The last time I tried to donate blood, I was rejected for being anemic. Seven years later, I still am, but mine doesn't seem to have much to do with iron.
I didn't realize fasting insulin is that cheap to test. I'd been led to believe it was a lot more.
Back when I lived in Asia, I was told that my (foreigner) blood would be kept separate from their precious indigenous blood and only offered to foreigners.
In the not too distant future, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people will die when wet bulb temperatures exceed the inability to sweat. Those limits are being approached in many areas of SE Asia where AC is spotty. Even now, if there is a grid collapse in the American SE (Florida, Mississippi etc) due to hurricane, and people loose access to AC it will be pretty grim. Good health relies on ecosystem services: pollination and food growing, clean water cycling, clean air, and temperature regulation. The last super El Nino in the 1870s killed estimated 50 million due to drought and famine and this super el Nino shapig up to be worse. We are increasingly moving away from more stable norms to dangerous spikes which threaten to become our new norm.
Thanks for reading — I really appreciate your comments. As a personal scientist, I always ask how do you know that? Whether it’s about Goodlabs (how do I know their results are correct?) or about weather deaths in Europe, I want to know where the numbers come from. If AP News says people died from heat (as opposed to other causes), how do they know? Of course death is a serious matter and shouldn’t be trivialized, which is all the more reason we should be as precise as we can about the true causes. I thought the Trust the Evidence post was another reminder that the truth is often more complicated than the headlines.
The last time I tried to donate blood, I was rejected for being anemic. Seven years later, I still am, but mine doesn't seem to have much to do with iron.
I didn't realize fasting insulin is that cheap to test. I'd been led to believe it was a lot more.
There's an app that uses your camera to check for anaemia: https://x.com/sprague/status/1685709901279240192?s=20. (I see it's since been renamed Ruby)
Tracy, the last time I tried to donate blood, I was rejected for being British. Something to do with mad cow disease I was told.
Back when I lived in Asia, I was told that my (foreigner) blood would be kept separate from their precious indigenous blood and only offered to foreigners.
At least they were okay about accepting your red stuff.
Thanks for the heads up on GoodLabs. Looks good, as the name implies. I do think your tone about heat related deaths is somewhat trivializing. I have been following the news from Banda, India in Utter Pradesh. They routinely get temps like 118'F. Hundreds if not thousands of people have died. https://apnews.com/article/hottest-city-india-heat-banda-climate-change-d090f23b5b6a30fdde339a656e7ceddf
In the not too distant future, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people will die when wet bulb temperatures exceed the inability to sweat. Those limits are being approached in many areas of SE Asia where AC is spotty. Even now, if there is a grid collapse in the American SE (Florida, Mississippi etc) due to hurricane, and people loose access to AC it will be pretty grim. Good health relies on ecosystem services: pollination and food growing, clean water cycling, clean air, and temperature regulation. The last super El Nino in the 1870s killed estimated 50 million due to drought and famine and this super el Nino shapig up to be worse. We are increasingly moving away from more stable norms to dangerous spikes which threaten to become our new norm.
Thanks for reading — I really appreciate your comments. As a personal scientist, I always ask how do you know that? Whether it’s about Goodlabs (how do I know their results are correct?) or about weather deaths in Europe, I want to know where the numbers come from. If AP News says people died from heat (as opposed to other causes), how do they know? Of course death is a serious matter and shouldn’t be trivialized, which is all the more reason we should be as precise as we can about the true causes. I thought the Trust the Evidence post was another reminder that the truth is often more complicated than the headlines.