Blog comments
If you’ve posted a comment to this blog lately and haven’t had it put up, it’s because it got caught up in my spam filter. I got an email from someone today asking why a comment hadn’t been posted. I hadn’t seen the comment, so I did the thing I hate most to do, and opened the ‘caught spam file’ only to find about 600 spams with about a dozen comments stuck in with them.
I got rid of the spam and posted all the comments. So, if you’ve been wondering, they’re all up now. If not, I missed it in the volume of spam I went through and deleted it. Resend it please if that happened.
I don’t know why the spam filter lets comments from one person through once and catches the same person the next time. I need to be more timely in going through the spam before it stacks up to these giant numbers. I promise, I’ll try to do it daily from now on so that comments that get stuck don’t get so delayed.
I’m also going to start posting more comments without my commentary. In fact, I already have. If someone posts a comment that is just that, his or her comment on whatever I posted on, I’m just going to post it without my comment, which usually amounts to something like, I agree or good ideal or some such. All that takes time, and it’s now gotten to the point where I spend about three or four times as much time dealing with comments as I do posting. That’s why there have been fewer long, thoughtful posts and more quickie cartoons and other things I can just slap up to freshen the blog.
And, I’m going to limit my political debating to a large extent. I’m a nutritional expert, not a policy wonk. What I have to say about nutrition comes from many years of study and patient care, and is, I believe, of value to readers. What I have to say about politics, social issues, etc. are my opinions developed from reading and study, but I’m not an expert and these posts don’t represent my expert knowledge, only my opinions. Your opinions may differ, and, in fact, probably do. If you want to lay out your position, go for it, and I’ll post it, but I don’t have time for a lengthy debate.
When I had just a few commenters, I could afford the time to engage in these debates, but no longer. I have way too many comments to deal with to spend that kind of time on back and forth debate with a few individuals. When that has happened, the person I’ve been debating with hasn’t changed his (or her) mind despite my brilliant arguments, and I haven’t changed mine, so what’s the point. Especially when there is a lot of interesting nutritional news breaking almost daily that is blog worthy. But I don’t have time to post on it because I’m debating over whether our home grown fundamentalists are more dangerous than Islamic fundamentalists.
Let’s see how it works as this whole process evolves. And BTW, I would be more than happy to hear anyone’s opinion on this subject. For all I know, all readers are all sitting on the edges of their seats waiting for the next political debate exchange, but somehow I don’t think so.
ref your blog and being overloaded etc etc
As Yasus and El Budd-ha were heard to say in their respective languages and with a contemp translation of course
‘Phuq-em if they canny take a joke’
But who is it that canny take the joke? Me or them?
Cheers–
MRE
I can say I completely agree with your choice and what many others here have said. I used to love reading your blog and your wife’s blog because I wanted to read what was new in your nutritional findings, suggestions, etc. However, once it started to turn political and getting into discussions about religion, I honestly found myself coming here less and less. Sure, I disagree with you on some things, but that really wasn’t the reason. It was solely because I like to come here for nutrition.
Now, this isn’t to say you can’t have a blog of your own to express your thoughts and opinions on everything; that’s really the main reason people have blogs. But for the most part, those are personal blogs that people read because they know them personally and want to read what’s new, what’s on their mind, etc.
Your blog, however, I feel is a more specialized blog. Some bloggers are popular for politics, some for religion, some for nutrition, exercise, etc. I appreciate that you have other things to write about, but I think the draw for many of the people here is that you specialize in nutrition and health and that’s what we want to read about.
You’re always going to have a lot of comments here, especially when you comment on subjects like religion and politics, because some people want to express their agreement or disagreement with your views. But that’s all it is…I really feel like a better use of your time here would be to educate us on things like nutritional studies, new discoveries, etc, so that you really are teaching us new things to help us with our everyday lives. I prefer that to hot-button issues that a lot of times will only serve to alienate readers (including me).
I’ll promise to post on a lot of nutritional subjects if you’ll indulge me in a few other posts here and there. If I stick strictly with nutrition, it will become a drag for me quickly. So, maybe enduring my quirky posts is the price you have to pay to get the nuggets of nutritional wisdom.
Cheers–
MRE
Well, I love all the nuggests as well Dr Mike, so please do just as you feel you want to do. On another note, low carbing, antioxidants, fish-oils and some calorie restriction (including intermittent fasting) has allowed me to come off insulin altogether. After struggling with this beast (type 2) for nigh on 10 years (standard establishment advice), it took only 18 months when following nutrition advice from people like yourself to achieve this. Your blog and others like yours give people the tools to find there way back to good health that is otherwisde an impossibility, especially with the particularly nasty chronic disease that is diabetes.
That was a long-winded way of saying that your nutritional blog is simply invaluable, and I wanted you to be aware of that.
Glenice
Hi Glenice–
Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you’ve done so well. Stories like yours keep me motivated.
Cheers–
MRE
Mike,
You’re off to a good start on cutting the comments down *giggle*
Last thing: PPLP has, as a I mentioned, a piece about exercising your mind. I find the off topic stuff (politics, rants on Islam, musical tastes and societal collapse) to be pretty much prescription from the book. It may be strict LC off topic, but again, an Atkins blog would be very different and an Atkins nutritional approach doesn’t feature the mental aspect that PPLP does. Something worth thinking, though not worthy of comment, imho.
You’re brilliant, Max!
I had forgotten about the brain chapter in the PPLP (much in the same way Ornish forgets about the meditation, exercise and behavior mod parts of his ‘nutritional’ regimen for treating heart disease). All these other topics are nutrition for the brain, so maybe they’ll live on albeit in lesser quantities.
And it’s not the comments I want to cut down on, in fact, the more, the merrier, it’s the feeling compelled to answer each one, even those requiring long philosophical debate.
Cheers–
MRE
i don’t know the correct term for it but its just a turn of phrase i’ve always taken to mean hold it lightly i.e you are not obliged to answer all..it’s apparently a ‘free’ world..well some of it and of course how one defines free
I can assure you that most bureaucrats define ‘free’ a lot differently than do I.
Cheers–
Don’t have to post this one, or comment, would prefer you didn’t actually
Some months back you posted on folate and the differences between pga and folate. You hinted that there was a vitamin manufacturer that sold genuine methyl folate, albeit expensive. Would you mind emailing me that name?
I posted on your blog 8-10 months ago while I was pg with my second child (thanks LC!). She’s 6m old and I’m currently 9w pregnant with #3 and hope it sticks. I am currently 40. My OB was surprised as all heck to see me back again so soon and even asked me if I’d seen the local fertility doc. (will they even see you 4m postpartum from a csection?) No fertility docs, just low carbing. I wondered then and still wonder how much of the decline in fertility in the 40ish age group in the current generation is due to insulin resistance. We’ll see if I have a ‘good report’ as my grandmother used to say on Monday. Had a 7w3d baby with a heartbeat last week though so hopefully all is still OK.
As far as kick ass methylation substances go, look at choline. My personal favorite. Check out pubmed publications by ‘Zeisel SH’ on fetal brain development with and w/o choline supplementation. Methylates genes responsible for apoptosis in stem cell lines. Wonder what it would do to beta cell stem cells?…
Take care!
Hi Beth–
I don’t mind responding to comments like yours. It’s the long, political ones that give me trouble, not because I don’t enjoy the debate, but because they require so much time.
The methylfolate supplement you’re looking for is called Metafolin. The brand we take is sold by Source Naturals, which I bought because it was the one available at my local natural food grocers. It’s not particularly expensive. The price tag is gone on the bottle I have, but I recall being kind of surprised at how inexpensive it was compared to what I was expecting.
I, too, love choline (along with betaine) as a good methylating agent. Thanks for the paper citation.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Mike,
As an occasional poster and long-time fan I welcome the renewed focus on nutrition. Years ago I had tried Atkins but I was never more successful in my quest for health that when I found PP.
I have laughed myself silly over some of your postings and have often agreed with you political and social commentary but I really love your specialty: nutrition and exposing the folly of the current American diet.
It must be a burden to be talented in so many areas–and you are!
Best to you,
Barb W
Pittsburgh, PA
Hi Barb–
It is a huge burden. Just ask my wife.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Eades,
You might consider establishing categories for your posts, i.e. Health&Nutrition, Politics, and/or others. Those reading your blog can then choose which category to read. For some blogs that I access I can set my link to open in a specific category. Just a thought.
Personally, I’ve enjoyed all your posts, but have wondered how long you were going to last….responding to all comments!
Kind Regards,
P.S. No response expected!!
Well, then, I guess you won’t get one.
Maybe worth a glance ?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2504640.ece
I haven’t been reading your blog for very long but I’ve very much enjoyed the nutrition aspect and have used the search funcion liberally.
While I’m not interested in reading political stuff in general, if it is related to govt health and/or drug agencies and/or policies then it is is of interest.
regards
P.S. I recently bought the PPLP book but haven’t had a chance to read it.
Hi Anita–
Welcome to the fold. Hope you enjoy PPLP.
Cheers–
MRE
What’s the matter with these people? It says right up top that you’re going to blog on anything that strikes your fancy. I think the ratio of nutrition posts to “fancy” posts is spot on. God forbid that I should miss out on the delight of watching a little old lady use her trick steering wheel to send unsuspecting drivers into a spin.
Maybe I’ll just add more nutritional posts so that it will seem like there are fewer ‘fancy’ ones.
Cheers–
M
Oh yeah, keep this Hoodia ad going will you? It looks like a winner to me.
I think what gets people so riled up about your “strikes my fancy” posts is that they are editorials.
You apply so much scrutiny to nutritional studies and literature that your opinions and conclusions can almost be considered facts.
However, your ‘fancy’ posts are merely editorials and I believe what upsets or (in the gaming world) ‘aggros’ these people is that when they come here looking for facts and truths and they see your editorials they assume that you are listing them as ‘facts’ as well.
Of course homegrown fundamentalists being as dangerous as Kurdish fundamentalists openly crushing young women’s heads in the streets, although I’d think it’s hard to argue for, is still a matter of opinion.
A way around this might be to post “Editorial” in your ‘fancy’ posts titles so that people don’t get so riled up about them. They get upset because you say Alec Baldwin is vile, but in another post, you say that gov’t. employees are swine. One is true but the other is opinion.
Nonetheless, people expect the same scrutiny and unbias in ALL your posts because that’s what you uphold to in your nutrition posts. So, they see a post that is opinion-based statement and feel compelled to prove that as such with as much vehemence as you attack the biased drug studies.
With that being said, consider how many people visit your blog and then consider how many people comment. Remember that the ones that are screaming out against your opinion posts are the same type of people that put bumper stickers on their cars.
There are probably just as many, if not more, people that agree with you but don’t comment because they are waiting to hear your response. The non-vocal majority should probably speak up and participate.
Your interests in government and politics is what allows your broad view of medicine, big pharma, etc. The readers here get access to knowledge and a critical review that’s easy to understand by a licensed physician which they would be hard-pressed to find somewhere else. In addition, almost all of their comments and questions are answered in a timely manner. All that’s asked in return is that they don’t begrudge you when you post an opinion piece. It seems so petty and ungrateful when you think about it. Maybe Alec Baldwin should leave them a comment.
Lastly, for those claims that your blog is becoming a ‘political’ blog, it only seems like it as they keep reading the commentaries. If you look at the actual posts, at least every other post is a nutritional post.
So, my advice to you would be just to add the word, ‘Editorial’ above your ‘fancy’ posts.
My advice to the ‘griefers’ (another gamer term) is to just skip those posts as a new nutritional post will be up soon.
But hey, that’s just my opinion.
Hi Scott–
Thanks for the advice.
Cheers–
Hi Dr. Eades,
I read your blog occasionally, and after being out of town for awhile, am only just now catching up a bit.
Personally – I *love* politics, and am interested in hearing about all kinds of perspectives, yet, I was thinking that if you were going to write more political comments, then what about narrowing the focus into where ‘food/health/medicine’ intersects? Politics is in everything, and I’d be very interested to hear your take on the recent pet food recall, and the subsequent discovery of possibly melamine-contaminated pork, fish and chicken. That, in conjuction with PIGS (political interest groups) such as the ADA or the AMA or what have you (a.k.a. lobbyists), and the way you’re so good at debunking a lot of the food and health related dogma that seems to be so prevalent – well, this would make your blog even more interesting. I mean, you’re already doing a lot of that kind of thing, and I think it’s a great idea to talk more about the poltics of food and food production. That, and the medicines and so on. It all ties together.
There’s just so much to talk about – and lately, it seems that imported foods are something we should be thinking about in terms of our health and well-being. I always wondered why it was called the “FDA” – not sure I like ‘food’ and ‘drugs’ lumped in together like that.
And what of corn subsidies? Is the USDA a lobbying group or is it something else?
Lotsa stuff – and it’s all very interesting to me.
Anyway, enough about that – just wanted to chime in with the idea that ‘politics is in everything’, including food, medicine, health and well-being – which is your forte.
Sara
Hi Sara–
Thanks for the comment. I do indeed have an opinion on all the above. I may get into them in the future, but for now my advice is not to take anything that comes from China.
Maybe your suggestions will allow me to indulge in my political gripes by channeling them in the direction of the food, drug and supplement business. Now if John Edwards would just go away…
Cheers–
MRE