Seth’s blog

I have always stopped self-experimenting when I travel because so much changes. Surely I will sleep differently, etc., far from home. However, it is not so obvious my arithmetic speed (how fast I do arithmetic problems such as 6 + 3) will change. I am measuring arithmetic speed as part of my study of omega-3 (directory).

I recently spent a week in Los Angeles. For the first time I continued self-experimentation while traveling. When I arrived I bought a bottle of flaxseed oil. I continued to take 4 T/day and did the same mental-function tests I do at home: arithmetic, memory-scanning, and balance. I have described these tests in other posts.

My balance was much worse in Los Angeles, apparently because what I see during the test changed (because the floor and other surroundings are different). I hadn’t realized how much that mattered. My arithmetic and memory-scanning results were roughly the same as the results at home — that is, until the last day. This graph shows arithmetic speeds:

This graph shows memory-scanning results:

The sudden improvement on the last day — also clear in the balance test — was a big surprise. It was too large to be due to practice, nor could it be due to being in LA — the previous 5 measurements were also in LA. It did, however, have a ready explanation: The previous night I had gotten back late and had forgotten to take the oil. So instead of taking 4 T at 11 pm I took it at 7 am. I did the tests at about noon. Instead of 8 or 9 hours between oil ingestion and test, in this case the difference was 5 hours.

If this explanation is correct, there is a short-lived effect of flaxseed oil on brain function — present 5 hours after ingestion but absent or weaker 8 hours later. Which, as a scientist, makes me say “Wow!” If this effect exists, it’s a new tool, the most precious and powerful thing in science. I can use it to compare amounts of flaxseed oil, oils (e.g., fish oil), and foods (e.g., salmon).

My current way of measuring omega-3 effects requires one/day tests repeated for weeks. When I reduced the amount of flaxseed oil I was taking from 4 T/day to nothing, it took more than a day with the lower dose before performance even went down, and many more days before performance stabilized. This meant that experiments had to last several weeks. If the new effect exists, it will allow much faster experiments.

An article in this week’s BMJ about problems with clinical trials makes some of the points I made in a recent post. The article is based on a London conference held last week. In my post, I said the evaluation of the Shangri-La Diet going on at the SLD forums was in many ways better than a clinical trial.

At the conference, a speaker complained that

key groups of participants were often excluded from clinical studies

I pointed out that anyone could post at the SLD forums.

Doug Altman, professor of statistics in medicine at Oxford University, said that the presentation of statistical results of clinical trials “lacked transparency and precluded any further analysis.”

I said that the forums are more transparent.

Paul Glasziou, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University, warned that many clinical trials described treatments that were difficult to replicate in normal clinical settings.

I said that the forums were more realistic — meaning that the treatments being tested were closer to what actually could happen.

Sicko is a great movie, one of the most emotion-evoking films I have ever seen. In this interview

Moore says something that is at the heart of Sicko:

They [HMOs] are required by law . . . to maximize profits for their shareholders. That’s what the law requires them to do. The way they can maximize profits is to deny care, is to not pay out claims. The more claims they pay, the less profit they make. You should never have the idea of profit enter into a health decision. We wouldn’t allow it for the fire department or the police department. We wouldn’t say, well, you know, we’ve got to be sure the fire department posts a profit. We wouldn’t turn it over to a private company, have investors invest in it, say, well, some people are going to get fire protection and other people aren’t. We wouldn’t allow that, would we? It would be immoral.

This is what Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs is all about. Jacobs argued that there are two sets of “moral” rules — one appropriate for “guardians” (such as firemen, police and doctors), the other appropriate for “traders” (business people) — and that the two should not be mixed. When guardians follow commercial rules or when traders follow guardian rules, bad things happen. Sicko is about the bad things that happen when doctors follow commercial rules and how these bad things are avoided when (in other countries) doctors follow guardian rules.

“Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans,” says Wikipedia, but what does that mean? The Tibetan Buddhism entry is no help. Last night at dinner, however, I did learn what it means, at least in part. Tibetans spend a vast amount of time on religious observances — what the observer (Bryan Ng, a Berkeley engineer) called a “religion tax.” One example was a well-observed month-long annual religious festival. Another was a sensationally slow method of travel: Take a step or two, bow down, lie down on the ground, get up, take another step, bow down, and so on. This method is used to cover long distances, such as 20 miles or more. The extremely devout do this along highways.

The Chinese government wants to reduce the influence of religion, he said. Goods imported into Tibet from China via the new railway should increase commerce, for example. The power of the Chinese government makes it likely they will succeed.

Diversity in Learning (article)
How Economics Shaped Human Nature (talk)

posts
Christmas (rituals and gifts)
American Idol (side-by-side comparison)
scrapbooking (art and artists)
business book (specialization)
music video (side-by-side comparison)
diet sodas (side-by-side comparison)
omiyage (rituals and gifts)
blogs and fan clubs (spread of technical knowledge)
red stained glass (early art = material science)
fancy chocolates (connoisseurship and gift rituals support material science)
computer chips (art = material science)
amazon.com (gift wrapping and material science)
Planet Earth (relation to the Aquatic Ape theory)
guitars/do animals like music? (enjoyment of music supports material science)
art and quasi-reinforcement (art and quasi-reinforcement act as ramps)
the pleasure of crafts
language
early value system (artisanal values)
intricate art (desire for intricacy advances technology)
Henry Rosenthal Pennant Collection (collectors support skilled artisans)
Make magazine (the hobby instinct)
osechi (holidays support artisans)
Easter tradition (holidays support artisans)
gift cards (gifts support artisans)
frugal materials (love of art –> material-science research)
the cellphone effect (the first words facilitated trade)
micropygmies (hunter-gatherers w/ trade different from those w/o trade)
autism (autistic “obsessions” reveal a universal tendency toward expertise)
Fourth of July (holidays increase demand for finely-made stuff)