirschs1 As others have pointed out, since there are no separate M/M/R shots available in the US, this is effectively a cease-and-desist of MMR vaccination. Try as we might, we haven't been able to stir up a great deal of empathy for the consequences. How do you do it?

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@richardhirschs1 As others have pointed out, since there are no separate M/M/R shots available in the US, this is effectively a cease-and-desist of MMR vaccination. Try as we might, we haven't been able to stir up a great deal of empathy for the consequences. How do you do it?

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

@richardhirschs1 "that wouldn’t pass an ethics committee ANYWHERE"
We assume you have not opened a pediatric SARS study in 2026 to see how "informed consent" is being waived willy-nilly when it's kids. We agree this is a population-level depravity, but it's consistent with ongoing SARS pandemic.

[Reality Check Marker @RealCheckMarker]

This clinical procedure involving mitochondrial transplant is a worthwhile thread to read. #HijackedChickenCoop

[Putrino Lab @PutrinoLab]

Excited to share some new science in pre-print this morning!

We have completed the world's first intravitreal autologous mitochondrial transplant in a human.

Let's breakdown what we did and what this means, even starting from the title (!)

https://t.co/khyw1C4GeF

1/