I knew a woman who was bitten and developed an allergy to red meat and avoided it for several years. Fortunately, just before she got pregnant, she was able to eat red meat again & keep her protein and nutrition status good (so I guess the red meat allergy CAN get better for some folks over time).
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I guess I would just instantly become vegetarian. It would make things so much easier, except if dairy is a problem, then vegan.
I’ve known lots of people who have gotten it around here. The first I heard of was a co-worker’s spouse ~10 years ago. But not long after that, my BIL got it. He almost died once when he was given an drug in the hospital that somehow had something in it derived from red meat.
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It’s easy enough to go vegan, but the issue would be on the medical side. You have to worry about reactions to something as simple as sutures, or as vitally important as a chemo drug. It definitely can have wide ranging implications.
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A Secret History of Psychosis
Cohen Miles-Rath heard voices telling him to kill his father. After they passed, he spent years retracing the path of his delusions.
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If you are paywalled out of this article, I can send you the text via email. Message me with an email address.
What I Hear When You Tell Me ‘You Look Great’
Losing weight has been a revelation — just not always the kind I expected.
https://www.thecut.com/article/why-compliments-after-weight-loss-triggering.html
The Pressure to Chase Prestige in College Admissions
The college admissions process has never offered more options and yet also created more anxiety for families. As acceptance rates fall at the most selective schools and applications surge, many families are zoning in on a small set of elite institutions, driven less by fit than by status.
Jeff Selingo calls this group the “panicking class” — families caught in a cycle of competition and uncertainty.
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We’re All Getting Older, but When are We Old?
…an increasingly visible cohort of older Americans aren’t just living longer. They’re also extending their healthspans, the years of life free from age-related illness or cognitive decline. In doing so, they’re creating new models for what it means to age well and challenging some of the oldest cultural assumptions about the last third of life.
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Gosh, I thought Alpha-Gal was pretty widely known. It is around my area at least. A friend’s husband has had for a long time. I think he was diagnosed over a decade ago. I’m not sure he has retested red meat since then. I’ll ask her the next time I see her if I remember. He can still eat poultry and I don’t think dairy bothers him, but not sure.
My husband is severely lactose intolerant so we don’t do cheese anyway and are 99% pescatarian. I don’t want Alpha Gal, but I don’t remember the last time I ate red meat so it wouldn’t be a big deal for me except for the medical setting implications.
Here are some tips if y’all are worried about it: Check out these 8 tips about ticks and AGS | UNC-Chapel Hill
The Meaning of Life Might be Hidden in the Life You Already Have
By outward appearances, Leo Tolstoy’s life’s what and how were ideal: he had money, fame, and worldly success. But inside, he was dying, unable to answer the why questions of his life.
…
"He was in the position of a man seeking food in toy shops,” writes Tolstoy.
…
The meaning of Levin’s life was, it turned out, the goodness he brought to it through the ordinary love he gave and received by living an ordinary life.
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The screenplay almost writes itself:
The trio say they were sent to the care home against their will and they wish to die at their convent, housed in the imposing Schloss Goldenstein, citing the church law of stabilitas loci: the vow of permanence a person entering a holy order is expected to make in return for the commitment towards them from the church.
Local helpers have provided them with round the clock care and security, including refitting locks that had been changed in their absence and reinstalling a stair lift that had been removed.
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Federal Agency Unveils Three Potential Osteoarthritis Treatments
With funding from ARPA-H, three teams of researchers have regrown bone and cartilage, even entire knees, in animal studies. Human trials are not far off.
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Sign me up!
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https://www.npr.org/2026/04/04/nx-s1-5699477/pain-science-sanjay-gupta
Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains what we do — and still don’t — know about pain
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Great article, @oldmom4896 ! Thanks for posting it! I shared it with a friend whose dad is in chronic pain and not getting adequate relief and consequently quite miserable.
We had found that a combination of Voltaran and CBD/THC topical balm is VERY effective for bodily aches and pains that we have. Sometimes we also add topical lidocaine patches. When we do this, we can cut back greatly on NSAIDs.
Interesting article about houses being threatened by erosion on Nantucket Island (off Cape Cod, in MA). Includes dramatic photos.
Gift link
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