Tania Melnyczuk
Imagine what we could do with the money wasted in autism research
I’m fine with research into gene editing. But these people are not focusing on autistic priorities.
Do’s and don’ts
A teacher recently asked, “What do’s and don’ts would help teachers and others be able to help autistic children the most?” Here’s my reply.
Carnitine, cholestrol, mitochondria and depression
I know. This page is going to look muddled to outsiders. For now, it’s just a place for me to dump some links to things I am learning about the relationship between acetyl-l-carnitine and depression, lipid metabolism and mitochondria (so that I can share all this with my study group friends).
A long time ago Benjine told me about how important cholestrol is to our health, and how cholestrol deficiency can really mess us up (yay, I eat eggs); but I didn’t understand the mechanism; and I do also know that too much of certain types of cholestrol can mess us up as well. Cholestrol sulphate. I think I was supposed to learn about cholestrol sulphate, because sulphates are important antioxidants… but these days my head is like a sieve used to sprinkle icing on a cake.
So, first the pop-sci article about how low cholestrol is linked to misery:
Next the article that would suggest that the very thing that you may want to take for misery, viz. acetyl-l-carnitine, may make you even more miserable if you overdo it, because then it could lower your cholestrol too much (unless, of course, you have too-high cholestrol):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4912751/
The hypothesis about how l-carnitine interacts with lipids:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10901424
And finally, a bit about carnitine homeostasis:
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/1091
Warning (as with all my other study notes): my study notes are, well, study notes. Don’t trust me yet. I may be barking up rosebushes and calling them trees.