James

Slow is fast. An observer of world affairs. Stay curious if not young.

[James @yxz8]

The @nytimes data tracker for coronavirus, state by state and country by country: https://t.co/JAWxR2vAEP

[Nick Norwitz MD PhD @nicknorwitz]

The Longevity Molecule is Garlic Nobody Saw Coming 🧛‍♂️🧄

1/4) Look at these two graphs.

LEFT: This what happens to circulating levels of something called “eNAMPT” with age in humans. It drops.

eNAMPT is a form of the enzyme NAMPT packaged into tiny extracellular vesicles (e) that travel throughout the body.

Why does that matter?

NAMPT is critical for producing NAD+, a molecule essential for energy metabolism, DNA repair, and countless other biological processes.

RIGHT: This shows what happens when researchers treat animals with eNAMPT-containing vesicles.

Lifespan increases by roughly 10%.

But here's where the story takes a surprising turn... Garlic!?!

[Elie Jarrouge, MD @ElieJarrougeMD]

Visceral fat has a job.

Your body didn’t put it there by accident.

As a doctor who reverses metabolic disease daily, I see this constantly: here’s what it actually does, when it turns against you, and why your doctor is probably measuring the wrong thing.

🧵

[波波 Lucy @BoboLucyWisdom]

为什么「太舒适」正在悄悄毁掉你的大脑？

Huberman 最近和 Michael Easter 聊了他的书《The Comfort Crisis》（舒适危机）。最刺痛人的一句话是：

一个没有「困难之事」的生活，会训练你的大脑去害怕一切。

你的记忆中心会逐渐变弱，情绪调节能力也会下降。现代生活把太多摩擦和挑战都抹平了，结果就是：普通的不适、一点点无聊、轻微的失败，都能让你的大脑拉响警报，像在面对真正的危险一样。

舒适本身不是敌人，但「零摩擦的人生」会让你的神经系统变得脆弱。当你长期活在「什么都不用费力」的环境里，大脑就忘记了「我能承受不适」这件事。

但大脑具有极强的可塑性。只要你刻意把一些「困难」放回生活里，就能重新校准它，从「分析脑主导的焦虑循环」切换到「创造脑主导的韧性状态」。

以下是7个简单却强大的日常实践，能帮你把「舒适危机」逆转过来：

1. 每天做一件你可能会失败的小事
大多数人已经把「避免失败」做成了本能，以至于大脑把任何尴尬、不完美都解读为生存威胁。
但小而安全的失败其实在告诉你的神经系统：「我能活过不完美。」
每天故意做一件结果不确定的小事（比如主动发起一个可能被拒绝的对话、尝试一个新技能、写一篇可能没人看的文字），这是重建心理韧性最直接的入口。

2. 练习无聊，而不是立刻逃避它
没有播客、没有刷手机、没有背景音乐。
当你允许自己真正无聊时，分析脑（负责过度思考和焦虑）会暂时松手，而创造脑开始建立新的连接。
很多灵感和情绪调节能力，其实就藏在那些「什么都不做」的空隙里。

3. 每天做一件「没有即时奖励」的事
散步、打扫房间、写日记、静坐感受难受的情绪……这些事没有点赞、没有即时满足。
舒适的生活训练你「必须先有奖励才值得行动」。而困难的练习会反过来教你的大脑：**通过努力本身就能创造奖励**。这是多巴胺系统重新健康化的关键。

4. 让身体做一些真正费力的运动
不是健身房打卡，而是真实的体力挑战：长距离走路、爬楼梯、搬东西、爬坡、做家务。
现代生活把太多自然的体力需求都外包了（电梯、外卖、机器人）。当你把「费力移动」重新放回日常生活，情绪就会逐渐回到平衡状态。身体的挑战，本质上也是对大脑的挑战。

5. 每天花时间在大自然里，但不要「优化」它
不要带手机刷步数，不要听生产力播客。
就只是身体、风、地面、天空和呼吸。
研究和大量实践都显示：不带目的的自然接触，能有效恢复健康的多巴胺水平，同时降低过度分析带来的心理负担。

6. 每天选择一个可控的「不适」
可以是冷水澡、桑拿、爬一段陡坡、负重行走、或者进行一次诚实但不舒服的对话。
关键不是惩罚自己，而是让神经系统反复练习这句话：「我能感受到不适，并且我能活下来。」
每一次这样的练习，都在给你的情绪调节系统「升级固件」。

7. 每周做一个小的「Misogi」（苦行式挑战）
Misogi 来自日本传统，指的是一个你不确定自己能否完成的挑战。
比如：走得比你以为的极限更远、连续几天早起、完成一个需要极大意志力的任务。
它不是为了「成功」，而是为了证明给你自己看：你的能力边界比你想象的更远。

大多数人一生都在努力逃避不适。
但你的大脑从来不是通过「更舒适」变得有韧性的。
恰恰相反——正是那些你主动拥抱的困难，在把你从「分析脑的焦虑牢笼」里拉出来，带向创造脑的广阔空间。

～关注我，一起探索精神自由之路～

[Natalie Andrews @natalieandrews]

Vance has stayed committed to his new diet, often eating eggs, sauerkraut, pickles, blackberries and raspberries for lunch, & beef/lamb with sauerkraut for dinner.
On Air Force Two, he eats a hamburger with cheese, no bun, and fermented vegetables

https://t.co/aB9s0zwfKb

[Koda @wadezone]

只要你是被亚洲父母养大的，你这辈子都要看心理医生

[RobinSeun_维京黑船 @RobinSeun]

还是想聊老黄的这句：“只要你是被亚洲父母养大的，你这辈子都要看心理医生。”

今儿不深究原因了，不然好多人适应不了，今儿还是只聊表象吧。

一、彼时教育的共性：反人性

亚洲其他国家的父母我不了解啊，那个年代的中国父母，有一个极其普遍的育儿特质：反人性。

二、举几个例子

啥是反人性？我举几个例子就清楚了：

1、孩子被老师表扬了，正常就会高兴。
父母：看把你得瑟的，有什么了不起的。

2、孩子被打了，正常就会哭。
父母：不许哭，再哭一个看看！

3、孩子考双百了，正常就会骄傲，或者说自信。
父母：戒骄戒躁，你还有进步的空间。

4、孩子恋爱了…
父母老师：不许早恋。

你们听听，不许早恋，这tm是人话么？给我个年龄，几岁叫早几岁叫晚？

父母老师：我也不知道。

是不是听上去很正常，跟我们小时候听到的没什么区别？

因为上述都是我自己的经历啊，我成绩已经很好了，班第一、校第一经常拿，中考全校第1全区第6，高考全班第1。

就这样，我也没听到过父母的肯定，他们习惯说：戒骄戒躁。

三、反人性的恶果

长此以往，孩子会失去正常的反应：高兴了不能表达、委屈了不能表达、生气了不能、愁苦了不能。

你不能得意，因为得意就是骄傲。
你不能哭，因为哭就是没出息。
你不能反驳，因为反驳就是顶嘴。
你不能喜欢一个人，因为喜欢就是早恋。
你不能说自己累，因为累就是矫情。

什么玩意儿？

最后训练出来的是一个特别会压抑自己、情绪逻辑错乱的人。

别人夸你，你第一反应不是开心，竟然是紧张。
别人喜欢你，你第一反应不是接受，竟然是怀疑。
自己做成一件事，你第一反应不是庆祝，竟然是我得沉稳。

什么玩意儿。。。

最大的恶果-他开始不相信自己的感受。

四、同时，爱自然变成了控制

这段太苦了，我给删了哈哈，苦到我自己心情都不好了。

五、这种教育最荒诞的地方

简单说：这种教育最荒诞的地方在于，它嘴上说要培养优秀的人，实际上一生都在打击优秀所需要的东西。

优秀需要自信，它打击自信。
优秀需要表达，它压制表达。
优秀需要探索，它禁止探索。
优秀需要欲望，它羞辱欲望。
优秀需要独立判断，它要求服从。

然后等孩子长大了，又开始嫌弃孩子：

你怎么这么不自信？
你怎么这么不会说话？
你怎么这么没主见？

拜托，你们能不能正常一点儿？这不都是被你们扼杀了么？

我还得从头自己练…

六、回到老黄那句话

这句话被传播这么广，因为它就是tmd大实话啊。

很多被亚洲父母养大的人，成年以后要补课。

补什么课？

补情绪课、补自我课、补边界课、补亲密关系课。

补“我可以开心”的课、补“我可以拒绝”的课、补“我可以失败”的课、补“我不需要永远证明自己”的课。

多累啊…

———

激动了，写太长了…

我回去给加几个标题，不然你们看起来费劲😂😂😂

[Brian Wesbury @wesbury]

Ask Jerome Powell about this…we tripled the money supply in 18 years. People with assets, like you, won huge. Stop with the political stuff and focus on the Fed.

[Nick Norwitz MD PhD @nicknorwitz]

The Most Overlooked Organ in Aging?

1/6) A recent study in Nature, one of the world's top scientific journals, left me stunned.

Here's the punchline: The thymus, a largely overlooked organ that sits behind your breastbone, might be one of the most important organs for human longevity. In fact, individuals with healthier thymic function had a roughly 50% lower risk of death.

[Patrick Sullivan Jr. @realPatrickJr]

Caffeine has a 5-hour half-life, so a 400 mg dose can disrupt sleep for 12 hours.

Data shows it can cut sleep by two hours, add 45 minutes to falling asleep, cause four extra night awakenings, and reduce deep sleep by 28%.

[Cassandra Unchained @michaeljburry]

Per Slok, 87% of VC funding is directed at AI, 49% of investment grade bond issuance is AI, and 38% of high yield bond issuance is linked to AI.

During the internet boom, in 1999, less than 40% of VC funding was linked to internet companies.

Broadening to the wider tech-media-telecom (TMT) bubble, in 1999, VC funding for TMT hit 80% of all funding. TMT bonds were 40-50% of the high yield bond issuance in 2000 and 25-30% of total investment grade bond issuance.

Over $100B investment grade debt issued in 1999-2000 became junk by 2002.

High yield debt at 38% today vs 40%-50% back then belies the idea that today’s AI debt issuance is cleaner, backed by more profitable companies today.

[Nick Norwitz MD PhD @nicknorwitz]

“But are you genetically protected?” 🧬

After seven years of astronomical cholesterol levels, I have 0 mm3 plaque. People are now asking whether I’m simply genetically protected.

But consider this:

My father had a 99% occlusion of his left anterior descending artery by age 44.

I also have high Lp(a), a largely genetically determined risk factors

So are my arteries clean because I’m genetically gifted?

What do you think?

Maybe LDL and ApoB, in the context of actually good metabolic health, do not behave the same way they do in metabolically unhealthy populations?

Maybe we should spend a little more time studying metabolically healthy people directly?

[Nick Norwitz MD PhD @nicknorwitz]

🚨New Paper: "Seven Years of 700 Cholesterol Without Coronary Atherosclerosis: A Lean Mass Hyper-Responder Case Report"

Link: https://t.co/5VnRpZlFdR

For the past 7 years, I’ve been running what is essentially a natural experiment in cholesterol and heart health.

During that time, I’ve largely lived with:

👉Total cholesterol around 700 mg/dl
👉LDL cholesterol between 500–600 mg/dL

I recently underwent advanced coronary CT angiography imaging with AI-guided analysis. This is not a CAC. It measures all plaque (soft + calcified), with expert interpretation and AI-guided analysis capable of quantifying plaque down to the cubic millimeter (mm3).

Now, to address the obvious question:

Am I too young for plaque?

In brief: No.

The clearest comparison is individuals with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, who often have similarly extreme LDL/ApoB levels and can develop advanced plaque as toddlers, and even heart attacks as early as age 8.

Also, nutrition influencers in their 30s have publicly shared quantified plaque scores from these same imaging technologies. In one recent case, a plant-based influencer in his thirties was found to have 61.3 mm³ of plaque despite having far lower lifetime LDL exposure. (He can identify himself if he so chooses.)

My case also isn’t a one-off.

There are many individuals like me, including older individuals with similar LDL-C and ApoB without any plaque.

The difference is that I’m an unusually well-characterized subject, with extensive metabolic data and health markers tracked over time. You can learn more at the newsletter or open-access paper, linked above.

The science of heart health is not settled. And cholesterol is not a simple story.

🚨 If you want to help spread the word...

Quote Tweet this post (or create an original post) including the article link with a thought. Academic papers are increasingly evaluated using attention metrics. Original posts from unique users are one way to increase these metrics and help ultimately increase its reach.

🚨 If you want to learn more, I'll include more learning resources below 👇

[Ryan Mitchel Brown 🥩🔥☀️ @Seasonal_Ryan]

My dad spent 40 years working for the company that made the drugs that were supposed to save his life.

He was on statins before most people knew what a statin was.

Blood pressure medication.

Cholesterol perfectly controlled on every single lab panel for four decades.

His doctors loved his numbers. He looked great on paper.

Then he got a coronary calcium score.
And the man who helped manufacture the drugs meant to protect his heart landed in the 90th percentile for calcification.

For his age group, at 60 years old.

Let that sink in.

His cholesterol was controlled.
His blood pressure was controlled.
His labs were textbook.

And his arteries told a completely different story.

This is the part that is completely ignored or remains unrealized by medicine ⬇️

The cholesterol hypothesis, the idea that LDL is the primary driver of heart disease and that lowering it prevents cardiac events, was built on population-level data that never fully held up at the individual level. It became pharmaceutical gospel anyway.

Here is what the research is quietly telling us now. Coronary calcium scores are one of the strongest predictors of actual cardiac events we have. Stronger than LDL. Stronger than total cholesterol.

A person with high LDL and a calcium score of zero has a lower near-term risk than someone with “controlled” cholesterol and a score like my dad’s.

Statins lower LDL. That part works. What they were never fully proven to do in primary prevention populations is meaningfully reduce the likelihood of dying from a heart attack. The number needed to treat is not what the commercials imply.

Meanwhile the drivers that actually calcify arteries, chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, seed oil-driven lipid peroxidation, mineral dysregulation, were never addressed. Not once.

My dad built his career on these drugs.

He trusted them completely.

The labs looked perfect all the way to the scan that changed everything.

Controlled is not the same as protected.

[alyssa @alyssamariiee11]

It’s illegal to feed wildlife at national parks because they get dependent on handouts and forget how to survive.

Kinda sounds familiar doesn’t it?

[Stephen Miller @StephenM]

“None of the witnesses to the attack approached or offered assistance to the man as he remained on the ground.” There are things you cannot measure in a CATO line graph.

[Elie Jarrouge, MD @ElieJarrougeMD]

If I woke up tomorrow obese, with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, gout, constant fatigue, and brain fog.

On 6 different medications.

Here’s exactly what I would do to fix them all and be off all meds…

🧵

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

Out of every disgusting, dishonest piece of filth the mainstream media has produced about Hurricane Helene...

This is the worst.

60 Minutes has NEVER done a story on the families FEMA denied.

They NEVER mentioned the Amish, who are STILL in the mountains rebuilding homes 550 days later.

They NEVER mentioned Jake Jarvis, who has worked 550 days STRAIGHT FOR FREE for Hurricane Helene victims.

Instead, they dug up some fringe conspiracy angle to smear the people who actually showed up as White Nationalists.

I'm so angry.

Let me tell you what 60 Minutes will NEVER report on

I was there. I lived it. I am still here.

I shared every story I could find.

Me, my wife, hundreds of volunteers delivered RVs to mothers holding babies who were sleeping in TOOL SHEDS AND TENTS in the freezing cold, in the mountains.

Because their homes had been ripped off the side of a mountain and washed down the French Broad.

So tell me 60 Minutes... WHERE WAS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?

Tell me, WHY did all these volunteers NEED to show up?

Any thoughts on that?!!!!!

Any investigation AT ALL into the federal or state government's response to Hurricane Helene?

Please tell me... if the federal government was doing such a GREAT JOB, why did we need to put victims in RVs...

...A MONTH AFTER THE HURRICANE?!!!!!!!

Literally every single victim you talk to in Western North Carolina has a horror story about dealing with FEMA...

...and guess who they will all say actually cam through for them?

Neighbors.
Church groups.
The Amish.
The Cajun Navy.
Shawn Hendricks.
Samaritan's Purse.
MercuryOne.

The Mission Mules hauling insulin up washed-out roads, ONLY ACCESSIBLE by mules.

Greg Biffle burning his own fuel in helicopters.

Veterans like Adam Smith who organized helicopter rescues with other veterans BY HIMSELF and then was demonized by the media for it.

Volunteers like Jake Jarvis working TO THIS DAY, 550 days later without ANY PAY AT ALL.

THOSE ARE THE STORIES FROM HURRICANE HELENE WORTH TELLING.

But 60 Minutes won't tell ANY OF THEM.

Because the truth makes the federal government the villain and the "deplorables" are actually the heroes in this story and they can NEVER admit that.

So instead they smeared the rescuers as white nationalists.

This is unforgivable.

I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.

And I will BE DAMNED if I let CBS rewrite the history of what happened to my mountains.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Winston Churchill fought his depression with bricks. He'd lay them for hours at his country home in Kent. He joined the bricklayers' union. And in 1921 he wrote about why it worked. It took psychology another 75 years to catch up.

He called his depression the "Black Dog." It followed him for decades. His method for fighting it back was as basic as it sounds: laying brick after brick, hour after hour.

Churchill spelled out his theory in a long essay for The Strand Magazine. People who think for a living, he wrote, can't fix a tired brain just by resting it. They have to use a different part of themselves. The part that moves the eyes and the hands. Woodworking, chemistry, bookbinding, bricklaying, painting. Anything that drags the body into a problem the mind can't solve by itself.

Modern psychology now calls this behavioral activation. It's one of the most-studied depression treatments out there. Depression sets a behavior trap. You feel bad, so you stop doing things, and doing less means less to feel good about. Feeling worse makes you do even less. The loop tightens until you can't breathe inside it.

Behavioral activation breaks the loop from the action side. You schedule the activity first, even when every part of you doesn't want to. Doing it produces small rewards: a wall gets straighter, a painting fills in, a messy room gets clean. Those small rewards slowly rewire the brain. Action comes first, and the feeling follows.

Researchers at the University of Washington put this to the test in 2006. They studied 241 adults with major depression and compared three treatments: behavioral activation, regular talk therapy, and antidepressants. For the people who were most severely depressed, behavioral activation matched the drugs. It beat the talk therapy. A 2014 review of more than 1,500 patients across 26 trials backed up the result.

Physical work like bricklaying does something extra on top of this. It crowds out rumination, the looping bad thoughts that grind people down during the worst stretches of depression. Bricklaying needs both hands and gives feedback brick by brick: each one is straight or crooked. After an hour you can see exactly how much wall you built. No room left for the mental chewing.

The line George Mack used in his post, "depression hates a moving target," is good poetry. The science behind it is sharper. Depression hates a brain that has somewhere else to be.

[Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630]

We have spent enough time telling weak people and non-dominant groups how great they are.

Let's praise winners for a decade, launch some fucking rockets.

[Bitcoin.不求人 @btcbqr]

在中国几乎所有慢性病都是同一个原因，代谢功能障碍，也就是胰岛素抵抗，传统的药物治疗是治标，改善代谢才是治本。

高血压、高血脂、脂肪肝、肥胖、痛风、二型糖尿病、失眠乏力、多囊、甚至部分心脑血管问题、老年痴呆，看着是完全不同的病，但它们背后共同根因只有一个：长期高胰岛素 → 胰岛素抵抗 → 全身代谢崩盘。

现代医院的常规操作：血压高开降压药、血糖高开降糖药、血脂高开他汀、痛风口服止痛。

全部都是对症压制症状，不解决源头胰岛素问题，所以现实就是：吃药一辈子，病越拖越多，并发症一个接一个。

治本逻辑只有一条：断糖、戒精制碳水、戒掉种子油、间歇性断食、补充维D3、优化作息
让胰岛素长期降下来，代谢恢复正常，各种慢病自然逐一缓解、逆转。

五花八门的慢性病，只是胰岛素抵抗在不同器官上的不同表现；药物只遮表象，彻底改变饮食习惯，恢复代谢才是正确之途。