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The man’s family told doctors that, up until a few months prior, he had been taking three different types of herbal supplements that claim to treat joint pain. The man had taken the supplements for four years, and sometimes as often as four times a day, but he had stopped using them in the lead-up to his illness.

Deadly doses
The supplements were: Artri King, Nhan Sam Tuyet Lien, and Linsen Double Caulis Plus. All are known to contain unlisted glucocorticoids, according to the Food and Drug Administration. And testing of two of the man’s supplements by the hospital confirmed the presence of the steroids.

Doctors determined that the man had essentially overdosed on the glucocorticoids—he had taken doses that exceeded the normal levels of glucocorticoids in the body. The steroids likely suppressed immune responses, leading to his infections and GI ulcers. But, more significantly, the excess steroid levels also caused his HPA axis to essentially shut down. While it’s possible to get the HPA axis back up and running after withdrawal from excessive steroid use, the amount of time that takes can vary. Further, if a person stops taking large doses of glucocorticoids abruptly, rather than gradually—as in the man’s case—and particularly after chronic use—also as in the man’s case—it can lead to an adrenal crisis. In retrospect, the man had all the signs of a crisis.

If we ID the DNA for a great antibody, anyone can now make it. //

knowing what antibodies we’d like to see people making while having no way of ensuring that they do.

One of the options we’ve developed is to just mass-produce broadly neutralizing antibodies and inject them into people. This has been approved for use against Ebola and provided an early treatment during the COVID pandemic. This approach has some practical limitations, though. For starters, the antibodies have a finite life span in the bloodstream, so injections may need to be repeated. In addition, making and purifying enough antibodies in bulk isn’t the easiest thing in the world, and they generally need to be kept refrigerated during the distribution, limiting the areas where they can be used.

So, a number of companies have been looking at an alternative: getting people to make their own. This could potentially lead to longer-lived protection, even ensuring the antibodies are present to block future infections if the DNA survives long enough.

take a deep butt breath….

Ig Nobel-winning research could one day be used to treat people with blocked airways or clogged lungs.

Last year, a group of researchers won the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physiology for discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus. But as with many Ig Nobel awards, there is a serious side to the seeming silliness. The same group has conducted a new study on the feasibility of adapting this method to treat people with blocked airways or clogged lungs, with promising results that bring rectal oxygen delivery one step closer to medical reality.

, thanks to having lots of capillary vessels in its intestine. The technical term is enteral ventilation via anus (EVA).

Would such a novel breathing method work in mammals? The team thought it might be possible and undertook experiments with mice and micro-pigs to test that hypothesis. They drew upon earlier research by Leland Clark, also of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, who invented a perfluorocarbon liquid called Oxycyte as a possible form of artificial blood. That vision never materialized, although it did provide a handy plot point for the 1989 film The Abyss, in which a rat is able to “breathe” in a similar liquid.

And Oxycyte was ideal for the group’s 2021 Ig Nobel-winning efforts. The experiments involved intra-anally administering oxygen gas or a liquid oxygenated perfluorocarbon to the unfortunate rodents and porcines. Yes, they gave the animals enemas. They then induced respiratory failure and evaluated the effectiveness of the intra-anal treatment. The result: Both treatments were pretty darned effective at staving off respiratory failure with no major complications.

In 2021, she came across a notice in the Federal Register recruiting participants for a double-blind clinical trial led by Dr. Richard Frye.

“It was like something clicked. He went from one or two words to full-on sentences within six months.” -- Kathleen Schnier

The pediatric neurologist was studying whether leucovorin could help autistic children with cerebral folate deficiency — or a shortage of vitamin B9 in the brain.

Researchers believe up to 70% of autistic children have antibodies that block the transport of folate into the brain, leading to these deficiencies and contributing to speech delays and behavioral challenges. //

With his new ability to speak, Nathaniel finally found a way to express what had been locked inside for years.

“The TV in my brain, I can say it in my mouth,” Kathleen remembers her son telling her. “It was always there, he just couldn’t say it.”

A 36-year-old man showed up to the emergency department of the Massachusetts General Hospital, severely unwell from a puzzling set of conditions. He had abnormalities in his lungs, intestines, blood, liver, and lymphatic system—and, of course, no single clear explanation. His case was such a riddle that a master clinician with an expertise in clinical reasoning was called in to help unravel it.

Patients with complex wounds need elevated care. So, we designed the Hillrom Envella Air Fluidized Therapy (AFT) Bed as our most advanced wound care surface to date. The Hillrom Envella bed can help with pain management and supports wound healing.1

The pressure redistribution surface pushes air through millions of tiny beads, creating a fluid-like environment that feels similar to floating on water. This action boosts immersion and envelopment, minimizes shear and pressure, and helps control the skin’s microclimate.2

Regardless, the editorial authors signal that Coca-Cola has become a first-line treatment for bezoars, and several case reports and studies support its use. A 2024 randomized controlled trial involving 160 patients in China with phytobezoars concluded that "Timely ingestion of Coca-Cola yields significant benefits, including a complete dissolution rate of 100 percent, a low incidence of gastric ulcers, no need for fragmentation, and reduced expenses."

While it's unclear what the woman's bezoar was made of—she didn't report eating an excessive amount of persimmons—it was most likely some type of phytobezoar. As such, doctors put her on a plan to drink 3,000 milliliters (about 8.5 cans) of cola in 12 hours. Given that the woman also had Type 2 diabetes, they prescribed diet cola. //

The next day, the woman "reported a sudden tugging sensation in her abdomen, followed by a prompt decrease in her nausea and abdominal discomfort." Taking another look with an endoscope, the doctors confirmed that the bezoar was gone.

As to how it formed in the first place, the doctors tied it to her use of semaglutide. As a GLP-1 weight-loss drug, one of its effects is slowing down stomach emptying. That in turn can create conditions for a bezoar to form.

I had been taught in school that scurvy had been conquered in 1747, when the Scottish physician James Lind proved in one of the first controlled medical experiments that citrus fruits were an effective cure for the disease. From that point on, we were told, the Royal Navy had required a daily dose of lime juice to be mixed in with sailors’ grog, and scurvy ceased to be a problem on long ocean voyages.

But here was a Royal Navy surgeon in 1911 apparently ignorant of what caused the disease, or how to cure it. Somehow a highly-trained group of scientists at the start of the 20th century knew less about scurvy than the average sea captain in Napoleonic times. Scott left a base abundantly stocked with fresh meat, fruits, apples, and lime juice, and headed out on the ice for five months with no protection against scurvy, all the while confident he was not at risk. What happened? //

One of the most striking features of the disease is the disproportion between its severity and the simplicity of the cure. Today we know that scurvy is due solely to a deficiency in vitamin C, a compound essential to metabolism that the human body must obtain from food. Scurvy is rapidly and completely cured by restoring vitamin C into the diet.

Except for the nature of vitamin C, eighteenth century physicians knew this too. But in the second half of the nineteenth century, the cure for scurvy was lost. The story of how this happened is a striking demonstration of the problem of induction, and how progress in one field of study can lead to unintended steps backward in another. //

Finally, that one of the simplest of diseases managed to utterly confound us for so long, at the cost of millions of lives, even after we had stumbled across an unequivocal cure. It makes you wonder how many incurable ailments of the modern world—depression, autism, hypertension, obesity—will turn out to have equally simple solutions, once we are able to see them in the correct light. What will we be slapping our foreheads about sixty years from now, wondering how we missed something so obvious? //

But the villain here is just good old human ignorance, that master of disguise. We tend to think that knowledge, once acquired, is something permanent. Instead, even holding on to it requires constant, careful effort.

DaveGinOly in reply to ztakddot. | September 5, 2025 at 1:32 am
A portion of deaths during the “Spanish” flu pandemic were almost certainly iatrogenic. Patients, many of them young soldiers, were treated with what we now know were fatally toxic doses of the miracle drug of the day – aspirin. Modern analysis of the day’s post mortems show many deaths displaying characteristics of salicylate poisoning – pneumonia-like wet and hemorrhaging lungs.

lichau in reply to DaveGinOly. | September 6, 2025 at 3:51 pm
Bingo.
I read that they were absolutely pounding aspirin. 20g/day or more.

When I switched to a locally compounded all-natural testosterone cream, the issue was solved. And the FDA has made it clear that it is interested in taking compounded creams for testosterone and estradiol off the market, as well. The FDA would prefer I inject myself with improved synthetics than allow me to opt for an organic alternative. //

Big Pharma loathes the idea of local providers and compounding pharmacies, because there is no money in such things. Something similar to this issue may one day affect you or someone you love. After all, there is more money to be made and more power to be had in treating sick people than in actually seeing them get better. There is more money to be made and more power to be had in forcing people to take synthetic medications than in allowing them to choose a natural alternative.

These parasites are usually found in the skin, but they can invade anything.

A century ago, somewhere around 8–10 percent of all psychiatric admissions in the US were caused by bromism. That's because, then as now, people wanted sedatives to calm their anxieties, to blot out a cruel world, or simply to get a good night's sleep. Bromine-containing salts—things like potassium bromide—were once drugs of choice for this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, bromide can easily build up in the human body, where too much of it impairs nerve function. This causes a wide variety of problems, including grotesque skin rashes (warning: the link is exactly what it sounds like) and significant mental problems, which are all grouped under the name of "bromism."

Bromide sedatives vanished from the US market by 1989, after the Food and Drug Administration banned them, and "bromism" as a syndrome is today unfamiliar to many Americans. (Though you can still get it by drinking, as one poor guy did, two to four liters of cola daily [!], if that cola contains "brominated vegetable oil." Fortunately, the FDA removed brominated vegetable oil from US food products in 2024.) //

After the escape attempt, the man was given an involuntary psychiatric hold and an anti-psychosis drug. He was administered large amounts of fluids and electrolytes, as the best way to beat bromism is "aggressive saline diuresis"—that is, to load someone up with liquids and let them pee out all the bromide in their system.

This took time, as the man's bromide level was eventually measured at a whopping 1,700 mg/L, while the "reference range" for healthy people is 0.9 to 7.3 mg/L. //

ChatGPT did list bromide as an alternative, but only under the third option (cleaning or disinfecting), noting that bromide treatments are "often used in hot tubs."

Left to his own devices, then, without knowing quite what to ask or how to interpret the responses, the man in this case study "did his own research" and ended up in a pretty dark place. The story seems like a perfect cautionary tale for the modern age, where we are drowning in information—but where we often lack the economic resources, the information-vetting skills, the domain-specific knowledge, or the trust in others that would help us make the best use of it. //

darlox Ars Centurion
12y
291
There's clearly a bell-curve of "the right amount of information" for society to function well. Too little, you end up with quacks selling cure-alls and snake oil because nobody can effectively do any research. Too much, and you end up with quacks selling cure-alls and snake oil because everybody can effectively do terrible research.

Sooner or later this will work it way out of the gene pool.... one way or another. 🤦‍♂️ //

Steel_Sloth Smack-Fu Master, in training
3y
26
Subscriptor
You should cut down on your use of table salt? Ah, that old bromide... //

Frodo Douchebaggins Ars Legatus Legionis
12y
11,409
Subscriptor
Some people are on this planet solely to become cautionary tales. //

UweHalfHand Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
5y
153
Subscriptor++

ajm8127 said:
Don't you need some chlorine? For example to form HCl and break down food in your stomach. I am sure the body uses it for other processes as well.

Remember, a BALANCED diet is what you are after.
No! ChlorINE is very dangerous war gas; it’s chlorIDE you need, the latter is a benign ion of significant biological use. Granted, it’s only one tiny electron difference, but that makes all the difference… a very renowned biophysicist corrected me quite emphatically on this point once. If you attempt to let that electron be added inside or for that matter anywhere near your body, you will regret it.

But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed. //

an 'all-natural' supplement you can buy at...
5 everyday foods and drinks silently damaging your long-term health, say nutrition experts5 everyday foods and drinks silently damaging your long-term...
I'm a neuroscientist — this 'one-page miracle' can boost brain health, plus why I nicknamed my mind 'Hermie'I'm a neuroscientist — this 'one-page miracle' can boost brain...

Health

exclusive
Our sons died taking an ‘all-natural’ supplement you can buy at gas stations — people don’t realize it’s so addictive and dangerous
By Anna Medaris
Published Aug. 6, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET

Today's Video Headlines

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00:51

Months before Jordan McKibban collapsed in his bathroom and never woke up, the 37-year-old prepared smoked salmon and home-grown canned peppers to entertain his big, blended family in their quiet Washington state community.

Weeks before, he told his mom, Pam Mauldin, things were getting serious with the woman he was dating — his “one big desire” to have kids was finally in reach, Mauldin recalled.

Days before, he helped a friend plant a flower garden for a baby shower. “He loved life. He loved doing things outdoors,” Mauldin told The Post.

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Then, on the day of his death, McKibban went to his longtime job at an organic food distributor. When he got home, he mixed a tablespoon of a powdered kratom supplement into his lemonade.

Jordan McKibban preparing meat at a campsite
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Jordan McKibban died at age 37 while taking kratom, an “all-natural” supplement available online and in stores.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Large family group photo including
Jordan McKibban (center in a red baseball cap) and his mother (second from right)
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Jordan’s mom, Pam Mauldin (second from right), spoke to The Post to warn other parents — and thinks kratom should be pulled from shelves.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Marketed as an “all-natural” way to ease pain, anxiety, depression and more, kratom can appeal to health-conscious people like McKibban, who Mauldin says wouldn’t even take ibuprofen for the arthritis in his hands.

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But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed.

When Mauldin broke into his bathroom after a call from her grandson that day, she found McKibban lifeless. She performed CPR on her own son and shielded her eyes when medics carried his gray body away.

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“I’ve lost my son. I’ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I’ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life that I get to watch with my other kids. I’ve lost enjoying these years with him,” Mauldin said.

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“I have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn’t be there,” she added.

From dizziness to nonresponsiveness
Kratom products — sold in powders, gummies and energy-looking drinks — come from a plant native to Southeast Asia and can act like a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative at higher ones.

“Kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it.”
Dr. Robert Levy, addiction and family medicine doctor

While they’re readily found online, in brick-and-mortar stores and even gas stations as catch-all solutions to everything from fatigue to opioid withdrawal, the Food and Drug Administration says kratom and its key components are “not lawfully marketed” in the US as a drug product, dietary supplement or food additive. //

Experts are especially concerned with a highly potent, highly addictive kratom offshoot called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, which seems to have infiltrated the market in the past few years, said Dr. Robert Levy, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who’s board-certified in both addiction and family medicine. //

just last week, the FDA recommended classifying 7-OH as an illicit substance.

“7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, said in a press release. “We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.”

In the meantime, according to Levy, parents should be having open conversations with their kids about the appeals, dangers and addictive potential of kratom — and the fact that “all-natural” or “plant-based” doesn’t necessarily mean safe. “Arsenic is also from a plant,” he says.

The first widespread success in curing HIV may come from children, not adults.

• Rest. Fatigue can cause eye floaters and other visual disturbances. Resting your eyes and getting enough sleep can minimize strain and reduce floaters.

• Harsh light exposure. Wearing protective sunglasses, limiting screen time, dimming indoor lights, and eliminating glare sources can help reduce eye strain and floaters.

pineapples have been linked to a decrease in floaters because of an enzyme called bromelain. It can digest proteins like collagen, which is what floaters are made of.

Barta was battling topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) syndrome, a debilitating condition some face after quitting high-potency creams to treat skin issues like eczema.

Common symptoms include intense burning, redness, itching and skin shedding. Many sufferers are bedridden or housebound for months — or even years — before the effects begin to subside, according to the International Topical Steroid Awareness Network (ITSAN), which advocates for awareness and supports those affected.

In an appearance on Fox News' Faulkner Focus, Kennedy said, "Well, people will still get indemnified for it to the extent that they're already indemnified. But, you know, it is an issue, it's a balance. You're gonna see probably slightly more cavities, although in Europe, where they banned fluoride, they did not see an uptick in cavities.

"The issue is parents need to decide because the science is very clear on fluoride. The National Toxicity Program issued a report of a meta-review of all the science on it in August that said there's a direct inverse correlation between the amount of fluoride in your water and your loss of IQ."

Kennedy has long advocated for the removal of fluoride from drinking water and some states have looked to remove it, including Florida and Oklahoma. While research has shown effects on brain development, some dental organizations have raised concerns that removing fluoride from drinking water will lead to poorer oral hygiene.

A British woman has died from rabies after she was "scratched" by a puppy in Morocco, her family said.

Yvonne Ford, 59, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had light contact with the stray dog while on holiday in February in the North African country.

In a social media post, reported by the Press Association, Mrs Ford's family said she developed a headache two weeks ago and later couldn't "walk, talk, sleep, swallow".

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there was no risk to the wider public due to no documented evidence of rabies passing between people.

Corporate media often smear birth control skeptics for believing “misinformation” about the harms synthetic hormones can have on women’s bodies and minds. A flurry of nearly 300 lawsuits from females alleging that the popular “safe and effective” birth control shot Depo-Provera played a role in their development of brain and spine tumors, however, suggests women should question the effects of any drug sold to them — especially those designed to prevent pregnancy. //

It wasn’t until a landmark study published in the British Medical Journal in March 2024 found that women who took Depo-Provera had a 500 percent higher risk of developing a meningioma (a tumor that specifically forms and develops in the membranes around the brain and spinal cord) than women who did not get the shot that women across the world realized the connection.

A February 2025 study purported to confirm that the chemical compound that makes up Depo-Provera increases the risk of meningioma in women who take it.