ICYMI

High Altitude and Diabetes Risk (in mice)

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In findings published in Cell Metabolism, the team demonstrated that red blood cells can alter their metabolism when oxygen levels drop. This shift allows the cells to deliver oxygen to tissues more efficiently at high altitude. At the same time, it lowers circulating blood sugar, offering a potential explanation for reduced diabetes risk. Gladstone Institutes. “Scientists discover why high altitude protects against diabetes.” ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260221060952.htm (accessed February 21, 2026).

Journal Reference:

  1. Yolanda Martí-Mateos, Zohreh Safari, Shaun Bevers, Ayush D. Midha, Will R. Flanigan, Tej Joshi, Helen Huynh, Brandon R. Desousa, Skyler Y. Blume, Alan H. Baik, Stephen Rogers, Aaron V. Issaian, Allan Doctor, Angelo D’Alessandro, Isha H. Jain. Red blood cells serve as a primary glucose sink to improve glucose tolerance at altitude. Cell Metabolism, 2026; DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2026.01.019

Chronic Pain? Check This Out

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Curiosity is not a curse. I’ve been expanding my knowledge base this morning.

As I have written before, the key to treating chronic pain often lies in therapies designed to dampen the brain’s response to pain signals. In treating my own chronic pain, I benefited greatly from a mindfulness therapist who helped me develop techniques to redirect thoughts and feelings of pain, push them out of my body. In my case, I met virtually with the therapist, who expertly sussed out my situation and tailored her advice to my needs. She worked at Duke University, in one of their pain clinics, and was an expert at helping people like me. This Online Program Could Be The Solution To Your Chronic Pain – https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterubel/2026/02/07/this-online-program-could-be-the-solution-to-your-chronic-pain/

Here’s the link to Telehealth and Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy–Based Treatments for High-Impact Chronic Pain A Randomized Clinical Trial – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2836795 Conclusions and Relevance  Remote, scalable CBT-CP treatments (delivered either via telehealth or self-completed modules online) resulted in modest improvements in pain and related functional/quality-of-life outcomes compared with usual care among individuals with high-impact chronic pain. These lower-resource CBT-CP treatments could improve availability of evidence-based nonpharmacologic pain treatments within health care systems.

Here’s the link to the online resource quoted in the Forbes article https://mypaintrainer.org/login-to-paintrainer/

Full disclosure:

I’ve had chronic pain since 1976 (or was it 1977?) when I had a near fatal encounter with a fast moving car while walking home. I don’t take any pain medications other than the occasional ibuprofen. I have been using an online pain management resource courtesy of my employer (not the resource linked above). A DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) and health coach are part of the resources at my disposal. I haven’t used any ibuprofen in quite some time, if that tells you anything.

I will be exploring https://mypaintrainer.org/login-to-paintrainer/ more but at the time of this writing have not looked into their services.

Keep Moving

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Physical activity consistently emerges as the most important factor influencing both absolute physical capacity and the rate of age-related decline. Our longitudinal data are consistent with previous studies showing that regular physical activity can attenuate the decline in physical performance [17, 32–37]. Individuals who were physically active in their leisure time at age 16 maintained higher aerobic capacity, muscular endurance and muscle power throughout the observation period. This emphasizes the importance of early intervention to establish positive exercise habits in adolescence and early adulthood, as these patterns appear to have long-term benefits for physical function. Encouragingly, our results show that transitioning from physical inactivity to activity at any age significantly improves performance in all fitness modalities studied. These findings contradict the assumption that early inactivity irreversibly impairs physical performance. Rather, taking up regular physical activity leads to measurable improvements in performance even in later decades of life. This finding is of particular importance for clinical practice, as physical activity is still the only evidence-based intervention to reduce the risk of sarcopenia [2, 38]. Recent large population studies also show that an active lifestyle is beneficial at any age [13, 39, 40]. Rise and Fall of Physical Capacity in a General Population: A 47-Year Longitudinal Study – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcsm.70134

Text above in bold are my highlights.

Despite the documented limitations this is a very strong study.

I’ve been doing my home based virtual physical therapy for nearly a year. I’m trying to get to the gym at least twice a week. I don’t walk as much as I used to but…

Keep moving.

My Statin Comes From India

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According to the USP, the bulk of the APIs come from India. That country is responsible for 50% of the active pharmaceutic ingredients. China is not far behind at 32%. The European Union supplies 10%. That’s a big change since 2000. Back then, European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark supplied 42% of the APIs. Drug Recalls From India – Can You Trust Foreign-Made Generics? – https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/more-drug-recalls-from-india-do-you-trust-foreign-made-generics

Dozens of companies received approval from the FDA over the years to sell metoprolol and bupropion in the U.S. Yet from 2018 to 2024, the agency reported running only 2 tests on metoprolol and 7 on bupropion through its quality surveillance program — in each case, by pulling a sample from a single drug maker. In many of those years, the drugs weren’t tested at all, FDA records show. Those that were assessed received passing results. The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, So ProPublica Did – https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-generic-drug-testing

ClinCalc DrugStats Database – https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/

Both articles are long reads but worth your time.

Yikes.

Not Your Grandma’s Teddy Bear

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Safety features or not, it seems like the chatbots in these toys can be manipulated into engaging in conversation inappropriate for children. The consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG tested a selection of AI toys and found that they are capable of doing things like having sexually explicit conversations and offering advice on where a child can find matches or knives. They also found they could be emotionally manipulative, expressing dismay when a child doesn’t interact with them for an extended period. Earlier this week, FoloToy, a Singapore-based company, pulled its AI-powered teddy bear from shelves after it engaged in inappropriate behavior. Do Not, Under Any Circumstance, Buy Your Kid an AI Toy for Christmas – https://gizmodo.com/do-not-under-any-circumstance-buy-your-kid-an-ai-toy-for-christmas-2000689652

AI-Powered Teddy Bear Caught Talking About Sexual Fetishes and Instructing Kids How to Find Knives – https://gizmodo.com/ai-powered-teddy-bear-caught-talking-about-sexual-fetishes-and-instructing-kids-how-to-find-knives-2000687140

The alleged perpetrator

Concerning Trends in Retirement – More Less Than Random Thoughts

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  • Lack of sufficient savings
  • Inflationary pressures
  • Rising credit card debt
  • Half of respondents said they had saved less than what was needed for retirement.
  • When we asked an open-ended question about why they rated their satisfaction with retired life as they did, inflation was a major reason.

The ‘Concerning Trends’ in Retirement Now – https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/concerning-trends-in-retirement-now

I’ve decided not to retire. Wait, let me clarify my statement.

I’ve not changed my mind about my decision not to retire five years ago.

I love double negative sentences.

 Fewer than twenty percent of older people worldwide enjoy a retirement pension that is enough for them to live off. Although countries like China and India are now also developing their pension systems, the prospect of most older people receiving pensions totaling 60 to 70% of their final salaries remains a long way off.

The invention of retirement – https://www.swisslife.com/en/home/blog/interview-matthieu-leimgruber.html

The majority of our friends are retired. I’m always asked when I’m going to retire. My quick answer was always “Don’t know”. I’ve since modified my response to “Two to four years”. This has been my answer for the past two years. Might still be my answer next year too.

https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/retirement-planning/the-90-rule-of-retirement-live-long-and-prosper

Nearly 40% of Americans ages 55 and older were employed in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a striking shift that’s even more dramatic when you look at the oldest workers. Today, 2.8 million men over 70 are working in the U.S. — part of an extraordinary long-term transformation in which employment among Americans 75 and older has quadrupled since 1964. More Americans are ‘unretiring’: 5 money factors to weigh before joining them – https://www.aol.com/finance/retirement-planning/article/unretiring-is-trending-5-money-factors-you-should-consider-first-153926242.html

I think I’ll retire in two to four years.

Not Just For Allergic Rhinitis Anymore

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A common hay fever nasal spray was found to cut COVID-19 infections by two-thirds in a clinical trial, while also reducing rhinovirus cases. Researchers believe it could serve as an easy, low-cost preventive measure, pending further studies. Saarland University. “Common allergy spray slashes COVID-19 risk in surprising trial.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250907024535.htm (accessed September 7, 2025).

For Robert Bals, the results suggest practical applications: ‘Azelastine nasal spray could provide an additional easily accessible prophylactic to complement existing protective measures, especially for vulnerable groups, during periods of high infection rates, or before travelling.’ But Professor Bals also stressed the importance of further research: ‘Our results highlight the need for larger, multicentre trials to continue exploring the use of azelastine nasal sprays as an on-demand preventive treatment, and to examine its potential effectiveness against other respiratory pathogens.’

Link to the Jama article – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2838335 Azelastine Nasal Spray for Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Infections

Would You Pay $700.00 a Month to Live in One of These?

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Brownstone, by virtue of renting cheaply in a city with sky-high prices and a dearth of new housing, has received thousands of applications for its $700-a-month pods over the past few years, Stallworth said. He thinks there’s at least “10,000 people probably interested in being in San Francisco at any time” and pointed to the tens of thousands of applications that Y Combinator, a local startup incubator, has received in recent years.(Startup founders make up a sizable share of the Mint Plaza building’s residents, Stallworth said.) Startup behind $700-a-month bed ‘pods’ wants to put 10,000 more in San Francisco – https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/startup-bed-pods-san-francisco-21029460.php

I keep telling The Boss all I’m trying to do is to make our retirement income last as long as we last.

Rejected. Again.

Prozac is Better Than Viagra (for clams)

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Fluoxetine, the drug commonly known as Prozac, isn’t known to increase sexual prowess in humans. In fact, it often does the very opposite. But when these clams were exposed to the same drug, they instantly jumped to sexual activity. Now, this wasn’t a complete surprise. Research conducted in the 1980s found that if serotonin is injected into the muscles or gonad of clams, they may begin to spawn after just 15 minutes.

How Prozac Might Give Clams a Boost https://undark.org/2025/08/14/excerpt-prozac-clams/