4029 replies to this topic

[macropsia]

This is the same kind of hare-brained unanatomical unthinking that brought us SSRIs based on the principle that 'serotonin is a feel-good chemical'.

[liber]

Asking once more because my last post got buried on the last page:

Does oat fiber have any resistant starch? I have a bunch from: http://shop.honeyvil.../oat-fiber.html

[Nattzor]

Got an email yesterday!

Dear XXXXX XXXXX-
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I am the first author on the paper you referred to, in your email to Mike Hamblin, below.

Re: P1, we have lost contact with her in past few years. We do know she used the LED cluster head to treat herself, for at least 7 years, and did well (into her mid-70's). In the last 2 years or so, neither she nor her husband have responded to emails or calls, and we do not know where they are now located. They were not located in Massachusetts, but were in the New England area.

Re: P2, she still continues to use the 3 LED cluster heads with her MedX Health, Console Model 1100 unit. She progressed a great deal - where she was able to continue to work for a few years; and was able to divorce her husband, and moved to another state. While she did return to work for a few years after the transcranial LED treatments, she is no longer working, after she moved to the other state. She is on military retirement, but should continue counseling and support from the VA Healthcare System. Her son recently graduated from high school, and joined the military. She is coping with the unpredictable aspects of that situation. We plan to keep in touch with her. She is quite cooperative when we call. When she travels and drives on longer road trips, she does take along her LED device. She is faithfully using it, because things are more difficult for her, if she does not use it. We have suggested that she continue to treat every other day, and occasionally take a week off, as we have notice that some patients do better with this schedule.

I think both of these chronic TBI cases show that continued transcranial LED treatments in the home, are appropriate. It is not that we would have expected a …permanent cure after using the LEDs for 6 weeks - but similar to drug therapies/medications - if one were using medication that was helpful, it is likely that medication could be continued, long-term, if necessary. There have been no negative side effects with the continued use of the transcranial LED treatment protocol used with the chronic, TBI cases.

I hope this information is helpful for you.

I will attach the PDF for our most-recent study, with 11 more chronic, TBI cases, treated at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston (Harvard Medical School). That study is now …in press, for the J. of Neurotrauma.

Thank you for your interest in our transcranial LED research to improve cognition in chronic, TBI.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/24568233 - The study she attached.

Edited by cryonicsculture, 07 April 2014 - 03:40 PM.

[abelard lindsay]

Were you noticing that on the 80g, or lower doses as well?

I can't really make my mind up about PS. I take about two heaped tablespoons a day. At that dose, there is a noticeable anti-anxiety effect .. and at first my mood was greatly improved (happier, more friendly), but lately I've been feeling quite grey, flat and depressed and I can't tell if there's a connection (I suffer from depression regardless).

I tried 80g once, but it did feel more psychoactive, particularly when combined with coffee -- the combination was too much for me.

You can 'debug' yourself after using PS and feeling some symptoms: http://www.pintochir...m/PHP/sec1a.php

It will give you an idea how your different levels (dopamine, gaba, serotine, acethylcholine) have changed.

Its somewhat useful for what it is (I have read the book also) I wish he would make the distinction between norepinephrine and dopamine in his results.

Braverman is great stuff for supplement debugging. It's also really nice if one's significant other reads it. It then becomes easy to communicate about feelings at any given moment in terms of brain chemistry. Trust me, it adds a whole new dimension to relationships. It's a bit like what people wanted to do with psychoanalysis but it actually, IMHO, has meaningful correspondence with reality and you can learn how to twist your own brain "knobs" with supplements and get quick feedback.

[zawy]

The son of the dementia patient using my 150 watt, 1500 LED (660 nm and 850 nm) helmet shown in the video earlier in this thread and at the link below said that the mini-mental state examination that had deteriorated from 27 to 25 in 2013 suddenly jumped to 28 (very unusual according to the doctors) during the last 2 tests, after 1 month of the helmet at 7 to 15 minutes twice a day. It's been 6 months since they received it, but they were travelling and enrolled in a methylene blue trial and are only now starting to use it again. They also tried it a shorter treatment time and have decided the longer treatment time was probably helping more. I now have a 1300 LED all 850 nm helmet that I use on myself for fun, 10 minutes at a time. It seems to give me more "thinking energy" per day. His son also reports he enjoys using it. A skeptical friend of mine is also showing up for lunch more often to get treatments for fun and he thinks it really "helps" .... in what way we think it helps a normal person, none of us have been able to be more specific.

http://heelspurs.com/led.html

Edited by zawy, 08 April 2014 - 01:19 AM.

[celebes]

Can someone tell me if there's any resistant starch in oat fiber?
 

 

 

Raw rolled oats are 7-15% RS. Oat bran does stimulate butyrate but not by much: http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/8391563

[Phoenicis]

A question out of academic interest, I'm not a medical expert so please don't rely on this information:

 

Has anyone tried using high powered LEDs? This may sound funny but I have a reef aquarium and in order to get sufficient PAR to the corals in lower levels of tanks we use high powered leds, usually 3W LEDs that can be run up to 1000 mA. When you add lenses to those LEDs the light penetration through water increases significantly. 

 

Here is a finished product with a total of 10w (appears to be 2 5w LEDS): http://www.dx.com/p/...Iw#.U0TLnKhdWSo

 

Notice the heat sink around the LEDs, this is required to keep them running cool as excess heat in the actual LED itself (generated with this amount of current) would otherwise shorten the life of the LED. I have no idea whether this amount of light too much for the brain or not, but penetration should certainly be improved. 

Edited by Phoenicis, 08 April 2014 - 09:06 PM.

[Raz007]

Hey there fellows, haven't wrote here for a while

 

Maybe i'm a late riser, but I just got so exited about the results that I feel like sharing.

I performed the LLLT for quite a while, with very nice results on the cognition and

memory part. But recently I started to implant the two other additions to my routine:

PQQ ( Finally! ) and PS . And I can tell the results are AMAZING. The PS did gave very nice

effect on my mood and concentration, which is very cool. Granted, I never took seriously

the PQQ, probably due to my psychological dissonance as I couldn't afford it back then-

but I decided to give it a shot- and it's unbelievable. First thing I notice the morning after

is that my olfactory sense works much better, I notice smells I never manage to smell before-

did anyone experienced this ?

 

P.s. I decided to try this version of PQQ + CoQ10 . It's extremely cost effective ( 20$ inc shipment for 

100 caps of 20mg PQQ + 200mg CoQ10 ) , I know- it look kind of sketchy. I suspected it as well, 

but when I opened the pill the color & the smell of the mixture seems right compered to the other

brands, and the effects are real. I haven't made this mixture chromatography, so my answer is just 

based upon personal experience. 

[Mr Matsubayashi]

TDCS going mainstream?

Edited by Mr Matsubayashi, 10 April 2014 - 12:04 PM.

[penisbreath]

Found this on phoenixrising, which I thought was interesting. RS likewise has been leaving me feeling better in certain respects, but exhausted overall (and killed my libido). 

 

 

 

When first starting RS I was taking 2 tbsp twice a day. One around noon, and another dose right before bed. As I stated before, on the whole my Chronic fatigue symptoms got worse in terms of overall energy, despite having better temperature and blood glucose regulation & digestion.

I switched to one large bolus dose of 4tbsp right before bed after @Ripley had the idea that taking more at once may be better in terms of having it make it to the colon. The fatigue symptoms got worse, and I had a brutal time pulling myself out of bed in the morning and was exhausted all day long. Again despite improvements in virtually every other metric that RS is known to improve.

This was extremely frustrating, taking something that made me feel simultaneously better and worse at the same time but in different ways. The thing I desired most.... being energy, was worse. The other metric such as improved digestion and regulation were nice but not what I was after.

One night I woke up after 3-4 hours, still a bit tired but strangely energized. Not the brutal exhaustion I experienced before. It made me think maybe I should sleep less, perhaps I was oversleeping by sleeping 7-8 hrs and something whack was happening with my hormones like melatonin.

RS appears to be a prime food for bifido bacteria such as B.Infantis which has a critical role in producing serotonin. Serotonin is the precursor to Melatonin and I thought maybe I was producing WAY too much leading to me feeling drugged an exhausted right when I should be waking up.

Also I know personally my gut motility is hugely impaired while lying down. When sitting or standing upright gravity seems to help a lot in terms of moving things along my GI tract, so perhaps the RS was getting fully fermented before even reaching the colon when taking it right before bedtime.

But then I also thought about transit times:

 

The time taken for food or other ingested objects to transit through the gastrointestinal tract varies depending on many factors, but roughly, it takes less than an hour after a meal for 50% of stomach contents to empty into the intestines and total emptying of the stomach takes around 2 hours. Subsequently, 50% emptying of the small intestine takes 1 to 2 hours. Finally, transit through the colon takes 12 to 50 hours with wide variation between individuals. ~ Wikipedia

With a transit time from mouth to colon being about 3-5 hours I decided to take 3-4tbsp of RS 5 hours before bedtime instead of right before bed. This made a HUGE difference in terms of my energy and well-being the following day. We are talking about going from a 3-4 on the energy scale and then subsequently after making the change in timing, going all the way to a 8-9.

I am at the point now where I feel nearly cured of CFS! I am now getting all the benefits touted from RS, and wow what an improvement! 

I think there is a powerful neurotransmitter/hormonal connection here with RS and the bacteria which has a much bigger impact than I even thought was possible. Prior to the timing change I think RS may have been producing abundant Seratonin and subsequently melatonin right at the time I should be waking up thus making me feel exhausted. Now however I am getting the beneficial effects at the time when they benefit me the most, leading to restful rejuvenating sleep. In fact I need less sleep now than before, AND I have twice as much energy during the day. 

It's also possible there are some critical detox mechanisms going to work right at sleep time and perhaps having abundant SCFA's at those times may be very important. I'd be curious for other people to experiment with timing to see if they get a similar result.

 

Edited by lucky.pierre, 12 April 2014 - 10:33 AM.

[Strangelove]

 

 

 

Were you noticing that on the 80g, or lower doses as well?

I can't really make my mind up about PS. I take about two heaped tablespoons a day. At that dose, there is a noticeable anti-anxiety effect .. and at first my mood was greatly improved (happier, more friendly), but lately I've been feeling quite grey, flat and depressed and I can't tell if there's a connection (I suffer from depression regardless).

I tried 80g once, but it did feel more psychoactive, particularly when combined with coffee -- the combination was too much for me.

You can 'debug' yourself after using PS and feeling some symptoms: http://www.pintochir...m/PHP/sec1a.php

It will give you an idea how your different levels (dopamine, gaba, serotine, acethylcholine) have changed.

 

Its somewhat useful for what it is (I have read the book also) I wish he would make the distinction between norepinephrine and dopamine in his results.

 

Braverman is great stuff for supplement debugging. It's also really nice if one's significant other reads it. It then becomes easy to communicate about feelings at any given moment in terms of brain chemistry. Trust me, it adds a whole new dimension to relationships. It's a bit like what people wanted to do with psychoanalysis but it actually, IMHO, has meaningful correspondence with reality and you can learn how to twist your own brain "knobs" with supplements and get quick feedback.

 

 

 

I am very interested in what you describing, I have gone in some length with Myer Briggs and I find it very practical, but have not done the same with Bravemans's ideas. I meant to start a thread some time now how a very large percentage in Longecity are an "INTP/J type" and what that might mean for supplementation... Any confirmation of type from anyone here. Do not mean to derange the thread, but I am curious. INTP here.

[Skippy88]

I'm anxious to try Light therapy, but I wonder: I'd use the Philips goLite, would this work as a TULIP lamp?

 

http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B001I45XL8

[zawy]

Niacin at 2 grams in the morning seems to have a calming effect on me. At the larger doses, the histamine flush response stops after the first day if you take it every day. Some people might need to take it every half day to prevent the flush. I actually enjoy the tingling and burning and super-red flush (after stopping for a week). I take it for lowering LDL and increasing HDL, and the last I've been able to determine, it's still better than any pharmaceutical for this, and this has been known since the 1950's from Dr Hoffer. He used it to stop schizophrenia if it could be caught in the early stages. It was one of the first good well-controlled medical studies when they got around to seeing the effect on cholesterol. This is what got Linus Pauling interested in vitamins before Dr Stone introduced him to vitamin C. I copied Dr. Stone's advice for pregnant women for my wife (over 10,000 mg vitamin C per day to create collagen to hold cells together for both the mother's skin tissue and the fetus....aka "vitamin C baby" protocol) and our son was born with no medication at 11 pounds and 22 inches long. We're both 5' 8". The hospital said it was one in about 1,000 babies like this and the pediatrician is still saying he's going to be 6' 7". ANYWAY, I'm taking berberine for memory and balance. See http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/24535622 or just do a search on berberine and memory (15 results in past 4 years...it's up and coming fast). 2 years ago it was not available as a supplement when I discovered it appears to be the strongest anti-cancer agent in mice and rats that has ever been discovered. Now iHerb has 3 brands selling it.

Edited by zawy, 13 April 2014 - 05:34 PM.

[swen]

For those who haven't seen this awesome video from the Freetheanimal Blog: 

 

[alpal]

I know some of you are on BP coffee... wanted to report better mental clarity from grass fed ghee as opposed to grass fed butter (Although I don't actually use the coffee itself anymore). To be exact, I am benefitting from Purity Farms ghee more than Kerry Gold butter. I was drawn to it after I saw it on the BPE facebook page.

 

For those that don't know (i didn't), ghee is essentially clarified butter that is often used in indian food. Clarifying it supposedly removes milk solids and water, so much that some lactose intolerant can eat it.

 

Also it's much more convenient to carry around since I can use a smaller dose and get the same amount of fat, and it can be stored much longer than butter outside the fridge so I can travel with it (I think a month or 2)

Got it at whole foods.

 

Now for the LLLT, I have been using a dose of 4:30 on only the left side of my head mostly near the prefrontal cortex. These areas house the mental abilities I want to enhance and it is working to a substantial but not extraordinary extent. I will eventually add pqq due to the reviews here.

[alpal]

Lostfalco, I just read your goal of using enhanced intellect to reconcile global problems which I emphatically agree with. I was wondering if there would be an interest in being more active in this pursuit by contacting people that are already tackling global issues and trying point them toward research on nootropics that may increase their productivity. I know personally that nootropics have significantly enhanced by abilities so perhaps gently suggesting them to people in positions of positive influence may be effective.

 

Potential Candidates 

Food- http://www.cyberfarmsystems.com

Housing- http://www.contourcrafting.org

Got these off the zeitgeist movement facebook page

[swen]

Actually the studies suggest to take it all at once. More gets to gut where it can be utilized.

 

I've tried taking it one dose and for me it doesn't work. I experience less benefits, almost none. 

 

On the Freetheanimal blog Richard Nikoley notes that everything above 60 grams probably passes through. At the moment I'm back at 2 TBS a 2-3 times a day. 

 

Also taking a good prebiotic for some time may be very important. If resistant starch is food for good bacteria you will need these good bacteria in the first place. Otherwise you can be feeding an 'empty cage', read this post for more info: http://freetheanimal.com/2014/02/probiotics-component-obesity.html 

Edited by swen, 17 April 2014 - 08:04 AM.

[hephaestus]

I bought some Inulin FOS and have been taking a scoop of that with 30g of resistant starch every day. Could be placebo but I notice increased focus and mental energy not long after taking them. I have been eating a minor caloric deficit for a while so it could just be from the extra calories they provide.

Edited by hephaestus, 19 April 2014 - 04:06 PM.

[Phoenicis]

" LEDs get seal of approval: Safe for skin, experts say

 

"The team exposed fibroblast cultures to four LED wavelengths -- red, green, blue, and white -- for intensity-normalized time periods, so all samples were being exposed to the same power within one test," Rafailovich says. "The cells were counted using a hemocytometer; the mitochondrial activity was determined through MTS Assay analysis; and cell morphology was analyzed through confocal microscopy images. The cultures were exposed to two different conditions: longer exposure trials with Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium [DMEM], with no phenol red on the samples, and trials without any media, a maximum exposure of 3 minutes."

The short exposure samples without media displayed a trend of a higher cell proliferation than both controls (one sample stayed in the incubator; one sample was only exposed to ambient light). The long exposure samples that had 1 mL of DMEM media (maximum exposure time of 15 minutes) di

 

 "At this point, we have seen the consistent trend that LED exposure is not harmful to human dermal fibroblasts," Leonard reports. That helps clarify the scientific thinking on the subject, according to Falco. "When we first started preliminary research for our paper, we ran into several conflicting opinions of whether or not LED lights were harmful," she says. "Some people claimed that they did damage to skin cells, while others were using them to heal wounds, so it was gratifying to see for ourselves that cells were proliferating under the LEDs."

 

Dr. Mironava confirms the students' conclusions. "LEDs definitely don't hurt dermal fibroblasts cells, and pose no risk at all," she says. "In fact, in some cases we observed an increase in mitochondrial activity and cell proliferation, which indicates that exposure to LED light may be beneficial for the cells."

 

The students are now investigating the influence of LED light exposure on factors affecting wound healing. They are thrilled to participate in research as undergraduates. "I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to experience the process of conducting research from the formulation of the thesis, as opposed to jumping onto a preexisting project," says Leonard. Adds Caballes, "It's exciting to be working on developing a thesis and conducting an experiment as an undergraduate student. I have had very little exposure to cell biology laboratories before this research, and being able to expand my horizons through this study has been very fulfilling."

 

Mentoring is equally gratifying. "I enjoy not only the science, but watching the students gain confidence," Dr. Mironava says. "It is extremely important for students to have an experience of working in real lab, and I am sure it will help them to find a job in the future."

 

The students, in turn, appreciated their mentors' commitment. Falco speaks for all three: "Dr. Mironava sacrificed so much of her time to educate us on how to create a good experiment, and spent many days in lab with us showing us the ropes. She was understanding that we were beginners at this, yet stern enough to make sure that we always tried to improve everyday, to ensure that we ended up with a great result to be proud of. Dr. Rafailovich has been fantastic, allowing us the use of lab space, and offering her expertise whenever it was needed." "

 

-Stony Brook University. "LEDs get seal of approval: Safe for skin, experts say." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 April 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140421164148.htm>.

 

http://sb.cc.stonybr...lOfApproval.php

Edited by Phoenicis, 22 April 2014 - 10:19 PM.

[Phoenicis]

Question: would regular tanning bed style goggles work for protecting the eyes from LED IR light?

[Skippy88]

I just bought this Infrared Light.

 

http://www.medisana....d Lamp IRH.html

 

• Supports blood circulation
• Alleviates pain
• Inclination angle of the individual seating is adjustable
• Energy-saving lamp (Philips)
• Intense infrared light to relax muscles or treat colds
• Made in Germany
• Power output : 100 watts
• Certified medical device (Certification according to MDD Medical Device Directive)

 

There's no mention of a wavelength, and it's also impossbile to hold it to directly to the skin because it is terribly hot, but do you suppose this would work equally well for TULIP? Since it has medical properties and everything...

[Godof Smallthings]

I would email the manufacturer to ask about the wavelength. I don't think it is suitable for TULIP. The lamps used for TULIP are really inexpensive anyway. If you want to try it, just buy one off eBay like most of us have.

[fairy]

--- Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters ---

 
Two years ago I read Tunnel in the Sky - R. Heinlein in my laptop after having colored all the letters with MS Word. With http://goo.gl/qXavLy and  http://goo.gl/TTlrtk you can simulate grapheme -> color synesthesia in your browser. The script is likely to fuck up the page layout so switching to the mobile version of a given page helps a lot. New associations can be added and the existing ones easily modified. Used the script for a while then gave up. You might find this http://goo.gl/h05PQO interesting as well.

[fairy]

Does anyone know how much resistant starch a raw plantain contains? I've bought some but I don't know how to dose.

[BigPapaChakra]

Guys lemme know if this link works, it's honestly a fascinating read and really lends support to enhancing gut health --> enhancing emotional well-being AND cognitive functioning:

 

Metabolic tinkering by the gut microbiome: Implications for brain development and function

 

Edit: it works. Give it a read!

 

Edited by BigPapaChakra, 04 May 2014 - 05:49 AM.

[hephaestus]

Does anyone know how much resistant starch a raw plantain contains? I've bought some but I don't know how to dose.

 

https://en.wikipedia...unctional_fiber

[mentat]

Just get some potato starch guys, mix it with 1-2 forks of RAW sauerkraut and you're set.

[DamnedOwl]

Just get some potato starch guys, mix it with 1-2 forks of RAW sauerkraut and you're set.

 

What brand of potato starch have you been using (seen as you're in Germany...)?

Edited by DamnedOwl, 07 May 2014 - 08:01 PM.

[mentat]

Hey,

 

just the cheapest available. make sure there is nothing else in it. just read the ingredients. "Kartoffelstärke" or "Kartoffelmehl" is right. But be careful, for the first month you will fart a lot..this is no joke..at least if you eat up to 4 tablespoons a day as i did. timing is thus crucial, i would best take it before bed... :-) Hope that helps.

[Godof Smallthings]

It has been claimed in this thread that:

 

- Potato flour (Kartoffelmehl) is not effective.

- Modified potato starch is not suitable. Has to be unmodified.

I am not clear on the exact rationale behind those claims, however.

 

I am doing fine with 2 tbsp of Bob's Red Mill unmodified per day, but when I added unripe green banana to that, the gas was nothing short of unbelievable. I have never before in my life had so much gas.