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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 29/08/2023 12:15:25 »

The worm hypothesis has a supporter!
An 8cm wriggly roundworm found in an Australian woman's brain.
How did it get there?
This was the first wriggly worm found in a human brain, but how many times have we looked?

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New Theories / How wrong is the Serotonin theory of depression?

« on: 30/06/2023 15:26:29 »

With even more fresh doubt being raised among experts concerning the theory linking lack of serotonin with depression can I put forward an alternative hypothesis.
Carbon dioxide blood levels.
In days gone by we used to be more active, for example we would walk a lot more and carry out manual work. Our bodies had a natural breathing rhythm which was much deeper than our current day breathing rhythm. The deeper breathing would expel more carbon dioxide from our bodies, wheras today's shallower breathing allows a build up of carbon dioxide.
Any excess carbon dioxide is dissolved in water and enters the bloodstream as carbonic acid. This reduces the PH  and turns the blood acidic. The homeostatic PH control should kick in and release bicarbonate ions and increase the depth of breath to expel more carbon dioxide.
However, what if the amygdala has reacted quicker to the PH threat and gone into fight or flight mode?
Your kidneys have turned off, so do not release any bicarbonate ions and your alveoli have gone into maximising oxygen mode meaning more carbon dioxide is being reabsorbed into the bloodstream multiplying the amygdala response.
Fight or flight response would logically lead to a panic or anxiety attack where the body will eventually recover naturally. Thus we can link carbon dioxide to panic and anxiety attacks.
If the blood levels of carbon dioxide are constantly heightened but not enough to go into a full panic attack then the brain can be under a threat of constant low level anxiety, which can be a classic symptom of depression.
Thus my alternative hypothesis indicates poor carbon dioxide clearance sets off an amygdala response leading to a variety of mental health symptoms which may include depression. If we can sequester the carbon dioxide (or carbonic acid) we may reduce the amygdala response and resolve the depression.

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Physiology & Medicine / Can taking a pint of blood off the body reduce your blood pressure?

« on: 26/03/2023 14:31:55 »

A friend had a stroke and the hospital struggled to reduce her blood pressure of 200+/100+.
As the body contains around 10 pints in a closed system would it not be logical to remove a pint to reduce the pressure by 10%?

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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 06/02/2023 17:05:16 »

Accepted, Paul
I was just trying to make the case that if it were typical threadworms causing the synapse blockage we would obviously have found worms in post mortems of depressed brains.
If the 'worm' was microscopic, perhaps translucent, it could lodge in the synaptic gap. Upon death, I would suggest that serotonin flow would cease so the worm would maybe migrate elsewhere, or lose momentum and be washed from the synapse by general cleansing brain currents. Thus even if we searched during a post mortem some 24 hours later the evidence has vanished?
How much do we know about our own gut biome?

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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 05/02/2023 21:30:17 »

RE Mebendazole only acts in the gut and does not enter the bloodstream.
In terms of worms in the brain the worm pool is destroyed in the gut so no more worms travel to the brain via the vagus nerve. The worms already in the brain grow old and die (14 days?) freeing the synapses and allowing the serotonin to flow as normal.
In terms of any anti cancer effect, worms reduce the immune response so they can roam freely in the gut. If the worms are killed off the immune response should rise and any cancers should come under attack with possibly good results.

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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 05/02/2023 13:35:48 »

Can I throw another bit of 'evidence' into the mix.
Ketamine is getting a good write up when used in depression. It seems to work very quickly in suicidal ideation.
I have two thought trains on this:
First, the ketamine appears to be acting as an opiate in situ. If the worms are addicts maybe they are more attracted to the opiate as opposed to the serotonin. At this point the worms physically migrate out of the synapses to the opiate source. Freed up synapses allow the serotonin to flow in the correct manner and restores a happy state to the human.
Second, ketamine is acting as a worm killer and removing the blockage.
Thoughts?

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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 05/02/2023 13:26:55 »

Interesting use of wormers in cancer therapy.
Worms in general reduce the immune response, so killing off the worms may increase the immune response?

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New Theories / Re: Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 05/02/2023 00:02:26 »

Good point Bored Chemist
But what if the 'worm' was 1 nanometer in width and the synaptic gap was also 1 nanometer?
Obviously when we think of worms we think of wriggly creatures we can see, but what if the organisms doing the damage are microscopical and porbably translucent? Could we see them, have we looked for them?

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New Theories / Re: One Theory Of Homosexuality...

« on: 04/02/2023 22:30:20 »

I am in a similar area to Yaniv in an earlier post.
I feel that the use of oral contraception since the 1960's has meant more female hormone metabolites have leaked into our drinking water and has affected developing fetuses.
More female metabolites results in male fetuses being less masculine, and female fetuses being more feminine.
Obviously, homosexuality has been around much longer than the 1960s but in smaller numbers (?)
Perhaps in days past water tables were more localised, so if an area had a larger male population the drinking water was naturally contaminated with more male hormones resulting in more manly men and more women with a (manly) need to reproduce (as per Yaniv's post).

If the area was more female populated the female hormones would naturally pollute the water table, with the opposite result.
This could also explain the cyclical nature of wars. Lots of manly men equals lots of war and lots of dead men meaning the local population is female dominated for a generation, followed by more men and more war.
Perhaps homosexuality is a natural cycle of population control?

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New Theories / Is there a biological explanation for depression, as opposed to chemical?

« on: 04/02/2023 17:17:10 »

With some doubt on the current chemical hypothesis of depression I would like to offer an alternative biological hypothesis; Worms.
In 2021 the ship 'Ever Given' got stuck in the Suez Canal for a week and created chaos throughout the world for many months. What if worms are getting stuck (maybe deliberately) in the channels between synapses and getting high on the 'free' serotonin in the neighbourhood?
A lack of serotonin has been the current hypothesis for a generation or more but current research casts some doubt on the theory. Most serotonin is protein bound and the only 'free unbound' serotonin is found in the brain where it is a neurotransmitter passing messages by diffusion across the synaptic gap.
Our biome is coming more under scrutiny in all fields of illness. It is important to remember that this includes other organisms as well as bacteria which get most headlines. There are over 300 species of worms known to inhabit the human gut, and, as we have never really looked, no doubt numerous unknown species. Worms use serotonin to aid their motility. (however, I suspect they use it as a drug, get high and dance). As there is little free serotonin in the area they migrate to the brain via the vagus nerve
In the brain they occupy the synapses and bathe in free serotonin. This dilutes the happiness message in the brain and makes the human miserable and depressed.
SSRIs will increase the free serotonin allowing some happiness message to spread as the worms can only absorb a finite amount. Thus, SSRI treatment does have some success.
As the worms die off in their natural cycle the channel blockage will fluctuate naturally.
Worm treatments are cheap and effective. We worm our animals regularly but not ourselves.
 There is no money in this theory for big pharma so do not expect any research, but there is little to stop any GP running a small trial among his depressed patient cohort and all the drugs needed are well known so can be used freely.
Thoughts please?

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Technology / Electricity Generation via treadmill. Can one person generate enough?

« on: 19/01/2023 22:58:28 »

Could one person on a treadmill supply a worthwhile amount of electricity to the grid?

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The Environment / Can we turn dog poo into a resource?

« on: 16/06/2022 21:41:33 »

We traditionally use animal manure as a natural fertiliser, yet reject dog poo used in the same way.
I understand some of the drawbacks but surely there are some work arounds that would turn muck into money?

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Can JUST a head survive ?

« on: 08/06/2022 23:44:46 »

Your head may survive given the right support, but you'd soon get fed up of getting hats for every birthday

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COVID-19 / Covid / vaccine related heart problems - anecdotal or proven?

« on: 22/03/2022 23:11:25 »

Are stories of Covid / vaccine related heart problems simply anecdotal or are there any statistics to prove or disprove this growing belief.

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New Theories / Is this why Ivermectin appeared to be the answer to Covid?

« on: 12/03/2022 21:56:26 »

How did Ivermectin trick us into believing it was a cure for Covid?
An alternative theory.
Searching for relief of my own depression I theorised that one (or more) of the many human parasitical worms were responsible for depleting the amount of serotonin available to the host (me). Subsequently, taking the worm medicine Mebendazole improved my mood tremendously.
Around the same time, Ivermectin was being promoted as the cure for Covid.
Using my research on worms and depression I propose that Ivermectin was simply killing off any undiagnosed worm infection and allowing an increase in serotonin levels leading to an improved mood.
At the time there was a collective mass hysteria that if you did not feel well you must have Covid. Thus if you felt well you did not have Covid.
My theory is that the Ivermectin was killing any worm infection leading to an increase in serotonin levels and an increase in good mood which was misinterpreted as being Covid free.
From this theory I also postulate that worms are responsible for low mood in humans and anti parasitic worm medicine should be investigated as a novel anti-depressant.

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New Theories / Re: Can we freeze carbon dioxide and send it into space?

« on: 10/11/2021 22:44:16 »

The line between atmosphere and space is about 100km.
We have artillery that can fire projectiles further that that so if we had shells of frozen CO2 we can fire them into space at a reasonable cost.
We could alternatively use urea which sequesters CO2 during production (only to give it back when used as fertiliser).

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New Theories / Can we freeze carbon dioxide and send it into space?

« on: 09/11/2021 23:04:12 »

We can freeze carbon dioxide.
Can we not produce a propulsion system to send it into space like a home grown comet?

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Can we grow Walnuts in the UK?

« on: 24/06/2021 23:54:41 »

Can we grow walnut trees and harvest walnuts in the UK?
A healthy superfood growing in everyones back garden/town park? Free pick your own food?
If we cannot grow them in our climate could they be a valuable cash crop in many countries just getting by with subsistence farming?

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The Environment / Re: Is it safe to dispose of dog poo down a street drain?

« on: 22/12/2020 22:56:58 »

Personally I pick up after my dogs using a biodegradable bag. However in my local council area we are instructed to dispose in the landfill bin, not the garden waste bin.
Numerous dog owners do not pick up, so I envisaged a new system of compulsory carriage of a small shovel (like the kids use at the beach) and shovelling the poo down the nearest drain.
Thanks for the answers which indicate a no to this solution.
Does anyone have any other suggestions as our local streets are a mess thanks to a few thoughtless owners.

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The Environment / Is it safe to dispose of dog poo down a street drain?

« on: 21/12/2020 20:42:56 »

If everyone disposed of dog poo down a street drain would this cause problems at the sewerage works? Would this be better for the environment than disposing of it in plastic bagged household waste.?