Take Advantage of the Latest Research

Parabiosis: Implement Current Research in Science and Health 

Parabiosis "refers to the natural or surgical union of two organisms." It has been in the science news over the last few years because some researchers have discovered that if they sew an old, fat mouse to a young slim one, the old fat one derives certain benefits from the youth and slenderness of the other rodent. Researchers say this process does not seem to trouble the mice all that much once they get used to it. And in fact that their lives are more interesting than those of the usual bored lab rodent.

Naked Mole Rats are a topic of study because they seem to have certain remarkable talents when it comes to longevity and handling oxidative stress.  Headlines like, "Do Naked Mole Rats Hold the Key to Immortality?" were out there a couple of years ago.

If one is paying attention to medical research news and the alternative health and wellness conversation, one hears often of the very long time that it takes even very clear and established research to filter into standard clinical practice.

Sometimes one is tempted to implement something from rodent trials because it sounds good and it works so well for the mice, so it might work for humans also. 

Or not.

(Naked Mole Rats are a bit smaller... and maybe a bit better looking in real life.)

Try Fasting

Increase Your Energy by Fasting! 

....Or possibly not.

I started fasting almost a year ago as a way to get my disturbingly gross psoriasis under control. (I was willing to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts for the rest of my life, but needing oversize dark glasses and a scarf in order to avoid scaring people on the subway was a bit much)

Apparently, the fasting worked better than I could have hoped. After three 5 day fasts, I was 100% clear and not testing as auto immune. Perhaps it was something else, or a combination of many things, or purely psychosomatic...but the clearing of my skin always happened a couple of days after the fast, so there's that to consider.

While the psoriasis is still gone, I have some other mild health concerns...and the lingering question of why I became psoriatic in the first place. So I have continued fasting every once in a while to bring down inflammation and to annoy my family.

And while my first fast was pretty apocalyptic- my immediate family may have been convinced that I was going to die- it has a bit gotten easier every time.

That is not to say easy. While I hear and read about people who claim to have amazing mental focus and physical energy while fasting, that has definitely not been my experience. 
About 22 hours after my last meal, I always am suddenly cold and tired and so, so, so completely unmotivated. Like the frozen asylum patients in Dr. Oliver Sacks' "Awakenings," I can respond briskly to stimulus- "Got to take the kids to school? Ok!"- but otherwise, I am prone to total mental and physical torpor. And floppiness. And I'm cold. Very cold.

But strangely enough, today, almost 6 days in on my 6th fast, I am suddenly feeling better. Maybe even good.

I am still looking forward to eating some dinner tonight. 
Even though, now, ironically, I am completely not hungry.

Don't Stand Too Close to the Microwave

But I still always told my kids not to stand close to our microwave while it was running.

While I am not presently necessarily convinced that the microwave is just a toxic box for killing food and increasing cancer... after spending a good bit of time in the "alternative" health world on the way to dealing with my psoriasis, I suspect that the holes in what we officially understand might be bigger that I previously believed. 

So I'm trying not to put my food...or my head...in the microwave these days.

But about that wifi....

Consume Turmeric

You can never consume too much turmeric.

Right?

I am considering starting a new series of drawings, based on a series of health promoting suggestions, like "try to add some turmeric to your diet." These suggestions can be very easy and reasonable...and/or can be pushed to the point of potential derangement....(deranged at least in the perspective of the innocent bystanders who don't share my health fixations)

But sometimes I think the situation is a bit deranged myself.

We can easily escalate to, "you can never eat too much turmeric," because if a little is good...well, we all know where that goes.

I eat a lot of turmeric. Some might say a bit too much. I like to think it gives me a healthy glow. My arthritic joints are much improved, and I don't seem to have psoriasis any more. 
But in strong sunlight, standing next to my alabaster pale, bagel-eating children, I look distinctly yellow. 
Yes, quite yellow.

Consume Collagen

Consume collagen in your golden milk for healthy growth:

I am a relatively recent import from the land of vegan eating and I continue to suffer from cognitive dissonance.

I'm still operating on a plant based situation, but given our various health issues and my swiftly advancing decrepitude, I tried adding in bone broth, collagen and fish. I had been taking my methylated B12 vitamins and my algal DHA and had taught myself to eat natto. But things still were quite working the way they should.

It did feel good philosophically to not eat any animal products. And now I am still trying to get my mind around the concept of happy, grass-fed cows who are contentedly sending me their glycine, lysine and proline to put in my menopausal skin and joints. (And in my kids' non menopausal skin and joints)

I have absorbed the messages that it is all much more morally complex than just condemning CAFO meat production. Bunnies die during the mechanical harvesting of vegetation and it seems that grazing ruminant provide essential materials to the larger biosphere when they are not incarcerated in hellish conditions. 
And, yes, every living organism dies eventually, and most likely in an unpleasant way, even if it doesn't become food.

Or even if it posts on Instagram about how it eats a Paleo diet replete with collagen.