Yeah, sure. Anxiety and depression affect one emotionally and mentally but it surely doesn’t end there. I have had stomach digestion issues and minor (usually) headaches for as long as I can remember, even as far back as those days when parents assured children they didn’t get headaches.

Being that my stomach is a much more pressing issue, I went to a GI specialist over a year ago. I have undergone an endoscopy, ultrasound, and other scans only to show that there is nothing physically wrong with my stomach. No allergies (except seasonal) and no major food intolerances (that I’ve been able to notice, except large amounts of lactose). A friend of mine has very similar stomach issues and she has found out that its due to a lack of ‘communication’ between the brain’s serotonin and the stomach. Somehow Irritable Bowel Syndrome comes into play. Many will assume that its simply the anxiety that creates the digestive problems. But perhaps not being able to digest anything can make you anxious? According to my research, the actual reason for the correlation isn’t too clear.

Depression and anxiety can be very painful. I have read that somehow sufferers of anxiety and depression can be in a lot of physical pain, even if the emotional pain is minimal. As I mentioned previously, I was severely depressed in high school but somewhere in college and moving out to Los Angeles afterwards helped me to have this great outlook. It was also when I realized my atheism that was the final push to be optimistic and generally happy. I had finally inhaled the true beautiful purpose of nature.

However, my stomach issues greatly worsened. Sure, I dealt with career and family stress as just about anyone does, but it didn’t stand to reason. Why do I always feel like crap?

After speaking to my friend more, she informed me of the regimen her doctor put her on: Zoloft, peppermint tea, fiber supplements, and probiotics. The combination is supposed to work together for a period of time, teaching your body how to digest food properly. She has been lessening the Zoloft and feeling better. She’s not a skeptic, but still a smart science-minded individual. Of course, I began a bunch of internet research. Then, I asked some skeptic friends on their thoughts (mostly regarding the probiotics).

Peppermint seems to be known to minimize the contractions in the stomach but much isn’t known. There haven’t been many tests. Though, according to what I have seen so far, it seems likely. What about probiotics? I listened to the QuackCast on Probiotics, #16. And didn’t get many definitive answers. Mark left it a bit open in some areas, which left me confused but also hopeful. Hopeful that it could potentially help and hopeful that it isn’t alternative medicine.

So I asked my doctor. At first, I spoke to my doctor in LA who gave me a Prozac script, but only until I could see a local doctor. My new doctor agreed that that could likely be it: the anxiety, depression, and IBS amalgam. Especially after I informed her all the tests I took part in, she prescribed me more Prozac and gave me probiotics samples of a specific strain. She said she takes them daily. I also spoke to my aunt who is a nurse (and a skeptic) who heads the nursing department; she said that the probiotics won’t hurt you unless they are packaged incorrectly or you take more than the recommended dosage. I figured I had nothing to lose since I had the samples already so I began taking those in addition to the fiber and Prozac.

The Prozac has calmed me down greatly. If just for that, its a wonderful drug (for me, anyway). However, something seems to be working. I did get really sick prior to and during TAM, but other than that I have been feeling a lot better. Then, I ran out of probiotics and went sans for a few days. My stomach went crazy. Let’s just leave it at that. In my attempt to delineate any placebo reactions from real progress, I am simply unable to. My doctor is of the thought that whatever gets you to feel better, then what’s the difference? I’m not so sure but I ran out and got some of those same probiotics and was very careful to only buy that strain (just in case). I’m not certain if it is what has been helping but I’ll give it a little while longer before I can fully decide. Thoughts?

On a side note, I also haven’t had caffeine for months. Other than napping a lot more, I haven’t had any negative side effects. It definitely was upsetting my stomach. But what doesn’t? Oy.

EDIT: Actually, I do enjoy small amounts chocolate but no coffee or caffeinated tea.

• A woman’s last name (5)
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If we’re all God’s children. What’s so special about Jesus?

Never mind the punctuation error. It’s still funny.

Found via Reddit.

• Bible Death Match (7)
• The Friendly Atheist is under attack! Oh noes! (2)
• The Bible (1)

So what do I notice in a photo such as this?

That is one pale crowd. Look! Eric and I with one of the few non-whites at The Skepchick Party. BTW, Hemant truly is a Friendly Atheist.

So, yes, the skeptic and atheist crowds could use a few more people of color. I do realize that this could be a very expensive trip (it’s even expensive for locals) so that would subtract a large number of people of skeptics from the actual attendees at TAM. But c’mon. It’s true, a lot more women have come out and have their faces shown. But they’re still mostly white faces. Quite frankly, it was the most tolerant room full of white people I’ve ever seen.

• Why Aren’t More Women Atheists? (13)
• Indian man avoids washing to ensure his next child will be male (3)
• Christian Superiority (2)

It’s come to this. We’ve been facing a steady erosion of talent here at Scienceblogs, with the loss of good people like Carl Zimmer and Ed Yong a while back, and with the very abrupt departure of 15 bloggers after the recent PepsiCo debacle — an event that damaged the reputation of this place. And now just yesterday we lost PalMD and Bora. Something is going rotten here. What could it be?

…

This is going to hurt. I like blogging; I do this for fun, and because I want to get my message out there. I also know what effect it will have on my traffic if I stop posting, because you’re all a sensible lot and you’re not going to waste time reading a site that has nothing new to say. I just checked, and I’m in the midst of a bit of a traffic surge, with almost 190,000 page views yesterday alone…and that’s going to decline precipitously. I get paid for that traffic, too, so it’s going to hurt my pocketbook. My wife has already given me one of her long-suffering looks when I told her what I had to do, but then, I get those from her all the time, as you might expect. Sorry, my check will be smaller this month, on top of the salary reductions my university has announced.

So now its time for everyone to step up their game and keep the atheist community entertained in the meantime. We’ll miss you PZ.

EDIT: D’oh! I forgot to link. PZ on Strike.

I’m not whole-heartedly surprised in this one but, nonetheless, its still offensive and unfair.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Hamas-run government in Gaza on Sunday said it had banned women from smoking water pipes in public, as fear of the police drove many cafe owners to extinguish the popular pastime.

“The police have decided to ban women from smoking water pipes in open, public places because it is against our customs, traditions and social norms,” interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP.

Read the rest of the story here.

Water pipes now? Hookahs? Bongs, too?

I don’t have much to say about this nuttiness except religious extremism has once again gone further than I ever imagined it would. It is any religion in the first place that sets up allowances for these types of extremism. Trying to establish a notion of religion being untouchable from criticism enables ignorant and hateful acts to commence. However this specific brand of misogyny is just getting sicker. I keep waiting for some type of reformation from the Islamic community, if only for the freedom of these women who typically cannot escape their situation. If not from god, at least from the man who physically holds them down.

The old and new testament are not kind to women. It’s kind of a big sticking point for me. Yet, Jews and Christians have still found a way to not demean women, at least not publicly or by law. Many conservative (Christian or Jewish) women in America still spew out the servitude bullshit that vexes the veins under my very skin. While I see no excuse for willingly making yourself subservient because an old books tells you to, it’s still a bit better than what generally goes on in the Islamic community. Ill be here waiting for that Islamic reformation. And I’ll be waiting for a long time.

• What is a Jewmanist anyway? (0)
• Western morality is not the ‘Jewish Way’ (11)
• She’s Jewish! She’s Controversial! She’s 18 inches Tall! (3)

I’m not a beer fan, but this is cool nonetheless.

In the early part of fall 2008, a small Danish brewery, Bryggeriet Djævlebryg, released a new Imperial Stout titled, “Gudeløs.” Those translate to “Devil’s Brew” and “Godless” in English. The beer caused a small stir and even earned a few mentions in the mainstream press here in the U.S. despite only being available in Europe.

Read more on Gudelos.

For those with drunken godless stories, they should be submitted here. Also, sober stories are welcome.

• What’s the point? (0)
• What Women Should Want (0)
• The Miracles of Nature (5)

I know I’ve slacked on reporting about TAM8. So here ya go. I only paid for Saturday’s events and got sick (most likely from stress) early on Thursday. It lasted right on through ’til Sunday so I missed even more events that I originally planned on. I know a lot of people got sick as well after their stay at South Point but mine came prior. (And this kind of anxiety sickness isn’t a stranger to me.) Luckily, Eric was able to get all the best photos. If you recall, I live in Vegas now, so we went to South Point  for Drinking Skeptically Thursday night. We had a great time but didn’t stay very late. We had a friend coming in the next day for Friday night hanging out and Saturday’s events. So, Friday night we checked in early for Saturday and did the aforementioned hanging out with friends we knew and just met. Eric did a wonderful job in posting photos shortly after TAM. I suggest you check them all out!

In the meantime, here’s me with Mr. Deity! (Aka Brian Keith Dalton)

As you can see, I got buttoned out…

They are free for download and use sans watermarks. Check them all out now, if you know what’s good for you.

• The Skeptic Movement surely could use more People of Color (1)
• TAM8 and South Point (0)
• Next Stop: Vegas! (0)

As many of you may or may not know, I will be attending TAM8. Since the upcoming convention will be at South Point and we are now Vegas locals, my hubby and I visited the hotel today to check it out ahead of time. Eric has kindly compiled a post of photos taken at the location (mostly by him, some of me).

• The Skeptic Movement surely could use more People of Color (1)
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• The IIG Awards Honors James Randi (1)