Rachel Fairbank

A much more realistic survival scenario, if you ask me.

One of these days, I’d like to read an apocalypse story where all the doomsday preppers die because all they have are bullets and dried food that they don’t know how to cook, while the people who survive are the women who have life skills and a community they can rely on.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

What will the impact of defunding/restricting institutions like the NIH? We aren’t going to conduct the early research that will lead to breakthroughs, such as a treatment for Huntington’s, decades down the road.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

Pharma/biotech isn’t going to fund this early research, as it’s too risky and not profitable. Instead, this research tends to be funded by government institutions, such as the NIH, that are currently under attack.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

What people need to realize is that breakthroughs like this are only possible due to decades of research, conducted by dozens/hundreds of research groups, that yielded results that aren’t useful until additional results combine to make it useful.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

Data shows the disease was slowed by 75% in patients.

It means the decline you would normally expect in one year would take four years after treatment, giving patients decades of "good quality life", Prof Sarah Tabrizi told BBC News.”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

“This takes 12 to 18 hours of neurosurgery.

The virus then acts like a microscopic postman – delivering the new piece of DNA inside brain cells, where it becomes active.”

Science can lead to incredible things, if we fund and support it.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

“It starts with a safe virus that has been altered to contain a specially designed sequence of DNA.

This is infused deep into the brain using real-time MRI scanning to guide a microcatheter to two brain regions - the caudate nucleus and the putamen.”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Look it's really important that we do, but it breaks my heart that I had to spell out that autism isn't an epidemic, and that it's a horrific statement for anyone but particularly people with such power to make.

A reminder to follow journalists, today and every day.

If you say you're going to have disability representation in an article on a disability topic, interview a disabled person, not a non-disabled parent. Their perspectives don't count as disability representation.

They Had a Mysterious Illness. Someone Finally Told Them It Was Real—and There Was a Cure. They Got Something Very Different. The “boot camp” promised a miracle. That’s not what they experienced.

SLATE: 'Nagging Pain | They had a mysterious, sometimes debilitating condition. At special “boot camps,” they were promised a cure. They experienced something much different.'

“They set up unrealistic expectations and took a patient-blaming approach,” Stiles said

slate.com/technology/2...

Anyway, make sure to stay up to date on your recommended screening, as it does make a difference. I’m grateful for modern medicine, even if I’m a victim of some of its blind spots.

Versus navigating a devastating and life-changing illness when doctors don’t know what your illness is, dismiss it as “all-in-your-head,” and there is a dearth of research and no approved treatments.

Breast cancer is a devastating diagnosis. I do not want to make light of it. But there is a difference between navigating a devastating and life-changing illness with doctors who know what your illness is, understand how serious it is, and have the research and clinical protocols to treat it.

I recently found out that my lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is 37 percent, and I’m ashamed to admit my first thought was, “at least I wouldn’t have to convince my doctors that breast cancer is a real illness.”

(Please do not interpret this as me making light of breast cancer.)

Judging from the smell in my back patio, I suspect there was a skunk that rolled through sometime in the last day or so.

Living in a city can be surreal, in the sense that there’s the bar traffic on Saturday/Sunday nights AND there are also possums, raccoons and skunks.

Jimmy Kimmel has got to be the most milquetoast, non-offensive comedian around, and his words on Charlie Kirk were about the least offensive thing you could say about the guy, while still staying within reality.

What world are we living in now?

I’m not a fan of Kirk, and I’m also not a fan of what happened to him. I just wish that we would actually do something about it. We are the only nation that has this magnitude of gun violence.

The principal at my son’s school just gave birth, which I was aware of, but what I didn’t realize was that she had TRIPLETS.

I could barely handle one newborn. The thought of three is enough to break out into a cold sweat, just on her behalf.

Trial had 450 participants, who were randomized to either a placebo or azelastine. 6.3 percent of placebo group contracted COVID, compared to 1.8 percent of the azelastine group.

*azelastine

Azelastine Nasal Spray for Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Infections This randomized clinical trial evaluates the efficacy of azelastine as a preexposure prophylaxis against SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens.

A Phase 2 clinical trial found that twice-daily use of a common allergy spray, called azelastunr, reduced the risk of a COVID infection by more than 50 percent.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Thanks! If nothing else, they were tasty and exactly what I was craving.

In hindsight, eating two banh mi after three days of being unable to keep solid food down was a rather bold move. We’ll see if it pays off or not.

I suspect that anything that helps improve sleep is going to help. I spent years running on “tired but wired” fumes, until I progressed to “tired, but no amount of sleep helps.”

The good news is that my sleep seems to be (very slowly) improving. I’m still tired, but it’s not as bad as it was.

Miller and mayo deserve each other

I’ve started getting acupuncture, and if nothing else, I am getting some epic naps out of it. It’s basically a Pavlovian response at this point: I feel the needles go in and I pass out.

Who knew turning yourself into a human pincushion could be so relaxing?

The most unrealistic part of Superman was when a billionaire was held accountable for the bad things he did.