#and yes iodine reaction is a real thing!

[tomminowrites]

I see this in a lot of MacGyver fics (so not an original idea at all) and I love it. What do you think about the headcanon that Mac cannot tolerate drugs, like at all, and his body just reacts horribly, hence making hospitals and prescriptions even more of a hell than they already are?

*leans in so my lips touch the microphone*

Y E S .

He feels kind of… woozy? Yeah. People use that word a lot, and with the floor dipping and spinning beneath him, Mac is starting to think that this is exactly the kind of sensation they mean. He tries to stand, hoping to pin the floor down with his feet so that it will stop moving - but the Phoenix nurse catches him and gently pushes him back down onto the chair.

“Easy now Mr. MacGyver. That was just the antiseptic, so I need you to wait here for a minute while I prep the stitches.” She turns away again, fiddling with something on the countertop as she chatters. Mac blinks heavily and focuses on his breathing. It’s too shallow, he’s- he’s reacting, he needs to say something but his traitorous tongue sits heavily in his mouth when he tries to swallow. 

“You’ll be right as rain in no time, don’t worry! That was a real nasty scrape you got back there, Agent.” Her back is to him, she can’t see her patient’s distress. Mac tries to reach out, but his depth perception is way off. His hand swipes at empty air.

He inhales carefully through his teeth, trying to squeeze enough air into his lungs to ask for help. His throat is swollen, squeezing anaphylaxis choking him from the inside. Mac knows the symptoms from plenty of previous experience. 

Why hadn’t he been paying attention?? God, he was just so tired from the mission that he had closed his eyes, slumped back in the chair instead of watching what chemicals were being used. Mistake.

“Now, if you could just- MacGyver? Sir?” Mac slumps forward with a moan, and the poor nurse catches an armful just in time. She’s the new hire; Mac can’t remember her name, and her ID tag is too blurry to read now… His oxygen-starved brain takes a moment to feel guilty.

“Oh no you- HELP! I need help in unit six!! MacGyver I-”

The door swings open, and Jack strides in from where he was no doubt waiting just outside. He takes one look at the nurse struggling to prop up Mac and rushes forward to relieve her. “Mac! Hey, buddy easy now. You gotta breathe.”

The nurse rushes to the door to flag a supervisor, then starts rummaging through her emergency drawer. Jack glances over at the tray and grimaces.

“Always with the damn iodine. There’s a note in your files but it probably got buried under all the OTHER crap you’ve had a reaction too…” Jack taps lightly at Mac’s cheek, firm hands bracing along the sides of his neck to keep Mac’s drooping head upright. Jack’s voice drops to seriousness. “C’mon now dude keep your eyes on me. Slow inhales, right? Let’s keep it calm, don’t look away or close- Hey! Mac, no Mac, don’t you dare fade out on m-”

The world goes black, but Mac knows his partner will wake him soon.He’s in good hands.

[thisbluespirit]

HELLO I AM HERE TO TALK ELEMENTS WITH YOU!!!!

First of all, I love your moodboards, they're giving me so much happiness and life.

And second of all, just the other day I was enjoying 'Columbo Goes To The Guillotine' where Anthony Andrews of Brideshead Revisited; and many other credits was the villain.

And it was occurring to me, how excellent he would be in Sapphire and Steel. Now the question just remains, as to which element... I'm going to look through the PT myself, but I'd dearly love any ideas you might have on that as well!

@snickety-lemons

Yaaay! My plan to annoy the void into talking back to me worked! <3 (I feel Steel would disapprove of this plan...)

And also thank you! I love speculating on what other 'elements' might be like and I'm glad the moodboards are being fun for you too.

But, yes, let's talk of elements and other things!

Anthony Andrews is someone I've seen in a few things (although not Brideshead). I'd not considered him before, but I can definitely see it, yes!

Which one is a really good question, though. Don't forget you don't just have the periodic table to play with, there are minerals and alloys running around here calling themselves elements, including

Oh, yeah, these two eponymous pretenders. ;-p

Some at least vaguely canonical ones not yet done include Platinum and 'Brass' (the latter may not be 'real' or currently extant, though, given Sapphire's reaction to giving that human any other 'element's 'powers' in A5).

Some elements that have turned up in fic so far that I know of, but which I haven't yet done a moodboard for include Acanthite, Magnesium, Helium, Indium, Iodine, Ruthenium, Bloodstone, and Tantalum, plus a few Transuranics - Americium, Flerovium, Lawrencium, Livermorium, Neptunium, and Uranium.

But this takes much Googling of possible elements/minerals/alloys and frowning at wikipedia... XD

[kitten-mafiagang]

The Disease We Are All Afraid Of  [Kuroo x Reader]

(Reader's pov)

Well is it weird if im not the type of person who believes in love.Well probably because im afraid of it.Why...? did you know love can kill a person even though you dont feel it..?

symptoms...? well probably mental symptoms like depression.. or either happyness or sadness.Im no expert but i believe love consist both of the conflict of hate and guilt just my opinion though.

Hate,once you are all over nothing would change i mean some people are still keeping a tight hold to the spider's string and still blinded by their love to someone even though the feelings arent the same anymore..thats why hatred would grow upon their hearts..

Guilt,regrets..? yes ofcourse one of the sickness you could get from love..regrets of cheating either loving someone because of what..? because of the pain..? or the 'love' that shares the bond of both of you..

Well theres another type of symptoms which is happyness and positivity..

First happyness,feeling butterflies at your stomach whenever you went pass him/her..? well how about the hot feeling crawling from your face until to your ears..

Well blame it to Phenylethylamine is a natural stimulant that behaves like an amphetamine. Known as the molecule of love , it is often associated with the butterflies we feel when we're around our crush.

Positivity,well if your bond to each other is strong as diamond probably we would be expecting a happy ending..

Well dont you think happy ending like in Disney princesses are the best thing you want to experience.

Well dont you know chemistry answers this feelings and not just fate.

Our emotions are build in most general definition, is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action.

Fate huh...well i believe fate is pretty they say....fate is the most prettiest lie you could hear from most people.

Being in love is affected by huge, measurable changes in the biochemistry of the brain,So dont every say "Follow what your heart says" heart just gave us the proper pump of blood and oxygen through are body and nerves.

does this mean love isn't real? It's just some brain reaction to just make us want to breed more lives?

But i never expected how much impact love changed me...

"Are you made of copper and tellurium?" kuroo asked.

"Kuroo we all now that,The four most abundant elements in the human body – Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen – account for more than 99 percent of the atoms inside the human body..." i answered.

"...well probably your differend" he barked back.

"and why is that..?" i asked.

"Because you're CuTe." he answered.

"....."

"Come on! answer something-"

Well being the science nerds of the class we are everyday dealing with each other's science or chemistry shits.

"(y/n)!!" he shouted from the other direction.

"what is it kuroo?"

"I know hundreds of Pi digits, but what I really want to know is the 7 digits of your phone number."

"...." he looked at me with begging eyes.

"fine"

"yay"

And theres this time

"You must be made of uranium and iodine" kuroo leaned at his chair..

"kuroo do i have to remind you that-" he cut me off

"because all I can see is U and I together."

"...."

"...."

Well hes that everyday and the next day and next next day..

Me and kuroo got partnered to research about the periodic table.

"so...whats the plan...?" i asked.

"Forget hydrogen" kuroo said seriously.

"What do you mean..? oh are you going to work on that?"

He stared at me quietly.

"you're my number one element" he smirked at me.

"...i hate you very much-"

"i love you too--"

Since the whole school year hes being like this he never miss anyday or anytime just to have a pick line from him everytime.

It was graduation

I was about to go home after it but i remembered something which is i dint encounter kuroo.Well ill be honest i like him..yeah i caught feelings but im scared that what could happen.

I entered the volleyball gym and saw kuroo with his team mates.

"k-kuroo" i called.

"oh (y/n) what are you doing here..?" he asked me.I could see his team mates peeking behind him.

"k-kuroo..."

"yeah..?" he asked.

"I'm not an astronomer..." i said and continued.

"but I still promise to give you the sun, moon, and stars...." i smiled at him

He was shock like very shock his face turned red and looked at me again.

"you are making my atomic number rise." he said..

"What's atomic number...?" taketora asked kenma and then yaku smacked taketora for being dumb.

"so...are we together..?" i asked him.

"Why don't we get together? You can test my hardness while I test your cleavage..." he teased.

"K-kuroo what the fuck--" i blushed very hard.

" I might be into physics, but I can assure you that I will never be a Bore in the bedroom." i smirked at him and its his turn to be embarrassed.

[aria-laughs]

Real talk..(needed to vent, feel free to not read this if you don't like long rants)

When i was 11 years old i had already been through my fair share of crap. Coming from a "broken" home with little money, a depressed mother and an absent father. At that time i remember being bullied as a biproduct of my sister stoping one of her classmates (a 13 year old girl) from traveling half accross the contry to meet her 19 year old boyfriend who she'd met online for the first time.. under the pretence that she was traveling to visit my dad with my big sister. This all ended with the police stoping the train and picking the girl up before she reached her destination and everyone didn't have to suffer through the ordeal with a minor being raped or worse by a yound adult in a strange city..anyway. when the summer ended and we (me and my two siblings) gor back home, all these rumors spread about us and school became tricky. I got used to it tho, i had my friends and i quickly learned to keep close to teachers whenever i was alone. At the home front my mom became sick and the kids got a lot of grown up responsibilities. It was okay too.. kids get used to a lot, and today im a wizz in the kitchen and i clean with the best of them.

My mother had a temper, and would hit us when we did something wrong. I remember trying to cover for my siblings as much as possible, trying to shield them from the worst of it. Don't get me wrong, i LOVE my mother. She's been through hell and her sroty is worse than anything i've ever heard of. I understand what happened when i grew up and i love her because she allways did her best.. but i haven't forgiven her for making my home unsafe. At 11 years old one of my teachets notised that i had a hard time with my schoolwork. They couldn't get me to focus on my work and i was distracted by anything. I remember the letters mixing up as i read, and it became impossible to do my homework because no one could see the letters moving like i could. The teached contacted my mom and my stepfather and told them he'd talk to a specialist about me maybe having ADHD. The next week my mom dropped me off at the specialist and i got tested in every subject known to man. As usuall i exelled at language, history and music. But everything else was a bit off, i remember hearing him telling my mom that it couldn't be HDHD because my memory was too good. But refered her to a doctor for more tests. The ordeal took another week before my mother came to pick me up at lunch one day and told me we had to go to the hospital.

I had a thyroid condition that firsly was almost non-exsistent, and secoundly was unheard of in someone my age. They took blood, and sent me to get an MR and CT. When all the tests came back, we got the good news that i wouldn't die if they treated it quickly. But since i was still waiting for normal bodyparts to arrive, and hadn't gone through puberty yet.. he had no idea where to start. I don't remember the name of the medication, but i remember taking 15 a day. 5 in the morning, 5 when i got home from school and 5 before bed. I took them and 39 minutes later i was sprinting to the bathroom puking my guts out. This obviously didn't work in the long run and by the end of it i was so skinny you could see my teeth through my cheeks. They changed my meds and i stopped with the hurling. Instead i gained about 30 kg in the first 6 months and looked like a beach ball on legs. And as a kid being bullied, this wasn't that fun. Let me remind you that this had been going on for a while and tho my mom did what she could.. the was depressed and didn't see how bad it got for me and all the responsibilities i had at home made me dissapear in the day-to-day of it all. Alone and scared as the bullying became physical I panicked and stoped taking my meds, and all my symptoms came back. I would sleep for 14 hours and wake up exhausted. I'd go full days without getting hungry and i'd get moodswings and get real clumsy. My family got used to this and the symptoms stoped being symptoms and started being "just me".

So now i'd wake up and have to care for my siblings, go to school without lunch for myself because i had to make it for my siblings, or forgetting to shower because i had to remind my brother to do it. I get off the buss and get my ass kicked on my way to the classroom. Some days i'd get through it and come home to start dinner for my family, and other times the bullying sent me to the ER to get stitched up (i didn't have to make dinner on those days). This happened often enough that the doctor knew me by my first name, and instead of "how did you hurt yourself?) I'd get "Again!? When the nurses came to get me. One day i slept for 16 hours and my mother confronted me about my weightloss and asked if i'd been taking my meds. I came clean and a few hours at the doctors office and one frustrating car ride later. I'd promissed to take my pills again, but by that point i had ruined my body enough to never get better. So at 15 years old the doctors decided that they'd treat my thyroid with radioactive iodine. This worked great and killed the thyroid gland, making me dependend on meds for the rest of my life.

For anyone who don't know, the thyroid gland is responsible for your bodys metabolism. This means everything... your metabolism is a part of every funktion of every organ in your entire body, tho we usually think about how fast you burn fat because this is what we see on the outside.

We did our best, and we got through it. I had a safe place with my best friend and his family. And i'd escape there as often as i could. His mother would remind me to take my meds, she'd let me shower at their place and when she realised that i never ate at school she started packing lunch for me to send with her son every day.

I don't think i'd survive and be the person i am today without them. I remember the day i finally told them what was going on at home when i grew up, at this point i had grown up and moved away from home. I had started opening up to people i trusted and understood the power of talking about my problems. i never ment it as a "why didn't you see".. im thankful for my life, even the bad pars, but i needed them to know how much they saved me. To understand how much i love them all. I'll keep their reactions to myself, but i'll tell you that i have never felt more treasured in my life.

I was 22 years old the first time someone told me that I never deserved the abuse at home. I was 25 years old when i told my mother i forgave her for the physical stuff, but that i couldn't forgive her for stealing my feeling of home and safety. And i was today years old when i wrote it down for anyone to see.

I've been taking my meds for about 17 years now, but I have yet to actually get a normal metabolism. My last stunt was that i suddenly didn't need that much medicine so my metabolism speed up to lifethreatening speed and i had to endure panic attacks, dizziness, lack of consentration and shaking so bad that i almost quit school and almost sent me into a brainfailure (yes thats a thing) over the summer. My doctors paniced and reduced my meds so much that i didn't get nearly enough. This ended with me loosing weight, not eating, shaking, being sick and passing out all over the place, and almost sent me into a life threatening coma as my body overcompensated for the loss of thyroid hormones. My dad said something i've never heard my family say before. We were eating dinner last weekend and i was having a bad day when he told me "its painful to watch you struggle like this". And i almost cried, this was the first time in forever that a parent told me that they see me. And now i'm finally starting to get back to where im used to.

I have skipped a lot of stuff that happened. Some things i don't think i'll ever talk about, and some things that are too personal or too painful or too stupid to write down. But i needed to work through the new stuff, to reflecr back and to realise how close i came to loosing my life again this year. How lucky i am that i not only held on for dear life, but that with all the crap i felt. All the sickness and panic and everything. I managed to finish this semester at school. I managed to survive again, and im 6 months away from reaching my goal of allways being able to help when im needed. I am so proud of myself for getting to where i am today. And im so thankful!!

[silencedlittlebirdy]

Conquering a World: Part 3

Traaiillooonn clicked his mandible fangs with his claw, “So you plan to test these plants by licking them?” “No, well, eventually, yes. But right now I’m testing the plant samples against chemicals. That’s why I was telling you you shouldn’t be in here if you don’t have a mask. I don’t know what will happen when I test these plants against these chemicals. They could have extremely toxic reactions.” I took a dropper of hydrogen peroxide, ready to put it on a fruit I had found. “What?! You’re going to test it without knowing the reactions?!” I rolled my eyes, “How else am I supposed to figure it out?” “But…it could be deadly!” “I’m aware,” I responded through gritted teeth, just barely biting back an insult. “But being on an unfamiliar planet is just as deadly, so is starvation, dehydration, and hypothermia.” “You’re going to risk your life to test a plant?” I didn’t bother responding, just let the peroxide drop onto the plant. It just bubbled the way it normally did. I shrugged, and made note of the initial reaction. Then I lowered the mask and smelled. Just smelled like peroxide. I started another sample, to test with a small sample of iodine that was given me for experiments, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Meaning, if you’re too afraid to stay here, get out. I don’t need you shadowing me, I don’t need you distracting me. I have to be precise, and able to focus so that I don’t miss anything.” “But I must record all discoveries and advancements made by you and the other humans as you conquer and settle this planet, including the scientific methods used to accustom yourselves with the workings of the planet. Also, I am told to take stock orders.” I froze before I could squeeze the dropper. “Stock orders? What does that mean?” “Well, the Pqncallaxis Dominion is aware of the needs of humans, and that all supplies for your survival may not be present at the current moment in time, and that it takes time to learn what is consumable. Just because we want you to settle the world does not mean that you must suffer while doing so.” “Looonny-boy, you should have started with that bit of information.” I put the dropper back in the bottle of iodine. “Do you realize how panicked humans get when they’re ripped away from everything they’ve known? You’re lucky we didn’t kill you the moment you landed. I still wasn’t sure whether I wanted to try and poison you or not. Come on, we have to tell the others. I need real equipment, we need actual medical supplies, and we need ammunition. If something attacks us we need to be able to defend ourselves.” Traaiillooonn’s whiskers twitched, “You would poison another species?” “Humanity does all sorts of weird things when under pressure.” “Humans are a violent race.” “But you’ve got to admit, we’re excellent at keeping out of the intergalactic wars.” “This is a truth.” “So, is your name just Traaiillooonn?” “My name was judged to be too difficult for humans to pronounce.” “I’d still like to hear it.” “Ecxatraaiillooonnonkrisskavafliskvan.” I frowned as I thought it over. “Ecxa-traaiillooonn-kriss-kava-flisk-van. I can see why you’d go by a nickname.” “What is this nickname?” “A shortening of your full name, or some other name that you are called by friends and family. My mom calls me Cocoa Butt. Nobody else. It’s her nickname for me.” “Ah, so you consider Traaiillooonn a nickname for me.” “Exactly.” “Interesting. I shall have to make note of this practice in my observations. There is not much information on humans in the Pqncallaxis Dominion’s records. Is it true that humans have three forms of mating rituals? Kara-oke, Dance, and consumption of alcohol? Sometimes mixed together.” I started laughing. “I wouldn’t exactly call them mating rituals. Humans have many different practices that lead to…mating.” “Such as?” “Um…you know, it would take another lifetime to describe all of the different rituals. Let’s just suffice to say the things you named are activities that potential mates would do together for fun, or to get to know each other a little more.” I didn’t want to delve into that well of awkward. “Ava, get everyone together. Traaiillooonn just told me something important.” She shot a glare my way, probably for being to loud. “Important enough that you made me lose count?” “More important. Traaiillooonn just told me that we can order supplies.” She set the can of soup on a pile. “You couldn’t have told me this before I started going through the pantry?” “I just found out about five minutes ago. Maybe ten. Don’t be grumpy. Ecxatraaiillooonnonkrisskavafliskvan didn’t realize that it would be a point of interest for us.” She rolled her eyes, still glaring. I sighed. I guess there was no point talking to her. When she got into one of her moods, there was no getting her out of it and it was just horrible to be around her. “Okay, well, I’m going to go tell the others. You should still look through the pantry. We’ll still need to know what we have so that we can order more efficiently. And Ava? Might want to drink some tea, sweet-chicks your RBF is active,” I remarked as I left the room. She didn’t respond, unless it was an inaudible grumble. Traaiillooonn followed. “What is RBF?” “Resting Bitch face. Honestly, she just has chronic bitch face as well. She’s working on it. I have a higher tolerance for her. Anyway, we should get out. She does have a gun.” “Ah, so you are a typical protective household and your lover—as the humans say—wears the pants?” “Whoa! No. No, no. No no no. No, that’s not…oh gosh���no. Just no.” “You wear the pants?” “Ugh! No! We’re not lovers. She’s a friend. That’s it. That’s all. Jeez oh Pete, you’re worse than the old ladies at my church. Trying to throw me in with someone. We’re a defensive household. Only reason I don’t have a pistol is because of the noise. I’ve always been a little sound sensitive. That’s not to say that I won’t shoot one. I’m a good shot. But I’m still more likely to poison someone than shoot them. There’s Chad.” I waved him down. He said something to his father, then jogged over. “What’s up?” “Traaiillooonn just told me that one of his jobs is to place orders for stock.” Chad stared blankly for a moment, then started laughing. “I’m so ready for bed.”

@riptidethepen

[fashiontrendin-blog]

What a Scary Diagnosis Taught Me About “Wellness”

http://fashion-trendin.com/what-a-scary-diagnosis-taught-me-about-wellness/

What a Scary Diagnosis Taught Me About “Wellness”

I

’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself to do a lot, very well and very fast. A few years ago, though, bossing myself around stopped working so well — not because I lowered my standards, but because I couldn’t seem to fulfill requests quickly enough. My body felt sluggish and strangely disengaged from my mind, which was regularly betraying my memories. Organizing my thoughts became laborious, like trying to befriend a very spoiled cat.

I started seeing doctors. Each time, I presented a growing buffet of symptoms: anxiety, gastrointestinal problems, poor sleep, allergies, food intolerances, acne, low energy, mood swings and weight fluctuations. Although everything seemed to be culminating at once, when I tried to trace their beginnings, things felt murky. Some of my symptoms, I realized, could be traced back several years, maybe even 10. But I’d always convinced myself they were simply byproducts of modern life. Stress will do that to a person, right?

Finally, after seeing 11 doctors over two years, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Autoimmune diseases are conditions wherein the body attacks its own healthy cells. In the case of Hashimoto’s, my body built up antibodies against my thyroid gland. The thyroid is a cute and butterfly-shaped control freak, regulating a person’s reaction to stress, muscle control, cognizance of hunger and satiety, heart and digestive function, sleep quality and more. As you can imagine, any disruption in its function can cause a variety of seemingly disconnected symptoms.

Doctors initially told me that my antibody count wasn’t high enough to warrant medication, but they said there were “lifestyle manipulations” I could make instead. Knowledge of this was, for lack of a less cheesy word, empowering. I dove into Google right away, which ushered me into a Facebook group of 76,000+ members called Hashimoto’s 411. The group was an informational conveyor belt with, on average, one post every hour.

In Hashimoto’s 411, I found a strangely comforting home. Vulnerable strangers posed questions to other vulnerable strangers. These other vulnerable strangers answered the questions with authority, based on their own unique collections of symptoms and strategies. I, too, have both asked and answered questions with authority on topics ranging from advice about iodine supplementation (controversial!), to conventional doctors (idiots, all of them), to which vegetables are easiest to digest (cooked, non-cruciferous ones low in salicylates). Each of my posts attracted 40+ replies, with empathetic peers pinging back suggestions like rubber bands, their oceanic compassion rippling through the feed.

At first, the exchanges felt sincere. But over time, they began to carry an air of paranoia, and I came to realize that they were also stoking something beyond comfort: fear. In this furtive corner of Facebook, I was learning to blindly appropriate fact and fiction about things like gluten intolerance, inflammation markers, coinfections and gut permeability. I construed the group as a reservoir of rich knowledge harboring the answers that would eventually heal me, forgetting that much of the content was subjective. I’d homogenized a complicated illness by lifting strangers’ strategies to treat my own assemblage of symptoms, denouncing food groups and erecting supplement spreadsheets.

One day, after reading a long thread that maligned synthetic ingredients in beauty products, suggesting they may cause Hashimoto flare-ups, I decided to discard all of my expensive makeup and skincare products in an impassioned fury. If indiscriminate internet users had taught me anything, it was that chemicals were bad, and that I was practically inviting illness into my life by buying them. After ushering in “clean” beauty counterparts, I then spent a designer dog price tag on supplements for “inner beauty” (known in some circles are “edible skincare”). The top shelf in my medicine cabinet had become ugly but interesting. But here’s the kicker: I still felt lousy. And I didn’t even have a puppy for my trouble.

The more links I clicked and tabs I opened, the more I felt my fear swell. Eventually, the fear would overpower even the initial symptoms I was experiencing. After a while, I realized I could scarcely differentiate my health anxiety from that of anyone else enmeshed in the wellness industrial complex. Pursuing alternative remedial strategies for a clinical disease might be different than habitually mining Goop for an adaptogen to raise your IQ or crystal therapies to shrink your pores (spoiler! both outcomes are impossible). But the governing principles of this industry — worth a quaint $3.7 trillion as of 2015 — can explain both schools of behavior.

Wellness assigns responsibility for health betterment to the individual. Have a dig around: A left-leaning health “solution” might plug the gaping hole in your soul engineered by the modern world, or it might turn out to be an actual solution. Either way, you’re crazy not to try. This is the rather humorous duality of hope and cynicism with which the average woman approaches wellness: Whether what ails you is pallid or pronounced, real or imagined, the answers are out there! You just have to spend every waking moment and all your savings to find them.

Which brings me to one of the most important health lessons this information-binge ultimately taught me: If you truly believe there are holes in your health, it’s wise to seek out a good doctor (possibly the integrative kind) before diving into the wild west of self-treating on the internet. A doctor who is thorough, curious and listens. I only just found mine — she’s lucky number 12. She ordered several comprehensive tests that were, yes, cripplingly expensive, but also revealed the mineral deficiencies that were directly causing my Hashimoto’s symptoms (primarily a paltry iodine supply, if you’re interested). She did this without once doubting the validity of my symptoms or arching a suspicious brow or wordlessly handing me a script for antidepressants. I now have supplements and strategies that work for my specific circumstances, and I’m using them and feeling better. I’ve still found it worthwhile to continue my own independent research — albeit, not with the all-consuming focus of yesteryear — but now I bring relevant theories to my appointments to be tested. Good doctors will advocate for patients who advocate for themselves.

Sadly, no amount of hope will turn backlit miscellanea into functional health strategies that serve you and your body and your own conglomeration of needs. Perhaps ironically, I’ve found that tirelessly drinking up the internet’s stream of health and wellness literature is not all that healthy.

Melissa Kenny is a writer, digital strategist and owner-operator of Tiny Gentle Asians. 

Collages by Madeline Montoya. 

[foursprouthealth-blog]

11 Mistakes to Avoid When Grilling Steak, According to Chefs

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/health/11-mistakes-to-avoid-when-grilling-steak-according-to-chefs/

11 Mistakes to Avoid When Grilling Steak, According to Chefs

Purists assert that a good-quality cut of steak is done ill justice at the hands of an overzealous grill. Contrast that to cheaper cuts like chuck roast, for example, which come to their prime slowly and forgivingly when slowly cooked. Cooking steak, therefore, is a paradoxically delicate matter for a powerfully primal affair. So it’s understandable that many diners and home cooks err on the side of overcooking it, especially if the quality of the meat might not be top shelf.

Regardless of what your preferences are—and we’re not knocking any of ‘em—here are eleven mistakes to avoid on your next steak night.

Choose the right piece of steak. The quality of your final product depends on your starting ingredients.

“Finding the best product you can get your hands on is always the hardest part of cooking a great steak,” says Ryan Prentiss. He’s executive chef at Prime + Proper steakhouse in Detroit, Michigan. “There’s really only three things in my opinion that make for a good grilled steak: Beef, salt and fire.”

He goes on to explain: “We only work with USDA Prime beef, which is the highest grade of beef available, and accounts for only 1.5% of the beef in the nation. Fat is flavor, so look for beef that looks plump, bright red and has the most marbling. Marbling is the intramuscular fat present in high quality beef that gives it a ‘marbled’ appearance. Grain-fed or grain finished beef will have more marbling than a grass-fed beef.”

On aged steak:

“If you’re lucky enough to be able to find a butcher that has dry-aged beef,” Prentiss says. “I highly recommend trying anything aged from 15 to 30 days until you become acquainted with the flavor.”

Chef Joe Cervantez agrees, specifying that “steaks eat best at 23 to 28 days.” He’s executive chef at Brennan’s of Houston. “Most steaks from the grocery store are aged 14 days,” he says. If you’re up for trying your hand at aging and are lucky enough to have access to a cryovac, he recommends packing the meat in an airtight seal until it hits at least 23 days.

On cuts and thickness:

According to chef Dan Sharp of The Meatball Shop in New York, certain types of steaks best lend themselves to grilling. He recommends a skirt steak for a hot grill, whereas a NY strip steak or ribeye is best for a cast-iron pan over a burner. (For pan cooking, he recommends a 3/4-inch to 1-inch steak because “the thickness gives you the time to get a nice crust on the outside without overcooking the inside,” he says.)

Don’t cook your steaks straight from the fridge.

Prentiss recommends taking out your steak from the fridge about one hour before you’re going to cook it and setting it on a roasting rack. (This is also the best time to season it with salt, ideally medium grain sea salt, he says. More on that below.)

Sharp prefers to season his steaks a couple of hours in advance, and then agrees about letting them come to room temperature before cooking. There’s an exception, however: “If [the steak] on the thinner side,” he says, “starting it cold will give a buffer from overcooking the center.”

While chefs differ about the amount of room temp time before cooking, chef Dinesh Jayawardena recommends not squeezing the time below a half hour.

Don’t use the wrong kind of salt, and when in doubt, oversalt.

“True sea salt is always the way to go when seasoning a steak,” Prentiss says. “We use Jacobsen’s Kosher Salt from Portland, Oregon. The grains are medium sized and have a pleasant minerality that lends itself perfectly to grilled beef. Any true fleur de sel or sel gris type sea salt will work well for good beef. Avoid table salt, iodized salt or small fine-grain sea salts as they have more weight to volume than larger grain salts and you can easily over season with them. Just think medium grain, true sea salt.”

Cervantez is a fan of kosher salt, which is, according to experts, virtually identical to sea salt. (Both are different from iodized table salt however, which is usually ultra fine grain and is adulterated with iodine, hence the name.) Cervantez is a fan of pepper, as well, and recommends combining both in equal quantities.

And when you do, “Always overseason your steaks a bit,” adds chef Christian Ragano. He’s the executive chef at Cindy’s, the rooftop restaurant at the Chicago Athletic Association. “When you think it’s enough, always add a little more. A lot of salt and pepper always falls off during the cooking process and doesn’t always penetrate the meat.”

Jayawardena of FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar in Bloomington, Minnesota, agrees. “Now is not the time to be shy about seasoning,” he says, adding that salt is “the most important ingredient you could ever add to a steak. Do this before you let the steaks rest so the seasoning has time to work its way deep into the meat.”

Don’t season your steak too soon—yes, that’s a thing.

“With larger steaks it’s always a good idea to finish with some large flake or finishing salt once it’s sliced,” says Prentiss. “If you do not have an hour to temper and season ahead of time, season immediately before grilling, anything shorter than 40 minutes will only pull moisture out of the steak and not let the outside get those beautiful grill marks and crust.”

Chef Juan Carlos of SoBou in New Orleans likes to add in a bit of olive oil as well, which he says help gets better sear or griddle marks. If you do decide to add some fat, stick with olive oil, not butter, says Angelo Auriana. He’s the chef at Factory Place Hospitality. “There is no real need for butter when cooking a steak because it already has plenty of fat and flavor in the meat itself,” he says. (That is, of course, assuming you have a solid starting product.)

Make sure it’s super dry before it hits the heat.

“Make sure you pat down your meat,” says Cervantez. “Dry meat forms the best crust.” (Not much more to say about that, then.)

Don’t use lighter foil or charcoal briquettes if you can avoid it.

According to Prentiss, “Always avoid lighter fluid if possible, and while convenient, charcoal briquettes can add an unpleasant kerosene flavor to meat grilled meats and should be avoided. If a wood/natural lump charcoal fire is unavailable or too inconvenient, propane grills will ultimately yield a better steak than charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid.”

The best way to go, however, is hardwood or hardwood lump charcoal. “Natural solid fuels add the most flavor to steaks while complementing their natural flavors instead of overpowering them,” says Prentiss. “At P+P we use seasoned oak logs and a hardwood lump charcoal made from mesquite, this yields us a consistent fire with minimal smoke that burns around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Don’t start without a super hot grill.

“Be sure to let your charcoal fully catch and heat up before attempting to grill on it, about 20-30 minutes,” says Prentiss. “Your fire should have a bed of red hot coals, [with] high, even heat across the grill, and minimal flames and smoke.”

“A hot cooking surface is extremely important to caramelize the outside of the steak and secure in the flavor,” says Jayawardena. “This method will give you a crispy on the outside, yet moist and tender on the inside steak.”

Don’t forget the thermometer—even if you’re a pro.

Chef Christian Ragano thinks this is one of the most important things to remember. “Temping a steak by hand can be tricky,” he says. “It takes a ton of practice and a ton of experience. Thomas Keller once said, ‘You have to cook a steak a thousand times just to suck at it.’”

Don’t have a meat thermometer on hand? Ted Hopson, chef and co-owner of L.A.’s The Bellwether, recommends using metal cake testers. “People always are looking for secrets on how to get the perfect steak doneness,” he says. “We use metal cake testers. [They’re] the best tool you can use for this. Insert the metal tester into the steak, leave it for five seconds, then pull it out and touch it to your lips or inner wrist. The internal temp of the steak will tell you how done it is. If it is cold, your steak is rare, if it is just warm, medium rare, slightly hot, medium, etc… No more pushing on it to test it—what happens when you hit a muscle knot?—[and] now it is even easier. Plus, cake testers are less than a dollar and you can get them in baking sections or on Amazon.”

Chef Prentiss offered these numbers to aim for:

Rare: 120-130°F

Medium rare: 130-135°F

Medium: 140-145°F

Medium Well: 150-155°F

Well: 160-165°F

Don’t flip your steak more than once.

“Keep away from overturning your steak,” says executive sous chef Eric Schlict, of Urban Farmer in Philadelphia. “Let the Maillard reaction do its thing.” (That’s the fancy name for the chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars, which gives browned and caramelized food its distinctive flavor. We couldn’t have said it better, Wikipedia.) Ideally, according to Prentiss, you should turn the steak once on each side (to get those crosshatch grill marks), and only flip it once.

Avoid individual steaks, if cooking for a crowd.

“Don’t be afraid to go with one large steak like a 32 oz Ribeye or 1 kilo Porterhouse for a group as opposed to multiple individual steaks,” says Prentiss. “One large steak is easier to manage and monitor on a grill than multiple smaller ones and armed with a good thermometer, any cook can nail a perfect medium-rare every time. Larger steaks like those also work well for two to six people because once sliced, the steak will have some slices that are cooked to the preference of each guest.” Because of the inherent internal variation of cooking times within one steak, Prentiss says, you can accommodate diners who prefer “medium rare” and “medium well” with just one piece of meat.

Don’t forget to let the steak rest.

“Cooking the steak to ten degrees below your desired temp and then resting it allows for the collagen in the meat to thicken the juices as it cools slightly,” says Prentiss. “This creates a way juicier steak than just cooking straight to temp.

Sharp agrees. “Let it rest. This is crucial,” he says. “Just because the steak is out of the pan doesn’t mean it stopped cooking. Keep it in a warm place—you don’t want a cold steak—and rest it for about as long as you cooked it.”

Chef Carlos recommends allowing the steak to rest for half the cooking time before serving—so if your steak takes 10 minutes to cook, you’d let it rest for five.

If you’re not able to keep the steak warm while it rests, or you want to eat it quite hot, Prentiss recommends returning the steak to the grill after it’s rested and bringing it up to the internal temperature of your preference before eating.

For even more tips, check out our previous article here.

[foursprout-blog]

11 Mistakes to Avoid When Grilling Steak, According to Chefs

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/health/11-mistakes-to-avoid-when-grilling-steak-according-to-chefs/

11 Mistakes to Avoid When Grilling Steak, According to Chefs

Purists assert that a good-quality cut of steak is done ill justice at the hands of an overzealous grill. Contrast that to cheaper cuts like chuck roast, for example, which come to their prime slowly and forgivingly when slowly cooked. Cooking steak, therefore, is a paradoxically delicate matter for a powerfully primal affair. So it’s understandable that many diners and home cooks err on the side of overcooking it, especially if the quality of the meat might not be top shelf.

Regardless of what your preferences are—and we’re not knocking any of ‘em—here are eleven mistakes to avoid on your next steak night.

Choose the right piece of steak. The quality of your final product depends on your starting ingredients.

“Finding the best product you can get your hands on is always the hardest part of cooking a great steak,” says Ryan Prentiss. He’s executive chef at Prime + Proper steakhouse in Detroit, Michigan. “There’s really only three things in my opinion that make for a good grilled steak: Beef, salt and fire.”

He goes on to explain: “We only work with USDA Prime beef, which is the highest grade of beef available, and accounts for only 1.5% of the beef in the nation. Fat is flavor, so look for beef that looks plump, bright red and has the most marbling. Marbling is the intramuscular fat present in high quality beef that gives it a ‘marbled’ appearance. Grain-fed or grain finished beef will have more marbling than a grass-fed beef.”

On aged steak:

“If you’re lucky enough to be able to find a butcher that has dry-aged beef,” Prentiss says. “I highly recommend trying anything aged from 15 to 30 days until you become acquainted with the flavor.”

Chef Joe Cervantez agrees, specifying that “steaks eat best at 23 to 28 days.” He’s executive chef at Brennan’s of Houston. “Most steaks from the grocery store are aged 14 days,” he says. If you’re up for trying your hand at aging and are lucky enough to have access to a cryovac, he recommends packing the meat in an airtight seal until it hits at least 23 days.

On cuts and thickness:

According to chef Dan Sharp of The Meatball Shop in New York, certain types of steaks best lend themselves to grilling. He recommends a skirt steak for a hot grill, whereas a NY strip steak or ribeye is best for a cast-iron pan over a burner. (For pan cooking, he recommends a 3/4-inch to 1-inch steak because “the thickness gives you the time to get a nice crust on the outside without overcooking the inside,” he says.)

Don’t cook your steaks straight from the fridge.

Prentiss recommends taking out your steak from the fridge about one hour before you’re going to cook it and setting it on a roasting rack. (This is also the best time to season it with salt, ideally medium grain sea salt, he says. More on that below.)

Sharp prefers to season his steaks a couple of hours in advance, and then agrees about letting them come to room temperature before cooking. There’s an exception, however: “If [the steak] on the thinner side,” he says, “starting it cold will give a buffer from overcooking the center.”

While chefs differ about the amount of room temp time before cooking, chef Dinesh Jayawardena recommends not squeezing the time below a half hour.

Don’t use the wrong kind of salt, and when in doubt, oversalt.

“True sea salt is always the way to go when seasoning a steak,” Prentiss says. “We use Jacobsen’s Kosher Salt from Portland, Oregon. The grains are medium sized and have a pleasant minerality that lends itself perfectly to grilled beef. Any true fleur de sel or sel gris type sea salt will work well for good beef. Avoid table salt, iodized salt or small fine-grain sea salts as they have more weight to volume than larger grain salts and you can easily over season with them. Just think medium grain, true sea salt.”

Cervantez is a fan of kosher salt, which is, according to experts, virtually identical to sea salt. (Both are different from iodized table salt however, which is usually ultra fine grain and is adulterated with iodine, hence the name.) Cervantez is a fan of pepper, as well, and recommends combining both in equal quantities.

And when you do, “Always overseason your steaks a bit,” adds chef Christian Ragano. He’s the executive chef at Cindy’s, the rooftop restaurant at the Chicago Athletic Association. “When you think it’s enough, always add a little more. A lot of salt and pepper always falls off during the cooking process and doesn’t always penetrate the meat.”

Jayawardena of FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar in Bloomington, Minnesota, agrees. “Now is not the time to be shy about seasoning,” he says, adding that salt is “the most important ingredient you could ever add to a steak. Do this before you let the steaks rest so the seasoning has time to work its way deep into the meat.”

Don’t season your steak too soon—yes, that’s a thing.

“With larger steaks it’s always a good idea to finish with some large flake or finishing salt once it’s sliced,” says Prentiss. “If you do not have an hour to temper and season ahead of time, season immediately before grilling, anything shorter than 40 minutes will only pull moisture out of the steak and not let the outside get those beautiful grill marks and crust.”

Chef Juan Carlos of SoBou in New Orleans likes to add in a bit of olive oil as well, which he says help gets better sear or griddle marks. If you do decide to add some fat, stick with olive oil, not butter, says Angelo Auriana. He’s the chef at Factory Place Hospitality. “There is no real need for butter when cooking a steak because it already has plenty of fat and flavor in the meat itself,” he says. (That is, of course, assuming you have a solid starting product.)

Make sure it’s super dry before it hits the heat.

“Make sure you pat down your meat,” says Cervantez. “Dry meat forms the best crust.” (Not much more to say about that, then.)

Don’t use lighter foil or charcoal briquettes if you can avoid it.

According to Prentiss, “Always avoid lighter fluid if possible, and while convenient, charcoal briquettes can add an unpleasant kerosene flavor to meat grilled meats and should be avoided. If a wood/natural lump charcoal fire is unavailable or too inconvenient, propane grills will ultimately yield a better steak than charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid.”

The best way to go, however, is hardwood or hardwood lump charcoal. “Natural solid fuels add the most flavor to steaks while complementing their natural flavors instead of overpowering them,” says Prentiss. “At P+P we use seasoned oak logs and a hardwood lump charcoal made from mesquite, this yields us a consistent fire with minimal smoke that burns around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Don’t start without a super hot grill.

“Be sure to let your charcoal fully catch and heat up before attempting to grill on it, about 20-30 minutes,” says Prentiss. “Your fire should have a bed of red hot coals, [with] high, even heat across the grill, and minimal flames and smoke.”

“A hot cooking surface is extremely important to caramelize the outside of the steak and secure in the flavor,” says Jayawardena. “This method will give you a crispy on the outside, yet moist and tender on the inside steak.”

Don’t forget the thermometer—even if you’re a pro.

Chef Christian Ragano thinks this is one of the most important things to remember. “Temping a steak by hand can be tricky,” he says. “It takes a ton of practice and a ton of experience. Thomas Keller once said, ‘You have to cook a steak a thousand times just to suck at it.’”

Don’t have a meat thermometer on hand? Ted Hopson, chef and co-owner of L.A.’s The Bellwether, recommends using metal cake testers. “People always are looking for secrets on how to get the perfect steak doneness,” he says. “We use metal cake testers. [They’re] the best tool you can use for this. Insert the metal tester into the steak, leave it for five seconds, then pull it out and touch it to your lips or inner wrist. The internal temp of the steak will tell you how done it is. If it is cold, your steak is rare, if it is just warm, medium rare, slightly hot, medium, etc… No more pushing on it to test it—what happens when you hit a muscle knot?—[and] now it is even easier. Plus, cake testers are less than a dollar and you can get them in baking sections or on Amazon.”

Chef Prentiss offered these numbers to aim for:

Rare: 120-130°F

Medium rare: 130-135°F

Medium: 140-145°F

Medium Well: 150-155°F

Well: 160-165°F

Don’t flip your steak more than once.

“Keep away from overturning your steak,” says executive sous chef Eric Schlict, of Urban Farmer in Philadelphia. “Let the Maillard reaction do its thing.” (That’s the fancy name for the chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars, which gives browned and caramelized food its distinctive flavor. We couldn’t have said it better, Wikipedia.) Ideally, according to Prentiss, you should turn the steak once on each side (to get those crosshatch grill marks), and only flip it once.

Avoid individual steaks, if cooking for a crowd.

“Don’t be afraid to go with one large steak like a 32 oz Ribeye or 1 kilo Porterhouse for a group as opposed to multiple individual steaks,” says Prentiss. “One large steak is easier to manage and monitor on a grill than multiple smaller ones and armed with a good thermometer, any cook can nail a perfect medium-rare every time. Larger steaks like those also work well for two to six people because once sliced, the steak will have some slices that are cooked to the preference of each guest.” Because of the inherent internal variation of cooking times within one steak, Prentiss says, you can accommodate diners who prefer “medium rare” and “medium well” with just one piece of meat.

Don’t forget to let the steak rest.

“Cooking the steak to ten degrees below your desired temp and then resting it allows for the collagen in the meat to thicken the juices as it cools slightly,” says Prentiss. “This creates a way juicier steak than just cooking straight to temp.

Sharp agrees. “Let it rest. This is crucial,” he says. “Just because the steak is out of the pan doesn’t mean it stopped cooking. Keep it in a warm place—you don’t want a cold steak—and rest it for about as long as you cooked it.”

Chef Carlos recommends allowing the steak to rest for half the cooking time before serving—so if your steak takes 10 minutes to cook, you’d let it rest for five.

If you’re not able to keep the steak warm while it rests, or you want to eat it quite hot, Prentiss recommends returning the steak to the grill after it’s rested and bringing it up to the internal temperature of your preference before eating.

For even more tips, check out our previous article here.

[ninochiodini]

How to be English

Exorcism

‘The House?’ The house is a school. Didn’t you know? It is a school.

The old man is pulling the roots of ivy from the walls of his house.

Yes? Is it really a school? I answered.

You cannot cross the river. You cannot cross the river.

Did I say I wanted to?

If you do…

Sorry but I didn’t say a word.

They all want to cross the river. It is not possible.

Is this your house?

It is.

How long have you lived here?

Long enough…

And you have never crossed the river, here.

It is impossible to cross the river.

Bloody daft… too much for that lad.

I once swam across.

It is a strange house. Gothic. When was it built?

When I was a child, Sir.

Don’t call me sir. Peter Collins. That’s my name.

Leeds Museum. Bond Street.

What is that Butterfly called, Sir. It is Black Molly.

It seems sad to pin the butterfly Sir, I said.

Did it hurt when it died Sir?

But Sir did it hurt. Did it hurt…

It’s all done in a bottle with some liquid.

Do they kill it with that pin, he asked. Straight through the body, like that. That would hurt.

They do that after Collins, to mount the butterfly for exhibition.

It is rather like a Crucifixion, really, Sir. Just like Jesus Christ with a nail through his hands… and he wasn’t dead.

That’s a blasphemous thing to say boy…

Yes Sir.

Poor thing. I feel sorry for that butterfly Sir.

Little girls feel sentimental about dead animals.

Collins… more along now…

You cannot cross that bloody river, son. I keep telling you, you can’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear what you said.

I don’t want to be Bald.

I have hair-treatments. Costs me a damn fortune. And it is all waste. There quacks at the Imitov Hair Aimin in the town. If any of you are faced with premature receding hairlines then don’t go to those quacks for treatment. When were we? Yes, but it is bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur… Continue to read Finch from grandeur.

And Finch read. The lesson Wordsworth required reading for “A” level examination.        

As ingratiating as ever to some arch insult to Sucksmith “A” level. English hit, we were reading Wordsworth from the Study of Poetry of Mathew Arnold.

“If that’s true then shall we nickname you Eiger, Sir?” and the Eiger had been climbed.  

The old man had returned to pruning the ivy along the walls of his terrace cottage.

Go away will you. Clear off now. I��ve told you, you cannot cross the river. Will any one else know?

Ah get lost… will you be told.

The Eiger. Last year I had lost my way driving from Bernina to Zurich and stopped at wild house.

Height and Swiss for sky and private… I walked along the paths behind the onion-domed churches, on along the fenced and walled paths to avoid the caws clattering those interminable bells. I follow one of three paths and climb up the path aside the stream kicking my ordinary shoes against the rocks as I clambered up, looking back over lake Larius from below, across the valley to the opposite range bouncing the valley back onto itself.

I reached the top wheezing and unaware of the meaning of the Swiss-German greeting passed as solid weekend climbers allowed me to pass them as they came down, which seemed more difficult going than my upward stretch. Hell! This is near vertical and how on earth do I get back.

The well booted, sweetened and lederhosen climbers move on and they invariably giggle at me who belonged on the Bahnhof-strasse hot this gulley.

But I managed to reach the grassier fields above and there was a private valley mountain either side, and a small farm-building where they make the cheese in the laze beyond.

I am small, so small and insignificant. I feel unimportant. And the mountains sing that music ingrained on our group consciousness that honorific omnipotent music the simple cliché symbol of inexplicable presence that defies explanation or interpretation.

The houses farm into a simple square and the road between them runs diagonally from one corner to another. I came down that road I know but that road leads from the river. I do not know where it leads. It exits this group of houses behind me now as I stand in the middle of the cobbled square into which the road runs and exits again. Turning a corner.

I came to exorcise childhood memories. I played here. I know I played here once some fifteen years ago. But the houses were empty then. Empty. I remember searching out the oddly patterned earthenware tiles now crossed with ages.

It had been forbidden to play here, just as it was forbidden to play in the quarries, where one boy had drowned in the stream-filled wells they dug there.

But the quarries have gone, blasted out of existence and overgrown with the seeds of which we once collected to pop them whole when they were sufficiently dry. Wide fields, as numerous as rhubarb. But they are both gone full of mindless houses concrete street and corporation-issue concrete lamp standards with their bland iodine light and rows of precisely rectangular pre-cost arcade and granite paved houses with their bordered and sickly private-lodge, like the houses we drew in powder paint, flat with acknowledgement to perspective or the three dimensional nature of our elders and their dogs and their cars.

We are making pictures out of broken eggs-shell and I make a ballet dancer on pull point arms outstretched.

A ballet dancer isn’t the proper thing for a boy to do. Boys make football-players.      

But these houses were empty then. Their rafters had gone and the floorboards were up and we had played secret boys games and there, there in that corner of this square they had pinned me down forcibly and one, always, always leader sat on my stomach my arms fixed immobile under his bare knees, the first delicate sign of body hair disappearing into his trousers legs punching, punching, punching and urinated at either side of my contorting face. And they would chase me or I with them, chase another with indiscriminate conscience or compassion, down the hill but then there was the river and was caught between the nettle patch and the inviolable farmers corn. And one is caught and it is the source relentless punching or spitting, or throwing compassionately small stones.

The river that is fixed immovable, it is at one tranquil where the willowy full from bulbous adulterated by dye from the hill downstream trunks to foul and smelly watering waterfowl and we steel abort theirs and other eggs and aborted them for swap for comics and masturbatory image heroes.

Lean, hard and rugged with their inviolable code of truth, and goodness and evil and the explicit code that murder is a social instrument. And we murder furry caterpillars or we murder ourselves, with the ultimate aggression restrained only by fear of parental reprimand, where the fantasy is real and the reality easy. This river I can not have crossed moving with those water rats, kept company with sticklebacks and redbreasts male and female but the same to a-sexual insensitive progeny of parents fearful of our intuitive discoveries.

A river that will stagnate its life of those chrysalises and snails and coots and moorhens as the dye destroys all vestige of life and we wonder but are insensitive.

I broke my arm when I fell over that damn sliming mossy and into the water and my red sandals are ruined and my socks un-washable. I am afraid to return home, I momentary rage when children fear to offend parental authority, unaware of parental compassion.

We kill that life as unaware of the consequences of our actions as the mill-owners and their various noxious dyes they ooze out of their dirty noisy factories ignoring any sequential condition their violation of that purity may bring.  We continue to kill in our imagination. Germans, Japs and North Koreans for adults only, the bogyman of my childhood. Or hybrid monsters, mutations of imagined nature. Or Reds. Or sweaty easy Mexicans, or the greatest slack of modern history the genocide of the N. American Indian. At least Negroes were allowed to live. We have them without reason and we kill their buffalos. We kill like automatons. For picture frame by sicker frame conditioning as experience read brainwashing.

I take home in triumph sticklebacks and redbreasts buried alive in tap water filled Robertson’s jam jars from which we collected gollywog labels for tin lapel badges lorry before plastic imitated nature as free-gift flowers and linen-look table clothes. Even the bees are fooled. Then we have a very sensibility just to fool these bees, which have more right to flowers than we do.

We mark those fish unaware that they would die and not rebuked by our parents who knew they would.  The insignificance of small fish is of that attitude which rich pollution of our environment.

But the damn has gone. The mill is shuttered and there is nothing but my breathing and the occasional noise from the houses.

Listen would you mind if I use your toilet?    

There was a man sat by those houses then. I approached that man and I intended to accuse him to criminally assault me. He did not. He may have done. He may have been found and arrested, charged and convicted of an offensive in which two play. We are not taught the consequences of our actions, only guilt it is considered an instinctive reaction. Ignored for the duration of childhood, intended to flourish in maturity.

I have to know why. I did tint.

My wife gave birth to my first child, a son, ten days ago.

Peter Gadd Collins – 1968.    

[yes-dal456]

Gwyneth Paltrow And GOOP Give Dangerous Info On Iodine. Their Expert Gets His Info From A Ghost.

GOOP is at it again with the dangerous medical advice. This time they are leaving the vagina alone and focusing their dangerous energy vibrations on your thyroid.

The article that caught my eye and my disgust is about iodine and the medical “expert” is a self-described medical medium (yes, you read that correctly) named Anthony William. What, pray tell, is a medial medium? Well, Mr. William claims he “was born with the unique ability to converse with a high-level spirit who provides him with extraordinarily accurate health information that’s often far ahead of its time.” That’s right, he talks with ghosts to make health recommendations and he is GOOP’s expert.

To write my reply I decided not to hold a séance, instead I read some articles and consulted with a real live board-certified endocrinologist, Elena A Christofides, MD, FACE. She is also on the board of endocrineweb.

I know GOOP likes to point to their disclaimer that they “intend to highlight alternative studies and induce conversation,” but speaking with a spirit is not an accepted scientific method and the only thing I think they have induced with me is my gag reflex. Mr. William has no medical training and has not published any data.

Why does the body need iodine?

Mr. William’s spirit must not know too much about iodine because he swings and misses right off the bat. He says, “Iodine is essential for two main reasons: (1) your immune system relies on this mineral to function, and (2) iodine is a natural antiseptic.” Later on he says, “while iodine does also help with thyroid hormone production, that’s one small aspect of why iodine is important for your health.”

The body needs iodine because without it you can’t make thyroid hormone and then you will slowly die. It will be a long and drawn out process. All of the symptoms of iodine deficiency are related to resulting thyroid dysfunction and 70-80% of the body’s iodine is stored in the thyroid. This is not a “small aspect” this is THE ASPECT. The thyroid is the show. The thyroid gland is the only tissue that takes up and holds onto iodine. The primary function of iodine is in the production of thyroid hormones. Iodine only supports the immune system because a functioning endocrine system supports the immune system.

While iodine is a TOPICAL antiseptic anyone who things that oral iodine is some guided missile for bacteria or viruses is wrong and promoting an unsafe therapy. Also, iodine does not impact “advancement” of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). This is medically nonsensical.

Does Epstein-Barr virus cause Hashimoto’s thyroiditis?

Mr. William claims, “The Epstein-Barr virus causes 95 percent of all thyroid conditions, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and thyroid nodules, tumors, and cysts. The other 5 percent of thyroid dysfunction is due to radiation exposure from sources such as dental X-rays, other X-rays and exams, plane travel, and the radiation that’s around us in our atmosphere. Iodine is critical in both of these cases, because it is an antiviral agent that reduces any sort of viral load in the thyroid and the rest of the body, plus it protects the thyroid from radiation.”

This is bullshit. I just don’t know any other way to say it. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. There is no possible way a single virus could cause all of these conditions and guess what, there are no studies supporting this assertion. My son has congenital hypothyroidism and it wasn’t caused by EBV or x-ray exposure so where does he fit in this rubric? According to the National Library of Medicine his congenital hypothyroidism was either iodine deficiency or genetic, not EBV or radiation. I ate tons of salt while pregnant due to a continuous egg salad sandwich craving, so by process of elimination (and the fact he still needs thyroid hormone 13 years later) it’s genetic. To blame 95% of thyroid conditions on EBV and the rest on radiation is to have no understanding of modern medicine beyond evil humors. Maybe the medium’s ghost is from the dark ages?

Dr. Christofides says that EBV is just like any virus and Hashimoto’s, like all other autoimmune diseases, can be induced by a variety of environmental triggers in a genetically susceptible individual. So virus + genetic issue can = autoimmune condition. There is nothing special about EBV in this regard. Also, she correctly pointed out that ionizing radiation causes cancer, not hypothyroidism. If you’re going to fear monger over radiation at least get the condition right.

Is iodine deficiency common today?

In modern America, no. Dr. Christofides says she has seen one case in over 19 years.

This paragraph is particularly troubling as there is implication that more iodine is somehow better. While iodine is essential, we actually need very little because it’s a micronutrient. Dr. Christofides says “iodine supplementation of salt was mandated in 1924 to combat goiter and wide-spread hypothyroidism. We only require trace amounts so basically eating out even a couple of times a month gets us enough iodized salt to suffice.”

For non pregnant adults 150 μg per day of iodine is what you need and one teaspoon of iodized salt contains approximately 400 μg iodine. So less than 1/2 a tsp a day of iodized salt is enough. Dairy foods, eggs, fish, and meat are also good sources of dietary iodine.

Does severe iodine deficiency “lead to a very weakened thyroid as well as possible fluid retention and swelling around the thyroid (also known as goiter)?”

Iodine deficiency causes hypothyroidism and a goiter (enlarged thyroid). According to Dr. Christofides what the “medical medium” is describing for GOOP can’t happen. If you are clinically hypothyroid (abnormal lab tests) you can develop swelling (edema), but it’s not usually in the neck. Christofides also said “there is no such thing as a weakened thyroid.” She likened a weakened thyroid to the non existent adrenal fatigue.

Goiter is, quite simply, an enlarged thyroid. It can have nodules or not, but Dr. Christofides says, “this notion of swelling around the thyroid is utter nonsense. The thyroid is an encapsulated gland. If there’s swelling around it – it’s coming from somewhere else, like the lymph nodes. Which for an ignorant person sounds awfully close to thyroid area swelling.”

Does iodine’s potent disinfectant properties create a die-off reaction in the body for anyone with a bacterial or viral infection ?

Dr. Christofides knows of no data to support iodine induced viral “die-off.” I couldn’t find any either. DON’T TAKE IODINE TO KILL BACTERIA AND VIRUSES!

Do we need to be concerned about getting too much iodine?

Mr. William and GOOP don’t seem to be, but Dr. Christofides was very concerned about the idea of additional iodine supplementation for people who are not iodine deficient. It’s easy to see how someone could read the GOOP article and think they should protect their immune system and fight off killer EBV with iodine. Hey, it’s natural and Gwyneth says what he does feels “inherently right and true.” Dr. Christofides pointed out that taking excessive iodine with a normal thyroid actually “blunts the thyroid and actually CAUSES hypothyroidism.” She states, “in fact we use it in hyperthyroidism to ‘stun’ the thyroid giving us time to correct it by more permanent means.” She has seen women take so much over the counter iodine  that they eventually cause hypothyroidism.

Let’s go over that again. Taking too much iodine causes hypothyroidism, the very condition you think you are preventing. She said, “It’s an easy consult, but never a fun one.” In these situations people often can’t believe they were led astray and it can take multiple visits to convince them otherwise. There are also studies linking excessive iodine intake with autoimmune thyroiditis and papillary thyroid cancer. Maybe Spirit doesn’t know that?

Almost everything in this article is wrong and potentially dangerous

We need very little iodine, that little bit is important but if you eat a healthy diet and have a little iodized salt here and there you will be just fine.

If you take iodine supplements when you do not need them you could actually cause hypothyroidism, develop an autoimmune condition, or even get cancer.

EBV and radiation are not the root cause of all thyroid disease. EBV is not associated with thyroid cancer, it is associated with some lymphomas and nasopharyngeal and gastric carcinoma.

Iodine is not an internal antiseptic or immune booster.

Here’s some direct medical advice. If you have medical questions don’t get second-hand information on GOOP from a ghost, see a doctor. 

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Gwyneth Paltrow And GOOP Give Dangerous Info On Iodine. Their Expert Gets His Info From A Ghost.

GOOP is at it again with the dangerous medical advice. This time they are leaving the vagina alone and focusing their dangerous energy vibrations on your thyroid.

The article that caught my eye and my disgust is about iodine and the medical “expert” is a self-described medical medium (yes, you read that correctly) named Anthony William. What, pray tell, is a medial medium? Well, Mr. William claims he “was born with the unique ability to converse with a high-level spirit who provides him with extraordinarily accurate health information that’s often far ahead of its time.” That’s right, he talks with ghosts to make health recommendations and he is GOOP’s expert.

To write my reply I decided not to hold a séance, instead I read some articles and consulted with a real live board-certified endocrinologist, Elena A Christofides, MD, FACE. She is also on the board of endocrineweb.

I know GOOP likes to point to their disclaimer that they “intend to highlight alternative studies and induce conversation,” but speaking with a spirit is not an accepted scientific method and the only thing I think they have induced with me is my gag reflex. Mr. William has no medical training and has not published any data.

Why does the body need iodine?

Mr. William’s spirit must not know too much about iodine because he swings and misses right off the bat. He says, “Iodine is essential for two main reasons: (1) your immune system relies on this mineral to function, and (2) iodine is a natural antiseptic.” Later on he says, “while iodine does also help with thyroid hormone production, that’s one small aspect of why iodine is important for your health.”

The body needs iodine because without it you can’t make thyroid hormone and then you will slowly die. It will be a long and drawn out process. All of the symptoms of iodine deficiency are related to resulting thyroid dysfunction and 70-80% of the body’s iodine is stored in the thyroid. This is not a “small aspect” this is THE ASPECT. The thyroid is the show. The thyroid gland is the only tissue that takes up and holds onto iodine. The primary function of iodine is in the production of thyroid hormones. Iodine only supports the immune system because a functioning endocrine system supports the immune system.

While iodine is a TOPICAL antiseptic anyone who things that oral iodine is some guided missile for bacteria or viruses is wrong and promoting an unsafe therapy. Also, iodine does not impact “advancement” of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). This is medically nonsensical.

Does Epstein-Barr virus cause Hashimoto’s thyroiditis?

Mr. William claims, “The Epstein-Barr virus causes 95 percent of all thyroid conditions, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and thyroid nodules, tumors, and cysts. The other 5 percent of thyroid dysfunction is due to radiation exposure from sources such as dental X-rays, other X-rays and exams, plane travel, and the radiation that’s around us in our atmosphere. Iodine is critical in both of these cases, because it is an antiviral agent that reduces any sort of viral load in the thyroid and the rest of the body, plus it protects the thyroid from radiation.”

This is bullshit. I just don’t know any other way to say it. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. There is no possible way a single virus could cause all of these conditions and guess what, there are no studies supporting this assertion. My son has congenital hypothyroidism and it wasn’t caused by EBV or x-ray exposure so where does he fit in this rubric? According to the National Library of Medicine his congenital hypothyroidism was either iodine deficiency or genetic, not EBV or radiation. I ate tons of salt while pregnant due to a continuous egg salad sandwich craving, so by process of elimination (and the fact he still needs thyroid hormone 13 years later) it’s genetic. To blame 95% of thyroid conditions on EBV and the rest on radiation is to have no understanding of modern medicine beyond evil humors. Maybe the medium’s ghost is from the dark ages?

Dr. Christofides says that EBV is just like any virus and Hashimoto’s, like all other autoimmune diseases, can be induced by a variety of environmental triggers in a genetically susceptible individual. So virus + genetic issue can = autoimmune condition. There is nothing special about EBV in this regard. Also, she correctly pointed out that ionizing radiation causes cancer, not hypothyroidism. If you’re going to fear monger over radiation at least get the condition right.

Is iodine deficiency common today?

In modern America, no. Dr. Christofides says she has seen one case in over 19 years.

This paragraph is particularly troubling as there is implication that more iodine is somehow better. While iodine is essential, we actually need very little because it’s a micronutrient. Dr. Christofides says “iodine supplementation of salt was mandated in 1924 to combat goiter and wide-spread hypothyroidism. We only require trace amounts so basically eating out even a couple of times a month gets us enough iodized salt to suffice.”

For non pregnant adults 150 μg per day of iodine is what you need and one teaspoon of iodized salt contains approximately 400 μg iodine. So less than 1/2 a tsp a day of iodized salt is enough. Dairy foods, eggs, fish, and meat are also good sources of dietary iodine.

Does severe iodine deficiency “lead to a very weakened thyroid as well as possible fluid retention and swelling around the thyroid (also known as goiter)?”

Iodine deficiency causes hypothyroidism and a goiter (enlarged thyroid). According to Dr. Christofides what the “medical medium” is describing for GOOP can’t happen. If you are clinically hypothyroid (abnormal lab tests) you can develop swelling (edema), but it’s not usually in the neck. Christofides also said “there is no such thing as a weakened thyroid.” She likened a weakened thyroid to the non existent adrenal fatigue.

Goiter is, quite simply, an enlarged thyroid. It can have nodules or not, but Dr. Christofides says, “this notion of swelling around the thyroid is utter nonsense. The thyroid is an encapsulated gland. If there’s swelling around it – it’s coming from somewhere else, like the lymph nodes. Which for an ignorant person sounds awfully close to thyroid area swelling.”

Does iodine’s potent disinfectant properties create a die-off reaction in the body for anyone with a bacterial or viral infection ?

Dr. Christofides knows of no data to support iodine induced viral “die-off.” I couldn’t find any either. DON’T TAKE IODINE TO KILL BACTERIA AND VIRUSES!

Do we need to be concerned about getting too much iodine?

Mr. William and GOOP don’t seem to be, but Dr. Christofides was very concerned about the idea of additional iodine supplementation for people who are not iodine deficient. It’s easy to see how someone could read the GOOP article and think they should protect their immune system and fight off killer EBV with iodine. Hey, it’s natural and Gwyneth says what he does feels “inherently right and true.” Dr. Christofides pointed out that taking excessive iodine with a normal thyroid actually “blunts the thyroid and actually CAUSES hypothyroidism.” She states, “in fact we use it in hyperthyroidism to ‘stun’ the thyroid giving us time to correct it by more permanent means.” She has seen women take so much over the counter iodine  that they eventually cause hypothyroidism.

Let’s go over that again. Taking too much iodine causes hypothyroidism, the very condition you think you are preventing. She said, “It’s an easy consult, but never a fun one.” In these situations people often can’t believe they were led astray and it can take multiple visits to convince them otherwise. There are also studies linking excessive iodine intake with autoimmune thyroiditis and papillary thyroid cancer. Maybe Spirit doesn’t know that?

Almost everything in this article is wrong and potentially dangerous

We need very little iodine, that little bit is important but if you eat a healthy diet and have a little iodized salt here and there you will be just fine.

If you take iodine supplements when you do not need them you could actually cause hypothyroidism, develop an autoimmune condition, or even get cancer.

EBV and radiation are not the root cause of all thyroid disease. EBV is not associated with thyroid cancer, it is associated with some lymphomas and nasopharyngeal and gastric carcinoma.

Iodine is not an internal antiseptic or immune booster.

Here’s some direct medical advice. If you have medical questions don’t get second-hand information on GOOP from a ghost, see a doctor. 

type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=588641dbe4b096b4a2335935,57221d49e4b0b49df6aa4fdb,55ae8419e4b07af29d567e50

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2le6wGb