Discussion about this post

User's avatar
ClearMiddle's avatar

Thank you for taking the time to research these substances. I can validate much of what you are saying. Some of it I knew about and some of it I didn't. Some of it I was just catching on to. I carried out an experiment with supplements over the past several months that has left me with persistent GI problems, forcing me to cancel the experiment. After seeing the evidence you have presented, it makes sense as to what probably went wrong.

You say "I’m not a Scientist". Fair enough. It probably helps, from what I've seen the last few years (and the last few decades to a lesser extent). My field is computer science, which is rather far afield from all this, but I can still understand a fair amount, at least at a high level, because I study other fields outside my own, mostly in self-defense. I am semi-retired, but my work has and still does revolve around database design and data collection, transformation, presentation, and analysis. Not supplements.

What you describe as a possible process for making vitamin A sounds to me at first glance more like a description of how we ourselves metabolize retinyl palmitate. This would be a highly-contained and regulated process, and calling out specific steps within it, such as hydrolysis, might not be helpful for understanding the risks of taking synthetic supplements.

With regard to the CREBBP gene and CREB binding protein, CREBBP is a gene that codes for CREB binding protein. Genetic material is regulated in various ways, and a gene of this kind must be enabled and activated in order for the protein synthesis process to commence, beginning with transcription from DNA to mRNA. This is what I understand by the statement “CREB binding protein carries out its functions by turning on (activating) transcription…”. This is not a gene editing process. It is the first step in producing, on demand (activation), a needed protein from the corresponding genetic template (transcription).

What this article says and what I wrote just above are based upon a particular model of how cells work. That model is being called into question by some (dpl, for instance), and I am beginning to question it myself, but here I am assuming that it does to some extent represent reality, even if the actual mechanisms aren't what they are claimed to be.

So be careful. Take "table salt", for example. Sodium chloride is its main ingredient, and what makes it taste salty. If you were to take a substantial quantity of it, somehow break it down in to sodium and chlorine, ingest the sodium, and inhale the chlorine, you would not be feeling very good. You might not be feeling anything after a while.

That doesn't imply that salt is bad for you. The characteristics of a compound do not necessarily reflect the characteristics of its constituent elements. But if you take salt from its source (such as a salt mine), strip it of all the other stuff that is found with it, and then add a cyanide-based desiccant, that might be bad for you.

I offer this example because I discovered that my housemate had switched brands of salt without my knowledge, going from a sea salt that I had researched to Moron bulk salt with desiccant. The name of the desiccant was disguised, but when I looked it up it turned out to be a cyanide compound.

The government says its safe, of course, but you might not want to expose it to acids (acidic foods, stomach acid, whatever) because that might cause it to break down and release hydrogen cyanide gas, but then the processed food supply is toxic anyway and who would even notice.

Such is our world.

Expand full comment
Frances Leader's avatar

Phenomenal work Agent Lotsa-Numbers! You are worth every penny of a subscription. Thanks! xx

Expand full comment
28 more comments...

No posts