I still wonder if your son might be dealing with a type of long Covid or some kind of damage post Covid. If you search for “long Covid” or “Covid” and “insulin resistance” you’ll get a number of articles. I follow a lot of Bikman’s research and see if he has anything to say. Your son’s glucose numbers after eating seem okay and diet as well. If you want to check surges in insulin, Bikman suggests taking blood pressure readings. You’d do these throughout the day to gauge how he tends to be.

Did his doctor have anything to say about the results? Yes, not getting enough quality sleep can cause insulin resistance. A sleep study might shed some light. See what his doctor thinks. You can use an app to check for episodes of snoring during sleep. SnoreLab is one. It records throughout the night and allows you to check the results the following day. Some mouth breathers tape their mouth at night. If he were to try this, he could use a mouth tape and apply it vertically so that the sides of his mouth can still open and draw in air. Sleeping on his side might help, too. A1c and blood glucose can be normal when insulin is high, especially initially. That’s not unusual. Building more muscle can help because muscle cells can take in glucose directly. Starches might be causing insulin spikes. Benjamin Bikman. who researches insulin, might be worth following on social media for awhile. He has also written a book. Virta Health could be worth trying also. The patient wears a continuous glucose monitor (cgm) that records blood glucose periodically throughout the day. Results are then discussed the next morning with a healthcare provider who would make suggestions. Virta was started by Sami Inkinen, a world-class athlete who was diagnosed with insulin resistance and studied by Stanford researchers. His story is interesting. Your son’s desire to be healthy will help him immensely. Just has to figure out what’s going on.

I agree. It is an insidious virus. The secondary effects are the most worrisome, imo — long Covid, the possibility of cardiovascular damage and events, dementia, cancer, damaged immune systems. We should be concentrating studies in these areas and why it is happening and we need to stop the message that it is just a respiratory infection. In the meantime, do what you can to prevent getting infected. I had to go in to urgent care this week for a corneal abrasion and was happy to see everyone there was masking as was I.

If the plywood is in decent shape, you could also paint or stencil the floor. You could even lay out carpets and just paint or stencil the areas around them and maybe a bit of floor under the carpet. I’ve seen some that are quite pretty. Cost shouldn’t be too much and chunks of it could be done over time. When your husband is ready to put in the poplar flooring, there shouldn’t be too much prep to do. I am in Illinois and saw LVP tiles at Menards for 79 cents per sq ft. These are floating floors so fairly easy to install and not pricey.

Floor & Decor almost always has particular flooring selections on clearance. You could save money and get the floor you want (and need). Would wood-look luxury vinyl planks be acceptable? They are easy to install and you can get tongue in groove, interlocking, cork backed, water and dent resistant at F&D. I’ve seen LVP there go for about $2/sq ft on clearance. You’ll want to figure out why the windows aren’t opening. Sounds like they’re white vinyl? Not painted?

If you know what you’re getting into and understand how to accomplish the work correctly, then go for it. Also, you’d want to have a history of genuinely getting things done. If not, I’d pass. Remodeling takes some know how and a lot of patience.

Are the anxious feelings always there? Does her anxiety spike such as when she feels suicidal? Is it there all the time or occasionally like a sudden, intrusive thought? I wonder if keeping a log could give you some clues as to something that brings them on. Started around age 14 when big brain changes begin could be a clue. Could a Covid infection have exacerbated things? Microbiome or vagus nerve might be playing a role. Probiotic pills might not help but eating specific foods might. Does she keep a food log?

The dry mouth sounds like sicca which could be affecting his eyes, too. Dry eyes can sometimes be helped by increasing omega 3s. To increase his potassium, would he be willing to drink some coconut water? Costco’s Kirkland brand has no added sugar and has about 600 mg of potassium. A serving per day or so could help bring his numbers up. A fasting insulin test might also offer some clues. Insulin can be high for years before blood glucose numbers look unhealthy. I am also wondering if your son has a form of long Covid. The Covid virus, or inflammatory remnants of it, appear to be able to linger long after the initial infection goes away. Dr. Seheult, quadruple board certified and one of the MedCram doctors, has quite a few videos about Covid including this one where he discusses using near infrared light to tamp down the pro-inflammatory effects of Covid spike proteins. Seheult discusses how near infrared light was used in the study. It’s not difficult or dangerous (it is not UV light). A red/near infrared light belt costs about $100 on Amazon and can be done at home. This is the study Seheult discusses in the video above: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8451450/pdf/KCIB_14_1965718.pdf MedCram has other videos about Covid and red/infrared light therapy (photobiomodulation) as well.

I breathe in blenderized salt particles whenever I have a cough. Breathing in the salt usually causes me to cough a bit but it does a good job clearing out the mucus. Doing this shortly before bed seems to help the most. Might take a few days to a week or so to clear up a lingering cough. Just add 1/4 cup of salt to a blender, put on the lid, puree for a minute or so, turn off and then remove lid and breathe in the salt cloud through the mouth. I just keep the same salt in there for 3-4 days to reuse before switching out. Here is a short article about halotherapy (salt therapy), including when you shouldn’t use it. https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-halotherapy

I have had no problems wearing a mask in Illinois thankfully and will wear one wherever I feel it’s necessary. It is pretty awful that states are even considering legislating against wearing them. That’s alarming. Covid is just way too capable of doing tremendous damage. The initial symptoms might be similar to a very bad cold or lung infection but the damage it can do throughout the body is a huge Yikes! for me. No thanks.

We have stayed before in Tarrytown, NY, and then travelled to Grand Central Station on the Hudson Train Line. It was an easy commute. Took about an hour. You would be not too far from your destination. Pam in CT might have some ideas, too. Maybe send her a message?

My youngest had them. He experienced paralysis and hallucinations. He did what gardenmom does and it helped immensely. Baland Jalal is an expert on sleep paralysis if you want to follow some of the research.

Some people love pruning. I am one of those people. However, how often you prune depends on the plant and what you’re trying to achieve. I could easily have selectively pruned (not a fan of shearing) my old privet hedge four times during the growing season because it grew incredibly fast. With my Hicks yews hedge I would prune them before their first flush of growth and then lightly after the first and second flushes of growth just to tidy up areas that were out of line. You could tell your boarder that too much pruning, especially at the wrong times of the season, can do more harm than good. Pruning causes the plant to send messages throughout itself that it has been cut and needs to be repaired. The cut is an open wound that can let in pathogens that can cause disease. Sterilizing cutting tool blades before and while pruning can help prevent disease but even rain and wind can introduce these pathogens. It can also cause the plant to push out new growth which initially will be soft and will need time to harden off. This is especially important to remember in fall right before freezing weather arrives; new growth dies back more easily. All these things are stressors to the plant. Maybe he could take over a different, safer chore in your yard. It sounds like he enjoys being outside.

Here are the four steps that Jeffrey Schwartz has his patients use to help stop their OCD. Schwartz is a psychiatrist and researcher at UCLA, iirc, who studies OCD and neuroplasticity. 1. Label the emotion. Labeling manages fear and stress responses. Try to use nuanced vocabulary. 2. Say to yourself: “This is a faulty brain circuit. It is not me.” This separates you from the emotion. 3. Focus on a pleasant image or activity. This creates a new brain circuit that eventually will replace the old one. 4. Revalue and discard the unhealthy emotional response. Mentally toss it away as best as you can. Type out the four steps above and carry them in a wallet, etc so that you can do these whenever intrusive thoughts appear. If this started around the time Covid appeared, I would suspect she might have had a physical change in her microbiome and/or vagus nerve. If you google microbiome (or vagus nerve) and anxiety, you can find some helpful articles. Medscape will email newsletters to you on news about particular health issues. You might find that useful. You can sign up for free. ETA You could also consider testing for insulin resistance. That can play a role in anxiety as well.

Costco has some travel pants in store currently. They are cropped just slightly above the ankle. Look neat and tidy, don’t wrinkle, seem to be easy to hand wash, quick dry. Has a clever disguised front zipper pocket on the thigh. Colors are black, a lighter teal blue and a lighter orange. Price is $15-ish? Can’t remember. I bought 3 pairs.