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What are your unpopular opinions about health / fitness?

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  • Posts: 120 Member
    edited July 2017
    If I want to test whether paper is weakened by soaking it in balsamic vinegar but, due to the price/value of balsamic vinegar I decide it's cheaper/better to run the experiment with tap water and extrapolate that vinegar would yield similar results, I likely wouldn't be far off. However...

    If I want to study the effect of adding baking soda to balsamic vinegar but, due to the price/value of balsamic vinegar I decide it's cheaper/better to run the experiment with tap water and extrapolate that vinegar would yield similar results, things would be rather different.

    Mice aren't humans. They aren't necessarily going to respond the same way that humans do. Depending on where you stand on animal experimentation (I'm in favor for medical research, opposed for cosmetic), it can be a necessary first step. But it's definitely not the last one.

    You're absolutely right, mice aren't humans. It seems to me that the real question is why, then, they are one of the mammals used in studies before they progress to human studies? 95% of test animals are mice and rats. Why?

    Among other reasons:

      "Another reason rodents are used as models in medical testing is that their genetic, biological and behavior characteristics closely resemble those of humans, and many symptoms of human conditions can be replicated in mice and rats. "Rats and mice are mammals that share many processes with humans and are appropriate for use to answer many research questions," said Jenny Haliski, a representative for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare."

    https://www.livescience.com/32860-why-do-medical-researchers-use-mice.html

    We can't automatically say that just because something works a certain way in mice that it's going to work the exact same way in humans. That said, however, mice are used because the way things work are so similar to humans, and, as stated above, they "are appropriate for use to answer many research questions."

    That's why I find these studies on salt interesting, and why researchers are both excited and concerned about the implications for humans.

  • Posts: 25,763 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »

    The term bully has been used by snowflakes in these circumstances, so the definition and parameters have certainly expanded in a generation.

    There is certainly a correlation between the increased ease of life in Western civilization and the increase in snowflakes. Causation could never be proven as the entire concept is subjective and only exists when the individuals allow bullying to occur. In the case of the anti-bullying campaign this made the issue profoundly worse. Expanding the definition of bullying to a completely subjective behavior and offering no corrective measure.

    Are you arguing that bullying isn't a problem? Or are you arguing that we now define behavior as bullying that we wouldn't have in the past?

    The term "snowflake" means so many different things to people online, it's difficult for me to tell exactly what it means to you.
  • Posts: 120 Member

    Fat-shaming is NEVER okay. :/

    I 100% agree. I think those who engage in this type of behavior have some need to make themselves feel superior by putting another down. It's abusive and damaging. (This is probably also an unpopular opinion.)
  • Posts: 120 Member

    Also fairly sure little to no one in this whole discussion besides stanmann is/has done low carb at all. We just don't like BS.

    What? I'm doing low carb, high fat right now.....
  • Posts: 5,283 Member
    But that's far from the only reason. From that same source:
    Scientists and researchers rely on mice and rats for several reasons. One is convenience: rodents are small, easily housed and maintained, and adapt well to new surroundings. They also reproduce quickly and have a short lifespan of two to three years, so several generations of mice can be observed in a relatively short period of time.

    Mice and rats are also relatively inexpensive and can be bought in large quantities from commercial producers that breed rodents specifically for research. The rodents are also generally mild-tempered and docile, making them easy for researchers to handle, although some types of mice and rats can be more difficult to restrain than others.

    Most of the mice and rats used in medical trials are inbred so that, other than sex differences, they are almost identical genetically. This helps make the results of medical trials more uniform, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute. As a minimum requirement, mice used in experiments must be of the same purebred species.

    So, besides the reason you quoted above, they're cheap, easy to house and maintain, adaptable, short-lived, malleable, and frequently inbred. I don't think these other factors irrelevant, if @stanmann571 is correct in stating that
    animal trials. especially mice, have almost zero correlation or relevance to human metabolic behavior.
    .
  • Posts: 4,855 Member
    Bry_Lander wrote: »

    I agree with this. The same with "shaming" and "judging" - these were once very grave acts that had very heavy, serious connotations. Now the most benign comments are found to be the decimators of self-esteem and spark (faux?) outrage about sensitivity and self-esteem.

    I referenced a dadbod as being "dumpy" earlier in this thread and was accused of "body shaming". My dad actually told me I was getting dumpy in my 20s because...I was getting dumpy. It stung a little and then I got over it.

    And I'm guessing you did something about the getting dumpy.
  • Posts: 8,911 Member
    But that's far from the only reason. From that same source:

    So, besides the reason you quoted above, they're cheap, easy to house and maintain, adaptable, short-lived, malleable, and frequently inbred. I don't think these other factors irrelevant, if @stanmann571 is correct in stating that
    .

    Yup.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642860/
  • Posts: 120 Member

    animal trials. especially mice, have almost zero correlation or relevance to human metabolic behavior. If you had done the appropriate background, you would know this.

    By the way, the effect of increased salt intake on glucocorticoids was measured in humans as well as mice In the study I referenced. The glucocorticoid excretion in humans was quantified by 24-hour cortisol excretion.
  • Posts: 120 Member

    Guess whose diets are also high in carbs, even higher than the US? The blue zones, the healthiest and longest living places on earth.

    Which carbs do they eat?
  • Posts: 120 Member
    Issues with raised cortisol can inhibit fat burning, and this has been an observed effect that has been talked about on these boards before.

    Many people report anecdotal incidents of losing weight after vacation, for example, or there are plenty of stories from the pressure-filled world of contest-prep where a "binge" will lead to the scale suddenly moving again. The reason? Reduced stress.

    However, the inverse of lowering stress from a baseline normal rather than elevated back to normal doesn't hold true to my knowledge and I doubt you'd find anything to back that up in human studies.

    You're welcome to try, though.

    If that's what you're not asserting, forgive me if I've lost track of the point you're trying to make here.

    Cortisol is the only glucocorticoid they measured in humans. My understanding is that because it responded to increased salt by elevating, other glucocorticoids may also be elevated, hence the suggestion in the elevated glucocorticoid hypothesis given.
  • Posts: 7,722 Member
    Bullying is such a strange topic for me. I was bullied mercilessly in school. I was the fat, short, effeminate kid all the way through school, with glasses, braces, and a bad haircut my mom gave me at home once a month. Every day was torture but I still went to school. I maintained a 4.0 and went off to college as soon as I could.

    I could have easily shut down but I didn't. I learned to draw a very detailed map of Hell, hand it to my hecklers, and tell them to begin their journey forthwith. And no, I'm not just talking about name calling. I was locked in rooms, thrown in trash cans, physically assaulted, even spit on. I didn't post about it on MySpace. Did I cry about it? Sure, every goddamn night. Did I write *kitten* emo poetry about it? Sure did. But I got through it.

    I never thought of offing myself. I never thought about blowing up the school. I just thought about surviving...and I did. So it kind of puzzles me when others can't. Maybe it's because social media makes everything so much more immediate. Maybe it's some other factor. I just tend to agree that there is something making people unable to shrug things off as easily and get on with their lives. We only have one after all.

    I'm sure for every kid offing themselves, there are plenty more out there who are like you were.

    They just don't make for good clickbait and viewing figures.

  • Posts: 219 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »

    I didn't kill myself or commit violence either (obviously) -- and it goes without saying, I'd hope, that I consider killing other people inappropriate, period, especially but not only complete innocents.

    But to say -- as the other poster was -- that back in the day we just shrugged it off or weren't bothered by it, or it didn't hurt us, so everything was good then and is bad now (that people take it more seriously) seems to me totally inconsistent with what I saw and experienced back in the day and to how I saw people react.

    That I ended up a pretty successful person and got past it doesn't mean that people who don't are just weak and we are coddling them. It means that maybe I don't know all they were experiencing and that people are different.

    And people did kill themselves back when I was a kid too, so this idea that it's because kids are coddled now is nuts.

    I'm not saying I had it worse than anyone else, who could say (and I do think lots of people had it a lot worse than me). But I was not unbothered by it, which is why I brought it up; I don't think it was unimportant or good for me, and that the culture of the time (or my school or my family -- obv the latter had a lot to do with it) was such that I said nothing about it and felt like it must be because there was something wrong with me (and still have a suspicion of that in the back of my head such that I usually would never admit to anyone that it happened) is screwed up and not a sign of a better way, IMO. That was the point I was trying to make.

    I never implied that actually. In fact, I mentioned social media as a possible culprit. I also think that mental illness plays a role in what the bullying causes re:escalation.

    I wouldn't want to give the impression that I am unsymathetic. I'm just genuinely puzzled as to what makes some people take severe, actual, bullying and get past it, and what makes other resort to violence, either towards themselves or others.
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