On obsessions, dreams and "norepinephrine"

...a word I still can't pronounce although I dreamed it.

I try to use my intellect to rationalise my intuition rather than replace it. Intuition is my driving force, and my poor old overworked brain has to follow behind as fast as it can. When I start on an avenue of research, I can find myself bombarded with “leads”, faster than I can manage them.

I find both mental obsessions (which I have learned to trust) and dreams (that show me current and future events), helpful in translating intuitions into language. Both my obsessions and my dreams come in response to my questions, and my two critical questions currently are:

• how to destroy the spike protein (in the form of long covid) and

• how to cure Type 2 Diabetes (yes, I used the "cure" word, a word you will never hear in medicine any more.)

Berberine

One of my obsessions was for the word Berberine, which stuck in my head, and which I ignored for a few days until I realised it wasn’t going away. When I looked it up, it turned out to be the herbal equivalent of Metformin in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes - with almost identical clinical results for high blood sugar and better results for high blood lipids, without the nasty side effects. I had probably read the word on a label, but had taken no notice, until it refused to go away.

The Vagus Nerve

Another obsession has been researching the vagus nerve (in relation to covid until I also discovered its relationship to diabetes). The vagus nerve seems to be responsible for our ability to produce insulin (in a complex sort of way). I know it matters, but at this stage, I think there is much more I need to understand about how it works, including its relationship to both diabetes and covid and long covid.

I wrote about it here, in the early days of my research.

The vagus nerve and the bug

Dandelion

Another obsession has been the humble dandelion which I wrote about here.

The humble dandelion

I was reading about it in relation to its ability to stop the spike protein and it turns out that dandelion contains berberine along with other phytochemicals known to reduce blood sugar. A picture is beginning to build up in my mind. Everything that is turning up to treat long covid is also apparently a treatment for diabetes. Curious. New question. What is the link?

Norepinephrine

So a couple of nights back, I woke up to a dream in which a word was being written on a torn and tatty piece of paper. The piece of paper was repeatedly stolen from me. I kept getting it back and trying to read the word, a word I could not say, either asleep or awake.

On waking, I ran a google search on the first few letters of that word that I could recall - "norep", before I forgot it. I was unsure of the rest of a very long word but fortunately google found it straight away - "norepinephrine". (I still can't say it.)

I have no recollection of having read this word, but it turns out to be critical to Type 2 Diabetics - which I didn’t know. This is what Google told me.

"Too much (norepinephrine ) promotes anxiety, high blood pressure and heart rate, and organ stress; high norepinephrine can also cause disturbed sleep, high blood sugar, and headaches. "

It is part of the fight/flight response. As I read on, stimulating the vagus nerve (which is supposed to get us out of the fight/flight response) stimulates norepinephrine production which makes us mentally alert as part of the fight/flight response - oh dear - that seems to be contra-indicated.

Now for my next avenue of research! Where is that medical research degree when you need one?

Wouldn't it be lovely to have a tame medical researcher to take these insights and investigate the science! Fat chance.

You can read about norepinephrine here.

Neurohack Your Brain For Resilience: 3 Ways to Regulate Norepinephrine