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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Anime For Beginners: Best Genres and Series to Watch

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The past decade has seen anime’s popularity increase in dramatic ways, whether through a much broader spectrum of series receiving dubs, the growing success of anime feature films in theaters, or the sudden prominence of streaming services. There’s never been a better time to be an anime fan and the medium has become more accessible than ever. There’s a lot of anime out there, but the wealth of new series can often blend together or not be given a fair chance. Additionally, there are definitely certain types of anime that are more prominently showcased outside of Japan.

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For the uninitiated it’s easy to assume that anime consists of giant robots, monsters that battle, and strong fighters and magical girls that transform, but that’s really just a fraction of what the medium has to offer. Words like shonen, shojo, isekai, and even reverse harem are used in reference to anime, which can sometimes feel overwhelming when someone just wants to watch a silly romantic comedy or superhero clone. Here’s a helpful breakdown of all of the major anime genres and where to get started with them all.

Shonen

The shonen genre is by far the most popular brand of anime and the majority of breakout hits and major successes like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and One Piece all fit into the shonen brand. What’s interesting about anime genres is that they’re treated more like demographics and shonen is content that caters to boys with a young male protagonist. Shonen is so accessible because beyond this basic disclaimer, it’s able to cover a wide berth of content and a show like My Hero Academia can be completely different from Yu Yu Hakusho, yet they can still fall back on the same values.

Shonen anime has largely been generalized to be series that feature lots of fighting and battles, which isn’t always the case, but has become quite representative of the genre. Shonen series are ideal for people that want lots of action and are hungry for a show that has hundreds of episodes to consume.

Notable Series To Watch: Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Attack On Titan

Shojo

Shojo is the female counterpart to the shonen genre that caters towards an audience of girls rather than boys. The shojo genre isn’t entirely bereft of battles, but it’s a style of anime where relationships and emotional drama is the priority or the source of power. There are many eclectic kinds of shojo series that are content to explore awkward relationship drama where there’s typically some kind of atypical supernatural element afoot.

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However, the most popular style of shojo that’s largely become emblematic of the genre are “magical girl” series where regular girls transform into powerful warriors. There’s also typically a bright and pastoral aesthetic to shojo series and characters, both female and male, are beautified. Shojo anime is absolutely the place where the power of love will triumph over evil.

Notable Series To Watch: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Vampire Knight, My Love Story!!

Seinen

Seinen is the R-rated evolution of the shonen genre that’s geared towards a more adult male audience that can handle mature storytelling. That’s not to say that shonen series can’t be violent or deal with adult situations, but seinen series often center around antiheroes and adult characters who are disenfranchised as opposed to optimistic youth that want to save the future.

Some of the most sophisticated and challenging anime series come out of the seinen genre and it’s a great place for people to jump in that are looking for a story that’s not overly drawn out and achieves the same dramatic peaks as prestige television. Seinen once more comes down to the viewers’ preferences and there are science fiction, horror, and fantasy seinen shows that all deconstruct their material in different ways. As a point of comparison, major anime movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell both fit into the seinen genre.

Notable Series To Watch: Kill La Kill, Berserk, Ping Pong The Animation, Vinland Saga, Dorohedoro

Josei

Josei is the more mature version of shojo content and it’s full of series that are designed for women as opposed to girls. Romance is a big component of josei series, but it’s more concerned about the harsh realities behind relationships than the flirtatious courtship that kicks things off. Josei love stories are messy and full of heartbreak and they’re less romanticized than shojo’s interpretation of love.

A trashy way of putting it would be to say that Twilight is shojo, but Fifty Shades of Grey is seinen. Matters of the heart don’t always have to fuel josei series and there are also plenty of shows that center around adult women as they negotiate through professional and creative endeavors. It’s a place to find less flowery female-driven stories.

Notable Series To Watch: Chihayafuru, The Gokusen, Honey And Clover, Nana, Princess Jellyfish

Isekai

The isekai genre is perfect for fans of fantasy and this style of anime has become wildly popular over the course of the past decade. Isekai anime is any show where a character gets transported away to a fantastical new world. It’s a classic storytelling idea, but anime has been able to run with it in some creative new ways. There’s an abundance of isekai series that incorporate video game aesthetics and there are now just as many series where characters are trapped in a video game world than some alternate fantasy dimension.

Isekai can focus on the protagonist’s mission to return home, act as a savior in their new world, or simply kill time and enjoy the vacation. There are even reverse isekai anime where a supernatural character gets stuck on Earth and must acclimate. Arguably the biggest most mainstream example of isekai content is Spirited Away, but even something as foundational as Alice in Wonderland would qualify.

Notable Series To Watch: Overlord, Re: Zero – Starting Life In Another World, That Time I Got Reincarnated Into A Slime, KonoSuba, No Game No Life

Ecchi

Ecchi is that brand of anime that’s generalized to be the oversexed content that’s likely to make someone blush if they were watching it in public. Ecchi is any sort of anime series that prioritizes a certain sexiness and isn’t afraid to showcase its assets and indulge in “fan service.” Ecchi anime usually has a lot of skin on display, but it’s far from empty content and there’s an important distinction between something like this and actual pornography.

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Ecchi series titillate, but they still are concerned about their story and characters. There’s inevitably going to be some overlap between ecchi and seinen content (Kill La Kill is a series that really tows the line between both), but there’s often more of a gratuitous playfulness that drives ecchi content. Sexualized characters may bring in the audience, but the series are still deep enough to maintain their interests.

Notable Series To Watch: High School DxD, High School Of The Dead, Rosario To Vampire, Strike The Blood, Prison School

Mecha

Mecha anime are widely prominent and the visual of gigantic robots locked in combat as they fly through outer space feels like a tentpole of the anime industry. There’s a large awareness towards mecha series and it’s even entered mainstream live-action content through works like Pacific Rim. However, this visibility also makes mecha content easy to generalize and some may write it off without understanding the versatility of the genre. Mecha anime can be broken down further into real robot and super robot series, each of which apply a different level of realism to these unrealistic creations.

Real robot series might focus more on the humans that pilot the machines and the politics that surround mecha, whereas super robot content can feature robots that destroy planets with giant lasers. There can be a lot of gratuitous action in mecha series, but the human element in shows like Appleseed and Neon Genesis Evangelion, or how various Mobile Suit Gundam properties are dedicated to the casualties of war, is proof that mecha anime can be a lot more than just giant robot battles.

Notable Series To Watch: Mobile Suit Gundam, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Appleseed, Mobile Police Patlabor, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Harem

Romance is popular in any medium and there’s often exceptional tension that’s created from out of a love triangle. One genre of anime takes that idea and seriously exaggerates it in a way that can sometimes be problematic, but has spawned a popular style of anime all the same. Harem series center around a hapless male protagonist who stumbles into some incredible situation where a large group of girls–all of contrasting personalities–fall head-over-heels in love with him.

Harem anime can come across as baseless wish fulfillment fantasy, but the broad structure allows many other genres to mix together with it in a productive way. A lot of the time these series will center on the actual characters and the complex relationship dynamics involved and try to say something that may not be explored in a josei or ecchi series. There are also reverse harem series, which take the same idea, but flip the genders where multiple men fawn over a woman.

Notable Series To Watch: Tenchi Muyo!, The World Only God Knows, Nisekoi, To LOVE-Ru, Ouran High School Host Club

Gag

Anime series are able to achieve a lot of things that just can’t be accomplished in other forms of animation or programming. Comedy is something that’s able to connect extremely hard in anime and operate at an absurdist level that uses visuals, timing, and premises that are rare to find elsewhere. Many anime series have a sense of humor or are even specifically designed as comedies, but gag anime are a different breed that operate at an overwhelmingly relentless pace.

Reality and the fourth wall are just things to break in gag series, which often engage in wild parodies and lampshade anime as a whole. Some gag anime have extended storylines, but they often operate in shorter vignette style sequences that allow the comedy to really pop. Gag anime thrive in pop culture references and some of the hardest times I’ve laughed in my entire life have been at gag series like Mr. Osomatsu and Gintama where comedy is king.

Notable Series To Watch: Gintama, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K, Pop Team Epic!, Mr. Osomatsu, Excel Saga

Slice Of Life

Slice of life anime are those endlessly soothing series that don’t try to create major spectacles where the planet is at risk, but instead celebrate the mundanity of life. Slice of life series may center around the staff at a job, a group of friends in a high school club, or just a loner that’s moved to a new community. These are series that elegantly display the tiny moments that make life important and the bonds that create eternal friendships.

The stakes are often more muted in slice of life anime, but that doesn’t mean that they’re without tension or can’t dabble in fantastical material. There are still slice of life anime series that involve magical creatures or are set in unbelievable worlds. It’s sometimes even more humbling to learn that some planet in a far away solar system has a struggling chess club or that a dinosaur can be obsessed with different brands of candy.

Notable Series To Watch: The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toradora!, K-On!, Dagashi Kashi, Clannad

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jaerie · 5 years

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Alpha Seeking Alpha (E, 4k, abo) Maybe it’s taboo, but Louis can’t stop thinking about a strong alpha holding him down and filling him with a knot. Louis may be alpha himself yet there’s a corner of the internet where he can get what he wants. He finally has the courage to do it.

And the Truth Shall Set You Free (Maybe…) (E, 18k, abo) Betism: A religion based on the belief that the beta gender has been chosen by God to protect and defend the purity and dignity of the human race by resisting and condemning the lustful ways and flawed biology of the alpha and omega

Harry is a Betist and Louis is an alpha who runs with a bad crowd. This is what happens when two worlds collide.

Captain Jack (E, 32k, abo) Louis has been searching for something and Harry is there to give it to him. Drugs, sex, disappointment, and the tangled web they’ve woven that keeps them trapped in the same cycle.

Everything Comes Back To You (10k, abo) Louis was only seven when he found himself in a hospital bed alone and scared, confused about what was happening. When another little boy climbed into his bed to comfort him, Louis never thought that they would be meeting again later in life. He also never imagined that their roles would be reversed the second time around.

Everything I need I get from you (M, 10k, abo) In a world where music and sound are just as vital to health as food, Harry is stuck in a town that thinks professional music is a scam and a relationship he never wanted. One chance event changes his life.

Going Live (E, 15k) Harry has only done this cam thing a handful of times when another camboy pops in to view his stream and unintentionally stirs things up a bit.

Or Louis and Harry are both camboys for some extra cash and meet each other in an unconventional way

I’m Sure It Happens To All Alphas (E, 4k, abo) “It’s okay. I’m sure it happens to all alphas at some point,” the omega beside him said which only embarrassed him even more.

The thing was that this was not how Louis expected their first time together to play out. Especially after he’d been fantasizing about it for so long.

But let’s jump back to the beginning.

or Louis has trouble popping a knot

Just Jump (E, 10k, abo) Finally, after years of suffering alone, the insurance plan at Harry’s new job covered omega heat services. As a grown omega adult, it finally felt like the right time to try it out. And, since taking an entire week of heat leave would really put him behind at work, using a service to shorten it seemed like a responsible decision. At least that’s how he rationalized it. He was nervous about his decision but it was too late. The doorbell rang.

“Hi!” The alpha said again and Harry took the hand he offered and shook it firmly. “I’m Louis from Omega Services. It’s nice to meet you.”

20 more fics below...

Knot Safe For Work (E, 6k, abo) The world is magical, Louis is a wizard, Harry is a Were, there are spells for lube and supernatural kinks are definitely a thing.

Merry Birthday (10k, abo) Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson have unfortunate soulmarks branded onto their skin. The first words their soulmate will ever speak to them are two of the most common greetings, so common that they don’t even notice when it finally happens for real.

A Christmas soulmate AU.

OmegaVision (E, 24k, abo) Tomlin Networks Presents: OmegaVision starring Louis Tomlinson! The world’s first 24/7 reality channel available in over 150 countries worldwide following the life of the first male omega born in over a century. Follow Louis through his daily routine, the ups and downs of growing up or just leave him on for comfort. There are many reasons to tune in but, no matter what yours may be, there’s always a part of Louis that is just like you!

Or a Truman Show au that nobody asked for where Louis is Truman and Harry just wants to be his mate

Out of the Wild (E, 21.5k, abo) Louis has spent most of his life as a wolf in the wild, Harry has spent most of his life as a human in the city. Their worlds collide during the audition process for the hottest new singing competition. What happens next should have expected.

Out With The Old, In With The New (E, 7k, abo) Harry becomes the pack’s new alpha and Louis can’t wait to be bred

The Post-War BP (E, 18k, abo) The eight year war has left the country’s birthrate severely stunted with a lack of virile alphas left to bring it back up. To ensure the survival of the country, the government opens The Breeding Program where young omegas can apply to carry an alpha’s child in exchange for benefits. Louis’ family is struggling and the BP is one of the only ways to secure a roof over their heads. Harry was drafted at the age of eighteen and spent six years of his life defending a country he doesn’t recognize when he returns home. The government made the bed but it’s Harry that has to lie in it.

Restless Lane (E, 15k, abo) Louis had grown used to his boring life back in Mississippi as a stand-in father figure to his siblings. He never expected his childhood friend to show up on his lawn with the heat of summer or that he would remind Louis how much of himself he'd tucked away and neglected. He also never expected to find himself caught up in a tangled web of feelings or secrets that just might break him. Maybe he had never known Harry at all.

Save Some Luck For Me (E, 10.5k, abo) Louis arrives at the 2018 Winter Olympics to make history as the first omega to win a gold medal at the games. Harry, his oiled up crush from the Summer Olympics, just happens to show up to sabotage him, but maybe helps him win in the end.

Sisterwives (E, 33k, abo) This was it, the moment Louis had been waiting for his entire life. Giddy excitement bubbled up as he held hands and stared up at his soon-to-be alpha and husband and grinned. The ceremony was small and simple, but Louis didn’t mind. Fresh flowers pinned into his hair and a brand new outfit was all he needed to feel special in front of their few witnesses. It was just some members of his family and a few of the church elders in attendance as was customary for any marriage beyond the first wife within the faith.

First wives were the ones to have elaborate weddings with the whole community involved. An alpha’s first wedding was a celebration of an their coming of age, his first steps into fulfilling God’s prophecy. There were many glories for an omega that came with being a first wife but also many responsibilities. Louis had never aspired to be a first wife or even a second. He wasn’t experienced enough to be the leader of an alpha’s many wives and children and he didn’t think he’d be up to the task.

Louis was just fine in the position he was stepping into as the seventh.

Or Louis thinks he's getting everything he's ever dreamed of. Harry helps him find what makes him truly happy.

Stay Close, Hold Steady (E, 27k, abo) Found on the banks of the Mississippi as an toddler, Harry goes on a quest to find his biological family. Louis tries to be supportive, but maybe he just doesn’t want to be left behind.

Take What’s Mine (E, 15k, abo) Years after he is kidnapped, his life altered forever, Louis goes through the motions in a way that barely feels like living. Harry is a wild card, a forbidden fruit that Louis swore off of before he even had a chance to experience it. Maybe, in the end, Harry holds the key to being reborn. Louis just has to be open to the idea first.

Tell Me That You Want It Cause I Already Know (E, 3.8k, abo) Who knew all it would take was some good ole porn for Louis to discover his friend, Harry, is a wolf and for it to awaken an urge that would bring them together in a way he hadn’t anticipated.

Tiny Exaggeration (E, 4k, abo) Louis is frustrated that they've been dating for months and still haven't taken their relationship to the next level. Sometimes the foolishness of the past lingers in the present. Louis wants that to change.

Was It All Fake? (E, 4k, abo) Unmated omegas are second class citizens. Expected to provide for themselves yet paid so little that they often are overworked or forced to sell their bodies just to keep from starving. Louis’ luck turns around when he meets Harry, the rich heir to a fortune. After their bonding ceremony, things aren’t exactly what Louis expected.

Where Do We Go Now (E, 10k, abo) Louis goes off to college ready to start a fresh life away from the oppressive alphas of his pack. The odds aren’t in his favour when his new dorm mate turns out to be an alpha. Louis hates alphas.

The Wilds (E, 13k, abo) The creatures that Louis observed every day weren’t exactly human, but yet they were. Researchers had plucked some of them from their secluded island and transplanted them into an enclosure against their will like a bunch of zoo animals. Louis didn’t think they were. But he was only paid to do the yardwork, he didn’t have any say about the wilds that lived there. That was until an unfortunate accident changed his life forever and made one wild in particular his top priority.

Woke Up Feeling Knotty (E, 8k, abo) Beta Louis has a kink for knotting and the secret aesthetic porn blog he runs about it is more than proof. When he accidentally finds out his alpha best friend Harry is one of his biggest fans, he knows he has to come clean after everything that has already happened between them. Harry just might be willing to help him out anyway.

You Gotta Swim, Swim For Your Life

Swim When It Hurts - Part One (M, 12k, abo) Harry never thought he would find himself battling cancer. Louis never thought he would find himself so attached to one of his patients.

Swim When It Hurts - Part Two (E, 6k, abo) Harry never thought he would find himself battling cancer. Louis never thought he would find himself so attached to one of his patients. Neither one of them thought they would find love in such an unlikely place.

Swim When It Hurts - Part Three (E, 7k, abo) Harry never thought he would find himself battling cancer. Louis never thought he would find himself so attached to one of his patients. Neither one of them thought they would find love in such an unlikely place. Maybe things weren’t ideal, but finding strength in a new kind of normal together may be just what they need.

#my fics #masterpost #self rec

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summerlouisecooke · 4 years

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Inside the deceitful mind of a fake book review fraudster

“Chaos and Grime” author accused of making dozens of sockpuppet accounts on Amazon and Goodreads to write glowing reviews of his own book.

On January 1, 2020, a foreign exchange student based in Xiaogan, a suburb of Wuhan China, using the alias Jacob Acerbi published a new book on Amazon titled Chaos and Grime: A Year in the Life of a Chinese City.

It claims to be a memoir about his year in China, but the synopsis paints it more as a fictionalized romance/thriller:

“Jim and a local peasant girl meet and fall in love. Yet their relationship must remain secret, for reasons that put both of their lives in jeopardy. Their story leads to devastating revelations about what really happens to China’s “leftover women” and how the authorities stop at nothing to try to prevent such knowledge from getting out.”

The synopsis is also laced with every cliched China-book buzzword lifted right out of a Peter Hessler press release:

“a window into the lives of Chinese peasants...takes you where no memoir has dared to go...a complex portrait of contemporary China....in the midst of this rapid and chaotic transformation...a society in flux...”

Most audaciously, the book claims to be “OFFICIALLY BANNED IN CHINA BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (on March 9, 2020)”:

However, since there was no statement made by the General Administration of Press and Publication (新闻出版总署) about this book, and since publishing and censorship do not fall under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国外交部), we can reasonably deduce that this claim is exaggerated if not outright fabricated.

The Amazon reviews are (so far) all positive, albeit SO glowing that one can’t help but wonder if they were purchased on one of those Buy Amazon Review sites based out of Bangladesh or Russia (you write the review yourself and pay them a fee to post it).

This 5-star review by Warrior Lodge (who also reviews office chairs and windshield wipers) seems particularly suspect:

“The author's attention to detail is total, resulting in world-building quite unlike anything I have ever read. I admit that I read it in one sitting; such is the level of immersion. This book should be required reading in Asian studies classes in colleges all over the United States.”

###

SO…let’s hop on over to GoodReads, where users are more discerning and critical, but where fraud and manipulation by self-published authors desperate for attention are also rampant.

Uh oh! Several 1-star reviews, from real, regular GoodReads users who recently participated in the author’s free giveaway:

“This author is vindictive. Like his reviews, and you're all good! Dislike them, and he's rude!” and “The subtitle should have been: A Bunch of College Kids Get Drunk A Lot and Have Indiscriminate Sex. It just happens to take place in Wuhan.”

Along with more exalting reviews:

“I cried at the very end (and a couple of times before that).” and “The attention to detail is stunning. I, as others have said before me, have never seen anything like it. Jacob Acerbi is some kind of mad genius.”

Some GoodReads users also participated in a discussion on the book’s page about if Chaos and Grime would be a good choice for a woman’s book club.

The asking user, named Jasmine, a black women in Missouri, has only reviewed 1 other book. The rest of her GoodReads profile is activity exclusively about Chaos and Grime.

A quick reverse-image search on TinEye reveals that “Jasmine” is actually the photo of the late Jazmond Dixon of St. Louis, who died on March 24, 2020, from Coronavirus. But perhaps Jasmine is Jazmond’s twin sister who really, really loves obscure China expat memoirs, so we will give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

Jasmine is new to GoodReads, but just three days after opening her account she started a group called Missouri Ladies' Reading Group which instantaneously attracted 4 other women (all also brand-new GoodReads members; only one of them, an elderly woman named Helen Lim, has her account set to public, so we can view her activity. Just like Jasmine, her activity is also exclusively dedicated to Chaos and Grime. According to TinEye, her avatar is a stock photo.

Reading “their” discussion about Chaos and Grime is a thing of cringey beauty. Presuming that these are all sockpuppet accounts, the conversation that ensues on the Missouri Ladies' Reading Group is essentially Jacob Acerbi talking to himself over the course of 114 (and counting) posts! I’m talking VERY in-depth and lengthy analysis. That’s an autistic-level of focus and obsession (unmatched only by my own autistic-ish determination to document all this):

Glenda (also an elderly black woman): “I was talking to my pastor about this book today. He's gonna read it.”

Vanessa: “The underlying point that he was attempting to illustrate through these evasions and equivocations was the significance of the common law precept of...”

Jasmine: “With the amount of content condensed in this book it could easily be 1000 pages long if each item was expanded into a more thorough discussion like the beginning of the chapter and the other romances. It is very unusual. I like this book a lot!”

Helen: “Jacob Acerbi has a story to tell and important related cultural phenomena to communicate, and so I think that the narrative voice is there to convey things as objectively as possible. Having this story coming from the voice of "Jim" would make it too subjective. Having it the way it is means that the author is making authoritative statements as a historian, which I believe he is.”

I’ve archived “their” entire discussion here:

1) https://archive.is/H8jhN

2) https://archive.vn/LxfU8

3) https://archive.vn/ADFs7

I encourage you to read it for an embarrassed, sad-cringe laugh, but also for a chilling glimpse into the mind of someone who might be suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder - or both. It’s as if Kevin Crumb (played by James McAvoy in the horror movies Split and Glass) had access to Chaos and Grime and GoodReads while locked up in his mental asylum):

But let’s go back to all those glowing reviewers (including Jasmine and Vanessa and Helen) on Chaos and Grime’s main GoodReads page. Click on any two reviewers’ accounts concurrently (for example Nelson and Olivia); provided they are set to public, what do you notice? Yes – THEY ARE ALL FRIENDS WITH EACH OTHER! They each have the exact same 10 or 11 friends (no other real GoodReads users), all whom are rabid fans exclusively of Chaos and Grime – no other books!

Someone also went through the trouble of creating dozens of new GoodReads Listopia reading lists with bombastic titles like “Most Anticipated Releases of 2020” and then voting up Chaos and Grime to the very top of each. And who were those 10 voters? You guessed it! Jasmine, Olivia, Helen, BH and the rest of the Chaos and Grime sockpuppet gang.

###

We’ve established that Jacob Acerbi is obviously very desperate for reviews of his new book, but can we really fault him? I mean, there was absolutely nothing in the newspapers about Chaos and Grime (very unusual for a book “officially banned by China”; the Global Times and the South China Morning Post definitely should have covered the big news), which leads us to believe that his publisher doesn’t have a very effective marketing department. So who is this publisher?

According to Amazon, Chaos and Grime was published by LSI Holdings. Strange name for a publishing house. Let’s have a look at their website.

According to ICANN the site was created on 12/28/19 – just three days before Chaos and Grime was published.

And yet, in their About Us section, they claim to “publish a large number of books each year.”

Okay, but in their Books section, they only show 4 titles : Waited. Long Enough, Looking for Nini, You’re Not A Hoarder, and Chaos and Grime. And among those titles, ONLY Chaos and Grime is listed on Amazon/GoodReads. None of the other books are found anywhere.

But that’s forgivable, because Wow! Check this out! All 4 books won multiple “literary awards”. No need to even name the awards, they were that good! And you wouldn’t believe which title won “Best Book”. Wait for it...Chaos and Grime!

LSI Holdings LLC must be some kind of indie publishing powerhouse! Who is this amazing team? Taylor Quill!!! And, oh cool, Melanie Boykins! And, yes!!!, the lovely Margaret Jiang in HR! She’s really great. In fact, they are all so legendary that none of them have need for LinkedIn or social media. Their sole online presence is on LSI Holdings:

###

But now I’m really inspired to read LSI Holdings’ award-winning literature, so I google Anish Rajmani, author of Waited Long Enough, which sounds like an epic read. Hmmm, seems she has TWO publishers – the other named Beadle Books.

What the…??? The EXACT same books as LSI Holdings (except for Chaos and Grime) and the exact same authors (minus Jacob Acerbi). And now I’m even more confused, because author Ash Marcus is suddenly black, and Charlie McMann is white...and a w-w-woman!

Something funny is going on around here.

Could it be that, on top of making fake Amazon and GoodReads shill accounts, Jacob Acerbi also set up a website for a fake publisher, to hide the humiliating fact that he’s, GASP!, a self-published author? After all, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly CreateSpace) allows paying authors the option to mask that they published via KDP simply by providing a “publisher” website.

Rounding out the elaborate ruse are:

1) Jacob Acerbi’s (very crappy) Twitter feed (with just 16 followers at present, though he is adding dozens of bot-followers by the day) with spammy posts composed only of hashtags:

2) Inserting Chaos and Grime on the Wikipedia page for Xiaogan:

3) A faux-foreword in his book written by one Afsana Sheeftahova, a “distinguished professor of humanities at the Tajik University of Geosciences” who is also an online ghost that doesn’t exist in this world:

###

So what’s Jacob Acerbi’s endgame? If it’s to make money selling his book, his long-con tactics are deceitful if not downright dishonest. Fake reviews and claiming fake literary awards are the equivalent of putting misleading labels on food; some suckers are going to pay their hard-earned money on something that’s just not as tasty as the slippery salesman said it was. That’s kinda lame, bro.

On the other hand, what if Jacob Acerbi is just trolling us? Having a good laugh while taking notes on how gullible the sheeple on GoodReads (which is largely a popularity contest) are, and how easily he can manipulate the site (which is owned by Amazon) before admin get wise and shut down his account.

He also seems to be purposely making a mockery of the tired and passe China expat memoir genre (Peter Hessler, Michael Meyer, etc.). Perhaps once upon a time Acerbi did really want to write a legitimate book about his experiences in China, failed to find an agent or publisher, then said ‘f*ck this and f*ck you’ and turned it all into a satirical social experiment. After all, the author’s bio is clearly taking the piss on all those self-important China Watchers and self-proclaimed Sino Specialists with their self-aggrandizing bios:

“Jacob Acerbi (Russian: Иаков Иаковевич терпкеницын; Chinese: 晉智明) is an American memoirist, historian, and philosopher known for his acute psychological, historical, and philosophical analyses, as well as his prescience as a "China watcher." His best-known work is the 2020 memoir about his life in the city of Wuhan, Chaos and Grime: A Year in the Life of a Chinese City. Widely regarded for its unique style and thriller-like dramatization of complex, controversial, and true subject matter, Chaos and Grime was banned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China almost immediately upon its release.”

And how can anyone take this slightly racist, slightly homophobic announcement on his publisher’s website seriously?

“LSI HOLDINGS PROMOTES CHILDHOOD LITERACY WITH SCHOOL BOOK PROGRAM - Shawneekwa Williams, only in the fourth grade, won an LSI Holdings Diversity Scholarship to attend the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in lieu of fifth grade. There she will study police brutality and trans activism for college credit. Great work!”

In conclusion, I admittedly have not read Chaos and Grime and don’t have any desire to (at this point I have read enough China expat memoirs to last me a lifetime). But I was very interested in uncovering just how low Jacob Acerbi is willing to go to promote his book (or troll us).

Now that I have tracked down his sloppy digital footprints and connected all the dots, I am left wondering: if he had put this much effort into his storytelling and writing craft, he might have actually found a real publisher, in which case, Jacob Acerbi would not have had to stoop to such shameless depths. It’s a little slimy, a little pathetic; but also a little funny.

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brooke-the-poet · 5 years

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The Fantasy Adventure Trope and Autistics.

Currently I am fascinated with narrative framing. The structure of a story and how that gives us the meanings that we draw from it.

What I have noticed is that neurodivergent consciousness isn't taken into consideration very often. In fact many narratives, especially in children's literature and films have a gaslighting affect when it comes to the experiences of neurodivergent children.

Children who are different are portrayed as having an overactive imagination, big emotions or too reserved, shy, afraid, a little adult, low impulse control, not very social, bullied at school and are ignored by adults.

This jumble of traits pretty much fits most neurodivergents. But just enough so that they are endearing and don't seem "too weird".

Unfortunately many children are thought of in the same vein as the biblical prodigal son. Disabilities and difficulties are seen as trials to be fixed, or to fix "us" as if we need some form of chastising.

That our ways are wrong and we choose to bring difficulty on ourselves by not ignoring the things everyone else ignores and doing what everyone else does.

People expect neurodivergent children to be doormats and when they are shoved into that role they naturally become distressed and hide or rebel.

Such children then go on a magic adventure, where they learn about who they are as a person and then return home better off than when they left, able to cope and function better in their world.

That's a very general idea of the plots of most magic adventures. And there's nothing wrong with that, if indeed that is what is occurring.

But too often it is not. Most of these narratives portray the child as in need of a rude awakening, again with the prodigal image, spoiled, lack of discipline, bad attitude, needing to burn off energy, needing confidence, needing change over all.

And how this occurs is through what is known as exposure therapy. A theorized technique where non-biological anxiety is reduced through exposure to the source of the anxiety.

This does not work on neurodivergents nor many with trauma related conditions. It only serves to burn out energy and destroy our nervous systems and peace of mind if we had any to begin with.

The adventure supposedly leads the child to become used to physical stress, work and decision making. It assumes that the child has had no trauma or stress before this. That their difficulties came from being uncooperative with adults. What it comes down to is that it is the child that needs to change, not their world.

And what that means for the neurodivergent child whose experience of the world can not change through a change in attitude, is that they are made to feel flawed, that unlike the "good" children in those stories, they are bad.

Which leads them to hiding their difficulties and masking. And if they are autistic, the feeling of being nonhuman increases significantly.

*On a side note: Fantasy gives neurodivergent traits to majority non-human characters. I really do enjoy fantasy but the characters I related to most were the non-humans or the villain, and both.

There are a lot of non-human characters that should just have been human. When only "make believe" species have your sensitivity and traits, it makes it very hard for people to take you seriously. That's a whole other article though.*

Back to narrative:

Two examples come to mind. The German novel "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende and and the Japanese film "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki.

These were big impact stories, I'm only going to cover 3 items from each.

Someone with more energy can dig in deeper. Also if the plots sound really similar to you, children going off into fantasy worlds and receiving help from dragons, it is because Michael Ende loved Japan and was inspired by Japanese folklore.

His second wife is Japanese and his stories became huge in Japan where he toured and gave lectures and was honoured with his own museum shortly before he passed away.

First, The Never Ending Story.

Yes, the story with Bastian, Atreyu, the child-like empress and my personal favourite, Falcor the luck dragon. Who doesn't love the ending of the film version where he scares the shit out of those bullies as he chases them into the dumpster?

There are a lot of very good things in this story, Bastian fits completely the profile of the neurodivergent child,but for those who have read the book there are some glaring details, and Yes, I know all the other interpretations and cultural symbolism going on.

But I'm looking at these from an autistic perspective, being as personal and literal as possible. Because that is how I viewed them and many others will, as a kid and teenager.

1. Despite Bastian's trauma from school and his mom's death it is up to him to fix his emotionally shut down father.

There's a new term for this, emotional incest. Google that. Emotionally Bastian has a lot going on,he and his father should really be seeing a therapist.

This topic can be controversial as it crosses into many cultural expectations of what a family is and the required roles within a family. There are various levels of toxicity that can occur in parent child relationships that result in anger later on in the child. But a parent relying on a child for emotional support is seen as the most benign.

One could say that is traditionally what children are for. From the outside pushing back at this role looks like "modern selfishness" but the inside reality is that the stress placed on a child who needs support and understanding themselves is damaging. When suppressing growth for a parent, the child does not learn to become an emotionally healthy adult.

For many neurodivergents this can look like carer abuse, infantalisation, a parent guilt tripping for all the work they do for the child. Expecting full loyalty to a parent with punishments imposed for perceived infractions.

Demanding all of a child's time. Not allowing friends, becoming jealous of online friends, hobbies, and anything that takes their attention away from the parent.

Given that as adults many disabled neurodivergents rely on their parents for support, these relationships remain complex and complicated.

2. Spending too much time in your inner world makes you less human.

For those not familiar with the second half of this book, for every wish and fantasy Bastian lives out he loses his memory and humanity. WTH?

As someone who has memory and dissociation issues this really freaked me out and made me question whether or not my dissociation, frequent need to retreat and loss of self at times was due to me being a bad, selfish person like the townspeople in the book.

Autistics and other neurodivergents have rich inner worlds that are just as real as what is going on outside them.

They are a part of this world as nature, and it is there that we often find and preserve our sense of self instead of getting lost in a sea of others.

Without them we would lose ourselves. Our humanity should never be equated with how much we outwardly participate.

3. Bastian wasn't capable of being loved before his journey.

When Bastian loses his humanity he nearly kills Atreyu but is stopped. He repents by working hard in a mountain, as a miner where he loses the last of himself, including his name in order to learn selfless love.

Hard stare. Really? Neurodivergents tend to be born selfless it seems, and we have really hard times creating boundaries for ourselves in how much we will give others and are much too open to manipulation because of it.

In my mind Bastian is already doing far too much emotional labour for a child to sustain and shouldn't be required to have to work on top of that for love to be given him.

More messages towards us about being selfless only harms us and makes us feel guilty for not draining ourselves dry for others.

Reiterating again, that Esoterica and symbolism, metaphors etc...are my special interest, I know what the esoteric symbolism of all this is but most children will not and Will take this aspect literally.

Overall none of his physical issues such as Body positivity, the school and bully situation nor any other issues were addressed. His real fear was part of his "overactive imagination" that he had to overcome.

This gaslights many neurological disabilities and experiences with the world, where synesthesia, sensory processing differences and executive Dysfunction are labelled imaginary and trauma around them is exasperated.

Spirited Away

This is the film that inspired this. Because I loved this. Miyazaki truly knows how to capture the soul of nature.

Some back story about anime you truly need to know before we move on.

If you're autistic, and fan of Anno Hideki creator of Evangelion, also a fellow autistic, who also worked with studio Ghibli, then you probably know what he means when he stated that anime and manga are an inherently autistic medium.

Paraphrasing Anno:

Your goal is to reach out and connect with others deeply and emotionally.

The main way this is achieved is having the emotional interior of people reversed, showing every emotion externally.

In anime all the huge feelings, trauma and anxiety that usually go on inside someone are shown on the outside. This makes it really relatable and easy to connect emotionally to the characters.

Big secret though, non-neurodivergents assume a lot of the emotions are exaggerated and the trials and stages the characters go through are metaphors.

If you are neurodivergent, you know they are not. Many things are literally what is happening to us on the inside, how certain things feel.

I'll give examples when I talk about Spirited Away, but if you are further curious, Google Newtypes from the Mobile Suit Gundam saga and Evangelion.

This unique feature and style, of emotions began in the Tokugawa Era as a form of non-violent rebellion against the imposed socially rigid caste system and militarism of the era that saw creativity as superfluous.

Anything different, mysterious, unknown, imaginative and emotional did not meet the new "social norms" of the shogunate era and were rejected.

Artists and writers, the creative castes, started making woodblock prints of fantasy scenes and stories in a style now known as manga.

They kept Non-linear, neurodivergent thought and ways of being alive during that violent time period when many creators were imprisoned.

Ok, with that on to Spirited Away. I'm going to focus on Autistic masking. Masking plays a huge role in this story.

Briefly, the plot is: 10 year old Chihiro, on the way to her new home is spirited away with her parents. Going against her instincts she follows them into what turns out to be the holiday and pleasure district of the gods.

Her parents eat the god's food, turn into pigs and Chihiro must then sell herself to the onsen ( bath house) in order to work off the debts of her parents and save them.

The main characters that I personally relate with in this piece are Haku, the dragon boy/river god, the Faceless Spirit/Noh Face and the witch Zeneba.

So again, 3 things.

1. Masking, Chihiro is The Mask.

Chihiro, the cool, collected,lovely mixture of innocence and maturity is the mask that many autistic women grew up wearing in order to handle trauma. Be strong, brave and stoic for the sake of others. This is one set of strong messages that the film puts out.

In the bridge scene where Haku and Chihiro, under an invisibility spell, cross the bridge to the bathhouse; in order to cross without being seen Chihiro must hold her breath.

That is what Autistic masking literally feels like, the fear of being seen, caught and punished for who we are and the sharp pain of inhaled breath held, for too long, and slow suffocation.

��Chihiro's journey will feel familiar to many young autistics who are learning about themselves and the people around them and how they fit into the social structures here. Chihiro is a foreigner and awkwardly trying to stay out of trouble.

There isn't a structure that fits her. She's scolded and hindered for simply existing in that space not meant for her. But she has a task to complete, so she has to figure out a way to make things work.

Being survival, task and mission oriented is a strong point of being Autistic. It's part of our ability to be perseverant.

It can be so strong that your mind creates different ways of being to hide and protect the most sensitive parts of itself, to protect the parts that are different.

Chihiro's final line in the film is:

"Don't worry, I think I can handle it."

She's resolute in her maintaining a stoic mask, which is implied as part of growing up. This message is toxic to Autistics

For a lot of us Autistics this line recalls childhood trauma and masking. The exact phrase we would say to "make things work" for ourselves. Suppressing our needs in order to appear mature and keep our parents and those around us comfortable.

If the bathhouse is supposed to represent life and the social- economic reality, then it's the same reality so many face, forced to change and pretend they fit into society. This message about masking feels at odds with the "re-discovering your true self" message that we get with Haku.

The river dragon spirit, Haku literally represents what masking your true self can look like. Under Yubaba he loses sense of his true nature, physically grows pale and steely eyed. He isn't conscious of the spell Yubaba has placed in him. Masking isn't conscious to a lot of Autistics either.

As an apprentice Haku carries out orders no matter what the danger is to himself. Putting ourselves in harm's way and being abused without us knowing is an outcome of masking. When masking we are in the position of copying others feeling very much like "apprentice non-autistics".

We want to please in order to survive and feel adequate with others. In the scene when Haku is bleeding to death and Yubaba kicks him into the incinerator to be disposed of, that unfortunately is a real emotional outcome to many abusive relationships built through masking. Relationships fail once we burn out.

In order to show his true nature, Haku actively fights inside himself when helping Chihiro. He plays double agent throughout the film. And then has to be saved from himself by Chihiro.

Do I need to be saved from myself?

Do I seem as cold and distant as Haku?

Am I and my masking setting a bad example, a burden to seemingly purer people like Chihiro who haven't quite learned to mask yet?

These questions flitter and linger for a long time. There's a pang of sadness in them.

It's an extremely complicated issue which is further complicated when navigating personal boundaries and what is felt to be personally owed to others, it changes with each situation.

During the train scene when Chihiro is given time to process her predicament you can literally see her mentally forming her mask, the mask that's prepared to take responsibility for others mistakes.

It's the same mask we create to carry the burden of being social and appropriate when no one else is, the mask that self blames and takes up energy. Chihiro takes responsibility for everything.

There is again that message of sacrificing your well being for others that is pushed. She is the only one actively trying to save both her parents and Haku.

Being a heroine doesn't have to be about saving others, or being responsible for them, especially when they are capable of finding their own solutions. There are so many different ways to show love and support.

It isn't about being selfish and just taking care of yourself, for many Autistics and those with multiple disabilities, caring for others in this manner isn't an option but feeling guilty for not doing this is a constant to many.

Who this message is being directed to, needs to change. It should not be directed at vulnerable girls or any children who will worry and have anxiety about themselves.

The reality of many situations where change is needed from someone in authority, parent or any other institution is that it fails to occur. Children or other exploited parties are made responsible for that failure.

If an Autistic fails to fit in, it's never societies fault, the burden of change and guilt is always put on the autistic. And in order to shoulder it, masking occurs. How long is she going to be able to keep up that tough girl facade?

2. Home

In the opening of the film Chihiro is upset at what would honestly be devastating for someone who relies on "their world" to make sense of who they are. Moving, no home to return to. This concept literally is played out with Haku and Noh Face.

Haku's river is destroyed, because of this he loses his identity and falls prey to those who would enslave him. An identity that changes with physical environment is common. Some autistics, like myself, unconsciously build an identity or mask that fits specifically to our environment.

Environment becomes routine along with all of the sensory stimulus and sensitivity, our bodies physically bond to what is comfortable to us. And when that changes, so does a whole persona or personality mask.

When it is an unexpected and forced change, it is traumatizing. In my own experience, I've moved 10 times in a single year at the age of 14. Only 4 years older than Chihiro.

That caused a shutdown that I'm still experiencing the effects of 20 years later. Losing those connections is never a matter of letting go and moving on. They are grieved and must be processed at length.

On the way out of the forest Chihiro's father notices how quiet she is, both parents finally are paying attention to the emotional reality of their child. If they had listened and paid attention to her intuition, warnings and signs of trauma, in the beginning, their predicament would not have occurred. They might not have even moved in the first place.

"A new home and school, it is a bit scary," her father says. To which Chihiro replies that she can now handle it.

Chihiro, suppressing her original concern and the trauma of her experience, now gaslights herself, after she's gone through the process of learning how to perform emotional and mental labour for others through masking as an act of love.

An act of love, that's how mainstream society positions suppressing the needs of the disabled. You're told if you love your parents, your family, don't cause problems, don't cause trouble.

Oh, your having trouble at school, at work, at home? Disabilities are framed as trouble in this manner, the same way one speaks of a misdemeanor or crime. It subtlety shifts feelings of fault and blame onto the disabled. When it comes to Autistics the way we understand our self and our experience of the environment is often blamed as the cause of troubles.

For us the Non-autistic world is assaulting both physically and emotionally. It's a mess of social and psychological mind games and head traps that make us chronically ill. We have to create our own environments to dwell and recover in each night.

For a large proportion of us, we experience time and space Non-linearly. Which means events are not chronological, they don't neatly line up in our minds.

Our experience of the world is like the concepts of Ukiyo and Yugen. Transience, ethereal and profound depth of feeling. Events, people, places float in and out with moments of deep joy and sadness to help us make sense of time.

Miyazaki makes full use of this narrative tradition in his storytelling with vast spaces and characters who on the surface are only loosely associated with each other yet deeply connected.

In our world connection is not linear, nor emotions. Associative thinking leads us to make broad connections in ways that branch out and lead us to discoveries that seem impossible or were unknown to many because the right associations couldn't be made in their linear minds.

Non-linear emotions mean that we don't process events as they happen. It's too much to take in, emotions float in us, incubating until they are ready to be understood. The moment this happens is usually triggered by seemingly unconnected events but to which our minds have made connections to, enough to bring us to full circle. Different mental processing times mean reactions and effects come later, long after expected.

3. Noh face. Portraying other as grotesque.

The best for last.

Noh face as in the Noh theatre, because the mask they wear, delights and troubles in it's accurate yet disturbing qualities. The spirit does not speak except to make pleading utterances. The faceless spirit is sad, mysterious, interesting,terrifying and revolting all at once.

When it is invited into the bathhouse it begins to eat several of the workers and gains the ability to speak and their personality traits.

It is one of the most grotesque and extreme moments in the film. It can make you squirm. But it's also the most literal example of what it can be like to mask.

There is a certain type of masking that occurs for autistics who also experience dissociation, derealisation and depersonalisation.

It's the least understood and most vital to understand; this is how the brain involuntarily forces command or auto-pilot, for survival in situations it deems life threatening.

When around other people these autistics physically feel themselves absorb the energy, the personalities, emotions and desires of other people, so much so that it overwhelms their mind/ soul, their identity and sense of who they are.

They can lose track of where they are and what they say and do ; literally becoming "drunk" on other people, acting erratically or hyper with a loss of inhibition.

They may do and say things they wouldn't have before and never would alone, when caught in the energy of the crowd or moment. And often they can't quite remember what occurred until afterwards. It's an uncomfortable and frightening experience to not be in control, to feel like a slave to others wills .

With this type of masking the autistic may be aware of it or might not be, but they are not in control of when it happens or with who. It occurs on a daily basis this absorption of personas and others traits. It's chaotic inside, an ever changing kaleidoscope of thoughts and feelings that are almost never your own.

Physically, after socialising, especially if it's from a party, when this type of autistic is alone, people hangover sets in.

People hangovers, even though I don't drink that's the best definition I have of it, you feel ill enough that you vomit; as you would expect with all of this swirling chaos.

The only way to end it is to sleep it off as you psychologically purge all the fragments of others out. This is another physical sensation as you feel yourself emptying and regaining control. This process can feel like being scrubbed raw, internally.

This masking isn't done out of "loneliness" as is the reason given by the Noh Face. But having no one to understand and going through this alone, does build up and can increase the feelings of desperation to have a stable self.

In the scene when Chihiro gives the Noh face the expectorant, and they vomit just as Haku did, as all the people they consumed left, they returned to their original small form, no longer able to speak.

Chihiro, in that scene is the only one with boundaries, she masks her fear and listens, using her knowledge to give the Noh Face what they really need. She presents a kind, calm and stable force that counters chaos.

It's no wonder the Noh Face wants to absorb her. She's the ultimate mask that it can then have to feel whole and interact with others finally.

But it still would not be their own.

On a side note, it is for this very reason that Noh Face is finally paired with the witch Zaneba, whose line "hmmm, what else can we mess with?" is my favourite. Zaneba sees the structure of the bathhouse and wants to disrupt it.

Due to the chaos occurring inside these type of autistics, instead of trying to order life in a structured or "tidy" way, they impose chaos externally. As long as it is their chaos, this ordered chaos approach is effective in coping with life.

Roles, duties and tasks bring about more structure than superficial order as in the bathhouse. If there's a specific function and purpose that is clear, it makes it easier to not mask, which is why the noh face is able to remain calm.

At the end of the day Zaneba and Noh Face retreat to their quiet home, where function and roles are simple. Personally that's where I'd like to stay, if I were Chihiro I wouldn't have returned.

That's a final point, the "fantasy" world is always made out to be lesser than our shared reality. But is it really? Our inner worlds are what make it possible to survive in the outer world. It's where we process and draw strength to combat the hostility we encounter daily.

They aren't something you abandon in childhood, but a necessary life skill that develops further with age. The fantasy retreat is vital for rest and reclamation of self from society. Not something to be left behind.

So there you have it. My rough autistic sense on what messages an autistic/neurodivergent might take away from popular story narratives and elements in children's fiction and film.

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paleorecipecookbook · 5 years

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Your Gut Microbiome and Anxiety: What’s the Connection?

Did you know that your gut bacteria can influence your mood? Read on to learn about how the gut and brain communicate with each other, the evidence that connects the gut microbiome and anxiety, and how to fix gut dysbiosis.

Is Anxiety in Your Brain or in Your Gut?

Approximately 18 percent of U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, characterized by apprehension and fear that can negatively affect productivity, personal relationships, and overall quality of life. (1) Pharmaceutical treatments, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and benzodiazepines, manipulate the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Although these medications provide relief for some, they are often ineffective and can have serious side effects. (2)

Even if chemical imbalances were present in most people with anxiety (they aren’t), antianxiety meds fail to address a lesser-known contributor to depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders: gut dysbiosis and dysfunction.

The brain and the gut communicate via a gut–microbiome–brain axis, and a growing body of literature indicates that a disrupted gut microbiome may contribute to a variety of cognitive and mood disorders, including: (3, 4, 5, 6)

Anxiety

Parkinson’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease

ADHD

Sensory processing disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Schizophrenia

Psychosis

Autism

The bacteria in your gut hold immense power over you—they can even influence how you respond to stress. Check out this article to learn about the link between the gut microbiome and anxiety, and get tips on how to correct gut dysbiosis. #chriskresser #unconventionalmedicine

How Your Brain and Your Gut Communicate

The brain and the gut can interact directly through the vagus nerve, which connects the central nervous system to the heart, lung, and digestive tract. The vagus nerve can be activated by many neuroactive molecules found in the gut. (7)

Neurotransmitters

Some gut bacteria species synthesize neurotransmitters, including GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, and neurotransmitter modulators, like brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. In fact, more than 90 percent of the body’s total serotonin and more than 50 percent of the body’s total dopamine are synthesized in the gut, not in the brain. (8, 9)

Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs)

Dietary fiber is broken down by gut bacteria into anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs stimulate the sympathetic and autonomic nervous systems with neurological benefits. One example is butyric acid, which has been shown to slow the progression of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases in animal models. (10, 11)

Thyroid and Sex Hormones

Gut microbiota are involved in the release and degradation of hormones such as insulin, glucagon, leptin, as well as estrogen. (12, 13, 14)

Other Signaling Molecules

Neuroendocrine cells comprise about 1 percent of the cells along the protective gut lining, called the epithelium. These cells release over 20 neuroactive signaling molecules, including neuropeptide Y, oxytocin, ghrelin, and calcitonin gene-related peptide. (15)

The gut microbiome influences the brain across a lifetime. In the earliest stages of life, bacterial colonization of the gut is crucial for proper brain development.

Germ-free mice, which have no microorganisms in their guts, experience abnormal mental development and develop brain structure defects. (16, 17, 18, 19) Altering the gut microbiota with antibiotics or probiotics can either damage or improve memory, further supporting the role of the gut in brain function. (20, 21, 22) We also have evidence that microbiota regulate pain perception, impact the protective nerve sheath covers called myelin, and influence neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to reorganize and rewire from good and bad inputs. (23, 24, 25)

Because of the active gut–microbiome–brain axis, anxiety and other mood disorders can be influenced by the stability and diversity of the gut microbiome. Let’s look at some of the evidence that supports the gut microbiome and anxiety connection.

Your Gut Bacteria Determine How Your Body Responds to Stress

A healthy gut promotes a normal stress response through the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Gut microbiota are essential to the development and function of the HPA axis, and there is a critical developmental window when colonization must occur for the HPA axis to function normally. (26, 27) Germ-free mice exhibit an exaggerated HPA stress response, a hallmark characteristic of anxiety, indicated by excessive corticosterone and adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion. (28). The exaggerated response can be reversed by administering probiotics, but only in young mice. On the other hand, pathogenic E. coli worsened the condition.

As the gut microbiota mediate the stress response, stress can, in return, alter the gut microbiota. (29, 30) It’s a two-way street.

In mice, stressors like maternal separation early in life or prolonged restraint induce significant changes in the gut bacterial profile. (31, 32, 33) In humans, gut changes with stress have been reported, although the specific bacterial changes aren’t always consistent across studies (34, 35). Most likely a person’s individual response will depend on his or her gut microbial diversity, gut wall integrity, diet composition, and overall health.

Happy Gut, Happy You

Differences in gut microbiome compositions have been found in both animals and humans with mood disorders. In mice, depression and anxiety are accompanied by altered gut profiles. (36) Similarly, several human studies have found microbiota differences between patients with anxiety and/or depression compared to healthy control groups. (37, 38, 39) In one small study, lower levels of a particular bacterial genus, Faecalibacterium, correlated with more severe depression. (40)

Gut dysbiosis can lead to anxiety, and re-establishing the gut microbiota can mitigate anxiety-like behavior. After pathogenic infection with Campylobacter jejuni or Citrobacter amalonaticus bacteria, mice developed anxious and abnormal behaviors, possibly through activation of the amygdala, a brain region that’s often implicated in anxiety. (41, 42, 43). Similarly, germ-free mice exhibit anxiety-like behaviors. (44) Probiotic supplementation has been shown to decrease anxious behavior in several mouse studies. (45, 46, 47, 48)

Interestingly, in another study, mice given oral antibiotics showed altered fecal microbiota, increased anxious behavior, and increased BDNF expression in the hippocampus region of the brain, all of which were resolved within a few weeks after stopping the antibiotics. When antibiotics were given to germ-free mice, no changes in behavior or BDNF expression were seen, indicating that the gut microbiome was indispensable for these alterations. (49)

In this same study, the researchers performed fecal microbiota transplants between two strains of mice with known behavioral differences. When the more timid and anxious type of mice were colonized with microbiota from the less anxious type, the mice increased their exploratory behavior and showed decreased anxiety. In reverse, when the less anxious mice were colonized with microbiota from the more anxious type, the mice decreased their exploratory behavior. Of note, these behavioral changes were not accompanied by changes in neurotransmitter levels in the brain, further demonstrating that anxiety and other mood disorders have influences beyond the brain.

How to Fix Gut Dysbiosis

A healthy gut should have a diverse, stable, and robust microbiome with high gut lining integrity. Unfortunately, many factors present in our modern society contribute to gut damage:

Antibiotic overuse

Inflammatory foods like refined sugars, refined carbohydrates, and industrial seed oils

Inadequate fiber

Chronic stress

High alcohol consumption

C-section birth and formula feeding

Our 21st-century microbiomes are significantly less diverse than those of our ancestors, as well as the microbiomes of modern-day hunter–gatherers who largely adhere to their traditional diets. (50) We have a lot to learn about the ideal human microbiome composition, and just as there isn’t one ideal diet, there probably isn’t one ideal microbiome.

At this time, it’s difficult to noninvasively obtain snapshots of your microbiome along the entire GI tract. Fecal analyses are common, but what’s in fecal matter isn’t representative of the entire tract. Gut bacteria populations change and become denser further along the digestive tract, with the distal colon (the last sections) being the most densely populated.

Nevertheless, if you suffer from mood disorders like anxiety, or a host of other conditions like eczema, obesity, and GI disturbances, healing your gut might provide some relief. Start with these steps:

Treat any pathogens that might be present. The following recommendations (consuming fiber, bone broth, and fermented foods) will only go so far if you have an untreated, underlying infection.

Eat more fiber. Fiber feeds the microbiome, and low-fiber diets reduce microbial diversity. (47) Consider a prebiotic supplement.

Drink bone broth. Bone broth and other sources of collagen and glycine can repair gut integrity.

Consume naturally fermented foods, like natto, sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, raw milk, and kim chi.

Will Probiotics Help Your Gut Microbiome and Anxiety?

Researchers coined the term “psychobiotics” to describe probiotic strains with the potential to impact psychological health. Several human clinical trials have shown that probiotic administration can reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and improve memory. (51, 52, 53) Specifically, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Bifidobacterium longum have all improved scores of anxiety and/or depression in human clinical trials. (54, 55, 56, 57, 58) However, not all probiotic clinical trials have been effective for mood disorders. (59, 60)

If you’ve tried the above tips and still have gut issues, probiotic supplements could make a difference. A dizzying number of probiotic supplements are on the market, but Mark Ruscio categorizes them into five main varieties:

Lactobacillus

Bifidobacterium

Saccharomyces boulardii (healthy fungus)

Soil-based or spore-forming probiotics

E. coli Nissle 1917 (healthy form of E. coli)

As it will take a few weeks to notice a difference, finding the most beneficial probiotic supplement could be a process of trial and error.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Did you know your gut health could impact your mood? If you suffer from anxiety, what alternative therapies have worked for you? Let me know in the comments.

The post Your Gut Microbiome and Anxiety: What’s the Connection? appeared first on Chris Kresser.

Source: http://chriskresser.com January 24, 2019 at 03:36PM

#paleo #recipe #food #delicious #healthy #yum #diet

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spiritualesoterichighlevel · 5 years

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Myths of the Brain

1. We use only 10 percent of our brains. This one sounds so compelling - a precise number, repeated in pop culture for a century, implying that we have huge reserves of untapped mental powers. But the supposedly unused 90 percent of the brain is not some vestigial appendix. Brains are expensive - it takes a lot of energy to build brains during fetal and childhood development and maintain them in adults. Evolutionarily, it would make no sense to carry around surplus brain tissue. Experiments using PET or fMRI scans show that much of the brain is engaged even during simple tasks, and injury to even a small bit of brain can have profound consequences for language, sensory perception, movement or emotion. True, we have some brain reserves. Autopsy studies show that many people have physical signs of Alzheimer's disease (such as amyloid plaques among neurons) in their brains even though they were not impaired. Apparently we can lose some brain tissue and still function pretty well. And people score higher on IQ tests if they're highly motivated, suggesting that we don't always exercise our minds at 100 percent capacity.

2. "Flashbulb memories" are precise, detailed and persistent. We all have memories that feel as vivid and accurate as a snapshot, usually of some shocking, dramatic event - the assassination of President Kennedy, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the attacks of September 11, 2001. People remember exactly where they were, what they were doing, who they were with, what they saw or heard. But several clever experiments have tested people's memory immediately after a tragedy and again several months or years later.

The test subjects tend to be confident that their memories are accurate and say the flashbulb memories are more vivid than other memories. Vivid they may be, but the memories decay over time just as other memories do. People forget important details and add incorrect ones, with no awareness that they're recreating a muddled scene in their minds rather than calling up a perfect, photographic reproduction.

3. It's all downhill after 40 (or 50 or 60 or 70). It's true, some cognitive skills do decline as you get older. Children are better at learning new languages than adults - and never play a game of concentration against a 10-year-old unless you're prepared to be humiliated. Young adults are faster than older adults to judge whether two objects are the same or different; they can more easily memorize a list of random words, and they are faster to count backward by sevens. But plenty of mental skills improve with age. Vocabulary, for instance - older people know more words and understand subtle linguistic distinctions. Given a biographical sketch of a stranger, they're better judges of character. They score higher on tests of social wisdom, such as how to settle a conflict. And people get better and better over time at regulating their own emotions and finding meaning in their lives.

4. We have five senses. Sure, sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch are the big ones. But we have many other ways of sensing the world and our place in it. Proprioception is a sense of how our bodies are positioned. Nociception is a sense of pain. We also have a sense of balance - the inner ear is to this sense as the eye is to vision - as well as a sense of body temperature, acceleration and the passage of time. Compared with other species, though, humans are missing out. Bats and dolphins use sonar to find prey; some birds and insects see ultraviolet light; snakes detect the heat of warmblooded prey; rats, cats, seals and other whiskered creatures use their "vibrissae" to judge spatial relations or detect movements; sharks sense electrical fields in the water; birds, turtles and even bacteria orient to the earth's magnetic field lines. By the way, have you seen the taste map of the tongue, the diagram showing that different regions are sensitive to salty, sweet, sour or bitter flavors? Also a myth.

5. Brains are like computers. We speak of the brain's processing speed, its storage capacity, its parallel circuits, inputs and outputs. The metaphor fails at pretty much every level: the brain doesn't have a set memory capacity that is waiting to be filled up; it doesn't perform computations in the way a computer does; and even basic visual perception isn't a passive receiving of inputs because we actively interpret, anticipate and pay attention to different elements of the visual world. There's a long history of likening the brain to whatever technology is the most advanced, impressive and vaguely mysterious. Descartes compared the brain to a hydraulic machine. Freud likened emotions to pressure building up in a steam engine. The brain later resembled a telephone switchboard and then an electrical circuit before evolving into a computer; lately it's turning into a Web browser or the Internet. These metaphors linger in clichés: emotions put the brain "under pressure" and some behaviors are thought to be "hard-wired." Speaking of which...

6. The brain is hard-wired. This is one of the most enduring legacies of the old "brains are electrical circuits" metaphor. There's some truth to it, as with many metaphors: the brain is organized in a standard way, with certain bits specialized to take on certain tasks, and those bits are connected along predictable neural pathways (sort of like wires) and communicate in part by releasing ions (pulses of electricity). But one of the biggest discoveries in neuroscience in the past few decades is that the brain is remarkably plastic. In blind people, parts of the brain that normally process sight are instead devoted to hearing. Someone practicing a new skill, like learning to play the violin, "rewires" parts of the brain that are responsible for fine motor control. People with brain injuries can recruit other parts of the brain to compensate for the lost tissue.

7. A conk on the head can cause amnesia. Next to babies switched at birth, this is a favorite trope of soap operas: Someone is in a tragic accident and wakes up in the hospital unable to recognize loved ones or remember his or her own name or history. (The only cure for this form of amnesia, of course, is another conk on the head.) In the real world, there are two main forms of amnesia: anterograde (the inability to form new memories) and retrograde (the inability to recall past events). Science's most famous amnesia patient, H.M., was unable to remember anything that happened after a 1953 surgery that removed most of his hippocampus. He remembered earlier events, however, and was able to learn new skills and vocabulary, showing that encoding "episodic" memories of new experiences relies on different brain regions than other types of learning and memory do. Retrograde amnesia can be caused by Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury (ask an NFL player), thiamine deficiency or other insults. But a brain injury doesn't selectively impair autobiographical memory - much less bring it back.

8. We know what will make us happy. In some cases we haven't a clue. We routinely overestimate how happy something will make us, whether it's a birthday, free pizza, a new car, a victory for our favorite sports team or political candidate, winning the lottery or raising children. Money does make people happier, but only to a point - poor people are less happy than the middle class, but the middle class are just as happy as the rich. We overestimate the pleasures of solitude and leisure and underestimate how much happiness we get from social relationships. On the flip side, the things we dread don't make us as unhappy as expected. Monday mornings aren't as unpleasant as people predict. Seemingly unendurable tragedies - paralysis, the death of a loved one - cause grief and despair, but the unhappiness doesn't last as long as people think it will. People are remarkably resilient.

9. We see the world as it is. We are not passive recipients of external information that enters our brain through our sensory organs. Instead, we actively search for patterns (like a Dalmatian dog that suddenly appears in a field of black and white dots), turn ambiguous scenes into ones that fit our expectations (it's a vase; it's a face) and completely miss details we aren't expecting. In one famous psychology experiment, about half of all viewers told to count the number of times a group of people pass a basketball do not notice that a guy in a gorilla suit is hulking around among the ball-throwers. We have a limited ability to pay attention (which is why talking on a cellphone while driving can be as dangerous as drunk driving), and plenty of biases about what we expect or want to see. Our perception of the world isn't just "bottom-up" - built of objective observations layered together in a logical way. It's "top-down," driven by expectations and interpretations.

10. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Some of the sloppiest, shoddiest, most biased, least reproducible, worst designed and most overinterpreted research in the history of science purports to provide biological explanations for differences between men and women. Eminent neuroscientists once claimed that head size, spinal ganglia or brain stem structures were responsible for women's inability to think creatively, vote logically or practice medicine. Today the theories are a bit more sophisticated: men supposedly have more specialized brain hemispheres, women more elaborate emotion circuits. Though there are some differences (minor and uncorrelated with any particular ability) between male and female brains, the main problem with looking for correlations with behavior is that sex differences in cognition are massively exaggerated. Women are thought to outperform men on tests of empathy. They do - unless test subjects are told that men are particularly good at the test, in which case men perform as well as or better than women. The same pattern holds in reverse for tests of spatial reasoning. Whenever stereotypes are brought to mind, even by something as simple as asking test subjects to check a box next to their gender, sex differences are exaggerated. Women college students told that a test is something women usually do poorly on, do poorly. Women college students told that a test is something college students usually do well on, do well. Across countries - and across time - the more prevalent the belief is that men are better than women in math, the greater the difference in girls' and boys' math scores. And that's not because girls in Iceland have more specialized brain hemispheres than do girls in Italy. Certain sex differences are enormously important to us when we're looking for a mate, but when it comes to most of what our brains do most of the time - perceive the world, direct attention, learn new skills, encode memories, communicate (no, women don't speak more than men do), judge other people's emotions (no, men aren't inept at this) - men and women have almost entirely overlapping and fully Earth-bound abilities.

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dbzandroid93 · 6 years

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Android 93 Character Bio!

Name: Emile | Android 93

Race: Artificially enhanced Human [Android/Cyborg] Gender: Male Date of Birth: September 15, 753 Height: 5'5” Weight: 118 Lbs Family: Oskar (Father) [Deceased] Jocelyn (Mother) [Deceased]

Age: [Note: As an Android Emile does not appear to age physically.] 22 [Appearance | Conton] | 39 [In-Universe]

Hair Color: Black. Eye Color: Blue.

(Thanks to @destinysquared for the amazing art!)

Physical Appearance: Emile isn’t imposing - a trend that most of the Androids seem to follow. He stands at a banal 5′5 with a slender, almost feminine frame and long curly black hair that falls down to his shoulders. He has a relative lack of muscle definition owing to his augmented nature. Physically he looks to be in his early twenties and is quite clearly of human stock.

Clothing Choices: Emile favors casual - primarily out of force of habit. He’ll usually wear a teeshirt and some old jeans of his that can be easily replaced in the event of damage from battle or general wear. He doesn’t enjoy being ‘dressed up’ and usually won’t go fully formal unless given no other option.

Personality: Emile is a walking contradiction. Though he’s a casual and carefree individual a lot of the time it is pretty obvious to anyone who spends time around him that some things don’t quite... fit. As much as he can be animate there are periods where he appears closed off and outright hostile with little care for consequences, intentional or not. This is a result of the programming/tampering done by Dr. Gero in line with the other (future) Androids as part of his first deep-cover mission. Unfortunately, these are not easily reversible things and while he has learned to cope, being enthusiastic is a learned trait rather than something he is natural with. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have genuine emotions of course - he simply exaggerates them for the sake of others. Rather worryingly he can display sociopathic and homicidal traits at times - this also as a result of the tampering.

In the Bed room ♥ A lot of his initial sexual experiences came (rather forcibly) at the hands of the Lapis and Lazuli from the future timeline he was inserted into as an Android himself and has shaped him rather harshly in that regard. While he can be dominant this is only primarily when asked/when the mood strikes him - the majority of the time he is firmly submissive and it is almost impossible for him to be dominant over a potential male partner. That aside, Emile craves physical touch and is exceptionally handsy with either gender if given the option. He also doesn’t really have any modesty or shame - privacy wasn’t much of an issue when you were one of the strongest beings on the planet. Often there was very little aftercare from either of the two twins and as a result he tends to mimic that - for all he finds the cuddling enjoyable and the aftermath even more so it isn’t the natural thing for him to do and may take some gentle reminders.

He’s also not really ‘gentle’ by nature, either. He enjoys the rougher side of sex a lot more.

Fight Style: In regards to his overall ‘power level’ Emile sits comfortably at around the same level as the Androids who experience the same sort of timeline as ‘Trunks’ did but is beneath or almost equal to Android 18 when he pushes his max. While he isn’t unskilled at combat either up close or with the use of Ki he is definitely more adept with Ki-based attacks and utilizes the fact he has infinite reserves to his advantage in conflicts. If pushed up close - or if the mood strikes - his fighting style is nothing short of sadistic. He fights to do the most crippling damage he can as quick as possible. That isn’t to say he can’t spar - he can and does! - but in a serious conflict he won’t seek to extend it if he’s taking it serious. He enjoys conflict when it happens though, especially if the opponent is weaker but he isn’t stupid or brash.

Intelligence: Emile is bright and curious but suffers from noticeable flaws as a result of his tampering. He’s by no means an idiot but some things don’t click easily and he may need reminding more than once about certain things.

Relationships:

Android 17 [Future Timeline CCA-MX124]: Emile and Android 17 grew close during his fifteen years of running riot with them in Timeline CCA-MX124. While not as close as the siblings themselves or as he was with 18 they were - sociopathic traits aside - certainly on solid ground and would often enjoy making games out of the remaining human populace with a glee that disgruntled 18 to no end. When this relationship turned sexual between them (given they were still very much human and Emile was the only unrelated party) it was... rocky. It was not always consensual nor was it gentle - something that never changed - but Emile came to accept and enjoy the experiences, which often involved little to no teasing and more about seeking 17′s satisfaction. He also made a point to never allow Emile to be the dominant one in these scenarios, which shaped his views. When he was slain by Trunks, it shook Emile to the core and he hasn’t really recovered. Android 18 [Future Timeline CCA-MX124]: Of the two, it was 18 that Emile certainly felt closer to (though the gap wasn’t very big). Though he frustrated her with his willingness to extend the games far beyond her own enjoyment he was also the one of the trio willing to indulge in her ‘shopping sprees’ and she was the one who put the most time into helping him master his new cybernetic condition. As with 17, their sexual relationship was one founded more on ‘when it struck her’ and force, although unlike 17 she was more willing to allow him to return the favor and there was far more teasing involved - within reason, of course. As with 17, her eventual death shook Emile to the core and he hasn’t really recovered.

Android 16: Android 16 is an oddity for Emile. For one, he had no clue the big guy existed until they met in Conton City and 16 recognized him for what he was (and vice-versa). That being said, 16′s calm demeanor and love of nature means that he’s often the one Emile will go to seek council from and has become something of a mentor for the young Android. He’s also the one that recognizes that Emile can overcome his programming, given enough effort - just as he did. Overall, Emile enjoys the time he gets to spend with 16 and the Android has been one of the few who has been able to really get through to him.

#meet my child #Android 93 #dragonball #dragon ball #dbz #dbz oc #androids

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rightsinexile · 6 years

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Opinion/Editorial: “We can’t go home” - What does peace mean for Eritrea’s refugees?

For Eritrea’s refugees, the declaration of peace with Ethiopia has so far brought more uncertainty and fear than hope, say Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole in an opinion piece appearing in African Arguments. It is reprinted here with permission.

Sitting outside a corrugated metal office in the Mai Aini refugee camp, Biniam gazes at the passing trucks and busses as he reflects on the political changes unfolding dramatically in the region around him.

Sheltering in the shade, he notes that in just a matter of weeks, the relationship between Asmara – about 150 km north of here – and Addis Ababa – nearly 600 km south – has completely reversed. In barely any time at all, the open hostility that had shaped this region for two decades has made way for unreserved declarations of harmony and brotherliness.

“Peace is good for the mothers,” says Biniam, raising his voice above the noise of the traffic. “Every family has lost someone in the border conflict.”

Like many in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Biniam expresses hope at the two countries’ sudden return to peace after the deadly 1998-2000 border war. But he is also deeply anxious.

Biniam fled from Eritrea eight years ago and has lived in this refugee camp, just tens of kilometres from his homeland, ever since. The site sprawls along a busy road, which – when the border reopens after two decades – will be one of the main routes between Addis Ababa and Asmara. Biniam is afraid for his safety when this happens.

“The border is not the problem for refugees; the regime is,” he says. “How will Ethiopia protect camps with an open border? [The Eritrean government] will never let us live peacefully here.”

Many of the 160,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia are nervous about what the rapprochement means for them. Several fled after being labelled political dissidents or have joined opposition groups and fear reprisals from Asmara. One young refugee revealed that he has not called home since phone lines resumed as he fears it could expose his location.

When the peace process began in June, Ethiopia asked Eritrean opposition groups to cease their activities, but assured them that can remain safely in the country. Many, however, believe that covert Eritrean intelligence agents could now penetrate their camps and capture them. This has been the case in Sudan where Eritrea’s refugees have been vulnerable to being seized and returned by the Eritrean military.

Eritrea’s refugees await

In 2001, President Isaias Afwerki banned Eritrea’s independent media and jailed high-level politicians and journalists without trial. Since then, political protest has been virtually unheard of, while national service has been compulsory and indefinite. Thousands of young Eritreans flee the country every month despite the very real risks of shot or imprisoned.

President Isaias has often used the pretext of Ethiopian hostility to justify his policies, but since the declaration of peace there have been relatively few indications of tangible change. The conditions that led so many to flee the country are still in place and trust in the regime is in short supply.

“Real peace will come when we have a change of government,” says Kahsay, a refugee at the Hitsats camp. The conditions here are desolate, rife with malaria and short of water, but despite this, he insists: “Until we have real peace, we can’t go home.”

In meantime, however, many refugees are concerned about what their government’s change of policy will mean for their ability to apply for resettlement and asylum abroad. Ethiopia, for example, grants Eritreans prima faciarefugee status, but it is unclear if this policy will last. In Europe, Eritreans are one of the largest groups of asylums seekers; some governments have tried to argue that they are economic migrants rather than political refugees and could be emboldened by the regional developments. Meanwhile, Israel has already suggested it will deport Eritreans if Asmara ends indefinite national service. Unless Eritrea gives amnesty to those who have fled illegally, this could place asylum seekers in grave danger.

Many refugees currently in Ethiopia also wonder what the presence of an Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa will mean for them. Eritrean refugees needing passports to reunify with family members have previously had to travel to embassies in Uganda or Kenya. In exchange for consular services, the Eritrean government requires them to sign a letter apologising for leaving the country, admitting that they left for economic rather than political reasons, accepting punishment upon their return, and agreeing to pay a 2% annual income tax.

Some refugees in Ethiopia are hopeful they will now be able to obtain a passport more easily, but others fear the proximity of the Eritrean government. In the wake of the peace agreement, rumours circulated on social media that all refugees in Ethiopia were required to sign apology letters and return to Eritrea. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) quickly refuted those false reports, but even though unfounded, news like this could lead to mass refugee flight out of Ethiopia and towards Europe.

Despite Ethiopia and Eritrea’s mutual hostility, Eritrean refugees were previously welcomed in Ethiopia. But now, those like Biniam don’t know whether they will be seen as enemy aliens or guests. While others on both sides of the border may be celebrating, for them, the promise of peace has so far brought more doubt than hope.

“The political situation is very tense and when it is tense, we feel worried,” says Biniam. “We don’t know what will happen.”

How to fix the crisis caused by Central American asylum seekers — humanely, reflects David A. Martin in an opinion piece appearing in Vox

Surprised by vehement public reaction, President Donald Trump has decreed an end to the policy of separating arriving asylum seekers from their children. But what now? Not what will Trump do — his latest pronouncements simply up the ante on mean-spiritedness, with little clarity on a specific policy direction. But what asylum reforms should progressives push for to build a humane, workable, and sustainable program?

The policy problem is real. The flow of asylum seekers from Central America has not noticeably abated even during the administration’s imposition of cruelties. The current adjudication system has been overwhelmed — both the asylum officers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the immigration judges in the Department of Justice (DOJ). Claims in both venues, from all nationalities, have seen sharp rises over the past five years, and backlogs have mushroomed.

DHS, which was keeping up with asylum claims as recently as 2011, now has more than 300,000 pending cases. Immigration judges, whose ranks number roughly 350 at present, have an astounding backlog of 700,000 cases. The resulting picture of dysfunction provides continual fodder for anti-immigration demagogues.

Progressives need to pay close attention to that last observation, because we are in danger of overplaying the righteous reaction to the horrors of child separation. Our nation needs to remain firmly committed to the institution of political asylum. But opportunistic or abusive claims are unfortunately numerous in the current caseload, particularly among people who seek asylum after having been in the United States for a while.

And any realistic migration management regime will have to keep in its toolbox the selective detention of asylum seekers, especially in times of high influx. We need to figure out what form our detention and release system will take.

So, yes, we need to call attention to the cruelty of the Trump administration’s policies. But we also need to bring the system back under control. Control is a precondition for regaining durable public support for the institution of political asylum in a world characterized by unprecedented migration pressures. Extreme-right politicians are exaggerating the scale of illegal immigration and unwarranted asylum seeking, and not just in the US. Getting this right will help take away from the authoritarians one of their most potent rhetorical weapons: immigration alarmism.

A precedent for a solution

Fortunately, we do have a solid model for how to repair our system: Today’s overload is surprisingly similar to an administrative meltdown faced in the early 1990s. Regulatory and operational reforms in 1995 brought that asylum situation under control, while preserving due process and avoiding widespread detention. The result was 15 years of reasonably efficient operation and blessedly few hot political controversies over asylum. We can rebuild that system; doing so won’t resolve all the problems we face, but it is an indispensable ingredient.

We still face some tough questions — notably about how far our asylum system can go in protecting against private violence in Central America, including from gangs and abusive family members. As a polity with a proud history of providing refuge, we face some hard choices. But however those choices are resolved, we can and should immediately expand aid designed to reduce violence in the source countries. That would go some way toward reducing refugee flows.

How our two-track asylum system works

To understand the history of reform successes and failures, we need first a map of the rather complex structure of agencies involved in asylum processing, and of the two primary pipelines by which applications are received. Bear with me, because the differences, though technical, are important as we think about reforms.

A person already in the United States, legally or illegally, who fears persecution back in the home country, can file for asylum directly with the Department of Homeland Security. These “affirmative claims,” so-called because the person takes the initiative to file without any enforcement action pending, are initially heard in an office interview conducted by expert asylum officers, housed in eight regional offices.

Based on the completed application and a non adversarial office interview, asylum officers can grant or deny asylum, but when asylum is denied, they have no authority to issue a removal order.

That step requires an immigration judge — a specially selected DOJ attorney, appointed by the attorney general, who conducts removal proceedings. Until 1995, there was no routine for putting unsuccessful affirmative applicants into immigration court. It was up to the district field office of the immigration agency to file charges; many offices didn’t see these cases as a priority, at a time when the enforcement system had far lower funding than today. If the district office did serve a charging document, the person could renew the asylum claim in immigration court, and the judge would decide it afresh.

Now for the second main pipeline. People who are already in removal proceedings when they first seek asylum — people apprehended after crossing the border, for instance, or picked up by DHS after a local arrest for disorderly conduct — cannot file with the asylum office. Instead, they present their applications directly to the immigration court. A successful claim there constitutes a defense to removal; hence these applications are known as “defensive claims.”

For both defensive claimants and those affirmative claimants who have renewed their claims in court, the immigration judge considers the case through a formal courtroom procedure. He or she can grant asylum, but if asylum is denied, the judge normally issues a removal order — the kind of document needed for DHS to put the applicant on a bus or plane home (though appeal opportunities exist).

Border cases, as mentioned, are almost all heard as defensive claims, assuming applicants pass an initial, speedy “credible fear” screening done by an asylum officer, which is meant to weed out clearly meritless cases. (Over the past eight years, between 15 and 30 percent have been screened out this way.)

In the 1990s the system was also overwhelmed. We brought it back under control.

Back to the dysfunction I mentioned in the early 1990s. The expert corps of asylum officers, which had been created only in 1990, was overwhelmed by an accelerating volume of asylum claims, many of them containing near-identical boilerplate stories about threats, mostly crafted by high-volume “immigration consultants.” At the time, the regulations provided that nearly all asylum applicants received authorization to work in the US shortly after filing.

That created an incentive to file a false asylum claim — as did the slim chance, during that period, that an applicant would end up in immigration court. The system’s obvious disorder and vulnerability to escalating fraud worried refugee assistance organizations, who rightly feared that Congress, then beginning to consider tough immigration enforcement bills (ultimately enacted in 1996), would impose draconian limitations on asylum unless the administration brought the situation under control.

Government agencies worked closely with NGOs to analyze the situation and draw up a balanced solution. (I worked on the design and implementation of the reforms as a consultant to the Justice Department and later as general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a.k.a. INS.) Two key changes in asylum regulations were the result. The first made it virtually automatic that affirmative asylum claimants whose claims were rejected by the asylum officer would be placed into removal proceedings.

Under the 1995 regs, when applicants return to the asylum office a few weeks after their interview to get the result, nearly all receive either an asylum grant or a fully effective charging document placing them in removal proceedings, normally with a specific date to appear in immigration court.

Second, the reform decoupled the act of filing for asylum from work authorization. The applicant would get that benefit from the asylum officer only if granted asylum. Those applicants who failed and were referred on to immigration court would similarly have to prove their asylum claim on the merits to gain permission to work.

But as a mechanism to minimize hardship and induce timely decisions, applicants would also receive work authorization if the immigration judge did not resolve the case within six months of the initial filing. (Applicants could also request delays, for example to gather more evidence, but such a request would suspend the running of the “asylum clock” and thus extend the six-month deadline for the issuance of work authorization).

To meet that processing deadline, the Clinton administration secured funding to double the number of immigration judges, from roughly 100 to 200, and also built up the asylum officer corps. New target timetables were established, and the new system met them with few exceptions: An asylum officer decision within 60 days, and an immigration judge decision within six months from initial filing (the latter also applies to purely defensive claims).

Finally, to maximize the immediate impact, the asylum offices and immigration courts adopted a last-in, first-out scheduling policy for judging claims. That sent the signal that new bogus claims would not slip through and get work authorization under the six-month rule, simply because of case backlogs. The older filers, already carrying a work authorization card, would take lower priority.

These reforms dramatically changed the calculus of potential affirmative applicants. Weak or opportunistic filings would no longer lead to work authorization; additionally, they would mean a quick trip to immigration court and a likely removal order. People responded to the new incentives. Asylum filings with the immigration authorities declined from more than 140,000 in 1993 to a level between 27,000 and 50,000 for virtually every year from 1998 through 2013. That annual filing rate was a manageable level, logistically and politically.

Congress had been poised to crack down on asylum in 1996 as part of a general tightening of immigration laws but, impressed by the already visible reductions, rejected most of the restrictive asylum proposals and instead made the administrative changes permanent by enacting them into law.

The seeds of the current crisis were planted around 2012, in a period of budgetary contraction. Neither Congress nor the executive branch appreciated how crucial it was to reach decisions in immigration court within six months and thereby prevent work authorization to unqualified asylum applicants. That had been the system’s main (and highly effective) deterrent to opportunistic, weak, or bogus claims. Hiring slowed even as caseloads and duties expanded, including the beginnings of the Central American surge. As more and more applicants began to receive work authorization without an asylum grant on the merits, affirmative applications poured in.

With the added filings, immigration court docketing fell further behind, reaching four-year delays in some locations. Much as in 1993, it was a vicious circle. Unscrupulous “consultants” could once again guarantee work authorization to their clients based just on filing, albeit after six months, with no immigration judge hearing expected for years. In 2017, affirmative filings with the asylum office climbed back above 140,000.

A 1995-style fix today would help us mainly to deter weak affirmative asylum claims. But it would still be quite relevant to the Central American applicants reaching our borders, even though they will normally file defensively. This is because so much of the paralyzing immigration court backlog stems from the massive increase in affirmative applicant numbers over the past five years. Reducing overall intake is central to getting both tracks of the asylum process under control.

Concrete steps to fix the problems

Undocumented immigrants released in El Paso, Texas pending an asylum hearing, June 24. All had been separated from their children. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

There are four primary components in a realistic strategy to restore our asylum machinery to health. We should:

1) Rebuild the capacity for prompt asylum decisions by strategically deploying existing staff and urgently adding more. It is obvious that the system needs a major influx of new asylum officers and immigration judges. Hiring is underway and budgets are growing significantly, though not fast enough. The administration still feels a need for more dramatic immediate deterrents, apparently believing that a full catch-up to the existing caseload will take years.

But a here-and-now impact can be had by following the last-in, first-out rule that served the US so well in 1995. Rejection of new filers is more important as a deterrent than processing old cases. In fact, DHS’s asylum office returned to last-in, first-out scheduling five months ago, and affirmative claims have already dropped by 30 percent.

This excellent change will not have the needed impact until the immigration courts complete comparable revisions to their scheduling system and thus assure the six-month decision timetable. We also need to be systematic about removing unsuccessful asylum seekers with a final order.

This would return us to a system where prompt denial on the merits after a fair hearing, not cruelty to applicants, serves as the main deterrent to weak or abusive claims.

2) Make smart use of detention, including family detention as needed, plus alternative measures to avoid flight. Some critics hope that the public revulsion against child separation will lead to ending virtually all detention of asylum seekers. Others theorize that Trump’s planners adopted the separation strategy just to get courts to end constraints they now impose on family detention — because family detention would look so much kinder than separation.

Detention, however, is an inescapable part of the immigration enforcement process, at least when people first arrive at the border and claim asylum. (It’s also essential later, to facilitate or carry out removals of those with a final order.) The judicious use of detention can help reassure skittish publics in times of truly high flow of asylum seekers.

In such times, centralized facilities housing asylum seekers also hold other potential benefits, as was recognized in a 1981 report by a blue-ribbon commission on immigration reform, chaired by Father Theodore Hesburgh from the University of Notre Dame. (The Hesburgh commission issued its report a year after the Mariel boatlift from Cuba brought 125,000 asylum seekers to US shores within a few months.)

Such facilities provide a centralized location for prompt asylum interviews and court hearings. Run properly, which requires constant and committed monitoring, they also can facilitate regular and efficient ongoing access to counsel — particularly when, as is typical in a high-influx situation, most representation comes from organized pro-bono efforts.

The Trump administration has sent unclear and confusing signals about its overall plans while now trying to persuade courts to allow more room for family detention. As a matter of policy, we need to keep family detention available in the toolbox but we should not see it as an early or primary option — especially since the administration has not exhausted other methods, and the Central American flow is not as massive as officials paint it.

Critics today often argue that detention is unnecessary, pointing to high attendance rates by asylum seekers at court hearings. That observation is true, but incomplete. A well-functioning system needs released respondents to show up not just for hearings where a good thing might happen, but also for removal if they lose their asylum cases.

Good data are not available, but intermittent government snapshot reports tend to find that fewer than a sixth of the non detained are actually removed after the issuance of a final removal order. Policymakers and advocates who want to reduce the use of detention need to attend to that latter statistic, and improve it.

To be sure, detention should not be used routinely. Alternatives to detention — such as intensive release supervision or ankle-bracelet monitoring — are generally more cost-effective. When actual detention is employed, conditions of confinement must be humane and must fully accommodate access to counsel. The Obama administration made headway toward those ends, including creating better family facilities.

3) Think hard about the realistic range of refugee protection, and be more rigorous about “internal protection alternatives.” Advocates for asylum claimants from Central America today have been working to expand the conceptual boundaries of protected refugee classes. Few of those applicants are claiming classic forms of persecution — by an oppressive government, based on the target’s race or religion or political opinion.

A great many claims today are based on domestic violence or risks from murderous criminal gangs, in the context of ineffectual government. Our whole system faces a challenge to determine whether and how such claims fit within the refugee laws and treaties.

The asylum seekers’ cases are highly sympathetic, but they also prompt concerns about figuring out workable boundary lines on any such protection commitment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a highly restrictive ruling in June. It held that private crimes, including gang retribution and domestic violence, can rarely serve as the basis for a valid asylum claim. Expect a wide variety of reactions from reviewing courts over coming months and years.

But while that interpretive struggle proceeds, an immediate practical step can be taken to alleviate the dilemma. Adjudicators need to pay more systematic attention to the availability of what are known as “internal protection alternatives.” Asylum applicants who can find reasonable safety within the home country, even at the cost of moving to a new city or region — for example, because that region has a good network of domestic violence shelters — should be required to return to those regions, rather than relocate to the US.

Though this “internal protection alternatives” concept is already part of US and international law, it is understandable why many people balk at taking a firm line on it. The applicant would almost surely face lower risks in the United States than back in the home country, and real hardships can be incurred by moving to a new city where the person may not know anyone.

But that objection has to be kept in perspective. We are talking about protection in another part of one’s homeland, for someone who has already shown the resourcefulness to venture thousands of miles to a distant country, with an unfamiliar culture and language. Asylum should not be thought of as a prize for a person who has endured harm or threats, no matter how much sympathy or admiration he or she may deserve for weathering that past. Asylum is a forward-looking last-resort type of measure to shelter those who cannot find adequate protection other ways.

US Vice-President Mike Pence (L) and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales at a joint press conference in Guatemala City on June 28 — a stop on the vice president’s recent Central American trip. The asylum crisis was high on the agenda. Orlando Estrada/AFP/Getty Images

4) Work with other countries to address root causes and expand potential refuge elsewhere. This brings us directly to the fourth primary measure, of particular relevance to the Central American crisis. The United States should greatly expand assistance, through bilateral aid, multilateral efforts, or the funding of NGO initiatives, toward reducing the violence that sends people in search of protection.

It’s easier in theory to address root causes when the threat is private violence, since the US can expect support rather than resistance from the government. But real effectiveness on the ground demands ongoing diplomacy, implementation skill, vigilance against corruption, and, above all, consistent funding year to year.

In Central America, past US assistance has had some visible impact in helping to reduce gang violence and murder rates. The Central American Regional Security Initiative has provided more than $1.4 billion to this effort since its start in 2008. The Trump administration, with typical short-sightedness, is moving to cut this funding. And Vice President Mike Pence’s meeting with heads of state in Guatemala City last week was a giant missed opportunity. According to press accounts, he basically just badgered those governments to stop sending people.

That message would have been so much more effective toward changing conditions on the ground if it had been joined with significantly increased aid for the security initiative. We should also expand funding to enhance police responsiveness to domestic violence in Central America and to support shelter networks.

These steps are obviously worthy in their own right, helping potential victims of all sorts, not just potential migrants. But they also can reduce the felt need to migrate and generate a more extensive menu of “internal protection alternatives” to be considered by adjudicators ruling on asylum claims.

The Obama administration also had some success in working with Mexico to discourage dangerous unauthorized travel, through information campaigns and interdiction — and to open up a modest possibility that Central Americans could find refuge in Mexico itself. President Trump’s unending insults directed at our southern neighbor have torpedoed such cooperation, but a future administration should revive it.

Revulsion at the current administration’s border practices is fully deserved. And the current administration exaggerates the crisis. But in an era where tolerance for asylum protection has become a politically scarce resource, we still need realistic and determined asylum reform measures in order to restore public confidence that migration is subject to control.

Our country’s 1995 experience shows such a change is possible, while retaining a firm commitment to refugee protection. Repeating that success will require well-targeted funding and tough-minded administrative resourcefulness to succeed.

#oped #september #ethiopia #eritrea #2018

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roominthecastle · 6 years

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ethics, romance, sex: where’s Michael at? (nobody asked, rambling on my own accord)

Short version:

I think atm Michael’s character is markedly grey in these 3 “areas” of human experience. He’s started to shift away from his “old ways” and is now somewhere in-between. His “ethnical transition” is the most straightforward one and it can be used as a guide for speculation on possible shifts to romantic and sexual dimensions bc they are all parts of the larger reconceptualization process Michael’s been going through.

Long version: behind the cut

Michael’s an amoral being who was created for and, up until v recently, has existed w/ the singular purpose of inflicting pain on bad people. His human form is also meant to serve this very purpose. But he moves away from this “default setting”. He gains a new, more nuanced perspective that was previously inaccessible to him due to rules, norms, and customs. Living among human beings (the heart of his innovation) produces the wild card of transformative empathy and triggers a paradigm shift: the “gross insects” become close friends and the “stupid garbage” he’s initially forced to learn turns into a roadmap to a richer, more meaningful life.

“Stupid” and “gross” are keywords here, imo, bc they indicate Michael’s ingrained attitude: if it’s human, it’s reflexively considered primitive and disposable by his kind. This attitude is the norm and isn’t questioned by demons (tbh, it would be rather counter-productive for them to do so). But this “stupid and gross” seem to hold a covert interest, an inherent and genuine attraction to Michael. It’s the complete opposite of Trevor’s exaggerated sleazy overtures which still strike me as empty “all talk, no action” posturing, sth similar to when Janet briefly switched to “overt sexuality mode” despite having no real desire/interest or any relevant experience. It’s a function, a role to perform, part of the job. But to Michael, humans present a puzzling, stimulating otherness that invites close proximity and experimentation, which falls way way outside his job description.

This “repelling is also alluring” contradiction is nicely demonstrated on a small scale when Eleanor calls the white chocolate + shrimp combo nasty yet keeps eating it, or when she describes churro dogs to Michael and he responds w/ an excited “oh, sounds awful.” We know that given half a chance, he would try it. We know bc this is what happened on a much larger scale when he was given the opportunity to work as an architect: Neighborhood 12358W was born and he purposefully designed it in a way that granted him 24/7 close contact w/ “disgusting humans” and their gross ways.

His attitude towards human mouths is another interesting example that carries this contradiction:

“There are gonna be days when you're just sick of being around these disgusting humans, with their weird, gross little mouths, and their stupid elbows.” (201 - a rallying speech that I suspect is exaggerated but still serves to illustrate the basic demon’s view)

“Kissing is gross. You just mash your food holes together. It’s not for that.” (209)

And yet when we take a look at his small stash of human objects (106), we find wax lips that have sexual connotations (shiny, full, and red - they resemble the vulva) but are also edible and come w/ the “play now, chew later” tagline. Nice triple twist on the “mouths are for eating” sentiment. Michael also abruptly reverses his stance on kissing: gross suddenly turns exciting (hot diggity dog!). Granted, there may be other factors influencing this particular flip-flopping (I believe there are), but it’s still a solid example of the confusion created by the radical, ethics-infused reconceptualization process.

Michael starts to question things he never did before. He comes to regard humans in a fundamentally different way. He experiences the superiority of a species he always thought inferior and recognizes the inferiority of his own kind (Ya basic, Shawn.). In this sense, he plays Beauty in the tale as old as time who discovers that there’s more humanity in an allegedly primitive beast than in most of her fellow humans who mock her for the “crime” of being “different”. But the reverse is also true: being a demon, Michael also plays the Other/Beast. In the former scenario, Eleanor serves as the primitive Other/Beast being aided in her transformation, and in the latter, she’s Beauty who inspires transformation. Both work simultaneously and both result in an intimate understanding of one another, which opens the door to other areas of intimacy, i.e. those of romance and sex.

Feelings bloom whether we want them or not, but how we act on them (or not) is our choice. It’s impossible to tell the exact nature of Michael’s feelings atm. His actions indicate that love is already at work on at least a semi-conscious level but if it’s romantic love, there are way more reasons for him to keep it under wraps than there are reasons to confess. Same goes for sexual interest. Lack of overt interest does not equal lack of interest but to outside observers they can look identical, so, for now, canon is a question mark here. Another related question is, would he “cross the line” if there was encouragement from a partner, some guidance, and an opportunity to indulge? I think he definitely would w/ Eleanor, but it doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be obstacles or that he wouldn’t opt out later if he found it to be not to his liking.

I can see several options here but him rejecting romance and sex and having no interest there whatsoever just feel out of character to me given what we know about him and his past (see below). I still don’t think canon will ever go there, not in any overt, straightforward way, and it doesn’t have to, but this is still a very fertile and legitimate soil for shippers.

Michael is curious, loves experiments, and his core arc is about him shifting away from his original mode of existence which was marked by a lack of morality, meaning, and emotional/physical intimacy.

“Your lives aren’t meaningless. Everything on Earth counted for something. The same is not true here in the afterlife where I exist and have always existed. ... There is no ‘outside of work’. None of us exist outside our jobs. We have no homes, no hobbies, or relationships. We get the names of people to torture. We torture them. We get more names.” (204)

This isolated, (seemingly) aromantic and asexual existence just doesn’t feel to be a clear choice on his part but more like a result of not having an alternative to embrace (- sth he created for himself in form of his neighborhood perhaps?) If that’s the case, then I think there’s a good chance he harbors an interest in romance and sexuality, too, but it’s couched in reluctance/hesitance stemming from confusion, lack of experience, lack of a partner, initial aversion and, more recently, ethical issues. All of these are understandable but they are not binding or set in stone. He felt reluctance towards ethics, too, but he’s already moved somewhere between amoral and moral on that spectrum.

Michael finds reconceptualizing hard and disorienting, which is not at all surprising given how much he has to unlearn and recalibrate and discover still. Human ethics (a total buzzkill), human emotions (there are way too many), and human bodies (fragile, weird, and stupid) are alien to him, and it will take time to sort these new experiences and orient himself.

The matter of “human suit” is esp interesting bc it has direct relevance to the topic of sex.

“There are gonna be days when you're just sick of being around these disgusting humans, with their weird, gross little mouths, and their stupid elbows.” (201)

“Everyone in the Bad Place Bureau of Human Affairs gets randomly assigned a human body, so we can get the feel of how best to torture you. I gotta say it took me a long time to get used to the hanging bits. [Gross.] Oh get your mind out of the gutter, Eleanor. I was talking about my testicles.” (203)

“Let me just get into the mindset of a human. ‘Oh, I’m a human and my breathing tube is next to my eating tube. Oh, and look: my arms end in stupid little sticks.’” (204)

Demon anatomy and physiology are undoubtedly different from ours, which means that the appropriate form and function of various parts can significantly differ, including those involved in procreation and/or sexual acts (if demons even have any of those but given their “lifestyle” they may not). Michael’s in an alien body w/ weird parts that don’t look and function the way demon parts do + up until now his only interest in human anatomy has had to be to find ways to cause pain, so the fun potential in pleasure-focused experimentation is sky-high w/ the right partner (and if there’s one human who would ride a demon, that’s Eleanor) + making love to a human is the most radical thing Michael could do w/ his “human suit” tbh. And giving himself over to selfless love felt towards a human is the most radical thing he can do w/ his soul, which is already happening, imo.

Michael’s initial dismissal of human-y stuff is a product of his original indoctrination and “culture shock”, not of a set of immutable attributes. It also comes pre-mixed w/ latent fascination and begins to weaken due to exposure, “deprogramming”, and an innate quality other demons do not seem to possess. I mean, when he notices the crude erotic drawings in Kant’s journal, his eyes linger on the page only to conclude that this is an “interesting guy.” No longer stupid and gross but...interesting.

The idea of studying human ethics felt insane to him in the beginning bc it was so radically un-demon-y to do, so it’d be understandable if embracing human ideas and practices of romance and physical pleasure felt similarly jarring at first. It doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t (or hasn’t) develop(ed) an interest, esp. after having been exposed to stimuli and companionship of which he was entirely deprived before. If he’s developed some interest already, it also makes sense that it’s not advertised: he doesn’t have a teacher to guide him here, he’s seen what happened to Janet when she spiralled down this road, there are also way more pressing matters to focus on, and the most likely target of his interest is already “taken” anyway and must remain so.

I don’t think Michael will ever move out of the “grey zone” he currently occupies (or maybe it’s just my personal preference talking bc I love the grey), but that’s okay bc this grey has so many exciting shades and they are a lot of fun w/o being explicitly in-your-face.

#the good place #michael tgp #michael x eleanor #musings #tgp wank #q

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jaerie · 6 years

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I finally decided to make a masterpost of all my posted fics even for just my own organization. So here we go! updated September 14th, 2019

Sisterwives (E, 33k, abo)

This was it, the moment Louis had been waiting for his entire life. Giddy excitement bubbled up as he held hands and stared up at his soon-to-be alpha and husband and grinned. The ceremony was small and simple, but Louis didn’t mind. Fresh flowers pinned into his hair and a brand new outfit was all he needed to feel special in front of their few witnesses. It was just some members of his family and a few of the church elders in attendance as was customary for any marriage beyond the first wife within the faith.

Louis was just fine in the position he was stepping into as the seventh.

Or Louis thinks he's getting everything he's ever dreamed of. Harry helps him find what makes him truly happy.

Captain Jack (E, 32k, abo)

Louis has been searching for something and Harry is there to give it to him. Drugs, sex, disappointment, and the tangled web they’ve woven that keeps them trapped in the same cycle.

The Wilds (E, 13k, abo)

The creatures that Louis observed every day weren't exactly human, but yet they were. Researchers had plucked some of them from their secluded island and transplanted them into an enclosure against their will like a bunch of zoo animals. Louis didn't think they were. But he was only paid to do the yardwork, he didn't have any say about the wilds that lived there. That was until an unfortunate accident changed his life forever and made one wild in particular his top priority.

Restless Lane (E, 15k, abo)

Louis had grown used to his boring life back in Mississippi as a stand-in father figure to his siblings. He never expected his childhood friend to show up on his lawn with the heat of summer or that he would remind Louis how much of himself he'd tucked away and neglected. He also never expected to find himself caught up in a tangled web of feelings or secrets that just might break him. Maybe he had never known Harry at all.

Going Live (E, 15k)

Harry has only done this cam thing a handful of times when another camboy pops in to view his stream and unintentionally stirs things up a bit.

Or Louis and Harry are both camboys for some extra cash and meet each other in an unconventional way

Alpha Seeking Alpha (E, 4k, abo)

Maybe it's taboo, but Louis can't stop thinking about a strong alpha holding him down and filling him with a knot. Louis may be alpha himself yet there's a corner of the internet where he can get what he wants. He finally has the courage to do it.

Knot Safe For Work (E, 6k, abo)

The world is magical, Louis is a wizard, Harry is a Were, there are spells for lube and supernatural kinks are definitely a thing.

Everything I need I get from you (M, 10k, abo)

In a world where music and sound are just as vital to health as food, Harry is stuck in a town that thinks professional music is a scam and a relationship he never wanted. One chance event changes his life.

Ready, Baby? (E, 1k)

Harry gets an earring. Louis is the one to do it.

Or a pain kink drabble.

Challenging Nature: A Look Into Male Lactation (E, 11k)

Even taking into account all the bizarre things Harry has subjected himself to in the past for the sake of an article, Harry has received his strangest assignment yet. It comes up as a random misunderstanding in a meeting and builds into a conversation — can men breastfeed? Internet searches reveal documented cases of male lactation popping up at different times throughout history, but are any of them true? Can a man will himself into lactating? Harry has two months to make it happen.

Tiny Exaggeration (E, 4k, abo)

Louis is frustrated that they've been dating for months and still haven't taken their relationship to the next level. Sometimes the foolishness of the past lingers in the present. Louis wants that to change.

Enough Tin Foil for the Apocalypse (G, 1k)

Louis comes home to a tin foil covered house and his boyfriend's secrets

100ft Away (E, 2.5k)

Harry opens Grindr for a hookup and ends up with more than he bargained for. It all works out in the end.

The Time Is Now (M, 1k)

Louis is mid-one night stand when he finds out he's going to be an uncle in a matter of minutes.

A Long Way From The Top (E, 11k)

Harry needed to find a purpose in life. Mount Everest wasn't the place he'd expected to find it, but he'd take what he could get. He also hadn't expected to come home with extra baggage.

Freaks From The Internet (E, 3k)

Harry sells his breast milk to freaks on the internet. Louis turns out to be one of those freaks. He also happens to be Harry's ex.

Whoops (E, 1k)

Louis was just trying to get revenge on Niall for the prank he pulled a few months ago. He didn't mean to find himself trapped in the closet while Niall's roommate, Harry, decides it's a self-love kind of night.

Merry Birthday (10k, abo)

Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson have unfortunate soulmarks branded onto their skin. The first words their soulmate will ever speak to them are two of the most common greetings, so common that they don't even notice when it finally happens for real.

A Christmas soulmate AU.

You Gotta Swim, Swim For Your Life

Swim When It Hurts - Part One (M, 12k, abo)

Harry never thought he would find himself battling cancer. Louis never thought he would find himself so attached to one of his patients.

Swim When It Hurts - Part Two (E, 6k, abo)

Swim When It Hurts - Part Three (E, 7k, abo)

Harry never thought he would find himself battling cancer. Louis never thought he would find himself so attached to one of his patients. Neither one of them thought they would find love in such an unlikely place. Maybe things weren't ideal, but finding strength in a new kind of normal together may be just what they need.

The Post-War BP (E, 18k, abo)

The eight year war has left the country's birthrate severely stunted with a lack of virile alphas left to bring it back up. To ensure the survival of the country, the government opens The Breeding Program where young omegas can apply to carry an alpha's child in exchange for benefits. Louis' family is struggling and the BP is one of the only ways to secure a roof over their heads. Harry was drafted at the age of eighteen and spent six years of his life defending a country he doesn't recognize when he returns home. The government made the bed but it's Harry that has to lie in it.

I’m Sure It Happens To All Alphas (E, 4k, abo)

“It’s okay. I’m sure it happens to all alphas at some point,” the omega beside him said which only embarrassed him even more.

The thing was that this was not how Louis expected their first time together to play out. Especially after he’d been fantasizing about it for so long.

But let’s jump back to the beginning.

or Louis has trouble popping a knot

To Change How You See And What You Believe (E, 12k)

Harry and Louis are best friends who just happen to fall into bed with each other sometimes, it's not a big deal. After a drunken night of discussing their kinks, they wake up naked together. They don't remember what happened, but they've done it before and they'll probably do it again, but five months later, a surprise changes everything.

or an I didn't know I was pregnant au

Was It All Fake? (E, 4k, abo)

Unmated omegas are second class citizens. Expected to provide for themselves yet paid so little that they often are overworked or forced to sell their bodies just to keep from starving. Louis' luck turns around when he meets Harry, the rich heir to a fortune. After their bonding ceremony, things aren't exactly what Louis expected.

Take What’s Mine (E, 15k, abo)

Years after he is kidnapped, his life altered forever, Louis goes through the motions in a way that barely feels like living. Harry is a wild card, a forbidden fruit that Louis swore off of before he even had a chance to experience it. Maybe, in the end, Harry holds the key to being reborn. Louis just has to be open to the idea first.

Cuddle Up A Little Closer (4k)

Harry's therapist suggests that he should get a pet. Liam might have found the perfect one for him.

Stay Close, Hold Steady (E, 27k, abo)

Found on the banks of the Mississippi as an toddler, Harry goes on a quest to find his biological family. Louis tries to be supportive, but maybe he just doesn't want to be left behind.

Everything Comes Back To You (10k, abo)

Louis was only seven when he found himself in a hospital bed alone and scared, confused about what was happening. When another little boy climbed into his bed to comfort him, Louis never thought that they would be meeting again later in life. He also never imagined that their roles would be reversed the second time around.

Just Jump (E, 10k, abo)

Finally, after years of suffering alone, the insurance plan at Harry's new job covered omega heat services. As a grown omega adult, it finally felt like the right time to try it out. And, since taking an entire week of heat leave would really put him behind at work, using a service to shorten it seemed like a responsible decision. At least that’s how he rationalized it. He was nervous about his decision but it was too late. The doorbell rang.

“Hi!” The alpha said again and Harry took the hand he offered and shook it firmly. “I’m Louis from Omega Services. It’s nice to meet you.”

Where Do We Go Now (E, 10k, abo)

Louis goes off to college ready to start a fresh life away from the oppressive alphas of his pack. The odds aren't in his favour when his new dorm mate turns out to be an alpha. Louis hates alphas.

OmegaVision (E, 24k, abo)

Tomlin Networks Presents: OmegaVision starring Louis Tomlinson! The world's first 24/7 reality channel available in over 150 countries worldwide following the life of the first male omega born in over a century. Follow Louis through his daily routine, the ups and downs of growing up or just leave him on for comfort. There are many reasons to tune in but, no matter what yours may be, there's always a part of Louis that is just like you!

Or a Truman Show au that nobody asked for where Louis is Truman and Harry just wants to be his mate

As We Were, As We Are (E, 51.5k)

Alex is a British soldier who has been injured in battle, Louis is a RAF pilot with amnesia. Somehow they put each other back together even if they get separated along the way.

Woke Up Feeling Knotty (E, 8k, abo)

Beta Louis has a kink for knotting and the secret aesthetic porn blog he runs about it is more than proof. When he accidentally finds out his alpha best friend Harry is one of his biggest fans, he knows he has to come clean after everything that has already happened between them. Harry just might be willing to help him out anyway.

Saving’s What I Need (M, 17k)

We’ve all had those moments. A flash of something on the side of the road, a swerve, an instinctual slam on the break pedal. This is the story of the one time Louis’ reflexes were just not quite quick enough and the beautiful white dog that was on the other side of the impact. He just doesn’t know that beautiful dog is Harry.

Save Some Luck For Me (E, 10.5k, abo)

Louis arrives at the 2018 Winter Olympics to make history as the first omega to win a gold medal at the games. Harry, his oiled up crush from the Summer Olympics, just happens to show up to sabotage him, but maybe helps him win in the end.

Closest It’ll Get (E, 13k, 50 Reasons Fic Challenge)

Reason #41: Because He Looks LIke Your Super Hot Cousin and This is the Closest It'll Ever Get to Being Okay

Faking former relationships, mistaken identities and the moral struggle over his first real crush lead to an interesting destination wedding for Harry.

Cute for a Girl? (E, 3.5k, Cocktoberfest)

Harry recently had a sexual awakening with another student on campus. She attends a poetry reading and finds herself reliving the experience through Lou's words.

Driving Me Crazy, But I’m Into It Series

Pink Skin (E, 4k) “Yes well, do you have an appointment-available-for-anal-bleaching,” he rushed the last part out, the words blending together in a nervous string. Louis paused for a moment before bursting into laughter that made tears collect at the corner of his eyes.“Is this a joke?” he asked through his laughter, “Did Niall put you up to this?” He was nearly doubled over on the couch, that certainly was original.“Um…” his laughter cut off abruptly when the voice on the other end seemed serious. “Isn’t this Adeeva spa…?”“Oh god, no, I’m sorry for laughing. I think you have the wrong number mate.”

Or Harry is a camboy trying out something new and Louis ends up on the other end of the line

I’m Kinda Into It (E, 4.4k) Harry smirked and moved off the bed, never breaking eye contact, making sure the other knew exactly what he was about to do. His finger tapped the spacebar of his computer to bring it to life then reached up to switch his camera on with a small click.“Are you into it?” Harry asked, the corner of his mouth stuck up in a grin, dimple deep and genuine though very playful. Louis seemed to be in a small stupor and stared back with darkening eyes before swallowing hard.“I’m definitely into it,” Louis nodded.

Or things take an unexpected turn when Harry meets up with wrong number admirer for the first time

I’m Gonna Pay for This (M, 3k) Naked sunbathing has not turned out so well for Harry.

1st of the Month (E, 2.5k) Harry and Louis enjoy some morning sex before some highly anticipated mail.

Let’s Try That Again (E, 2.7k) The delivery finally arrives and Harry can't help but have a little fun with it. Louis is pretty cranky about Harry's antics until he isn't.

All Over Me (E, 2.4k) Louis is falling for Harry more each day, even all the quirks that make him special.

Christmas is Canceled (G, 2.7k) It is the first time Louis will be cohosting Harry's annual Christmas party with him and everything needs to be perfect. Everything doesn't go perfectly.

Cold As Ice (E, 2.3k) It is the first hot day of summer and Harry is dying. So of course the most logical solution is to head for the dildo in the freezer.

Bored (E, 2k) Harry is bored and decides to put on an unscheduled cam show. Louis never misses a show.

Hoping to Find the Respect I Deserve (G, 3k)

Harry has starry eyes for the professional world after uni and takes an unpaid internship in a foreign country thinking he'll be on top in no time. It doesn't quite work out that way.

Out of the Wild (E, 21.5k, abo)

Louis has spent most of his life as a wolf in the wild, Harry has spent most of his life as a human in the city. Their worlds collide during the audition process for the hottest new singing competition. What happens next should have expected.

Out With The Old, In With The New (E, 7k, abo)

Harry becomes the pack's new alpha and Louis can't wait to be bred

But She Doesn’t Know Who I Am (9k, Part 1 of 2)

“Stop following me!” she growled out firmly, squaring her shoulders and pulling herself up to her full height plus the added inches of her heels that made it feel like she was towering above him.

And… that wasn’t the voice of a woman.

His jaw dropped in shock but he couldn’t tell if his face physically matched that expression or if it was a mental jaw drop. He hoped the latter but knew at least his eyes had grown wide. It wasn’t what he had been expecting.

Prompt #807: The discomfort of walking on a deserted street at night behind a woman who probably thinks you're stalking her.

Maybe I’ll Try Falling Up (E, 6k, Part 2 of 2)

“It’s just… I thought…” he stumbled nervously, “I figured it would be me, you know… that I’d be the one doing you.”

“You thought I’m a bottom because I dress like a girl,” she deadpanned, schooling her expression into a mask of indifference.

Miscommunications can happen with anyone but sometimes it's just a sensitive subject.

Fur Up In Flames (G, 5k)

There's not really much you can do during a job interview when the only thing you can focus on is whether or not you remembered to turn off the stove...

My Sins I’ll Claim, I’m Not Immune to Shame (M, 5.6k)

It's been two years since their break up and Harry still hasn't been able to completely move past the day that things ended between them. When he gets a chance at a big fat "I told you so", his reaction isn't exactly what he expects. He finds himself hard from some inappropriate thoughts and, well, sometimes even the best of us succumb to the darkest emotions.

Day 2: Slow and Steady (E, 5.7k, 30 Days of Smut)

Harry wants everything to be perfect, a scene from a romcom for just the two of them. It doesn't quite go according to plan, but he can't say he's disappointed.

And the Truth Shall Set You Free (Maybe...) (E, 18k, abo)

Betism: A religion based on the belief that the beta gender has been chosen by God to protect and defend the purity and dignity of the human race by resisting and condemning the lustful ways and flawed biology of the alpha and omega

Harry is a Betist and Louis is an alpha who runs with a bad crowd. This is what happens when two worlds collide.

Come Fly With Me (M, 9.6k)

Louis and Harry are university students that meet in an airport while trying visit home during a school break. Their first flight goes as planned but their connection leaves them time for some unexpected adventures.

They Won’t Let Me Out (I’m Locked Up) (E,15k, abo, WIP, to be finished early 2018)

Harry is the alpha heir to a prosperous pack who has just presented as he approaches the age of 18. Coveting their resources and desperately seeking to merge their packs together, rivals kidnap Harry and force him into a life of chastity that would prevent him from ever mating and inheriting the pack he was born to lead. As they lose hope they reluctantly begin the process searching for a mate for Harry's older omega sister, the only way to keep the pack in the Styles' bloodline. What happens when a hot headed little alpha-to-be stumbles upon Harry's little secret and ends up sharing one of his own?

Tell Me That You Want It Cause I Already Know (E, 3.8k, abo)

Who knew all it would take was some good ole porn for Louis to discover his friend, Harry, is a wolf and for it to awaken an urge that would bring them together in a way he hadn't anticipated.

Just Bend and We Can Learn To Love Again (M, 28.5k)

Louis is a single dad of twins just trying to get through each day one step at a time. Harry has his own struggles as a young dad. Maybe Louis' curiosity and nosiness has found just the friend that he needs in his life. Maybe they both just need each other.

Starbucks Lovers (M, 2.5k)

He pushes the Starbucks door open hard, the momentum slamming it into the trash station on the other side. All eyes are on him as he raises his voice, pulling the phone away from his ear. “ARE THERE ANY GAYS IN THIS STARBUCKS??” his chest moving heavily than normal with frustration.

He looks around, suddenly realizing the scene he has caused in his regular coffee shop, all eyes still on him. A few beats pass and most of the customers turn their attention back to what they had been doing before the interruption.

His shoulders begin to slump as out of the corner of his eye he sees a timid hand start to raise above his head. It might just be the fact that he's sitting by the window, bright sunlight shining through the tinted glass, but his hair seems to shine like a halo, a beacon drawing him in.

Not From The Cookie Cutter (M, 31k, WIP)

For the last 5 years Louis has been keeping himself alive. Deemed an untouchable by society when he was only 14, he had to watch the path he always thought his life would follow be erased before him. Existing in the shadows of the nice part of town, the picture perfect lives he watches every day are the closest thing he will ever have to a normal life.

Coddled by his mother, Harry is a dreamer. As hard as he tries to bring himself back to the ground on his father's command, he just doesn't think he has the will power.

Or Louis is a homeless omega and Harry is an abnormally observant alpha.

Are You Open Minded? (M, 1.5k)

College AU where Louis is dared to make a phone call and Harry takes the bait.

I Wish You Were Here With Me (G, 2.5k)

After Louis' sudden death, the boys unanimously decide they can't and don't want to continue One Direction without him. With the ghost of Louis following his every move, Harry tries to push forward though he knows he will never been the same.

Shrink Wrapped Jeans (M, 2k)

Louis gets a new pair of jeggings and it drives Harry wild.

Impossible Secret (G, 1.8k)

Harry and Louis find themselves apart during the first break the band has truly had. Making the best of it, they keep their temporarily long distance relationship as strong as they can while Harry holds back a secret he can barely hold back.

So that’s all folks! I’ll add as I write more things :)

#jaerie #about me #my fics

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paleorecipecookbook · 5 years

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How to Prevent Parkinson’s Disease with Diet and Lifestyle

Unfortunately, the conventional treatments available for Parkinson’s disease are limited to surgical interventions and medications that come with numerous side effects. But a growing body of research indicates that there are many modifiable risk factors associated with the condition, providing us with clues as to what measures we can take to prevent the onset of the disease. Read on to learn how to prevent Parkinson’s disease by using evidence-based dietary and lifestyle interventions.

What Is Parkinson’s Disease?

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a gradual loss of neurons in the brain that produce the crucial neurotransmitter dopamine; mitochondrial dysfunction; neuroinflammation; oxidative stress; and an accumulation of “misfolded” (malformed, and therefore dysfunctional) proteins in neurons. (One particular protein, called alpha-synuclein, plays a significant role in how Parkinson’s is diagnosed.) Together, these factors damage the central nervous system and impair motor function, causing the hallmark symptoms of PD:

Stiff muscles

Difficulty with standing, walking, and other bodily movements

Involuntary movements

Rigidity

Slow shuffling gait

Difficulty speaking

Dementia

Reduced or lost sense of smell

Reduced facial expression

Constipation

Parkinson’s disease is increasingly common, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are the most common causes of the disease and 11 ways you can prevent it through diet, exercise, and lifestyle. #optimalhealth #healthylifestyle #chriskresser

Eight Causes of Parkinson’s Disease

Many scientists and doctors dream of developing a cure for Parkinson’s disease. However, the reality is that Parkinson’s disease is caused by multiple factors and therefore is unlikely to respond to a single therapy.

Rather than focusing our efforts on finding a “silver bullet” drug to cure PD, we can make more progress and improve quality of life by addressing the many underlying causes of Parkinson’s disease. This approach may not only prevent Parkinson’s disease; it could also potentially reverse some symptoms in already-afflicted individuals.

1. Gut Dysfunction

The gut–brain axis, a two-way communication system between the enteric nervous system of the gut and the central nervous system, is intimately involved in the PD disease process. Chronic constipation has long been recognized as an early sign of Parkinson’s disease, preceding the onset of motor symptoms by many years. Alpha-synuclein proteins are deposited in gastrointestinal nerves up to 20 years before the onset of Parkinson’s disease symptoms, suggesting that the gut may be “ground zero” in the development of PD. (2)

Alpha-synuclein spreads from the gut to the brain. Epidemiological research supports this theory, as severing the nerve that connects the brain and colon reduces the risk of PD. (3) But what causes accumulation of abnormal alpha-synuclein in the gut in the first place? It may be triggered by changes in the gut microbiota. (4)

Normally, proteins in our cells form through “folding” into specific functional shapes. But sometimes, “misfolding” occurs, and the result is a protein that doesn’t work as it should, or that clumps together and accumulates—which is what happens with alpha-synuclein as it relates to PD. Gut dysbiosis triggers inflammation-induced misfolding of alpha-synuclein in gastrointestinal nerves, which subsequently link up with other nerves along the gut–brain axis. Those abnormal alpha-synuclein proteins travel along the gut–brain axis and may eventually lead to Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease patients demonstrate distinct patterns of gut dysfunction that may eventually lead to Parkinson’s, including: (5, 6, 7)

Elevated levels of inflammatory bacteria

Lower levels of anti-inflammatory bacteria

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO

H. pylori infection

Increased intestinal permeability, or leaky gut

Dysbiosis results in an elevated production of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an inflammatory bacterial byproduct. When leaky gut is also involved, LPS circulates throughout the body and brain, where it causes neuroinflammation and leads to a loss of dopamine-producing neurons. (8, 9, 10, 11)

Given the effects of dysbiosis and leaky gut on the brain, improving gut health should be first and foremost in every Parkinson’s disease prevention plan.

2. Gluten

Gluten ataxia, a loss of control of body movements, has long been recognized as a neurological symptom of gluten sensitivity. Gluten sensitivity, as well as celiac disease, may also have other neurological manifestations, including the same motor symptoms seen in Parkinson’s disease. (12) Several case studies have found that a gluten-free diet can help alleviate these symptoms, and genetic research indicates that people with celiac disease often test positive for PARK7, a protein associated with PD. These findings suggest that there is an important relationship between gluten sensitivity and Parkinson’s disease. (13, 14, 15)

3. Autoimmunity

A recent study published in Nature provides direct evidence that autoimmunity contributes to Parkinson’s disease. (16) The researchers found that fragments of alpha-synuclein cause the body’s immune system to mistakenly recognize dopamine-producing neurons as foreign bodies and destroy them. Interestingly, PD and autoimmune diseases share a common genetic basis. (17) These findings suggest that correcting autoimmunity may be vital for preventing and treating PD.

4. Blood Sugar Problems

When the bloodstream contains a high concentration of sugar, as in hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, the proteins circulating in the body can become damaged. Alpha-synuclein is no exception and, once it’s damaged, it can cause even more harm to the neurons in the brain. Insulin resistance is significantly underdiagnosed in non-diabetics with Parkinson’s disease. (18) That’s cause for worry because insulin resistance may worsen PD by further damaging alpha-synuclein.

The good news is that balancing blood sugar levels protects the brain’s neurons. (19) Improving insulin sensitivity and normalizing blood sugar are important for reducing the risk of PD.

5. Iron Overload

When it comes to iron, more is not necessarily better. Iron overload is the term used to describe an overaccumulation of iron in the body. It can occur in people with certain genetic predispositions or in those who’ve been supplementing long term with iron or received numerous blood infusions. You can learn more about iron overload in my article “Does Iron Overload Cause Diabetes and Heart Disease?”

In high concentrations, iron causes oxidative damage in all body tissues, including the brain. People with PD have high brain iron levels, suggesting that iron-induced oxidative stress plays a role in the disease process. (20) Conversely, once people receive treatment to reduce their iron levels, they often see clinical improvements in their Parkinson’s disease. (21)

6. Circadian Disruption

The circadian rhythm is the roughly 24-hour biological cycle in humans that regulates a diverse array of physiological and behavioral functions. Circadian rhythm disruption, induced by factors such as blue light exposure at night and abnormal sleep–wake cycles, increases the risk of PD by altering the expression of genes and proteins that regulate dopamine in the brain. (22) Accordingly, chronic insomnia is associated with an increased risk of PD, and abnormal sleep–wake cycles can exacerbate the symptoms of the disease. (23)

7. Stress

Chronic psychological stress is a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. Chronic stress elevates the hormone cortisol, promoting a pro-inflammatory state that ultimately kills dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. (24) Cortisol can also interfere with neuronal plasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt and learn from new (and potentially stressful) circumstances. (25) In animal studies, a high frequency of stressful life events increases the risk of PD. In humans, stress exaggerates PD-related motor dysfunction and nonmotor symptoms. (26) This evidence suggests that stress management is crucial for inhibiting the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease.

8. Environmental Toxins

Oxidative stress is a well-known cause of alpha-synuclein accumulation in the brain. (27) Environmental toxins are potent inducers of oxidative stress, and a handful of specific toxins have been implicated in PD.

Pesticides and Herbicides

Rotenone is an insecticide commonly used in home gardens for pest control, for lice and tick prevention in pets, and for managing fish populations in bodies of water. Surprisingly, rotenone can be used in organic food farming because it is labeled as a natural product. It readily crosses into the brain from the bloodstream and, once it’s in a cell, it causes mitochondrial dysfunction and excessive production of free radicals.

Rotenone also inhibits the activity of proteasomes, protein complexes that get rid of unneeded or damaged proteins. That decreased proteasome activity may allow misfolded alpha-synuclein to accumulate, which causes Parkinson’s. (28) In animal models, rotenone exposure produces motor deficits reminiscent of PD, alpha-synuclein accumulation, and degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons.

Paraquat and maneb, an herbicide and a fungicide, respectively, also readily cross into the brain from the bloodstream, are toxic to mitochondria, and damage neurons. (29) Pesticide applicators, agricultural workers, and those who live in rural areas have a significantly elevated risk of Parkinson’s disease since they’re often exposed to these chemicals. (30)

Organochlorine pesticides, the most infamous of which is DDT, were used extensively from the 1940s to the 1970s in agriculture and mosquito control. While they have since been banned in the United States due to their neurotoxic effects, they degrade slowly, and they’re still lingering in the environment today. Organochlorine pesticide exposure has been linked to Parkinson’s disease in both animal and human studies. (31) Postmortem examinations of PD brains have found high levels of organochlorine compounds, especially in regions dense in dopamine-producing neurons, compared to non-PD brains. (32)

Toxic Mold

I previously wrote about the harmful effects of toxic mold in my articles “5 Things You Should Know about Toxic Mold Illness” and “How Mold Exposure Can Hurt Your Gut Health.” Mycotoxins, the metabolites produced by toxic molds, may contribute to the development of Parkinson’s disease by depleting dopamine and inducing inflammation and cell death in certain regions of the brain. (33)

Air Pollution

Long-term exposure to air pollution, including ambient particulate matter (tiny particles in the air), nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and ozone, significantly increases a person’s risk of Parkinson’s disease. (34, 35) Minerals processing, brick and cement works, refineries, vehicle exhaust, wildfires, and fossil fuel power plants are significant sources of harmful (but essentially invisible) particulate matter.

Chronic exposure to air pollution may contribute to PD by triggering oxidative stress and promoting the misfolding of alpha-synuclein. This misfolded alpha-synuclein spreads, neuron to neuron, similar to how it travels along the gut–brain axis. Inhalation of air pollutants also causes neuroinflammation and cell death of neurons, factors in the development and progression of PD.

Our environment is unfortunately full of toxic assaults that may contribute to the development of PD. However, there are steps you can take to reduce your exposure.

Keep reading to discover these steps, as well as many other actions you can take to reduce your risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Here’s How to Prevent Parkinson’s Disease

The underlying causes of this condition can provide valuable clues for how to prevent Parkinson’s disease. Here are 11 ways to do it with diet and lifestyle changes.

1. Eat Wisely and Choose Whole Foods

A diet based on whole, nutrient-dense foods is an excellent first step for reducing your risk of Parkinson’s disease. A high intake of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, fish, olive oil, coconut oil, fresh herbs, and spices is associated with a reduced risk of PD development and slower disease progression. (36, 37) Eating plenty of vegetables and fiber boosts levels of an anti-inflammatory group of gut bacteria that are inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease and may play a protective role against neurodegenerative processes in the brain. (38)

Choose organic foods over conventionally grown foods as much as possible. Eating organic reduces your exposure to neurotoxic pesticides and herbicides. If you can’t buy all organic food, refer to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists to determine which types of conventional produce are lowest in pesticide residues and are safe to buy non-organic.

2. Make Sure You Get Enough Vitamin D and Omega-3s

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, whereas vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure are associated with a reduced risk. (39, 40) How does vitamin D combat neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease? A high density of vitamin D receptors reside in the part of the brain most affected by Parkinson’s disease; this finding suggests that vitamin D regulates the function of neurons.

Vitamin D also lessens the severity of autoimmunity and regulates neurotrophins, proteins that induce the survival, development, and function of neurons. Vitamin D is one nutrient you won’t want to skimp on if your goal is to prevent Parkinson’s disease! Safe sun exposure is the best method for boosting vitamin D levels. However, full-body sun exposure is not possible for most people year-round; in this case, I recommend you take cod liver oil and eat fatty cold-water fish, beef liver, and egg yolks to obtain dietary vitamin D.

Omega-3 fatty acids, like EPA and DHA, are critical for normal brain development and function across the lifespan. Low levels of EPA and DHA increase the risk of neurodegeneration, whereas omega-3 supplementation can help reduce neuron death in the brain, alleviate neuroinflammation, boost antioxidant enzymes, and relieve motor symptoms in PD. (41, 42, 43, 44) EPA and DHA are abundant in seafood, so I recommend consuming two to three servings of seafood per week to achieve a healthy intake of these neuroprotective fatty acids.

3. Give Up Gluten

Given the probable relationship between gluten sensitivity, gastrointestinal inflammation, and PD, gluten sensitivity testing is a must for anyone seeking to reduce their risk of PD. If testing reveals gluten sensitivity, I strongly suggest you remove it entirely from your diet.

4. Try the Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet is characterized by a high fat intake—typically 80 to 90 percent of total calories—moderate protein intake, and a very low carbohydrate intake. Originally developed as a treatment for refractory epilepsy in children, the ketogenic diet has exploded in popularity in recent years.

A growing body of clinical research shows the health benefits of the ketogenic diet, including weight loss and improvements in cardiovascular disease risk factors. However, some of the most exciting findings related to the ketogenic diet deals with its impact on neurological diseases like Parkinson’s. In animal models of PD, the ketogenic diet reduces mitochondrial damage and improves motor function. (45) In humans, the diet improves both motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. (46) There are two primary ways the ketogenic diet alleviates symptoms of PD:

Ketones are an alternative fuel source for the brain. The human brain typically relies on glucose for energy. In PD, part of the process required to produce energy from glucose is impaired, making glucose an inefficient fuel source. Ketones bypass that process and are readily taken up by the brain, so they serve as an efficient alternative energy source for neurons.

Ketone metabolism decreases oxidative stress in the brain and reduces neuroinflammation, thus alleviating two of the underlying causes of PD.

While I don’t recommend going on a permanent ketogenic diet, eating this way three to four times per year can protect against PD as well as a number of other chronic diseases. If you’re already showing signs of PD, the ketogenic diet may help.

5. Take Prebiotics and Probiotics

Gut dysbiosis plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease. Accordingly, probiotics have the potential to help with onset of the disease, as well as management of its symptoms. A combination of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, L. reuteri, and L. fermentum has been found to relieve constipation, improve insulin sensitivity, and improve antioxidant status in people with PD, thus correcting several of the characteristic features of the disease. (47)

Prebiotics, fermentable fibers that feed beneficial gut bacteria, may be another useful intervention for preventing Parkinson’s disease. FOS and GOS, two types of prebiotic fibers, increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein important for neuronal protection, survival, and plasticity. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is abnormally low in Parkinson’s disease patients; boosting its levels may have neuroprotective effects. (48, 49)

6. Get Rid of Toxins

Environmental toxins, toxic mold, and air pollution are significant contributing factors in the development of Parkinson’s disease. Creating a healthy living environment at work and at home is essential for reducing your risk of Parkinson’s disease. To limit your exposure to neurotoxic pesticides, herbicides, and organochlorines, invest in high-quality filters for your drinking and bathing water. Berkey water filters are an excellent option. If you live in an urban or agricultural area where vehicle exhaust and pesticides are common, you may also want to purchase an air purifier, such as an IQAir machine, to filter the air in your home. IQAir machines filter ultrafine pollution particles down to 0.003 microns in size. For reference, the particulate matter pollution linked to PD is 2.5 microns in size, and neurotoxic mold spores range from 3 to 100 microns in size.

Speaking of mold, if you suspect your home has a mold problem, test for it! Mold and mycotoxins are harmful to the brain, and a mold problem should not be ignored if your goal is to prevent Parkinson’s disease and optimize your brain health. If you find mold in your home, you can get rid of it. If a mold problem is severe enough, you may need to consider moving to a new, mold-free environment.

You also need to look out for bisphenol A (BPA). Aluminum food and beverage containers feature a protective inner lining that contains BPA. In addition to being a potent endocrine disruptor, BPA interferes with the neurons that produce dopamine and may contribute to the development of Parkinson’s disease. People with Parkinson’s also have a decreased ability to detoxify BPA, which makes this chemical even more harmful. (50)

While “BPA-free” canned foods are available, the safety of BPA alternatives is questionable; in fact, recent research indicates that BPA alternatives may be just as toxic, if not more toxic, than BPA itself! For more information on BPA, including tips on how to avoid it, see my article “Re-examining the Evidence on BPA and Plastics.” To protect your brain health, focus on consuming fresh foods and limit your consumption of canned foods as much as possible.

7. Adopt a Regular Sleep Rhythm

Optimizing your circadian rhythm and improving your sleep promotes brain health and may reduce your risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. To optimize your rhythm, create a regular sleep–wake schedule and sleep in a room that is completely dark and free of light pollution from electronic devices. Avoid using blue light-emitting devices, such as computers and cell phones, several hours before bed. If you must use these devices, wear a pair of blue light-blocking glasses while doing so; the glasses prevent blue light from disrupting your sleep rhythm.

8. Turn to Botanicals

Several plant compounds have been studied for their neuroprotective effects. Curcumin, a bright yellow compound derived from turmeric root, is neuroprotective in Parkinson’s disease. (51) Sulforaphane, a phytochemical present in large quantities in broccoli sprouts, protects against rotenone-induced neurotoxicity; rotenone, as discussed above, is one of the key environmental toxins implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease. (52) Frequent consumption of green tea, rich in polyphenols such as EGCG, is associated with a reduced risk of PD. Green tea’s anti-PD properties include its ability to remove excess iron from the body. (53)

9. Get More Exercise

Substantial evidence indicates that physical exercise inhibits the progression of Parkinson’s disease by enhancing neuroplasticity and promoting the growth and survival of neurons. (54) Aerobic exercise appears to have the most favorable effects on brain health and Parkinson’s disease progression.

10. Reduce Your Stress

Since stress is a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, stress-reduction practices should be an integral part of a Parkinson’s disease prevention plan. Tai chi, yoga, and mindfulness training not only reduce stress but also improve mobility, balance, and quality of life for everyone, including those with Parkinson’s. (55, 56) Meditation, gratitude journaling, and spending time in nature are also excellent strategies for reducing stress and cultivating a resilient, healthy brain.

11. Try Light Therapy

Light therapy reduces the neurodegeneration typical in Parkinson’s. In animal models of PD, near-infrared light protects dopamine-producing neurons from cell death and improves motor symptoms by restoring normal cellular energy production and decreasing oxidative stress. (57) Several small human trials have shown that near-infrared light helps speech, cognition, gait, and “freezing episodes,” or moments where a person is temporarily unable to move. (58) Near-infrared light is typically administered either as low-level laser or LED (light-emitting diode) therapy. If you are interested in trying light therapy, I recommend seeking out a practitioner who has sufficient experience with the process. If you experience benefits from the treatment, you may eventually want to invest in an at-home light therapy unit. Near-infrared sauna therapy may also prevent Parkinson’s. I use a SaunaSpace sauna at home, and their single light panel is a great option if you’re short on space.

Now I want to hear from you. Would you consider trying the Parkinson’s disease interventions I’ve outlined in this article? Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Prevent Parkinson’s Disease with Diet and Lifestyle appeared first on Chris Kresser.

Source: http://chriskresser.com January 09, 2019 at 07:20PM

#paleo #recipe #food #delicious #healthy #yum #diet

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