Click here to go to part 6 of The Wheel of Fire: Cycles and Epicycles AN INTENTION TO TREAT In Medicine, “Intention to Treat” (ITT) has a very specific meaning and it has nothing to do with what I’m going to talk about.  ITT refers to a type of medical study protocol whereby patients are randomized into different treatment arms.  Once they are in the different arms, the physicians and scientists conducting the study intend to treat them with only whatever protocol that arm allows.  Another phrase synonymous with ITT is therefore “once randomized, always randomized.” But, that’s not what I...

Click here to go to part 5, Neuroscience Takes A Spin On The Wheel. CYCLES AND EPICYCLES What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. – Ecclesiastes 1:9 I know that I am mortal by nature and ephemeral, but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia. – Claudius Ptolemaeus (a.k.a. Ptolemy) To know that we know what we know, and to know that...

Click here to go to part 4 of the Wheel of Fire: Nietzsche, A Hungarian, and Utter Exhaustion NEUROPSYCHIATRY TAKES A SPIN ON THE WHEEL The wheel of fire contains many parts.  This essay has so far only touched on a few, though they are among some of the most important. In BSSHM I discussed how the metabolic syndrome and sex hormone dysregulation are intertwined.  Yet, it should hopefully now be clear that the wheel of fire at least also includes the sympathetic disease, which involves both HPA axis malfunction and neurosteroid exhaustion.  It should also be clear that the wheel...

Click here to go back to Part 3 of the Wheel of Fire: Walden Pond and Sharknado NIETZSCHE, A HUNGARIAN, AND UTTER EXHAUSTION “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols “Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.” – Hans Seyle It is about time to bring all of this together so as to create a more inclusive and practical model of the wheel of fire.  Before doing so, however, it is first necessary to make a...

Click here to go back to 2 of the Wheel of Fire: The Dimmer and the Beltway WALDEN POND AND SHARKNADO Henry David Thoreau famously said, “There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.” How splendid.  What’s more, there is good evidence that a nice walk in the woods actually can do wonders for the mind and body.  But there seems to be something not quite right, or a little incomplete, about Thoreau’s statement.  It seems that rather than being a purely unnatural phenomenon, certain aspects of anxiety are...