Fascinating piece on hookworms & how they can help humans...who knew.
 If there turns out to be some merit in this then it could perhaps mean an end to Crohns disease, allergies & various other things.

 People have apparently being sharing hookworms in order to rid themselves of various things such as asthma & multiple sclerosis.
 


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/5061...od-for-you

"Ten minutes after gauze is applied to his arm, Christian Williams feels an unusual pinching sensation.
"I didn't feel them again for another month or so," Williams says.
The "them" he's referring to are hookworms trapped under the gauze, and the mild rash he is left with marks the beginning of an epic journey for the 30 larvae the Malaghan Institute has infected him with.
A touch of awe creeps into Malaghan Institute gastroenterologist Tom Mules's voice when he talks about a human hookworm's life cycle. The parasite is an "amazing organism," he says, built to only infect humans and with a "perfectly shaped mouth" to latch onto human anatomy.
To get into the body, "they've got these heat sensors that can find their way to your bloodstream." The pinching sensation Williams felt is a result of the hookworms detecting blood and swiftly burrowing under his skin.

From the bloodstream they wend their way to the lungs and crawl up the windpipe. "Without even knowing it, you swallow them, and they end up going down through your stomach," Mules says.
Passing through one of the harshest environments in the body, the tiny worms survive stomach acid to reach the small intestine. This is their home for the rest of their lives, which lasts at least four years. Here they latch onto and graze on villi - the small finger-like structures that line the intestine - and "cruise around looking for other hookworms of different sex that they can mate with".

Hookworms can lay thousands of eggs a day, but these are expelled in faeces and don't hatch inside your body. In places with plumbing and where shoes are commonly worn these expelled eggs are doomed, but in countries with poor sanitation people walking barefoot can pick up more larvae. This is how the parasite has earned its bad rap: when people are continually picking up more larvae they can end up hosting hookworm populations in the thousands, potentially causing anaemia and malnutrition.
So why is Williams voluntarily playing host to them?

It's because plumbing and shoes may have created a different set of health issues. There's a "hygiene hypothesis" that when countries improve sanitation and children grow up in more sterile environments, they also become more susceptible to allergies. The "old friends hypothesis" goes further, suggesting that erasing parasites like hookworms, which humans evolved with, leads to overly sensitive immune systems.

One school of thought is that there might be an infection sweet-spot, where just the right number of hookworms hanging out in your small intestine, cruising for sex and sucking your blood, might be an infection with benefits for both host and hookworms. Hit this balance and the relationship might be more symbiotic than parasitic.
It's a theory with a community of DIY advocates who share hookworm larvae and stories. Many say that after infecting themselves, their health improves dramatically and conditions plaguing them for years reduce or vanish.

The study Williams joined looks at how a small number of hookworms affect healthy people. His sister has Crohn's disease - just one of the conditions from allergies to asthma, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease and diabetes that hookworms might help with - so Williams is happy to nurture a colony of hookworms to move research along. Plus, he's a little curious.

There's a range of ideas about how hookworms help humans. One theory is that hookworms release compounds which dampen the body's immune response just enough for the worms to stay alive, but not enough to make their meal ticket defenceless. An analogy might be installing pet-friendly motion sensors on a house alarm: the alarm can still detect a burglar, but a pint-sized pooch can happily scamper about without setting off the siren.
This could mean small things, like dust mites, pollen, or pet hair, might not trigger an allergic response."

Have already caused havoc for some; several hundred positions have so far been disestablished. This was done the week before Xmas, not the best time of year to make people unemployed.



The NZDoctor site
"Four groups from the Government health agency have been notified of the decisions, chief people officer Andrew Slater says in a statement, including those in procurement and supply chain. ÔÇ£This means a total of┬á424 positions┬áhave been disestablished."




https://www.healthcoalition.org.nz/scrap...ri-health/

"The disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora ÔÇô the M─üori Health Authority ÔÇô as proposed by the National, ACT and NZ First parties, poses a grave threat to the health and wellbeing of tangata whenua.
Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) calls on all parties to retain Te Aka Whai Ora as a M─üori-led, independent Crown agency advocating for and commissioning services and policies to improve the health of M─üori and address unacceptable inequities and institutional racism.
Policies to scrap the entity ÔÇô after just over one year in existence ÔÇô are politically-motivated, without regard for the years of evidence, planning and collaboration that underpin it, HCA board member Grant Berghan (Ng─üpuhi, Ng─ütiwai and Te Rarawa Iwi) says.
ÔÇ£Stop playing party politics with our peopleÔÇÖs health. It will take 20 years to turn back the damage this will do.ÔÇØ
The establishment of Te Aka Whai Ora followed recommendations from the Waitangi Tribunal and an independent Health and Disability System Review ÔÇô which found the health system had failed to recognise and properly provide for tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake (self-determination) of M─üori health.
ÔÇ£[i]This [failure]resulted in the inequitable health status of M─üori, who, on average, continue to have the poorest health status of any ethnic group in New Zealand ÔÇô despite the Crown investing some $220 billion in the health system since 2000ÔÇØ.[/i]┬áWaitangi Tribunal, Hauora report"




https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/paci...confidence


"One of New Zealand's most prominent Pacific health leaders says he has "no confidence" in the government after stepping down from almost every advisory role.
Long-standing champion for health Sir Collin Tukuitonga told RNZ Pacific he has resigned as the chairperson of Te Whatu Ora Pacific Senate, a week after the new government officially took over.
"I really don't want to work for this government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out."
Sir Collin had also stepped down from several other government advisory groups.
"I was appalled at the decision to repeal the smoke-free legislation, because it is M─üori and Pacific people who are going to pay the price. That really annoyed me no end."
Sir Collin said he was unhappy with how the government was scrapping legislation "for tax cuts," which he believed "was immoral."







Finance Minister Nicola Willis has previously said scrapping smokefree laws would help fund tax cuts.

However, Sir Collin said disestablishing the Māori Health Authority/Te Aka Whai Ora was "pre-mature and ill-advised," and that "Māori deserve better".

"The government needs to do more with and for M─üori. They have some of the worst health outcomes in the country as do our [Pacific] people."

When the hell are they going to change their gun laws, fsg. How many kids have to die before they see sense over there...


https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/us-canada/...police-say


"Multiple people were shot inside a small-town Iowa high school early Thursday, as students preparing for their first classes after winter break were forced to duck into classrooms, barricade themselves in offices or run for an exit, before the suspected shooter was found dead.

I look forward to this time of year because of this forum which is held every year on The Well:

https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue...age01.html

You may like to increase the text size, which in Firefox is View/Zoom/Ctrl + + and to decrease again Ctrl + -

Damned if I know how idiots manage to come up with yet more idiocy. An email claiming that there were hidden bombs caused everything to shut down & the museum was evacuated; the same email was sent to various museums & hotels.

Its so utterly stupidly juvenile that its likely to be kids palying around with technology.


https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advo...6D4E67E5U/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/...-uploaded/

He now has one for the start of school. I have initially set it up using my MS account at sign on time. I don't think I should have done this! I now, according to MS, have the rights in my MS "My Account".

Naturally I want the laptop to be secure but it should be all in his name. I'm in need of guidance of the steps needed to set this up properly. My thoughts are that I should remove the laptop from my MS "MY Account" and then set up a MS Account for him and then take it from there to follow through. If I do remove my MS Account from MY Account, will this reflect immediately on his Laptop and require his MS Account to be setup to gain access to the Laptop?

Link:  https://www.freethink.com/health/cancer-vaccine

Finally. Shame on their brutal govt for not doing so sooner & shame on Hamas for starting this most recent war.


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/1/...-from-gaza


"The Israeli military has announced that it will withdraw thousands of its soldiers from the besieged Gaza Strip in the first significant pullback of troops since the war there began in October.

...to steal a catch phrase from one of my insta heroes, I have decided I need to replace my mobile phone. It works fine, but I absolutely loathe it. Thing is I know next to nothing about these devices, other than I loved my little red Sanyo clamshell back in the whenevers, and that's why I got sucked into getting this 'orrible little useless thing that will remain nameless.

I need ph and text, I need clear readable screen, with proper touch keyboard so I can fast text. I would like a decent camera, I need simple operation without too many app things to confuse my aging brain, and I really don't need a lot of data capacity. I try not to use a phone at all, but people need to reach me it seems so I reluctantly concede the necessity. 

I prefer android, like Samsung, but need it to be cheap and swappable for my 2 degrees plan.

Suggestions?