Sweating it Out

Yes, I know that there is no evidence that one can “sweat out a bug”. And no, I don’t believe that one can do that. But for some reason, the night before I start to feel better, I often sweat like crazy; it appears to me that there is some sort of correlation (night sweats correlated with feeling better) rather than causation.

UPDATE Evidently, what happens is that you start sweating when your body’s “set point” returns to normal; you are “getting rid of the heat”, so to speak. That is, your body has fought off the “whatever”. That is why you feel chilled when your set point rises (when you first get the fever); two nights ago I started to shiver because my “set point” was going up. Evidently I had a 24-48 hour bug of some sort.

Upshot: the sweating doesn’t make you well; it is a sign that you are getting well.

As far as running: maybe the afternoon/evening or tomorrow morning; yes I feel good enough to think about it.

So, today: daughter again and a visit with mom.

Posts

Yes, once in a while, the media actually fact checks!

Medicine: the Wall Street Journal has a list of interesting developments. One is a matching of a tumor type to a drug; another is this:

Letting Your Body Fight Cancer
Few advances in cancer care are generating more enthusiasm than harnessing the power of the immune system to fight the disease.

Tom Stutz is one reason why. Last April, the 72-year-old retired lawyer was confined to a wheelchair, struggling for every breath, and required help with simple tasks such as eating, all because of a previously diagnosed skin cancer that had spread to his lungs and liver. “I was ready to check out, to be honest,” he says.

That month, he began taking an experimental drug known as MK3475. Six weeks later, he started feeling better. Today, Mr. Stutz has jettisoned the wheelchair and regularly walks a 3.5-mile loop near his home in Los Angeles. “I feel terrific,” says Mr. Stutz, who learned after a checkup in the fall that his tumors had shrunk by about 65% so far.

For decades, cancer researchers have wondered why the immune system typically doesn’t treat tumor cells as invaders and target them. Part of the mystery was recently solved: Tumors protect themselves by hijacking the body’s natural brake for the immune system.

MK3475, being developed by Merck & Co., is among a new category of drugs that release the brake, unleashing an army of immune cells to hunt down the cancer. A recent report from a trial in which Mr. Stutz participated said that of 85 patients who took the drug, 51% saw their tumors significantly shrink; in eight cases, the tumors couldn’t be detected on imaging tests.

National Debt: here is an interesting chart of National Debt vs. GDP.

About these ads