+ Reply to Thread
Page 27 of 43 FirstFirst ... 17 25 26 27 28 29 37 ... LastLast
Results 521 to 540 of 852
  1. #521
    BG Medical's Student of Medicine
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    30,595
    BG Level
    10

    Neurotropic what?

    Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

  2. #522
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    10,276
    BG Level
    9
    FFXIV Character
    Cantih Hacos
    FFXIV Server
    Gilgamesh
    FFXI Server
    Bahamut
    Blog Entries
    6

    They mean nootropic.

  3. #523
    BG Content
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    21,105
    BG Level
    10
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi
    Blog Entries
    1

    Quote Originally Posted by Buffy View Post
    Anyone know anything that isn’t speculation/trash about neurotropics or medically backed studies about what is/isn’t effective?
    I think a few things about nootropics:
    1) "nootropics" are just a 21st century rebranding of "herbal supplements"
    2) You can't really optimize biology through simple drugs unless you're deficient in some critical nutrient that is in such abundance in a natural human diet that the human body never developed a way to synthesize it from other things (aka a really strange diet)
    3) If you eat meat, you're already getting your vitamins.
    4) If you believe what I've written here, you probably won't get the placebo effect if you take them and thus you're unlikely to benefit from them. Sorry for ruining the dream, or maybe I didn't.

    Beyond that, it's worth investigating what spurned the question. Nootropics are popular with the tech crowd at the moment as an alleged way to boost productivity and creativity, basically so they can work longer hours more productively. Lets split that into two halves:

    Does it make sense to strive to work longer hours? - You're probably salaried, so working longer hours benefits you only through career advancement. However, the company doesn't have to give you a promotion/raise and they're probably fostering an environment where 1.5 FTEs is the standard and you're literally medicating to try and work 2 to get ahead. That's a problem. They're a billion+ dollar company that has rented your attention for a reasonable amount of time. You're probably already working more than 1 FTE to make someone else money. Value your free time more.

    If your basic biological needs are met, are there any drugs out there that are positive-sum? - I would argue "no." Your brain is already self-optimizing. It isn't optimizing for the 2020 workplace, but it is probably at *an* optimum. When I drink coffee to get caffeine (which I am going to generously refer to as a nootropic), I become more likely to act but think less deeply about what I'm doing. In my case, I also experience a down after the coffee lift. If you take the extra amount I get done after coffee, subtract the odds that everything I did while on coffee was stupid, and also subtract the post-coffee dip, I find that I'm negative. Even moreso, if I continue mainlining coffee all day then at night I'm a zombie that can't stay asleep.

    Nootropics wish they were as potent and effective as coffee. Most of them probably do nothing, and the ones that do something are likely shifting you in some net-negative way that is likely to decrease your enjoyment of your already rare free time.



    If you're asking about it for sleep aid purposes, just replace "nootropic" with "herbal supplement" and reassess how you feel about all the claims being made, because they're fundamentally the same thing and afaik are regulated in the same way. Also, the answer might be to cut coffee rather than adding more drugs.

  4. #524

    There was that study I mentioned in the general science thread, about diluting the plasma of old mice and replacing it with saline and albumin? seemed to rejuvenate them act as an anti aging treatment, but no one seemed interested. even though it sounded to me almost like the sort of thing you get when you donate plasma. Though maybe they just pump in saline back in, not albumin.

    Not a nootropic specifically, but a youthful brain is a strong brain, so that kinda counts!

  5. #525
    Shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yam shimmy ya
    Sweaty Dick Punching Enthusiast

    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    43,623
    BG Level
    10

    Alpha Brain son!

  6. #526
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    10,276
    BG Level
    9
    FFXIV Character
    Cantih Hacos
    FFXIV Server
    Gilgamesh
    FFXI Server
    Bahamut
    Blog Entries
    6

    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    lots of stuff
    To reinforce this, there is a JASON paper on human performance, that includes a section on nootropics.
    The long and short of it, it's less about enhancement, but ameliorating declines from sleep deprivation and need for sleep.
    Gains aren't from "better", but simply having more collective man-hours out of what you've already got.

  7. #527
    BG Content
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    62,818
    BG Level
    10
    FFXIV Character
    Six Souls
    FFXIV Server
    Gilgamesh
    FFXI Server
    Quetzalcoatl
    WoW Realm
    Malorne
    Blog Entries
    9

  8. #528
    Fuck It, I'm Goin Deep Fan Club President
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    54,891
    BG Level
    10
    FFXI Server
    Ifrit

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...0f7_story.html

    A new advisory board, created to review the ethics of proposed fetal tissue research grants, is urging the Trump administration to block government funding for nearly all of the applications — essentially seeking to ban support for most such scientific work.


    The recommendation that the National Institutes of Health withhold funds from all but one of a slate of 14 research proposals means that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has the final say, would need to buck the will of a board he convened — and of social conservatives crucial to President Trump’s political base.


    The board sent its advice in a report to HHS Tuesday, less than three weeks after the announcement of its members, two-thirds of whom are outspoken opponents of abortion, fetal tissue research, or both. The group has operated in secrecy, with even its own members unaware of who else was on it until the end of July, when it held a single, day-long virtual meeting, most of it closed to the public. Members were required to sign nondisclosure agreements about their deliberations.

  9. #529
    Duplicitous Jew with Political Aspirations
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Posts
    16,312
    BG Level
    9

    Reminds me of that time Dick Cheney led Bush's environmental advisory board. All closed door meetings. No membership accounting.

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

  10. #530
    The Optimistic Asshole
    Sweaty Dick Punching Enthusiast

    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    27,518
    BG Level
    10
    FFXIV Character
    Tyche Six
    FFXIV Server
    Tonberry

    Juicy drama in the world of NP collaboration and practice. Gonna give a brief overview of NP and physician collaboration...

    NPs have been given independent practice in many states. Some of those states, it's needed because there just isn't sufficient access. NPs have tried to expand those rights to other states that do not have access issues. Physicians have understandably lobbied to prevent nurse practitioners from independent practice. The motivations behind the lobbying is more or less a financial one. Physicians can make 5-figure salaries a year by collaborating with one NP. I know physicians that collaborate with 7+ NPs. Physicians can easily turn a 6-figure income by cosigning orders from NP's. It's not bread they wanna lose. And it's not difficult work. There really isn't a lot of collaborating that's actually done.

    One of the larger lobbying groups is the "physicians for patient protection". They held a conference and invited a bunch of media so they could speak to the woes of allowing NPs to practice independently. They're a lobbying group, that's cool, you're welcome to do that. But, they managed to find a disgruntled RN that couldn't get through NP school to tell everyone how inadequate NP school is. She didn't even get through an entire clinical rotation. This nurse also went to a facebook group created for NP students to ask questions, and then sent those student questions to the lobbying group to point to NPs being inadequately trained, distorting those questions to act like they're coming from practicing NPs. Lobbying group posts those questions to social media without blacking out any of the names of the students to shame them, essentially doxing them. Some of these people are just nurses that aren't even in NP school yet, but asking theory questions.

    That RN that leaked the lobbying group questions then gets doxxed.

    Groups then argue over professionalism.

    It was amazing to watch it all go down.

    TLDR: NPs and physicians are fucking greedy and all want larger slices of the pie.

  11. #531
    BG Content
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    21,105
    BG Level
    10
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi
    Blog Entries
    1

    The AMA functions as a cartel for MDs that keeps the price of their approval artificially high. Elevating NPs/PAs to basically the same legal status is one route we could go to break the cartel.

    My understanding for Pennsylvania is that doctors in private practice can hire a horde of PAs and let them handle ~100% of the patient work. PAs don't have to go to school for as long / supply isn't as constrained and they can be covered by the doctor's malpractice insurance as long as the doctor signs the right forms to absorb the liability. I am specifically thinking of a cardiology practice with 3 PAs and 1 MD where the PAs handle the patient visits (recharging pacemakers, nuclear stress tests, etc.) and write up the results, then the MD kind of wanders around and approves things (sometimes after the patient leaves.)

    MDs are basically exploiting a niche formed by excessive credentialing/regulation. Am I a Republican now?

  12. #532
    BG Medical's Student of Medicine
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    30,595
    BG Level
    10

    NPs and PAs can do some good work on a basic level but you'll be hard pressed to convince me they're anywhere near the level of an experienced physician.

    Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

  13. #533
    BG Content
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    21,105
    BG Level
    10
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi
    Blog Entries
    1

    Quote Originally Posted by kuronosan View Post
    NPs and PAs can do some good work on a basic level but you'll be hard pressed to convince me they're anywhere near the level of an experienced physician.
    look mang, either evidence based medicine is better than an experience or it isn't

    if it is, then doctors are just sign detectors / symptom recorders that use a dictionary to look up the treatment

    I'm confident that PAs can take vital signs and use web MD

    PS. if you are a fan of eloquence-based medicine instead then by all means keep on keeping on

    PPS. I'm aware that 5% of doctors actually know what they are doing and have any idea how the human body works but that clearly isn't very strongly correlated with having an MD

  14. #534
    BG Medical's Student of Medicine
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    30,595
    BG Level
    10

    K.

    Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

  15. #535
    Pied Piper of the Homos
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,093
    BG Level
    8
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi

    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    look mang, either evidence based medicine is better than an experience or it isn't

    if it is, then doctors are just sign detectors / symptom recorders that use a dictionary to look up the treatment

    I'm confident that PAs can take vital signs and use web MD

    PS. if you are a fan of eloquence-based medicine instead then by all means keep on keeping on

    PPS. I'm aware that 5% of doctors actually know what they are doing and have any idea how the human body works but that clearly isn't very strongly correlated with having an MD
    It's not that cut and dry and mutual exclusive. A good physician will use both evidenced based medicine and experience to make decisions.

  16. #536
    IMPERIAL CONCUBINE OF ME
    Coolest Monkey In The Jungle

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    21,547
    BG Level
    10

    So will a NP/PA?

  17. #537
    Pied Piper of the Homos
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,093
    BG Level
    8
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi

    A NP/PA won't have the experience or knowledge base a trained physician has unless you're putting a NP/PA thats been practicing for 7+ years against an intern/resident and even then let that resident be a fellow and the knowledge gap widens even more.

  18. #538
    IMPERIAL CONCUBINE OF ME
    Coolest Monkey In The Jungle

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    21,547
    BG Level
    10

    Well you are saying the physician also uses experience so it would only be fair to use the same # of years of experience when comparing the two

  19. #539
    Pied Piper of the Homos
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,093
    BG Level
    8
    FFXI Server
    Lakshmi

    Just because you've been practicing for x number of years doesnt mean you'll have the experience of seeing certain cases or be prepared or taught what to do when certain cases walk through that door as an NP/PA. Still happens as a physician but with a broader knowledge and experience base to pull from.

  20. #540
    IMPERIAL CONCUBINE OF ME
    Coolest Monkey In The Jungle

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    21,547
    BG Level
    10

    lets be real they are all mostly just "googling" your symptoms, I dont have any problems visiting a NP with experience

Quick Reply Quick Reply

  • Decrease Size
    Increase Size
  • Remove Text Formatting
  • Insert Link Insert Image Insert Video
  • Wrap [QUOTE] tags around selected text
  • Insert NSFW Tag
  • Insert Spoiler Tag