Brain Pickings

[Ritterskoop]

Just discovered a site where they boil down thinking topics each day. I guess there's a weekly newsletter, too. I haven't signed up, just wander by every so often and marvel.

http://www.brainpickings.org

Each article summarizes a book or topic and has many links within and longish quotes when appropriate. Nice.

Today's topics:

On Kissing, Ticking and Being Bored - a book which suggests that it's good and OK to be bored, but of course then we must define boredom. A coworker and I clarified tonight that when a 13-year-old whines that he is bored, that's not what we mean. The response to that is to find something to read. It may be that this kind of OK-bored is just the kind where we are still, or not completely engaged in something, and sometimes, that is OK and we can grow in those empty spaces.

The Invisibles - a photo essay of LGBT couples in the early 20th century - dint read this one. Part of my journey is to give myself permission not to do everything and to not do all of it completely or perfectly. I quit two movies last week after 30 minutes each (American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis). Never did that before.

A piece on Joyce Carol Oates about Hemingway's writing - dint read this one either. So far I have only read one of each day's three pieces and just skimmed the others, if that. Yesterday was a thing on Daniel Gilbert and how we think about ourselves and how much we will change. My first day it was a thing on a conversation between E.O Wilson and a poet I dint know (Robert Haas) on metaphor. Sort-of.

[Ritterskoop]

This is not a brain picking but a dietary supplement picking:

I started taking cinnamon capsules to improve my HDL, and I noticed these very gentle reminders of cinnamon a few hours later that is so much better than the nasty burps from the fish oil.

I will be trying a new fish oil (Max Red something) at the end of the month when my Amazon shipment arrives that is supposed to be less nasty burpish, and will report if that's true.

[SportsFan68]

This is not a brain picking but a dietary supplement picking:

I started taking cinnamon capsules to improve my HDL, and I noticed these very gentle reminders of cinnamon a few hours later that is so much better than the nasty burps from the fish oil.

I will be trying a new fish oil (Max Red something) at the end of the month when my Amazon shipment arrives that is supposed to be less nasty burpish, and will report if that's true.

I never can remember which is which, but my overall cholesterol improved dramatically after drinking a glass of wine every day. My doc isn't interested in the total, only in the ratio of good/bad, and that dropped a full point, and she quit talking about putting me on cholesterol lowering medication.

Here was my observation from last September: I was at a meeting last Thursday when one of my colleagues mentioned that her doctor said that she could tell who the teetotalers are because their good cholesterol is higher, bad cholesterol lower, so I googled it, and sure enough, I'm going to start imbibition of one glass of wine with dinner every night. It worked!

[Estonut]

Here was my observation from last September: I was at a meeting last Thursday when one of my colleagues mentioned that her doctor said that she could tell who the teetotalers are because their good cholesterol is higher, bad cholesterol lower, so I googled it, and sure enough, I'm going to start imbibition of one glass of wine with dinner every night. It worked!

You've got something backwards here, unless you started imbibing one as opposed to several.

[Bob Juch]

This is not a brain picking but a dietary supplement picking:

I started taking cinnamon capsules to improve my HDL, and I noticed these very gentle reminders of cinnamon a few hours later that is so much better than the nasty burps from the fish oil.

I will be trying a new fish oil (Max Red something) at the end of the month when my Amazon shipment arrives that is supposed to be less nasty burpish, and will report if that's true.

Here's something that bit me. I expect that many others will have the same problem.

My doctor suggested I take concentrated fish oil to improve my HDL so I did. The problem was that six months later when she sent my blood in for testing it came back with such a high triglyceride reading that the HDL/LDL couldn't be read. I hadn't changed my diet so she put me on something that was supposed to lower my triglycerides. That caused such severe digestive problems that I discontinued it. I then lost my insurance so didn't have a new blood test until this year when I was able to get insurance again thanks to Obamacare preventing pre-existing conditions being used to deny me coverage. When I went in for a new blood test they asked if I was on any fish oil supplements. When I said I was they said I needed to stop them and come back in two weeks because they'd cause a high triglyceride reading. When I came back the test showed normal readings.

I did the research I should have done four years ago and found that since the triglyceride test looks at just the end of a fat molecule where the three glyceride chains "plug in", it can't detect if the glyceride chains are high Omega 3, 6, or 9, what I had been adding in high quantities. So a triglyceride test is totally invalid if you take daily doses of high Omega x oil. Something my doctors should have known and only one phlebotomist knew to ask about.

[Beebs52]

Just discovered a site where they boil down thinking topics each day. I guess there's a weekly newsletter, too. I haven't signed up, just wander by every so often and marvel.

http://www.brainpickings.org

Each article summarizes a book or topic and has many links within and longish quotes when appropriate. Nice.

Today's topics:

On Kissing, Ticking and Being Bored - a book which suggests that it's good and OK to be bored, but of course then we must define boredom. A coworker and I clarified tonight that when a 13-year-old whines that he is bored, that's not what we mean. The response to that is to find something to read. It may be that this kind of OK-bored is just the kind where we are still, or not completely engaged in something, and sometimes, that is OK and we can grow in those empty spaces.

The Invisibles - a photo essay of LGBT couples in the early 20th century - dint read this one. Part of my journey is to give myself permission not to do everything and to not do all of it completely or perfectly. I quit two movies last week after 30 minutes each (American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis). Never did that before.

A piece on Joyce Carol Oates about Hemingway's writing - dint read this one either. So far I have only read one of each day's three pieces and just skimmed the others, if that. Yesterday was a thing on Daniel Gilbert and how we think about ourselves and how much we will change. My first day it was a thing on a conversation between E.O Wilson and a poet I dint know (Robert Haas) on metaphor. Sort-of.

I like the bored thingie. Usually my boredom is because I'm mildly sad or angsty about something and it, the boredom, offers me an opportunity to just "gut" it out by doing nothing. Also, that permitting yourself to not finish things is quite liberating. It's the same with discovering that some things can't be fixed, or won't ever be fixed by anyone, or you don't have to mess with it because you're pretty much incapable of effecting any change. That is massively liberating.
I actually tossed an unfinished book into the garbage the other day. At one time I would have accused myself of heresy or treason for doing that.

[tlynn78]

This is not a brain picking but a dietary supplement picking:

I started taking cinnamon capsules to improve my HDL, and I noticed these very gentle reminders of cinnamon a few hours later that is so much better than the nasty burps from the fish oil.

I will be trying a new fish oil (Max Red something) at the end of the month when my Amazon shipment arrives that is supposed to be less nasty burpish, and will report if that's true.

I take MegaRed, and while it's a challenge to avoid/ignore the aroma when I open the bottle to dispense, that is the only time I experience it. I literally step out on my deck, where there is invariably a breeze...

[Ritterskoop]

Is Mega Red one of the ones we can put in the freezer? I tried a lemon-flavored fish oil capsule like that, and the freezer did cut down on the odor of the capsule but not the burps later.

[Bob78164]

When I saw the title of this thread, I started to wonder when you turned into a zombie. Glad to see my initial impression was mistaken. --Bob

[tlynn78]

Is Mega Red one of the ones we can put in the freezer? I tried a lemon-flavored fish oil capsule like that, and the freezer did cut down on the odor of the capsule but not the burps later.

Haven't tried that, but they don't give me burps, at any rate.

[ghostjmf]

My cholesterol was always great. Still is, but my NP wanted me to get it even greater, under 100, because of my diabetes. The Omega-3 oil capsules were the one thing I'd say was working perfectly, as they got my cholesterol under 100 within 3 months. The ratio of "good" cholesterol to "bad" cholesterol is what it used to be, pretty much (high on the "good", low on the "bad"), but the all-over levels are lower.


So you are now all saying that the taking of Omega-3 screws the whole thing up? Looks like it.

[Ritterskoop]

So you are now all saying that the taking of Omega-3 screws the whole thing up? Looks like it.

Only BobJuch said that.

[Beebs52]

So you are now all saying that the taking of Omega-3 screws the whole thing up? Looks like it.

Only BobJuch said that.

I think he said it masks the triglyceride count making that test worthless. But still, I guess that isn't a good thing if you can't read those, too. I get tired of blood work things. I think they make shit up.

[Bob Juch]

So you are now all saying that the taking of Omega-3 screws the whole thing up? Looks like it.

Only BobJuch said that.

I think he said it masks the triglyceride count making that test worthless. But still, I guess that isn't a good thing if you can't read those, too. I get tired of blood work things. I think they make shit up.

Bingo and bingo!

[ghostjmf]

During this whole ride with diabetes, I've been told such varying things, by the same people. People I generally get along with & like, too. But still. I was at one point told to avoid fruit, because fructose gets easily turned into glucose by your body. Later they said berries, which is most of the fruit I eat, are OK. I know what low carb fruits are (in addition to berries) & am eating them. Then they had me aim for blood sugar levels at around 100. I got there with insulin. Now that I'm off the insulin & on glipizide, a drug that gooses my pancreas to making more of its own damn insulin, like it's supposed to, I am told by my NP not to be so worried, that an occasional morning blood sugar reading of 156! like today is OK. Since after I take the glipizide, it goes down. Nevertheless, they agreed I can split the glipizide dose in half & take the 2nd half at around 4:00pm. "But be sure to eat something with it". OK. The local pharmacist, by the way, would not let me out of the drugstore until I heard "never take this unless you are going to eat something (presumably something you need insulin to work on, a carbohydrate) 20 minutes later". But my NP says "with" is fine, not 20 minutes later. Just be sure to "eat something". I can do that.