Discussion BS Health Trends Rant

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Parth37955, Jun 18, 2021.

  1. Parth37955

    Parth37955 NU #3, [Dead Inside], Mid-Boss, Dark Dealer Staff Member

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    So, this rant is partially driven by a conversation I had with a patient regarding alkaline water and supplements...so here we go.

    1. Fancy Water:

    a. Alkaline water: let's start with this one...sigh...Alkaline water has no benefits whatsoever. The human body naturally maintains a "normal" pH thanks to organs like kidneys, lungs and the liver. There are a couple of conditions where your body becomes unable to maintain the pH of blood, typically due to an infection or diabetic ketoacidosis where the starving body, unable to use sugar, begins to break down fats rapidly which leads to productions of ketones which acidify the blood. Alkaline water...is worthless in these situation because your stomach will simply re-acidfy the water before you can absorb it. Basically Alkaline water is a bullshit sale strategy and don't fall for that crap. It has no benefits and it costs more.

    b. Smart Water: similar to the top, virtually meaningless. Well water, spring water, glacier water, tap water, reverse osmotic water...water is water, there is little to no difference besides mineral content. Though some bottled water and tap water may be unsafe due to contaminants.

    c. Water with electrolytes: this one is a particular pet peeve of mine. Unless you're sweating a crap ton, there is no point in drinking something ton of electrolytes. Electrolytes are important - they are minerals that carry an electric charge when they are dissolved in a liquid such as blood. The blood electrolytes—sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate—help regulate nerve and muscle function and maintain acid-base balance and water balance. However...too much is a bad thing. Too much potassium can disrupt heart rhythms. Also your kidneys will go into overtime trying to remove the excess salt leading to increased urination => dehydration. There is no need for a regular person who is barely breaking a sweat to ever need to drink a sports drink or water enriched with electrolytes. All you're doing is making some expensive pee and putting stress on your body.

    d. Drinking a lot of water: So this one...basically, there is no real need to force yourself to drink water...you feel thirsty for a reason. Your body knows when it needs water and it will let you know. Too much water can actually ruptures your cells and disrupt a host of different bodily functions due to messing up the water and electrolyte balance. There was this dumbass coach who forced kids to drink a ton of water and then work out...yeh long story short, a kid died. Don't overdo it with water. Drink water when you're thirsty and try to drink water over other beverages.
    2. Detoxing

    a. Colon Hydrotherapy: To the hopefully many who don't know what this shitty practice is...basically people pay to have water sprayed up their butt to remove "toxic fecal matter" from their intestines. I actually had a professor of education argue with me over the benefits of this disgusting procedure. I wanted so badly to knock some sense into her, because she ignored my words and kept on and on about her bullshit research...sigh...anyways, this is really, really dumb. Again, the human body is great and keeping itself healthy and clean. Unless you can incredibly constipated, any food you eat will be out of your in 24-72 hours...toxic poop does not stick around...because you have intestines...sigh...all the water does is destroy the good bacteria in your stomach and damage your intestines, increasing your chances of internal bleeding, cancer and otherwise ruining your digestive capabilities. Probiotics ain't about to fix the damage you just caused to your gut...the education professor seriously told me that she eats yogurt to replace the good bacteria after I tried to tell her the good bacteria gets wiped out. Sigh.

    b. Detox teas: You have a liver. You don't need anything else for detoxing. Simple as that. The liver is fucking amazing and is the only organ capable of regeneration. Don't fuck it up by drinking too much.

    c. Essential oils and crystals? Not sure if this belongs in the category, but these are bullshit and cannot cure anything. It may relax you and help with nausea or something, but actual diseases? No. Come at me, essential oil community..
    3. Miscellaneous:

    a. Targeted weight loss. There is no such thing. You can try to tone the muscle underneath the fat but you can't make fat in a certain area go away any quicker than the rest of your body. The one exception to this may be if the weight gain is due to fluid retention and getting that treated can reduce the size of the swollen area. Some areas in your body may have more fat composition, but generally it'll be reduced evenly throughout the body.

    b. Anti-vax: Just don't be one? like...c'mon people...I hope this one doesn't cause my thread to be locked lol.

    c. Supplements: so...unless you have a proven deficiency...there is no need to take multivitamin or supplement. The craze behind supplements was caused of a renowned chemist, Linus Pauling who believed...vitamins could be the key to immortality and can prevent diseases like cancer...sigh...they do not. Funny enough, poor Linus himself would die from cancer. Vitamins and minerals are necessary. However, most balanced diets provide plenty of them. Vitamins are either water-soluble which means you'll pee them out later, or fat-soluble which mean they get stored in your body...the fat-soluble ones can become dangerous and lead to vitamin toxicity...too much of a good thing, y'know. Also...most supplements are not regulated. There is no way to tell how much of something are in the pills. So you could either be paying for nothing or be taking 1000x of times more of something you don't even need. If you have a deficiency, try to get a prescription for it because pharmaceutical grade supplements are better regulated.

    d. E-cigs: No it's still bad for you. Get help.

    f. CBD: Doesn't really work imo. Don't waste your money.



     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2021
  2. Raven Evernight

    Raven Evernight But they never just accepted me for the way I was…

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    I don’t really drink water only sunnyd
     
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  3. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Really glad to see a Parth Rant again after so long, though it's a bit sad that it's about a RL issue over a forum issue.

    Mmmmmmmm... I think my only comment on that is that I'm surprised on the drinking water comment. I mean... I get that drinking water in excess can actually be bad, but I thought drinking plenty of water every day was good... Like, for your kidneys or something~
     
  4. Parth37955

    Parth37955 NU #3, [Dead Inside], Mid-Boss, Dark Dealer Staff Member

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    there is no hard science behind how much water you should drink. Drinking when your thirsty is good enough. The recommended "8 glasses a day" is not for everyone. Some people require less. Also water is obtained from the food you eat as well. Generally around 10-20% of the water you need comes from food and other beverages.
     
  5. amilhs

    amilhs Moon Walker

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    Y did i think that this rant is funny..XD
     
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  6. Parth37955

    Parth37955 NU #3, [Dead Inside], Mid-Boss, Dark Dealer Staff Member

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    cause it goes to show how people can fall for scams. I tried to keep a comedic tone but it really does make a sad to think there are people going around praising essential oils.
     
  7. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    I see I see~

    ... Kinda funny to hear you say 8 glasses a day though, because the numbers I heard before were 8L a day... >.>
    I have never seen anyone drink 8L a day, so I always thought that this number was crazy, but I guess someone somehow misstranslated 8 glasses as 8L... >.>

    Good to know I don't need to worry too much about it, though I naturally end up drinking way more than 8 glasses anyways... >.>
     
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  8. ongoingwhy

    ongoingwhy Meat Pie Lover

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    So, you drink sugar? :blobpeek:
     
  9. Parth37955

    Parth37955 NU #3, [Dead Inside], Mid-Boss, Dark Dealer Staff Member

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    uh yeh...the recommendation for men is generally 3.7 liters (15.5 cups) and 2.7 liters for women (11.5 cups)....again this is just a general recommendations and you will get some of it through food and other beverages. Depending on your body size, sex, age and physical activity, you could need more or less than that
     
  10. Beren

    Beren Holy Saint

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    Vitamin water was a big thing many years ago ... it's just coloured, sugar water ... >_>
     
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  11. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    But ... Brawndo's got what plants crave!




    That said, I think people tend to be more dehydrated than overhydrated. Lots of related medical issues, especially in current hot US summers or military ops out in the field. While it's pointless to pee clear water, I'd assume erring on drinking more would be fine?
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2021
  12. babybb

    babybb Well-Known Member

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    Ahh speaking of vitamins, I once knew someone who got scurvy (yes, scurvy, in this day and age) because he hadn’t eaten a single fruit or vegetable the entire year. Guess some vitamin C would have been helpful… I feel bad for him lol
     
  13. Parth37955

    Parth37955 NU #3, [Dead Inside], Mid-Boss, Dark Dealer Staff Member

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    If anyone else has bullshit health myths they want to share, feel free. I just wanted to educate some people.
     
  14. gtreed

    gtreed Well-Known Member

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    Honestly if I were to drink water when I feel thirsty I would probably die of dehydration. I used to do that and I just never drank any...only realized something was wrong when my piss started turning dark. It's probably an issue unique to me but I had a good chuckle thinking about how much effort I used to have to put into drinking enough water a day
     
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  15. Twilight Fox

    Twilight Fox 【Foxy】【Ayayayay!】

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    Dr. Parth! What's your opinion of weight loss fasting!
     
  16. Lois.

    Lois. ❲.❳ Wooosh.

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    It gets annoying when people go around saying that starving themselves is a "diet" and don't wanna believe when you say that it makes everything worse from losing weight to gaining weight. I never believed at people saying that you needed to at least drink 8 glasses of water a day lol and yea fancy water lmao I honestly just buy them for the bottle then just refill it on the water dispenser we have in school whenever I accidentally forget to bring my water bottle lmaooo.
     
  17. ongoingwhy

    ongoingwhy Meat Pie Lover

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    I know people who practically don't drink water except during meals, while I sip on water all the time. My urine is always clear like water.

    I easily drink more than 8 glasses a day. I finish around 0.5-1 mug of water every hour.

    Edit: Oh, and if you're having trouble drinking water because you find water tasteless, I suggest drinking warm water. I don't like drinking room temperature water either.
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2021
  18. oblueknighto

    oblueknighto Blue Person

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    Some very simple views. Very nostalgic to see a Parth Rant.
    Thanks for the catch-up.
     
  19. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    those stuff about commercial water, vitamin, antivax and target diet yeah hear those funny stuff~ the other tho... da heck is that?

    da hell is that? gimme a moment~
    .......
    .........
    ..........
    popular way of eating recommend by some fitness trainer, journalists, well known figure that mainly on entertainment field~

    on this cat humble opinion~ diet is not about eating, its about lifestyle~ yes composition of what you eat, quality and it quantity can affect weight but don't forget sa lifestyle~


    as for health trend nah dunno about such thing~ iirc there limit of how much calcium your body can absord so just because of you wanna grow taller don't drink milk like water a know~


    actually this cat pet peeve is diet food.... this cat hear some type of diet that relate to food composition, or da way we eat some just kinda wacky to point this cat think.......
    do those people forget about biology on middle school? or this cat teacher happen to be a weirdo?
     
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  20. Nightow1

    Nightow1 Well-Known Member

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    I do know of one case where it IS advisable to overdrink. Just before long term high intensity exercise like 40 mile marches. Because of the long duration of high activity, your body WILL overheat very easily. Superhydration has 2 benefits in this case, to replace the water you are going to lose as sweat and to act as an impromptu heat sink where the water will soak up a portion of the heat generated, making heat stroke less likely. If you did not, your haemoglobin levels will climb and your blood will become harder to pump (BP spike) when the water content in your blood evaporates. I've encountered a case where someone got super dehydrated and their Hb levels dropped from 12g/dL to 8g/dL once they were rehydrated, so water plays a huge part in your circulatory system.

    PS: I don't think the kid died because of water, you don't inject water directly into your cells, it stays in your stomach and excessive exercise will just bring it all up through your mouth again. As for how I know that.... That's another story lol.

    Though I agree with all the "smart water" marketing, most of it is crap, sports drinks, only after exercise when you need to replace salt by sweat loss.