There's a lot of interesting stuff in the post, but the following counter-point you offer to "the idea that sleep’s purpose is metabolite clearance" I can't quite follow:
... (read more)The paper is called “Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain”. The abstract says:
The conservation of sleep across all animal species suggests that sleep serves a vital function. We here report that sleep has a critical function in ensuring metabolic homeostasis. Using real-time assessments of tetramethylammonium diffusion and two-photon imaging in live mice, we show that natural sleep or anesthesia are associated with a 60% increase in the interstitial space, resulting in a striking increase in convective exchange of cerebrospinal fluid with interstitial fluid.
This has been driving me crazy: about a month or two ago, I started (and kept) seeing various references to a study that basically argued that in many/some fields, the incremental benefit of researching a thing X are lower than doing a literature review of all the studies on X to date. IIRC, the idea was that there is not enough systematization of knowledge going on, and consolidating evidence from various places currently has higher marginal gains than adding yet another individual study...
Or, at least, that's what I think the paper said, because that's the context I kept seeing the references to it in, but I never actually bothered to click on... (read more)
@leggi, thanks, I think the key thing here is that BCG isn't used to protect you against TB here, but broadly boost your immune system. I found a bunch of papers on this (admittedly, many about youth, but also some on the elderly getting BCG):
What I want to call out in the context of the elderly:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21979284
The efficacy of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccinations for the prevention of acute upper respiratory tract infection in the elderly.
AIM: to study the efficacy of BCG vaccinations, once a month for 3 consecutive months, in elderly on the prevention of acute upper respiratory tract infection (AURTI), interferon - gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin (IL)-10 level in the BCG... (read more)
There's a theory that BCG vaccine (TB) helps strengthen you against corona, I'd recommend getting it if you haven't, or especially for your older relatives (given that the cost/side effects is well-understood and near-zero, whereas the benefits based on the below could be serious):
https://www.mpg.de/14610776/immune-boost-corona-virus https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/can-century-old-tb-vaccine-steel-immune-system-against-new-coronavirus
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-vaccine-health-care-workers-bcg/
https://www.france24.com/en/20200326-australians-trial-tb-vaccine-to-fight-coronavirus
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042937v1 (looking at the correlation between vaccination rates by country and corona spread).
Very speculative: there are different strains of BCG, and allegedly the old (Soviet/Japan/Brazil) type/types is better. This could theoretically explain the different corona case loads between West/East Germany and between Japan + Thailand + Taiwan vs China + Iran (different vaccine strains).
Here are images showing differing corona case loads between East/West Germany (East uses/used the Soviet... (read more)
Haven't read his book but have read enough of his tweets to understand what he's getting at.
IMU, a belief is a "luxury" one if
So, as an example, a "high-class" person comes out with a "hot take" like police abolition, which over time picks up steam and gains more support among the broader populace. When the consequences of higher crime... (read more)