ME/CFS as a biological information processing problem

Indeed.

I was unwrapping the lovely green paper from a bar of Green & Black's organic smooth mint this afternoon & thinking perhaps it should be renamed 'hypothalmic blend'. I reckon their corporate owner Mondelez would be the perfect backer for a Wellness offering. I mean all it needs is a name right? It can be as empty of nutrients as you like

 

I have probably mentioned that in the early years I day dreamed that I would be famous for discovering that parsnip juice put RA into remission. I never thought that it was just the parsnip juice that was going to turn out wrong.

Eating lettuce whole while sitting in an ice tub might just about put ME/CFS into remission, but I think there might be a better suggestion in due course.

 

Wait--you mean it doesn't???

 

Using the term remission is quite specific though.

What about all the drinkers who have prevented themselves from ever getting it?

does the type of lettuce matter? I’m guessing certain types are harder to get hold of year-round.

 

Definitely cos icicle.

 

It’s well known that pasties cure all and my hypothalamus definitely has a clock which measures how long since I’ve had one. Or maybe it’s just the swede…

 

That interferon/ISG-expression could make PWME feel lousy must lead somewhere, surely? Itaconate-driven peroxiredoxin5-inhibition could surely trigger ISGs yet leave interferon undetectable? Apologies but the concrete reality of "feeling lousy" keeps tapping away at the window.

 

Yes, at some point the signal reaches neurons in the parts of the brain that 'feel' things. The receptors for interferon might be specialised hypothalamic cells or, as discussed on another thread, more peripheral nociceptors. Lousiness is ultimately a reflection of some pattern of electrical potentials in one or more cells that supports a conscious experience of how we feel. It is not going to be encoded chemically. So there is no need for the bit of the brain that feels the lousiness to itself be lousy. In general the understanding in neurobiology is that events within brain itself do not feel like anything much, other than what their electrical patterns portray of what is going on somewhere else.

'Concrete reality' is always known to us as a representation in 'brain-ese'.

 

So, Jonathan… does this theory incorporate your ideas about consciousness that you have posted on Qeios?

to be clear, here is the reference…

https://www.qeios.com/read/DEUK7V.3

 

Not specifically, although the same logic is applied. The idea that all our perceptions and conceptions are painted in electrical potentials is pretty standard dogma at least since Marr in the 1970s. My own ideas relate to exactly where those signals are 'manifest' to 'me'. But they are extra.

 

So you saying that the "feeling lousy" is only encoded in the electric potentials, if so, will the "feeling lousy" be measurable or do we need to look elsewhere to measure?.

 

One day we might be able to measure the patterns in brain cells that code for feeling lousy. It is likely to be easier to measure the signals as they being sent in rather than as they are received. We probably already know that certain signals in thalamus or limbic system are likely to encode feeling lousy. But it is hard to be sure, that they are directly responsible for the feeling. They might encode thoughts about the fact that one has felt lousy and so on.

 

Well, how would we know for sure without doing at least several dozen pragmatic trials?! More research is always needed!!

 

Putting the p value in parsnips?