Truth & Liberty Lie Dead; The Sword Of Justice Is Broken
Power already knows the truth and doesn’t give a shit.
Power has successfully chosen self-interest over truth so often that it has nothing but contempt for those who speak truth.
Power no longer fears the truth.
No amount of truth, however articulately and passionately spoken, will reach the predatory mind of Power.
Power feeds without remorse on the mortal remains of truth and justice.
Power is the US Congress, and they are beyond the reach of truth or justice.
The truth is that Alzheimer’s is being caused by something done by those in power. It is not just an accidental emergence of something inexplicable. Justice would be for truth to be told so that all would hear and understand.
What if people with Alzheimer’s are not so much victims of a disease as they are victims of, at a minimum, criminal negligence? I believe that is the truth. I also believe that the truth may be even worse than that.
The reason that this is truth is that there are many, many places in the world where nobody is getting sick and dying from Alzheimer’s. In fact America is one of the few countries where Alzheimer’s is a raging epidemic. Alzheimer’s is not a human condition – it is an affliction, and corrupted power is its cause, because it only exists in countries where corrupted power rules.
Is that a clue?
It’s not that, to use that famous line “The truth? You can’t handle the truth!” Congress can handle the truth just fine. It doesn’t faze them at all. They are not moved one inch. Truth has no meaning.
Nevertheless, I will keep on asking:
What if there is a simple tea, brewed from the leaves of a sacred plant, that extensive and credible evidence suggests could arrest and perhaps even reverse Dementia and Alzheimer’s?
What if that simple tea is so safe and beneficial that it is already in use daily by millions of people – but not in America?
And what if in those countries where this tea is available, according to the World Health Organization, Dementia and Alzheimer’s are not anywhere in the top 50 causes of death? For example, the 2013 World Alzheimer’s Report mentions Bolivia exactly ZERO times, and Peru gets 5 mentions. The US is cited 756 times.
Maybe this points to some kind of truth. Ya think?
So if it might be true that a simple tea could not only prevent but also possibly reverse Dementia and Alzheimer’s, and if it could also prevent or reverse a whole list of other killer diseases in the US – why would the US Congress refuse to act to make this inexpensive, natural medicine legally available?
Any guesses?
The truth is in plain sight.
I have reviewed the effects of Coca Leaf ingested as a Tea on metabolic dysfunction, whole body inflammation, heart failure, muscular and neurological wasting, and decaying brain function based on the large body of 19th century medical literature available on the topic. Many of my blog posts here on panaceachronicles.com have quoted and referenced these physicians and their writings, so I’m not going to make this an academic-style summary.
If you would like to browse the source materials, my ebook “Coca Leaf Papers” contains most of the original information for the following conclusions. The most valuable part of “Coca Leaf Papers” is the bibliographic section of original 17th-19th century citations – whenever possible I have hyperlinked those references to the original texts located in historical databases.
Specifically Why Coca Leaf Tea May Be A Powerful Natural Medicine For Dementia/Alzheimer’s
Coca Leaf Tea appears to affect performance in all kinds learning and memory tasks, although few physicians in the 1800’s went beyond simple direct observations. Several of the physician reports include self-testing under conditions calling for endurance, resistance to fatigue, ability to function under stress, and recovery from illness.
Less demand for pills and “energy drinks”? Refer this to the Un-American Activities committee!
Coca Leaf Tea does appear to facilitate learning in tasks in which information is presented passively; such as listening and reading, but not in situations where new information is presented systematically such as in studying or memorizing.
Coca Leaf tea was widely seen to reduce cognitive decline, but then making sure that informed older people can’t vote is in the best interests of the US Congress, so why would they want to upset their apple cart?
19th Century physicians also noted that Coca Leaf Tea facilitates performance in tasks involving alertness to some degree, and many physicians wrote of improved overall reaction to stimulation.
Alert older people! Yikes! Horrors!
Coca Leaf Tea was frequently noted to improve mood and reduce anxiety.
Keeping the people anxious and surly is part of the program.
Coca Leaf Tea was frequently noted to help patients with addiction issues involving everything from Opium to Chloral Hydrate to Cocaine.
My guess is that it would also help reduce the Meth and Opiates epidemics but hey, who gives a shit? Not the US Congress, for sure. Felons can’t vote, and although dead people can and do vote, fresh ones are harder to manipulate.
A large improvement in physical performance in fatigued subjects under stressful conditions was noted frequently.
Fewer bone fractures from falling? That’s not gonna happen. It’s almost impossible to get out of bed in a nursing home and go vote, so Congress likes things just the way they are.
It appears that Coca Leaf Tea’s action on energy levels, mood, digestion, muscle and nerve resiliency, and mental concentration strongly suggest that it would be helpful in reducing and possibly reversing the rate of decline in these functions, and the millions of deaths associated with Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
But the truth? The US Congress doesn’t care. That part is up to you – you know, the caring part.
And by the way, if you don’t want to pay my $3.99 asking price to read the evidence in my 600+ page ebook “Coca Leaf Papers”, then just email me and ask for a free copy. I want to share this information, and I’m not going to get rich off of ebook sales anytime soon anyway, so I’ll be happy to shoot you a copy.
What I want is for you to care enough to look at the evidence.
I am re-posting this previous post because I have begun receiving so many contacts and comments from people struggling not just with issues that they recognize as emanating from their gut biome, but who are also suffering from issues affecting the mind like severe depression, and who don’t realize the connection between their gut bacteria and their mind. There are no simple answers to anything involving health and the mind, of course, but sometimes there seem to be some very simple things that people can try that sometimes work almost miraculously. Probiotics are one of these simple solutions – but even simple solutions can be a bit complex. For example, getting your mind healthy through probiotics isn’t just a matter of running down to the local grocery store’s vitamin section and grabbing a bottle of probiotics off the shelf, and it certainly isn’t a matter of going for the most expensive pro-biotics you can find on the theory that more expensive has to be better.
This post discusses some excellent research on one particular probiotic that appears to have some very specific positive effects not only on the terrible wasting syndrome ME/CFS but also on the severe depression and fatigue that are part of this thing that is causing so many people so much suffering. My theory about healing myself has always been – research the hell out of the issue, look in all the corners that most doctors never look into, and check out the qualifications of whoever is making a recommendation. I’ve done that with this article, and I think that you can trust the authors at least enough to consider that they might be onto something – one simple pro-biotic that could help you or someone you love at least partially get over the dreadful burden of ME/CFS and the accompanying mind-sickness.
The Original Post
Readers of PanaceaChronicles may remember a 2014 post where I discussed the potential of Coca Leaf for the treatment of ME/CFS. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.) Along with my interest in the potential therapeutic role of Coca Leaf in treating gut diseases I am also intensely interested in the emerging research on the role of gut bacteria in treating, curing and preventing a range of gut diseases.
So when I came across this research, which suggests that there may be one specific bacteria that could play a major healing role in CFS & IBS I sat up and took notice.
The research is solid (placebo controlled, double-blind etc.) and although studies with a larger “N” have to be conducted it may not be too early for people who suffer from ME/CFS/IBS to begin thinking about this “Can’t hurt; might help” probiotic.
Although the researchers are rightfully cautious, My feeling is that it may not be too early to say that it looks like Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota could be at least a partial answer to treating CFS/IBS effectively.
I have to also wonder, although the research didn’t focus on this, if this little bug might also be helpful in ME.
Moreover, there is also some evidence that this single strain of gut bacteria may have other important therapeutic applications.
For example, a simple Google search for the exact phrase “Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota” turns up statements like “Pancreatic necrosis if left untreated has an almost 100 percent fatality rate due to bacterial translocation. Lactobacillus casei has been found to have a wide spectrum of coverage against pathogenic organisms that translocate from the gastrointestinal tract thereby demonstrating therapeutic benefit in pancreatic necrosis.”
I offer excerpts from this important research article, and the link to the whole article, without extensive comment except to say that anyone affected by these illnesses should take the time to not only read this research but also to follow up on the hyperlinked bibliography at the end of the article.
“Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a medically unexplained illness, characterized by persistent and relapsing fatigue. This severe pathological fatigue is worsened by periods of physical and mental exertion. Along with the ongoing fatigue, it has also been noted that 97% of CFS patients report neuropsychological disturbances. This can manifest as cognitive dysfunction, sleep disturbances, headaches, and a variety of symptoms in the emotional realm. Of these emotion-related symptoms, anxiety and depression are the most prevalent, with approximately half or patients meeting the criteria for an anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder. Over 40% of patients report symptoms that are often part of anxiety and depressive disorders, including dizziness, lightheadedness, heart palpitations, sleep disturbances, appetite changes and shortness of breath.”
“Many CFS patients also complain of gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances. Indeed, patients with CFS are more likely to report a previous diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), meet diagnostic criteria for IBS and experience IBS related symptoms. While CFS is neither a gastrointestinal nor psychiatric disorder per se, over 50 percent of patients with CFS meet the diagnostic criteria of IBS, and anxiety itself is often a hallmark symptom in those with IBS. Although the mechanisms behind this frequent overlap with IBS are far from understood, some investigators have documented that there are marked alterations in the intestinal microflora of CFS patients, with lower levels of Bifidobacteria and higher levels of aerobic bacteria.
Recently it was discovered that gut pathogens in the GI tract can communicate with the central nervous system and influence behavior associated with emotion, anxiety in particular, even at extremely low levels and in the absence of an immune response. Researchers have also shown that the administration of certain bacteria found in soil may support resilience and positively alter stress-related emotional behavior in animals under experimental stress. In addition, so-called probiotics, or live microorganisms which confer a health benefit on the host, have the potential to influence mood-regulating systemic inflammatory cytokines, decrease oxidative stress and improve nutritional status when orally consumed.”
“This background led some investigators to hypothesize a possible adjunctive therapeutic role of probiotic bacteria in mood-related psychiatric symptoms. Some hints at the utility of probiotics for mood regulation come from a recent human trial involving the administration of Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS) or placebo to 132 otherwise healthy adults. In an intriguing finding, the investigators discovered that those with the lowest scores in the depressed/elated dimension at baseline had significant improvement in mood scores after taking the probiotic compared to the placebo group. The probiotic bacteria and placebo were unable to make a difference in those with the highest baseline mood scores. In addition, ongoing experimental studies in this area have recently shown that in the animal model of depression, the oral administration of a probiotic can increase plasma tryptophan levels, decrease serotonin metabolite concentrations in the frontal cortext and dopamine metabolite concentrations in the amygdaloid cortex. With this background, the current investigation was initiated to determine if orally administered probiotics could make a difference in symptoms of depression and anxiety in adult patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.”
“Overall the results suggest that specific strains of probiotic bacteria may have a role to play in mediating some of the emotional symptoms of CFS and other related conditions. However, it is important to note that this is a small pilot study and broad conclusions cannot be drawn at this time. Since we did not evaluate bowel function during the study, it is entirely possible that the decreased anxiety was a consequence of improved bowel function. In an unexplained medical condition such as CFS, where over 70% of patients meet the criteria for IBS, it is possible that regulation of bowel movements made a difference in mental state. Indeed LcS (Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota ) has been shown to regulate bowel function and decrease constipation in a controlled trial. It is also true that LcS (Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota ) has been shown to reduce small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and the subjective reporting of the passage of gas in patients with IBS. This is of significance because SIBO and intestinal permeability often overlap, and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are known to have both increased intestinal permeability and SIBO. Indeed, correction of SIBO and intestinal permeability has been shown to improve symptoms in CFS and depressive disorders. Therefore, it is entirely possible that our results are an artifact of improved gut structure and function via the LcS (Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota ) restoration of a healthy intestinal biofilm. However, a recent study using the same LcS (Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota ) strain in healthy adults suggests that there may be a more direct microbial influence on emotional state. In healthy adults who were reported to be more depressed/less elated in daily functioning at baseline, there was significant improvement in mood scores after taking the probiotic.”
I’m not very good at Photoshop – but that is a closeup of an asshole where Daffy Don’s mouth used to be. Cheers!
One of the looming tragedies in America is what Daffy Don and his hate-filled followers are about to do to access to health care for poor people.
One part of the tragedy is that so many of the people who oppose Daffy Don’s attack on the poor wind up fighting for the right of poor people to have access to a failed medical system that can do nothing for them but hook them on the products of Pig Pharma without even beginning to treat or cure them of the killer diseases that afflict them.
But an even greater tragedy is that so many of the health conditions that plague poor people especially hard like Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease and Depression could be effective treated and cured by a few cups of Coca Leaf tea a day, resulting is far less need for health insurance, pharmaceuticals, or ER and doctor visits.
This isn’t a pipe dream, although it is a dream. I’ve been providing documentation for many years in this blog for the efficacy and safety of Coca Leaf in treating and potentially reversing and curing many of the diseases that maim and kill poor people in the US. I’ve even provided what I believe are cogent arguments for the use of Coca Leaf in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s that afflict and torture people without regard to their economic status.
The bottom line is that all of the hater’s arguments about the costs of ObamaCare could be undercut and rendered pointless if American’s simply had full legal access to Coca Leaf medicines, which they could brew up themselves on their kitchen stoves. I’ll bet that within a year or two of having cheap, daily access to Coca Leaf tea the need for “health care” would decrease so dramatically that even the most hate-filled of Daffy Don’s followers would have to admit that it’s a good idea.
In fact, I am quite sure that many of these obnoxious little Brown Shirts would be clandestinely sipping a few cups of Coca Leaf tea every day for their high blood pressure and sick hearts and who knows – they might even mellow out a bit.
Nah – that’s hoping for too much, and for the wrong people.
But those who are stunned by how this administration is turning the War On Poverty into the War On The Poor ought to get behind medical Coca Leaf with all the energy that they are now, quite rightfully, devoting to the cause of Medical Cannabis. That would take care of a huge part of the problems that poor people have with the so-called health care system in the US.
The range of diseases and conditions that were successfully treated and cured by European and US physicians using Coca Leaf over the course of hundreds of years should be truly amazing to us in the 21st Century, even those of us who have been propagandized into believing that allopathic medicine and modern science have “made great strides”, “revolutionized the treatment of disease”, yada yada.
As you look over the table below you might reflect on how little actual progress has been made in the treatment and cure of so many diseases, although we have certainly developed a lot of impressive technology and there have been some dramatic, if somewhat mixed-blessing advances such as antibiotics.
However, let me point to just one example; with all of our vaunted antibiotic technology huge numbers of people still die of Pneumonia – a deadly condition that doctors of the 18th and 19th centuries who were familiar with Coca leaf (and who didn’t resort to poisonous ‘remedies’ like Mercury, Arsenic and Bleeding) were quite often able to treat and reverse successfully with a few cups a day of Coca Leaf tea.
Also, since many of today’s most destructive diseases did not exist, or didn’t have a name during those earlier centuries, this post is intended to point to the historical record that strongly suggests that if pure, natural Coca Leaf were freely available today as a natural medicine it could lift the immense burden of these modern conditions and diseases from tens of millions of people virtually overnight, with no “side effects”, no risk, and for literally pennies a day.
Freely available Coca Leaf would literally destroy the market for useless, often even dangerous pharmaceuticals as well as the incredibly lucrative market for America’s beloved over-the-counter “remedies” – which, of course, would guarantee strident howls of objection and opposition. Americans spend $625 Billion a year on the over 300,000 “Over The Counter” medicines that promise relief from pain and suffering of all kinds.
Here is a table taken largely from the work of Dr. Golden, whose “History of Coca” (1901) outlines the conditions and diseases that were known in the 1800’s to be treatable and curable by Coca Leaf, along with number of diseases and conditions that have been largely ‘discovered’ in the century since Dr. Golden wrote. I believe that the evidence that he and other physicians and scientists recorded in their times shows that simple natural Coca Leaf infusions and extracts could prevent, treat and perhaps cure these modern diseases and conditions where the products of “Pig Pharma” so often fail.
Please consider the physical, emotional, spiritual and financial impact on the lives of millions of individuals and their families if even one or two of the conditions/diseases in the following table were proven beyond all doubt, using all of our contemporary research powers, to be either effectively treated or actually cured by drinking Coca Leaf Tea alone – no other treatments or medications needed.
And once you have reflected on this, if you are a strong advocate of legal Cannabis perhaps you’ll consider adding Coca Leaf to your demands that the US government and Pig Pharma back off and go away.
If you would like to read Dr. Golden’s extraordinary “History of Coca” I have digitized his book and it is available here. ($1.99 for the full 251 page book plus bibliography).
I have kept all of the original illustrations intact and – most importantly – I have hyperlinked as many of Dr. Golden’s bibliographic references to the original source materials as I could track down, almost all of them freely available in internet historical book archives.
Have fun – I certainly did while tracking down and studying these obscure but critically important resources for treating and healing disease using one of the most amazing natural medicines ever.
The roles of Coca Leaf and Cannabis in controlling systemic (whole body) inflammatory conditions in the human body have been discussed in a number of posts on this blog, and there is a growing understanding in the medical community of the links between systemic inflammatory conditions and major diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia and depression.
These are among the leading causes of death in the US and the rest of the so-called advanced civilizations, and for the most part the medical and scientific communities of these nations seem to be either just saying “Oh well, that’s what happens when you get old” or else “Hey, we have this new, expensive, dangerous drug that will give you an extra week or two of life strapped to a hospital bed and invaded by tubes.” Oh thank you medical saviors!
However, the interaction between systemic inflammation and Insomnia, or chronic sleep deprivation, has rarely been explored, and considering that systematic inflammation is a key factor in so many debilitating and fatal diseases and conditions this is an area of research that desperately needs attention.
Since there is already substantial documentation that the right strains of Cannabis are effective sleep aids, as well as safe and effective treatments for many of the diseases and conditions related to the inflammatory processes that arise as a result of chronic Insomnia, I’ll forego reciting that evidence here and concentrate on the potential of Coca Leaf as a complimentary natural medicine. The key word here is “Complimentary”; while there is much that Cannabis can do to aid the healing process, there is also much that Coca Leaf can do, and while there is some minimal overlap each has its own place in an apothecary of natural medicines.
So first, let’s take a quick look at the existing evidence that Coca Leaf is a safe and effective treatment for systemic inflammation and many its consequences.
Here are links to some of my posts that discuss the scientific and medical evidence from the 1800s that Coca Leaf can be a safe and effective treatment for the underlying systemic inflammatory conditions that drive a wide range of deadly diseases and conditions, whether these systemic inflammatory conditions arise from Insomnia or from other known causes including diet and environmental toxicity.
Finally, for a more comprehensive view of the medical and scientific applications of Coca Leaf please consider reading my book “The Coca Leaf Papers” which includes an extensive bibliography with hyperlinks to original sources of the writings by doctors, scientists, and intelligent lay persons from the 1700’s and 1800’s on virtually every aspect of the healing powers of Coca Leaf – including, by the way, its very useful role in helping people sleep when sleep is made difficult or impossible by a wide range of problems including chronic illness, chronic pain, exhaustion, and nervousness, among others.
A recent major study ( see an abstract of the study below) has just been published that followed people suffering from persistent insomnia for over 20 years and has found solid evidence that persistent lack of sleep is associated closely with many of the major killer diseases and conditions in the US and around the world. And most relevant for those of us who advocate the medical use of both Coca Leaf and Cannabis the link between insomnia and disease and death seems to be a startling level of systemic inflammation in the body – specifically in the blood.
It is especially interesting, as mentioned earlier, that Coca Leaf and Cannabis are highly complementary but only minimally overlapping in their healing properties. In other words, it isn’t a question of having to choose between these two natural medicines. For almost every medical application, current medical and scientific research on Cannabis and historical medical and scientific research on Coca Leal make it quite evident that these two natural medicines can be most effective, and offer the greatest potential for healing, when they are used together.
With regard to the Insomnia study that we’ll examine in a moment, it’s important to note also that the researchers controlled for “confounding factors” like cigarette smoking, alcohol use, sedative use, age, physical activity levels, etc. In other words, they eliminated any role that these “confounding factors” might play so that they could say with confidence that they were looking at just the effects of persistent insomnia. This means that when they point to inflammation of the blood as a major effect, they are looking just at inflammation that is being caused by insomnia and not by other factors.
However, as they also point out, “the role of systemic inflammation in such an association is unknown”. Translated that says “We know that it’s there, and that it’s being caused by persistent insomnia, but we don’t know precisely its association with death.”
I do love scientific verbal precision because in the search for truth its important not to claim you know something for a fact when all you really know is that it seems to be a fact, but you can’t prove it. In that same vein, I don’t know for a fact that Coca Leaf controls systemic inflammation and therefore heals hearts, controls diabetes, helps the body to shed obesity, perhaps helps to reverse some forms of cancer, and reduces or eliminates dementia and depression – all I can really say is that according to my interpretation of the evidence in the writings of doctors and scientists of the 1800s, it sure looks like it could. And of course, increasingly, the healing powers of Cannabis are now being documented, and it seems like every week brings new evidence for increased efficacy in existing applications for Cannabis and findings that support new applications as well.
And it would be so damn simple to investigate and document the efficacy and safety of Coca Leaf, confirming what is still only hints and bits of historical evidence from the 1800’s, so that people could finally see that BOTH Coca Leaf and Cannabis deserve a place in the hands of people suffering from literally dozens of serious, life-threatening and life-ending diseases. We’re not talking about huge, expensive studies here, nor about massive government programs, nor about regiments of over-priced consultants, nor about the participation of Pig Pharma control freaks.
We’re talking about a few simple studies under controlled conditions among groups of people who suffer from each of these conditions using simple infusions of pure, natural Coca Leaf in the form of tea or tonic. The Coca Leaf studies probably would not be done in the US – at least at first they would have to be done in Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay, because these are the only countries in the world where enlightenment has illuminated the human mind on the subject of Coca Leaf as a natural healing medicine. Once these studies were done and published however, I can’t imagine that people in the US and Europe would allow their governments’ “War on Drugs” to continue to keep Coca leaf from assuming its rightful place in the pharmacy of natural medicines alongside Cannabis. And at the same time, since Cannabis is illegal even in countries that recognize the legitimacy of Coca Leaf, the same complimentary political, scientific and medical processes would have to take place there also.
However, there is another possibility that needs to be discussed and examined. There are many countries in the world where Cannabis is now legal, but where Coca Leaf is not. If people in any of those countries recognized the good common sense of having both Cannabis and Coca Leaf available to treat disease then it would be no problem to begin Coca cultivation in those countries.
For one thing, as pointed out in a recent post, Coca species are already widely distributed around the world, but of course only a few are really suitable as potent medicinal plants. Nevertheless, where one species of Coca flourishes as an indigenous species, the more useful spcies could also be brought into cultivation either in a natural or artificial environment.
In the 1800s Coca was widely cultivated around the world, and with modern growing technology even in those countries where Coca might not grow well in the natural outdoors environment it could easily be cultivated under indoor growing conditions. There is a vast literature available from the 1800’s on experiments that were conducted on growing Coca across the planet under a wide range of conditions. In fact one of the most successful indoor growing projects was that of Angelo Mariani, inventor of the then-famous “Vin Mariani”, whose conservatory greenhouse in the center of Paris was one of the wonders of the botanical world.
In one of my recent posts I discuss how this “Journey To Healing” could be organized as an ongoing project that would enable groups of people suffering from the same diseases to travel to Peru, Bolivia and/or Uruguay to be treated with not just Coca Leaf but with the whole range of Andean ethnopharamacological resources – and in the case of Uruguay patients who are already on Cannabis treatments would not have to be concerned about legal issues as they would have to be in both Peru and Bolivia, at this time.
When this happens, and when medical and scientific researchers can begin studying and documenting the healing powers of both natural medicines, as well as individual people taking the initiative into their own hands even before the formal studies have been done, perhaps then at last millions of people who now are victimized by the medical industry, Pig Pharma and Pig Government will be able to break free and heal themselves.
Let’s work together to make that day come as soon as possible.
So here’s of the Insomnia study I referred to earlier. If you want to read the full paper Elsevier will be happy to charge you an obscene amount for access, but personally I have never, and will never, pay those ripoff artists a penny for access to their chattel.
“Persistent Insomnia Is Associated With Mortality Risk”
(By) Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D. et al, published online Oct. 14, 2014 in the “American Journal of Medicine”.
Abstract
Background Insomnia has been associated with mortality risk, but whether this association is different in subjects with persistent versus intermittent insomnia is unclear. Additionally, the role of systemic inflammation in such an association is unknown.
Methods We used data from a community-based cohort to determine whether persistent or intermittent insomnia, defined based on persistence of symptoms over a six-year period, were associated with death during the following 20-years of follow-up. We also determined whether changes in serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels measured over two decades between study initiation and insomnia determination were different for the persistent, intermittent, and never insomnia groups. The results were adjusted for confounders such as age, sex, body mass index, smoking, physical activity, alcohol and sedatives.
Results Of the 1409 adult participants, 249 (18%) had intermittent and 128 (9%) had persistent insomnia. During a 20-year follow-up period, 318 participants died (118 due to cardiopulmonary disease). In adjusted Cox proportional-hazards models, participants with persistent insomnia (adjusted Hazards Ratio [HR] 1.58, 95%CI: 1.02-2.45) but not intermittent insomnia (HR 1.22, 0.86-1.74), were more likely to die than participants without insomnia. Serum CRP levels were higher and increased at a steeper rate in subjects with persistent insomnia as compared with intermittent (p=0.04) or never (p=0.004) insomnia. Although CRP levels were themselves associated with increased mortality (adjHR: 1.36, 1.01-1.82, p=0.04), adjustment for CRP levels did not notably change the association between persistent insomnia and mortality.
Conclusions In a population-based cohort, persistent, and not intermittent, insomnia was associated with increased risk for all-cause and cardiopulmonary mortality and was associated with a steeper increase in inflammation.
End of abstract
So there you have it. A well crafted longitudinal study that unequivocally makes the point that anything that prevents you from getting a good nights sleep on a regular basis is moving you swiftly toward an early grave. And all it would take to head off this morbid end of life would be a nice pipe of Cannabis at bedtime and a nice cup of Coca Leaf tea upon rising. Sounds entirely too simple, too unprofitable, and too straightforward to be worth the attention of all those important people in boardrooms and government offices worldwide, doesn’t it.
Or maybe they have a different agenda. But the marvelous thing is – they are insomniacs too. So whatever their agenda, they are as much victims as those who they are intent on victimizing. The planet is tight.
