On the subject of weird health issues....

[conuly]

I haven't had a case of hives in ages - I think the last one came after I carried a cold bottle of soda home a year ago, but I think I haven't had any others since then. I don't know why hiveyness comes and goes, but I'm sure not complaining. (I mean, my best hypothesis is "stress", but if that's so then this week I should be itching up a storm and I'm definitely not. One of these years I'll take the time to have a professional medical person figure it out.)

******************

6 Amazing Facts That'll Change The Way You Look At History

This Greenhouse on Mount Everest Is One of the World’s Highest Gardens

India’s Enduring Love for Archie Comics

Chernobyl Puppies are Making Their Way to the U.S. and Canada to Find Their Forever Homes

Terrifying sex organs of male turtles

Transgender discrimination, conversion therapy banned in New York

The 2,500-Year-Old History of Adults Blaming the Younger Generation (They didn't include that quote from Soctrates or maybe Plato because it's apocryphal.)

L.A.’s Teachers Got What They Wanted—For Their Students

Children's climate rallies gain momentum in Europe

Cigarette filters are the No.1 plastic pollutant ... and don't prevent cancer

‘A Pumping Conspiracy’: Why Workers Smuggled Breast Pumps Into Prison

Facebook and Google Need to Start Paying Journalists What They Owe Us

New York City settles with Kalief Browder's family for $3.3 million (Given what the city did to that poor boy, it's not enough. If the wait for a trial exceeds the minimum sentence - or the maximum! - they should just send you home.)

Trapped in a hoax: survivors of conspiracy theories speak out

Comments

[jtthomas]

It’s the same cause, most of the time. Mast cell reactions go hand in hand with hypermobility. Complicated system there, and diagnosis is pretty much impossible because doctors don’t recognize that either one exists. I’m stuck in about the same place myself.

[conuly]

Do they really? Huh. Is it a logical connection or just a fluke connection?

[jtthomas]

No one knows, too little research. There’s talk it’s a triad: hypermobility, postural orthostatic tachycardia (lightheadedness on standing, especially in the heat) and mast cell problems. Salt is the agreed solution for all three, just a bit more to help regulate blood flow. Experiment if you want, and be careful with new medications because they can cause the reactions really easily.

[jtthomas]

Also the mast cell thing is well known to have temperature triggers, so there’s that.

[conuly]

Yeah, I knew that one.

[conuly]

I just want to reiterate this for my sister's benefit (hi, Jenn!) - that's a triad of hypermobility, lightheadedness on standing, and hives?

And at least one of those conditions is also connected, if google is correct, to migraines and/or heart murmurs, right?

[jtthomas]

Correct on all counts.

[conuly]

JFC.

[fred_mouse]

hyper mobility and anxiety disorders are also known to be commonly comorbid.

[conuly]

Actual conversation with my mother:

"You know, hypermobility and autism are apparently comorbid"
"What could possibly be the connection!?"
"I dunno, maybe it's like the fact that lefthandedness associates with being transgender?"

Apparently I'd never told her that latter tidbit before, because she was both shocked and fascinated. There is a small but very real correlation between those two states.

Conclusion: bodies are weird and so are minds, and sooner or later everything is connected to everything

[fred_mouse]

Conclusion: bodies are weird and so are minds, and sooner or later everything is connected to everything

Yep. All it takes is one protein or group to be coded differently, and suddenly a whole raft of systems work differently.

[marahmarie]

I didn't know about the left-handed/transgender association! As a lefty this interests me. Maybe we're just not as moored to traditional gender roles and feelings to begin with (I never was, and to this day resent being forced into any sort of overly-feminine role or expectation as to how I should look, think, talk, act, feel, etc.).

[conuly]

Yeah, it's such a weird correlation, too. Small but quite real. I like it because every time I encounter a dipshit going on and on about how there's no "gene" for being gay or trans* I can point out that there's no known cause for lefthandedness either but that's definitely innate.

* To my knowledge there is no correlation between being gay/bisexual and being lefthanded.

[marahmarie]

Bottle feeding's correlated with left-handedness (with all the usual addenda that correlation doesn't equal causation yada yada yada): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190107142231.htm