#dietary supplements definition

[oceanxveiined]

Since the creatures had attached themselves to her body, Morcant's body has become somewhat unable to consume the meals she used to. She can have regular food in measured bites, but attempting to consume more tends to wind up in her hacking it all up later. She tends to avoid eating anything herself for that reason, subsisting primarily on whatever–whoever–the creatures have devoured, since their bodies are linked.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

apologies if this is outside your scope but do you have any advice on making anthro species cuisine reflect the diets of the animal they are based on, while still having the level of depth that human cuisine has?

oh, i love fantasy cuisine as a concept. It might help to research the diet and then also research human foods with similar ingredients, especially if you can find historical dishes from the area those ingredients originated in!

there are some food types that show up in many different cultures, which can serve as a basis for making fantasy foods.

soups!! making broth is as simple as boiling things in water for a really long time, and broth is the basis for pretty much all soups. it's not limited to meat broths! vegetable broth is also a thing that exists. soup just needs Liquid and Food Chunks. it's very easy.

bread! there are so many different forms of bread in so many cultures. wheat, rye, millet, corn, almond; pretty much any grain or nut (and even other things!) can be turned into flour, and that can be made into some form of "bread" depending on how far you stretch the definition of bread. tortillas, naan, rolls, biscuits, dumplings, etc etc. pan fried, oil fried, baked, boiled, whatever. yeast not required.

alcohol. honestly, one of the most common things in the world. wild animals get inebriated from eating fermented fruit all the time. they could most certainly make alcohol if they were sapient enough to do it on purpose.

preserved foods! pickled things, jams, jerky, fermentation, etc. finding ways to keep food safe for long periods or time is very important in pretty much every culture, and some foods require long term preservation methods to become edible in the first place, like fermented shark.

herbs and spices! number one way to make food more interesting. salt is a bare minimum: a lot of animals seek out salt as a dietary supplement! though your non-primate people species may not be able to eat things like garlic and spicy peppers (since they tend to make most animals sick) there will probably be other flavorful herbs and spices they can add to their food.

I hope that's helpful for you! good luck!

[botgal]

If you've been following my post regarding internet privacy legislation in California, or if you've been paying attention to the news, then as of late you've likely heard of CA AB 3080, The Parent’s Accountability and Child Protection Act. Which I have written about prior.

On Monday 5/6/2024, this bill will be going through a vote on the Assembly Floor. If you can this weekend, call and email your California Assembly representatives (which you can find through this link here). Even if you only leave voice mails, an inbox full of voice mails regarding the same topic can greatly increase our chances of getting heard.

It is important to help get this vote stricken down in order to protect the privacy of California's internet users, and not set a precedent for them to allow this further (because we know that they will). However, I would like to say a few things to dispel some of the panic and fear that I've been seeing spread around about this bill. To let you know we still have time no matter what happens on this vote, and to prevent anyone from becoming too too anxious for now.

This is only the Assembly vote. Which means that there are plenty more steps in the process we will have to stop it. Even if it passes here, which we will try to stop, it will still have go to through both the Senate and the Governor before it gets signed. And we will work to stop it no matter what point it gets to.

As for the content of the bill. While the original incarnation of AB 3080 was indeed a general age verification bill, the scope of it has narrowed somewhat. Instead it has narrowed down to focusing on age verification for purchasing items which are illegal under California law for minors to purchase.

The most recent version of the bill, as amended on 5/2/2024, has focused primarily on requiring age verification for online purchases of any items that minors are not allowed to purchase in California. These items explicitly include "An aerosol container of paint that is capable of defacing property", "Etching cream that is capable of defacing property", "Dangerous fireworks", "Tanning in an ultraviolet tanning device", "Dietary supplement products containing ephedrine group alkaloids", "Body branding", "Firearms or handguns", "A BB device", "Ammunition or reloaded ammunition", "Any tobacco, cigarette, cigarette papers, blunt wraps, any other preparation of tobacco, any other instrument or paraphernalia that is designed for the smoking or ingestion of tobacco, products prepared from tobacco, or any controlled substance", "Electronic cigarettes", or "A less lethal weapon".

To note, this version of the bill does still include access to "pornographic internet websites". Which are also explicitly defined under the law, and have had their scope narrowed considerably since the original iteration of the bill. The most recent version of the bill limits this definition to "an internet website on which the owner of the internet website, for commercial gain, knowingly publishes sexually explicit content that, on an annual basis, exceeds one-third of the contents published on the internet website." In which "sexually explicit content" is defined as "visual imagery of an individual or individuals engaging in an act of masturbation, sexual intercourse, oral copulation, or other overtly sexual conduct that, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

So, while the current version of AB 3080 is still not a good thing and we must work to keep it from being passed, please know it's not an immediate internet shut-down via age verification bill. We have time to fight this. And if we have people who are willing to try and fight this, calling and writing to their representatives, then we will always have the chance.

In conclusion. Do not fall to panic. Do your part. Fight to keep our internet free and unregulated.

[wanting-better-health-blog]

Hello! I hope all is well in any way possible in your everyday life ☺.

Is anyone looking to try out some nutritional supplements from a company called LiveGood?

As someone who tends to be discouraged from trying out many vitamin supplements/nutritional powders due to their high prices for their best-quality products, I came across LiveGood and have been impressed with what they have to offer, and at such a reasonable price too.

In fact, I have decided to become an affiliate for them in hopes of helping myself and others who are also experiencing frustration in finding what they need to take care of themselves through certain dietary supplements.

If you would like to check out and purchase any LiveGood products, you can click on the link below and select the tab "Products" to view what LiveGood has to offer:

Something that I will add: there is a $9.95 monthly membership subscription going on, in which accepting the membership subscription can help you save money through discounts on all LiveGood products.

If you are like me, getting discounts on all dietary supplement products can definitely be a lifesaver in saving money, especially if said supplements need to be repurchased every month to 3 months or so. So if you would like to join the monthly membership, you can do so by going to the link provided above and selecting the tab "Become a Member".

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Oh and another thing to know (if interested)! If you would like to be an affiliate, like myself, to potentially earn some passive income for yourself, you can go to the affiliate tour link below and get started today:

I highly recommend watching the almost 6-minute video in the tour link to get a brief understanding of what LiveGood is, the purpose of why LiveGood was created, who is running the LiveGood company, and how becoming an affiliate and a regular LiveGood member can not only save you money in purchasing high quality, affordable nutritional supplements (no more having to switch to multiple brands to obtain your dietary needs along with spending much more money than you needed to) but that you too can also earn some money by helping them out in sharing their affordable supplements to others who are also seeking dietary supplements to obtain a healthier lifestyle.

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If being a member and or an affiliate of LiveGood is not something that you'd like to commit to but would like to at least try out a product or two from the company at regular price, you can check out the link below and select the tab "Products" :

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Overall, thank you so much for taking the time to hear me out. And please, do take care of yourself in any way you can. Even trying out the smallest of things that can be beneficial to your health can make a big difference ❤.

[thommi-tomate]

Müller's health treat - vitamin D is a no-brainer

When it comes to health, I'm always on the ball and like to try out new things. But sometimes there are things that are simply a no-brainer. Vitamin D is one of them for me.

Why?

I have three good reasons:

Our body needs vitamin D for important metabolic processes (bones, regeneration, immune system, etc.)

.Without the additional intake of vitamin D, I would definitely be undersupplied

It is very easy to take vitamin D as a dietary supplement - simply as a tablet or capsule

That is the current scientific status.

Just imagine: According to several studies, around 80% of the German population is vitamin D deficient. That's quite a number.

If you are unsure about the correct dosage, please talk to your trusted doctor.

For me, vitamin D is definitely part of my daily diet.

With this in mind, dear Müller Mail family, stay healthy.

Thank you for your support and keep your chin up,

Your Thomas

[cloudyswritings]

Yes… I am the silksong now!!

My thoughts and headcanons on Hornet. I’ll be real I’ve kinda been ignoring her because I’m terrified of having to tag silksong headcanons, I’ve seen the fucking Reddit. Anyway, enjoy my ramblings.

So I think that a Hornet qualifies as a pale being, she was born to one and has a pale mask of one. More than that she qualifies for being in godhome(a low bar ik, looking at you vengefly king).

She isn’t really a god per-se but definitely is a higher being on par or stronger than the great knights.

She obviously considers herself a spider but overall she inherited very little from Herrah.

Id say she only really got the fangs and dietary needs

Shes absolutely an obligate carnivore, so don’t expect her to be eating plant matter of any type. She does the whole inject her meal with venom to dissolve it and slurp it up deal

this is mostly because even though she’s got the full Wyrms arsenal of teeth and a Wyrms digestive tract her mouth is very small and she only has pedipalps and fangs externally. This means it’s very hard for her to eat any solid food/get it down to where her throat teeth can break it down

So interestingly her body color in combination with the vessels may actually tell us more about the pale kings- see both she and the vessels have black chitin suggesting it may be inherited from the king.

She also has both her fathers number of eyes and limbs, something that infuriates her deeply.

I don’t feel that the hornet we see in canon is her final molt, mostly because it seems like the sealing of THK functionally stopped time in Hallownest. I imagine once they’re free and the Radiance is dead she’ll probably undergo one last molt.

I think her missing limbs(she has 4 that we know of meaning she’d have 4 more as a spider) will actually end up growing into wings with said molt.

She also inherited her aptitude for mechanical stuff from the king. It seems like she makes all of her own stuff. Plus the crafting system and buzz saws in silksong support this.

She likes buzzsaws

I imagine if we could get a better look at the light she casts it’d be a lot like her fathers. She’d be a pale red light that falls far and deep but bears only a subtle influence on the world, like the strumming of gossamer threads.

Shes set down threads all over Hallownest, allowing her to keep track of a ton of things at once by feeling vibrations

She does have spineretes but uses soul to supplement and extend the amount of thread she can make.

She actually really likes the white lady, mostly because of good childhood memories from visiting the palace. She was the cool mom for a while. She’s more conflicted in regards to her towards the events of the game though.

Her favorite food is probably primal aspids, but she’s got a huge soft spot for honey because of her time in the hive. She also likes soups because they’re easier for her to eat(esp the ones Ghost makes)

She has very good eyesight from Herrah, but also has face blindness that she inherited from the king. She makes do, but mostly relies on clothing, scent, and body language to identify people.

As a grub she was the only one of her brood to survive, she was part of a large brood and likely spent her earliest days in a broodsack(that’s just how spiders do shit) but ate all of her potential siblings before hatching-she doesn’t know it but this is a wyrm instinct and her father did exactly the same thing.

She’d absolutely hate that if she found out.

She suspects but isn’t sure about why she’s territorial. Unsurprisingly it’s once again a wyrm thing

Her threads are far stronger and more durable than even those produced by the best weavers, in fact some of her silk may have been used for THKs seals- she probably doesn’t remember this cause she was too young.

Is mad she inherited the kings height. Honestly she’s mad about everything she inherited from him.

She doesn’t know it but she’s fairly resistant to void, especially for someone half mortal.

Sleeps in a giant mess of quilts, pilows, and silk. It’s held slightly off the ground. This is sorta a halfway point between a Wyrms nest and the silk hammocks of the weavers.

Shes a very fidgety and light sleeper, and realistically needs far less sleep than most beings.

Her venom is ridiculously potent, like to the point of being almost unanimously fatal to mortals and weaker higher beings. It would honestly still do a lot of damage to gods too. It’s a symptom of hybrid vigor, wherein the hybrid offspring of two species tends to be stronger, larger, and overall more genetically resilient than either parent.

Hybrids also tend to be sterile.

Hornet probably couldn’t have children if she wasn’t a higher being, even then I’m not really sure she could tbh.

Given enough time and soul she could pull a metamorphosis like her father did, though she doesn’t know how.

What she’d emerge as is unclear, but she’d likely either become a spider goddess in truth. Or even more likely she’d fully become a wyrm and abandon the mortal parts Herrah gave her.

For obvious reasons she won’t do this.

Her favorite color is a toss up between red and purple.

She weaves clothing for her siblings semi-regularly. Kinda gets frustrated at how often Ghost ruins their thought. They’re rough on clothing ig.

She didn’t inherit her fathers ability to burrow, but some of the instincts remain. She’s very frustrated at this.

She’s kinda bad at rembering names too, she gets embarrassed by this and it’s part of why she doesn’t stay anywhere long enough to get to know the bugs there.

Has a charm that was created from Herrahs regrets. It doesn’t do anything but give off the faint sense of a clawed hand on her shoulders and the faint whispers of the lullaby Herrah used to sing to her.

it’s still her single most prized possession

Her needles is a close second and was made of pale ore taken directly from the Pale Wyrms corpse. It’s the one thing her father gave her she loves.

he gave it to her as a gift for her being given a name. He likely used his foresight to figure out how large she’d be as an adult and made it in anticipation of that.

She can go an exceedingly long time without a meal. This was super helpful during the infection when uninflected prey was rare at best.

With age she is becoming more and more powerful as a higher being and will likely eventually become a goddess proper.

She has the lifespan of a Wyrm but doesn’t really know it yet and chalks her remarkable age up to the blurring of time during the infection. Despite this she’s still a child by wyrm standards and has many, many, many years left to live.

Most bugs are absolutely shocked to hear about her actual age.

Lace will be for sure, and she’ll probably live to regret threatening her.

Shes super fast, like almost impossible to track I’m combat at times, this is actually because of her use of both wind and soul magic along with the thread based spells of the weavers.

Her shell is covered with intricate and detailed carvings, this is essentially the weaver version of tattoos.

Im genuinely not too sure if her mask is actually her face like it is for the pale king or just a mask like for Herrah. I lean towards it being her face though.

The bell cult caught her while she was sleeping and that’s the only reseal they survived the encounter.

id say there’s probably a good chance of her ascending to godhood as a possible ending to silksong.

Doesnt really have a sense of humor but does find puns and dad jokes hilarious(they were the only jokes the pale king told when she was little)

Theorectically given enough prep time and motivation she could place webs all over the city of tears(or a similarly sized city) and pull all of the buildings down in one go.

She might also be able to do the whole puppeting corpses thing that happens in the beasts den.

She needs a certain amount of metal in her diet thanks to being part wyrm. It’s really hard for her to find in pieces small enough to fit into her mouth.

Some crack/non-serious headcanons

She’s absolutely a chain smoker on par with Grimm- you know why

When she says Shaw it’s because as a kid she couldn’t say saw, the king would be so damn proud.

She’d be so good at putting up Christmas lights. Like the best even.

secretly loves holidays, could pull of a mean Santa impression by just fucking hustling down peoples chimneys and stealing their cookies. She’d even have a big ass silk bag full of toys.

Maybe she does this for Hallownest once it’s built?

that’s it’s, this is how she ascends to godhood

Hornet is bug Santa.

[pokemonshelterstories]

One of my close friends (who i wont name) has a 'blister' bred ninetails; they did not know that this breeding style was super dangerous (due to blister breeds having a much higher temp internally and externally)

Said ninetails is a rescue and is pretty dang old, any tips on how to make the old lad comfortable with his older age?

awww, old man...im glad he's got a home in his old age!

a big thing we see with older pokemon, especially fire types, is they often have a hard time managing their body temperatures. sometimes this comes in the form of overheating, but temperature drops are actually more common. keep an eye out for lethargic behavior or excessive panting, and definitely keep an eye on fur quality! a ninetales' tails especially should always be well-maintained, and if they start to get dull or ratty, that can be a sign of temperature difficulties. heating and cooling mats can help with temperature regulations, but a pokemon that already has a genetic susceptibility to temperature issues may also need medication.

i also recommend that he talk to his vet about any potential dietary changes he could make! older pokemon can often benefit from dietary supplements; we feed our elderly torkoal sitrus berry and electrolyte extract, for example, because it serves the dual purpose of getting her some necessary micronutrients and encouraging her to drink more water (a common issue in older fire types is actually dehydration!)

[flock-talk]

ive finally got my budgie fully diet transitioned to pellets, but she does still love her seed mix (this is only important because she will still eat it). but recently since she wasn't really diet transitioning to pellets we just switched her to a more healthy seed mix instead. and now i feel like the variety of seeds and nuts in that mix is good for her. but pellets are also better than seeds? and I was wondering should I keep her fully on pellets or would it be beneficial to keep her on half seed mix half pellets. OR have pellets as her main food and seeds separate as extra, like little snacks or something to go with her veggies. i feel like this is an individual bird type of thing and also depends on what seed mix im using and etc so i know you most likely can't give a definitive answer but i was wondering if you could give some insight

So this is the highly debated topic of parrot keeping at the moment

Pellets are only declared the healthiest option because they are fortified with vitamins and minerals that seeds alone would be lacking while also being low in fat and uniform in size/shape to limit selective consumption which decreases food waste and combats pickiness. Even with veggies in the diet getting the right nutritional balance can be quite difficult so pellets help bridge those nutritional gaps.

Mixing seed/ pellet can be controversial because by feeding seeds you're decreasing the pellet consumption which means the dose of nutrients they'd get from the pellets can no longer be guaranteed. (ex. if they get 2g of calcium from eating straight pellets and you now feed 50% seed they'd only be getting 1g of calcium instead). You also run the risk of the bird reverting off of pellets as parrots are notorious for their poor dietary choices even in the wild. They will consume whatever tastes best or they desire most in the moment, not the food that their body needs which can cause nutritional deficiencies to become even worse off! It can absolutely be done safely provided your bird actually eats both foods accurately and they're supplemented with their veggies or powdered supplements to compensate correctly.

Feeding a variety of low fat, nutrient-dense seeds mixed with veggies, sprouts, and potentially supplements is also a widely used dietary choice by folks who wish to go the more 'natural' route to feeding. This is typically referred to as the "raw fed parrot" diet. It can be great for birds who really struggle to eat pellets consistently, certain species who grass forage for seeds more than produce naturally, or individuals where pellets are too expensive/ unavailable in their region. The concern with this diet is nutritional accuracy, you really do need to consult with a vet, get bloodwork done, and work up a diet plan with them to ensure they're getting everything they need. Most end up needing a powdered supplement sprinkled over fruits/ veg to ensure they're consistently getting the nutrients they need. As previously stated birds are heavily selective consumers and won't eat what their body needs. This diet style has more risk for them over eating certain foods, scarfing down one seed type out of the mix, refusing certain fresh foods, and ultimately causing really askew nutritional values because of it. It can definitely be a good diet choice for some but it is a load of work to get it started!

You may want to give this study a read

https://href.li/?https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Donald-Brightsmith/publication/233534374_Nutritional_Levels_of_Diets_Fed_to_Captive_Amazon_Parrots_Does_Mixing_Seed_Produce_and_Pellets_Provide_a_Healthy_Diet/links/5d1389e3299bf1547c820a64/Nutritional-Levels-of-Diets-Fed-to-Captive-Amazon-Parrots-Does-Mixing-Seed-Produce-and-Pellets-Provide-a-Healthy-Diet.pdf?origin=publication_detail

It covers how the presentation of different foods alters the overall nutrition, selective consumption, and other things you may be interested in

[violetsandshrikes]

hi, sorry for an ask on something you’ve already talked about but could you share the information you had/ what worked for you with your PMDD?

No problem!

My doctor recommended B6 supplementation, because there is some research evidence that it can reduce PMDD symptoms, mainly by lowering prolactin and histamines. We know very little about the mechanisms behind PMDD, but there is a long standing theory that histamines may be a culprit behind a lot of the mood symptoms associated (which is why a lot of people also take antihistamines to try and manage it - I didn’t really notice any difference when I did, but it seems to be variable).

I take 50mg of Pyridoxine (a form of B6) daily as prescribed. I do recommend being careful and seeking medical advice, because while up to 200mg daily has been used in trials, occasionally B6 supplementation is linked to nerve damage. I also know it can have interactions with some drugs like anticonvulsants. After a couple months, I definitely noted incredibly improved symptoms.

Naproxen is usually prescribed for menstrual cramps and side effects, but definitely can be useful for the aches and pains that come with PMDD. This one was a game changer for me, as ibuprofen didn’t even touch my symptoms. It’s an NSAID, so you don’t want to overdo it and give yourself stomach ulcers, but use when needed for pain/inflammation seems fine. Definitely take with/just after food, and I was always recommended to take it with a decent amount of water.

The only other thing I’ve found that was recommended to me at some point (I likely have sources somewhere) is to increase my protein intake. Annoying as dietary advice can be, I have actually found it did improve things. Even doing things like working cottage cheese into breakfasts, buying frozen edamame and adding it to as many meals as I could, etc seemed to definitely work towards stabilising mood and energy levels.

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Dear MagISoWo,

Hello! I really appreciate all of the good work you do for our community! My three-year-old daughter just started this year at our town's public preschool program and is the only faun in her school. She does qualify for the free school breakfast and lunch program and it's been a godsend for me as a single dad on a delivery driver's wage, you know? Anyway, you might or might not know that fauns need significantly more of certain minerals such as sodium as compared to humans. Most of us, if we're eating human-style food, add a supplemental mineral mix -- salt mixed with granular forms of the other minerals we need. Given my daughter's young age, I arranged with her teachers to have her minerals added to her food when they give it her, and as of the time she enrolled none of them indicated that this might be a problem. However, the other day she came home from school with a stomachache and mentioned that her substitute teacher had told her that she wasn't allowed to have her minerals. I went to the principal hoping to get this cleared up, and apparently this was the first he'd heard of our arrangement, and he stated that the substitute had acted correctly in his view, and that her regular classroom teachers would also no longer be allowed to serve her the food with the mineral mix now that he'd been made aware. Apparently their nutritional guidelines forbid serving food with added sodium because of the health risks for human children, and they would be at risk of losing their federal food program funding. They told me that if I want to have more control over what my daughter eats at school I'm always welcome to send packed lunches from home, but grocery money is tight as it is and it would be a financial challenge to pull her out of the free meals program. Do I have any recourse here? Are there protections for magical children in situations like this?

Thank you

Hello,

We're very sorry to hear that you ran into trouble at your child's school. The School Meals program is meant to make life easier, not more stressful and it is definitely not meant to exclude non-human students. Providing this kind of service on a national schale is relatively new, however, and a lot of schools still have some trouble with the practical implementation. We hope your principal has simply misunderstood the regulations of the program, because there is definitely room to adapt meals according to a child's personal dietary needs.

Sadly there is not one clear statement in the program's terms we can point to for an immediate solution, because different solutions are suggested for different situations. Some children require very different food than their fellow students. (Such as uncooked meat, blood, coal, raw honey, etc.) And schools cannot be expected to provide meals suitable for every single diet.

Some children, like your daughter, only need small changes to a meal. Like eliminating a certain ingredient or adding a supplement. The School Meals program encourages schools to accomodate these students by having the parent or guardian of the child to provide an explicit instruction on how their child's meal is to be changed, and to sign this document to give the school permission to do so. We will enclose the link to the government page on the School Meals program where this suggestion is explained. If you provide such a document, plus the supplements your child needs, we expect the school will comply.

However, schools do have the option to refuse adding supplements or medications to children's meals, if they deem it too difficult a procedure to carry responsiblity for. It does not sound like this applies in your case, but if they choose to go this route you can always apply for Grocery Cards instead. These are also provided by the School Meals program, and function as coupons that can be used in most super markets, bakeries and farmers markets. They are mean especially for everyone who wants to ensure their children eat well, but cannot easily make use of the meals provided at their school. We will enclose a flyer on how to apply for them, should you want to look into that option. Considering your current situation, you should already qualify.

Best of luck and please don't hesitate to come to one of our local after school activities if you could use a hand with anything else!

~ the MagiSoWo Team

[weebsinstash]

I'm actually so relieved I brought Allister in because one of my biggest fears was that he wasn't eating enough, because he would be slowly picking at his breakfasts and dinners and the portions, visually, seem small, and the vet let me know he actually gained a little bit of weight since his last appointment and that he looks and acts super healthy 😭❤️ I was so worried he wasn't getting enough food in his body but I need to keep reminding myself the portions of food he's getting now may not look like much but he's getting a lot more calories than he was getting before with the wet food, so even if he isn't licking his plate clean, he's technically still eating more than he used to eating his previous meals in entirety

It sounds like basically what the vet strongly believes this is is, he's just still adjusting to his new diet, because if you guys remember, he was eating wet food before, and uh, kind of portions that I found out were too small, like a 'he was potentially not getting enough daily calories' kind of mistake, so he's had this gradual dietary change of me increasing his portions over time, and on top of that, all the added fiber was occasionally giving him gas, but I can tell he's adjusting to it and it's a lot better now (he let loose some NASTY ass last night while he was in my lap but at least I'm not jolting awake in the middle of the night worried he's had an accident anymore)

I'm super happy because it kind of feels like. This is finally confirmation he's out of the red and he's going to be doing good from now on. I just have to make sure he doesn't gain too much weight and they told me a way to weigh him could be weighing myself and then weighing myself holding him, which I feel stupid for not thinking of before but I didn't realize that would work 😅 they said it sounds super good that he's having regular poops just with his cisapride and that it was totally OK and even recommended that I wasn't giving him stool softeners or laxatives anymore because that was just more stuff that could make him queasy, so I'm also glad I called that right

This vet in particular also said, sometimes certain animals are just social eaters and est better with company and I definitely see this in Allister (I think it's a combo of anxiety and being bullied by other cats in the past) and she says since he's in a single kitty home there's no need to worry about "letting him graze" and leaving his food down all day if he doesn't want to eat the entire portion right away and that some cats are kind of just "snackers" and that's perfectly ok

Oh and also oh my gosh, I could cry, so, there are multiple vets at this clinic, right, and the one I'm seeing today is one I haven't seen before, but. She's the first one to tell me she actually disagrees with the idea that, if Allister were to need another cystotomy, another bladder stone removal, that she disagrees that he would be too old to have any more. I know medicine can be subjective but I'm really happy to hear her say it actually wouldn't be entirely impossible for him to have that surgery again in an emergency, more so that the risk increases over time. It just really takes a lot of stress off my mind because these damn oxalate stones are like, the boogeyman waiting to pop back up again, you know? The type he has can't be dissolved once they're around but they're easier to prevent, so.... it's just. . I finally have him in this environment where i can get him the exact care he needs and I'm happy to know that he won't be taken away from me due to how my mom was feeding him before. I can finally, fully protect and care for my baby exactly how he needs and how i want to

They also gave me some tips on how I can give Allister this one powdered supplement he takes for his stones that I haven't been able to give him with his dry food. They say as long as he's eating his prescription diet 99% of the time, giving him snacks or other things that are outside of those dietary requirements should be fine, so there are things I can give him to put these powdered vitamins in like the squeezy tubes or pill pockets for cats, so im also really glad to have that questioned answered

Sigh! In a happy way, with relief. Having him seen today took longer than it was supposed to because they were so busy they couldn't see me until an hour after I was scheduled but the overall cost isn't anything at all and it brought me such peace of mind. I'm so relieved. I'm gonna go home and have a nice drink and maybe play some video games or something with my little baby boy in my lap ❤️

[kiki-strike]

hi would you mind tellin me what ed ward was like? i might have to go there at some point and im scared also sorry if im phrasing it wrong and also also if you're more comfy dming or not answering at all thats fine

Hi yes I can!! And you can dm me if you want or send another ask if you have more questions :)

So there’s two kinds of 24-hour ED care, inpatient and residential. Inpatient is usually inside of a hospital, sometimes integrated with the psych ward (hence “ed ward”). This is where people that aren’t medically stable go (think serious heart conditions, people who flat-out refuse to eat, people who need to be in a locked ward to be safe). I haven’t been to inpatient ed, so I can’t say much on that subject. I do know that you typically stay in inpatient much shorter than residential.

I was in residential for four months. Usually ED treatment takes longer than treatment for depression and such and it’s not uncommon for people to go into residential more than once, but it’s pretty rare for residential to last more than six months. It’s expected that you’ll do a step-down plan which means after you leave res you’ll do a PHP and an IOP (PHP is when you live at home but go to programming during the day, usually 40-60hrs a week with all meals there, and IOP is usually half a day 2-3 times a week).

My res was three houses in a neighborhood (not in a row) and we would all go to the biggest house during the day. There was usually 2-3 group therapy sessions and 2-3 classes (DBT skills, nutrition, etc) per day, every day (inc weekends). We spent the rest of our time doing leisure stuff and eating.

Meals took up a HUGE portion of the day because we got half an hour for each meal, and then there was another half hour for supplements, plus 15 minutes for snacks and 15 minutes for snack supplements, so that amounts to… 4.5 hours every day. The way meals worked was each person got their own plate, to their own needs (some people got tiny amounts bc refeeding, some people got huge amounts bc restoration, etc). You got to choose 3 blacklisted foods that they would never give you, other than that if you didn’t like the food you had to suck it up. I chose spicy food, eggplant, and I think peanut butter? Because being vegetarian didn’t count (though I told them I was vegan instead because I was scared of milk😔). If you didn’t finish your food you got supplemented - 1/2 a sup for eating 3/4 but not finishing, one sup for 1/2-3/4, and two supps for eating less than half. Our supps were Kate Farms unless you had other dietary restrictions; I got switched to ensure clear halfway through because I went on a Kate Farms boycott to get it haha, WORTH IT ensure clear I love you. You had to sit at supps table for the whole half hour or until you finished it (it was a socially-acceptable choice to just sit there for half an hour). If you didn’t drink your sup you lost privileges for the next day, but unless you’d been there for a few months you didn’t actually *have* any, so… privileges were going on our daily 10 minute walk, the weekly strip mall field trip, and if you were VERY LUCKY going to the bathroom with the door closed. During meals there were a lot of blacklisted topics because yknow. Bad Time Let’s Be Nice. If you weren’t eating staff would gently encourage you but wouldn’t be mean about it, and the other patients would too. It’s pretty hard to fake eating there, but not impossible, and definitely impossible to do it without other patients seeing (because we all watched each other eat So Closely and we know all our tricks…) and other patients ratting you out is a definite possibility. You weren’t allowed to leave the table during meals but sometimes it happens. If you didn’t eat for two days they sent you to inpatient (they couldn’t actually force you to eat in res, but in IP they can tube you).

In our free time we all got really close. Everybody had a roommate and we slept in real bedrooms with our own bathrooms (which we could only use at night, they were locked during the day). A lot of us crocheted, there was lots of reading and coloring. We were allowed an hour of screen time, including TV, a day but that was taken away if you were Really Bad (think screaming fit not like “didn’t eat fear food”). If you were still in high school you were expected to do that (online) during free time (which was also a ticket to unlimited computer time during free time lolol, same with AA). The people you go to res to become like a weird version of your family, you’re together for months with ONLY each other doing something very emotionally taxing, so like within the first few days boom you now have 15 new best friends. It’s also very insular in that there are trends? Within your res? I started a rock painting trend, and also pestered staff enough that they finally let us garden (this was just me gardening and everyone else reading in the yard). Everybody listened to top 50 pop even if they hated it, because at res you like it (I’m very attached to billboard pop 2021 still), we all watched every Keanu Reeves movie because it’s funny to say that you have (none of us even liked him that much).

At res everything is funny because everything’s so bad? It’s this sort of delirious sheen that takes over everything, like looking at the world through a soap bubble. That said I was also on the maximum dose of seroquil. Everyone’s super supportive, not like the movies. If they didn’t actually want to recover they didn’t say anything about it.

Staff there consisted of three types: the babysitters (I don’t know their real titles), mostly college girls who babysat us and ran the houses, the therapists/psychiatrists who ran groups and did individual therapy, and the nurses. There was a nurse on staff until 11 every night, because we all had hot girl stomach issues and sometimes hot girl heart problems. They took blood once a week and there was a doctor that saw you once a month or if you complained about something long enough. The babysitters were all really nice though some were less pushover-y than others (let you stay on computer longer etc). They said they did room sweeps once a week but I had contraband they never found. They also said we weren’t allowed to touch each other for more than five seconds at a time (I am the reason that rule exists haha) but like… you have a roommate for a reason!! (I’m not even talking about sex I just mean snuggling ;-;)

In terms of visitors you mostly only got your parents or if you were married your spouse, maaaybe somebody’s friends came once? But not common. You’re not allowed alone time with your visitors (like prison!) and anything they give you has to be searched by staff (same as stuff you order online or buy on the strip mall field trips). A lot of rules are very very strict because people with eating disorders are masters at worming their way out of things which sucks but makes sense.

There were some unsavory things that happened to me there that I’d like not to talk about here, just know that when you go, it’s very possible for staff to lie to your parents/caretakers to the point that they don’t believe you. It is very hard to leave once you check yourself in, and if you do leave before they let you, that’s called AMA and your insurance won’t pay for the part of your stay you did already (which for me was $2k a day. For four months). Once you go there you’ve basically handed over your rights indefinitely to the program in exchange for learning how to eat good and not die. Which is better than dying but not amazing either, but that’s the way it is.

Some other unintended side effects:

1. If you were scared of blood draws before you went in you won’t be when you come out.

2. You’ll be able to pee anywhere no more pee shyness. Along those lines we had to describe our shit every morning to the nurse in earshot of everybody? So you won’t be embarrassed about that any more.

3. You might forget to close the bathroom door the first few months you’re home.

4. You’ll become very attached to some foods in res and then when you get out can never eat those foods again. For me that’s biscoff cookie butter.

5. You’ll be WAY less on your phone. You’ll know how to sit and wait instead of going on your phone immediately for entertainment.

All in all I’d say you get more freedom than the locked ward and less freedom than rehab, but stay longer than both of them combined. Fellow patients are awesome, staff is a mostly positive mixed bag, and activities are dismal (eating).

I wish you so much luck in recovery. You can do this! Every meal is a new beginning. I believe in you!

A funny for you for making it this far:

[localplaguenurse]

Pantalone Health Headcanons

This is a smorgasbord of headcanons about how fucked up pants' health would be. Most of them are inspired by @madamemachiko's pants fics/headcanons and the fic Alien Blues on ao3. Those two are my favourite flavours of Pantalone and they have permanently become part of my mental image for him.

I did my best research wise but I'm not an expert so I'm open to corrections/insight, and also wanna hear your thoughts!

ANYWAYS discussions of starvation and health complications

Starvation and diet

As a child on the streets he would either have no access to food or only access to scraps

He would go through long periods without sufficient nutrition and as such developed starvation ketoacidosis, which burned through all his body fat and ate away at his muscle mass as well. 

He’s also almost died of refeeding syndrome once or twice, which is when you overload your body with too many calories/nutrients after a period of starvation. 

To this day his body still cannot properly metabolize. He puts on weight very easily and it is difficult to gain muscle mass.

I wouldn’t say he’s fat or pudgy, no no, but because his body naturally clings onto all the fat it can get, he doesn’t exactly have a sculpted, defined body, and is kinda soft as a result. The only “definition” he has is his bonier features and whatever muscle he has managed to develop. 

This, combined with a sensitive stomach from years of eating… dubious meals, means he is very particular with portion control and dietary restrictions. Some meals he has developed an intolerance/inability to digest, and others he simply can’t stomach as they remind him of worse times. 

It has gotten better as he can a) afford food, and b) afford medical treatment, but by this point he’s accepted that this is just how his body is going to be for the rest of his life. 

He takes supplements, vitamins, and medicine to cover anything he’s missing as a result of his restrictions. 

Bonus: I headcanon Pantalone doesn’t actually care much for bougie dishes. His favourite foods are actually the really, really, really cheap meals he could barely afford when he was younger. They would have been the only hot fresh meals he could get his hands on aside, and they provide a sense of security and warmth. He would never admit he likes commoner meals, though, so whenever he’s asked what he likes, he defaults to whatever fancy dish he can think of off the top of his head. 

Stress and illness

Pantalone doesn’t have a canon age, I personally hc him as like 27 at the youngest, but regardless of how old you think he is, he has spent his entire life Stressed and there’s no way he isn’t suffering from it

Maybe the white is his hair is from his age, depending on your headcanon age for him, but a lot of it is from the stress of constantly working himself to the limit

He would never admit this, but he actually has a significant amount of white hair, he just dyes it black to hide it. He keeps the one streak because it makes him look sexy- I mean, it looks charming.

He also constantly suffers from migraines, especially when he’s trying to meet a deadline. He takes medication to counter it, but it can only do so much. 

They can get so bad that his eyes start to hurt, his vision blurs and he starts getting dizzy

He’s susceptible to respiratory infections, namely he is asthmatic and at risk of catching pneumonia. He’s had too many close calls as a child.

His heart is also at risk due to the aforementioned stress and disease that has plagued him since his youth. 

Similar to his diet, he is able to manage all of his conditions now that he can afford top of the line medical care, but he’ll never be 100% and he knows he has to work around that.

The cold weather of Snezhnaya is not good for him, if he’s outside for too long he starts to get short of breath because of the asthma.

He will also neglect sleep and hunger if he gets too absorbed in his work, he would actually work himself to death if you let him.

In spite of this, he carries on like nothing is wrong. He’s smiling, going about his day, attending meetings with his fellow harbingers and filling out paperwork for the Northland Bank like it’s nothing. He refuses to let the mask slip, no matter how bad his health issues can get.

It helps that he also has a pretty good self care routine to maintain his porcelain complexion and silky hair. Helps with the illusion that Everything Is Fine.

[cbk1000]

Part two, because I actually hit the character limits on the first post.

I start the ibuprofen. I am feeling awful. My chest is burning really badly, like terrible heart burn, I'm weak, I have barely any appetite, and I'm so uncomfortable I can only sleep a couple of hours every night, which makes me feel even shittier. I have Mr Jenn pick me up some sleep aids which fortunately knock me out for a bit, so at least I'm sleeping more.

I'm not feeling any better and I'm reading up on pericarditis and some of my symptoms kind of sort of fit, but I'm starting to doubt this is the issue because for the most part it doesn't seem to share a lot of common features with other cases of pericarditis.

In the meantime, I get my period again. (It’s been a few weeks of this at this point.)

I start feeling even worse. Now on top of my other symptoms, I'm really dizzy. It's worse when I get up to go to the bathroom, but even lying in bed my head sometimes spins, almost like vertigo, which I've never had before. I'm so weak I can't stand up straight and can only leave bed to go to the bathroom. Mr Jenn brings me all my food and I have to eat it in stages because I'm too weak to eat it all in one go. I have to eat a bit, lie down and rest, sit back up, repeat till whatever small amount of food I can get down is gone. Wtf is wrong with me. I feel like I'm dying.

Something in the back of my head goes wait a minute your symptoms got worse after a couple of days of heavy bleeding and when you were 20 you had that episode where you felt really sick and weak after a blood donation and you had the same issues with your heart rate going really high, and that was resolved with iron treatment. Could this be an issue with iron deficiency?

I know from my lab results that I'm not actually anemic (as in, my hemoglobin is normal), so I start researching to see if just low iron can cause the same symptoms as anemia, and if it's possible this is the culprit, because I not only menstruate, I don't eat much meat, so my dietary intake of iron is probably not great.

Turns out every single symptom I'm having could be from iron deficiency. Ok, at least that's a direction to go in. I need to establish with a primary care doc, get an iron panel done, and also get a referral to cardiology, because I still need to rule out any issues with my heart.

It is very difficult to get in with any doctor locally; most of them are not taking new patients, and if they are, it's a month or more wait to get scheduled. Out of desperation, I go back to the clinic I used to work for, and, as detailed in other posts, get stuck with a crazy anti-vaxx doc who blames all my problems on the Covid shot I had in 2021. Neato.

But I do get my iron panel and referral to cardiology, at least. The iron panel comes back and shows that I do have iron deficiency. I start supplementing while waiting to hear back on a cardiology appointment.

I luck out and get into an appointment at the cardiology clinic just a few days after the referral is sent over, because they had a last-minute cancellation. I see an ARNP, who tells me she thinks the echo done at the hospital looks fine, actually, no sign of pericarditis, but just to make sure they don't miss anything, because my heart rate is definitely still abnormally high, she's going to do a seven-day monitor, a repeat echocardiogram, and then have me follow up with one of the cardiologists.

I wear the monitor and go in for the repeat echo.

In the meantime, I've been taking iron supplements. Over the course of three weeks, I start slowly but steadily improving: after about a week, the chills and dizziness go away. The fatigue and brain fog have also suddenly improved significantly. The full-body weakness that was so bad I couldn't stand up straight, and Mr. Jenn had to carry a pillow out to the couch for me because I was too weak to lift it, starts to improve gradually day by day. I can start talking like an almost normal human again (I would get so out of breath and weak doing it that I couldn't speak at a normal volume, and had to limit what I said; Mr. Jenn said I was starting to sound like Stevie from Malcolm in the Middle, for anyone who understands that reference). I'm coming out of the bedroom in the evenings to visit with Mr. Jenn a bit while he cooks dinner.

Then I get my period again. The absolute cunt. The bellend. The fucking devil. I don't go back to square one, but I definitely take a couple of steps back in my recovery. My period is a bit lighter, though.

I start to slowly claw my way back from my period. My heart rate is still too high and I struggle being up for very long because of it, but I am still doing better overall. I also still have intense nausea off and on (after some reading, this seems to have been caused by low oxygen? Basically, not having enough iron meant I wasn't getting enough oxygen on a cellular level because there wasn't enough iron to transport it around my body, so my whole body went, 'We can't breathe, and you are going to Suffer for it.' It's not as common a symptom as, for instance, fatigue, but apparently low iron CAN cause loss of appetite and nausea, which I did not know. I thought it might be the supplements at first because iron is notoriously hard on your stomach, but I'm still taking them and at this point I haven't had any nausea in probably at least a month, so I think it was a symptom of the iron deficiency itself).

I see the cardiologist. Cardiologist tells me my heart is in great shape, actually. The echo shows structurally there's nothing wrong with it, and my heart monitor was super clean. Cool. I didn't think my heart was the problem at this point, but good to know I'm not in heart failure or something as an athletic woman in her 30s.

I go back to crazy doctor to say I really want to focus on getting my iron levels up, since that has been helping a lot, and since now we know it's not my heart causing my problems and that I don't have, and never had, pericarditis. Perhaps we could do something to speed it up a bit so I can go back to my job and my life. Like, I dunno, iron infusions.

Crazy doctor, as detailed in another post is not happy that cardiology did not validate his conspiracy theories about how The Jab destroyed my heart and life. He decides I have both chronic fatigue syndrome and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) caused by the shot, and is referring me to a neurologist to see if they'll validate his crazy pants. What the fuck ever, I'll just continue treating myself for an incredibly common medical condition, then, while you diagnose me with multiple chronic illnesses based on symptoms I told you I don't have anymore.

I get on with supplementing while doctor dreams about Ivermectin or whatever. I reach a point where I have a few days in a row where my heart rate is much lower, and I can get up and walk around and feel like an almost normal human again.

I get my period again. I am going to kill this fucking bitch. My heart rate goes back up to 130 bpm on walking around, and about 112 just sitting up. I can't do either for very long when my heart rate is that high; even lying in bed, I can feel it racing, and clock it in the 90s (my normal resting heart rate is in the 60s). I try to take out the garbage and legitimately feel like I'm going to pass out. None of my other symptoms have really worsened or come back, but the high heart rate makes it so I can't do much without feeling like I'm going to pass out.

I am extremely frustrated and decide to go back to the doctor to ask for iron infusions to speed up this process. I had been tracking my iron levels every month, and while my ferritin (iron storage) went up nine points after supplementing for four weeks, after eight, it had gone down a point. It's just so fucking hard to stay on top of it when you're bleeding heavily for a week every month.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

I want to build a world where the air is very toxic and all the population lives underground in shelters and if they're on the surface, they require lots of gear. I'm running into the issue of how toxic, how long this has been going on, how people even adapt (both technogically and physically). Especially the adaption part. Because this cannot be people who naturally evolved in such an environment when they lacked tech to survive it, and well, even with tech, there are still going to be random biological adaptions after quite a long time. I've been toying with the idea of between 3-5 thousand years but... Also if it HAD been that long, what might prevent them from eliminating the toxic air or something if it had so long.

Tex: Earth’s current air is already heavily toxic from manufacturing processes and other sources, to debilitating effects on one’s health (Wikipedia). Human DNA, at minimum, has already been altered by this (Google Scholar), and politics is a changing variable historically. One of the main issues in building a world with heavy pollution is that pollution doesn’t stay in one place, or one biome. Air pollution becomes water pollution, becomes soil pollution, and can become folded into geological strata over time, leaching pollutants to be literally unearthed in the future. Simply living underground is not necessarily going to stop this, particularly over the time span of thousands of years - materials break down, and need repair, which requires a manufacturing industry to create materials for such repairs. Survival, in this instance, becomes a sliding scale of definition  - the parameters for healthy will look different, and genetic-induced illnesses will culminate from environmentally-induced illnesses, so even if the environment is completely cleaned, the remnants of its effects will last for many generations.

Utuabzu: Tex is right, pollution has a rather nasty habit of traveling. But if you want the surface uninhabitable, you do have quite a few options. Nuclear winter, massive nasty pollution, supervolcanic eruption, planet kicked out of its orbit and surviving only on internal heat as a rogue planet, another planet already hostile to human life. Others I'm not really able to think of right now. But 3-5 thousand years is definitely not enough time for humans to meaningfully evolve any serious adaptations, especially not with the level of technology that would be required to survive at all. The best you'd manage is maybe people getting a bit paler and a bit smaller from living in light-poor and cramped conditions, and some dietary adaptations. Even that's debatable given that a culture technologically advanced enough to build these shelters is also going to be advanced enough to supplement vitamin d and ensure proper nutrition.

Rogue Planet is, to me, probably the most interesting option and the one that will be totally unfixable. The others would resolve themselves over time - the high atmospheric debris from a nuclear war or supervolcano would fall back to Earth (or whatever planet this is) within a few years, and both radioactive materials and most toxins do break down over time. You can't just wait out the cold of interstellar space. The planet's surface would cool continuously, and after a few decades would become so cold that the atmosphere precipitates out and forms a layer of liquid nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Then, it gets even colder and this freezes into a shell of N2-O2-CO2 ice. But, internal heat, from the planet's molten core and supplemented by tidal heating from any large satellites, could allow for subterranean habitats to be viable for millions of years. But you could never go to the surface without a full spacesuit.

[gothicprep]

the two biggest sellers of dietary supplements are infowars and goop, which is really funny to me because I can’t think of two things that are further from one another. the person buying infowars supplements from alex jones is probably a man, definitely very far right, probably working class, drives a truck or works in the trades. the person buying supplements from goop is probably a woman, an #ImWithHer liberal, very wealthy, probably has a degree. but the supplements have the exact same ingredients in them.

nutrition is a great proxy for political and information ecosystems because there’s a constantly overturned consensus. when I was a kid, a lot of the general consensus health advice was basically the influence of lobbying and advertising, but now we’re in a period where there aren’t a lot of trustworthy institutions. this is one place where it’s really pronounced, but you also see bits of this in higher education, journalism, etc. you can read it as a downstream response to the disintegration of institutional legitimacy. the left and the right respond to this differently, but there are overlaps in how the response is structured. sometimes it’s DNA force plus, sometimes it’s “this candle smells like my vagina”.