Atrophy of Entropy

My new poetry book will be out on November 26th. Cover art by Lydia Lunch.

Speed Jive

I lost the. last thing I wished I had. I knew and neither spoke to me. I’m always the one talking people down off the ledge with a 44 pressed to my temple, painkillers and coke. I will hit rock bottom before anyone knows I’ve been in free fall. Give me one good reason to stop. “Give me one good reason not to do it.” Sang Elliott Smith. He did it. 

Not my fault I can live through so much, at 95lbs some of the shots should’ve killed me three times over. The sedated life is like a black & white photo starting to blur. One more year and I don’t know if I want to see it. 

I wish it weren’t so fucking obvious. Liars hate liars. I lie to survive. Surviving was enough but it’s time to make my mark or bow out before I make a fool of myself. Why did it have to be the guy that hated me for how I used? 

How I now use. Why did you lie to me and say all those things when you just wanted him? My final mistake was stopping shooting drugs  because maybe you’d love me if I changed. I changed and shit just got worse. I’d rather be high than the idiot in the middle who hasn’t been told he’s out of the game. 

Now I write my own rules. No I am not better than IVing, no sniffing it aint much safer, or smoking or drinking. I am better than amateur games dressed in designer ripped jeans. Risk vs reward. I took the risk a thousand times and so collect the reward, which the majority of could not imagine in their sanitized little lives. 

The thrill that with every hit you might die only doubles the excitement. Whats life without challenging death regularly? It’s a playpen, a leash, a security blanket. It is not life but existence. I lived through pleasure and pain most can’t begin to wrap their heads around, extremes of humanity just to touch the edge of reality. To become a seer. A prophet, a poet, a Demigod hearing beautiful music and rushing trains.

If death takes me take me fast. Party hard. No regrets, no borders, go go go go like Kerouac or Burrough’s. My blood is a one man chemical cocktail party, even vampires OD on me. Repulsion and disease over boredom and unease any day. I’d rather die doing what I love than wither alone. Maybe stay home, I’m a bleeder & feeling artistic tonight.

–Jack Blare

New Book

I’ll be releasing a new book of poems next month on Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. as well as in person for those who are interested. Still coming up with the cover and title but it’s about addiction, anomie, autism and navigating a rapidly changing society. If these things or the poetry you read here interest you the new book might too.

Neuralli: Another Facebook Health Scam

After a sabbatical from the online world I’ve returned. This is truly independent media. I don’t get paid for this, I represent no political party or group but myself. Today we’re going to take a look at Neuralli, a probiotic that boasts reduced symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, depression and anxiety by increasing serotonin and dopamine levels in the gut naturally. I decided to visit their website to learn a bit more about this dubious claim.

Dopamine and serotonin. Two completely misunderstood neurotransmitters. Too little dopamine you have no interest in life and develop movement disorders. Too much and you risk psychosis. Serotonin is important for sleep, interpersonal relationships and certain kinds of pleasure. Anxiolytics almost as a rule bind to the GABA receptor which regulates inhibition, sleep, anxiety and seizures. Serotonin in the gut does not cross the blood-brain barrier without a carrier. Same with dopamine, also available in pure form as L-Dopa.

Vyvanse, Adderall, Ritalin are the three most common ADHD medications. They work by releasing or blocking re-uptake of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin. They are also all stimulants that lower the seizure threshold and cause anxiety as a side-effect. This is claiming that a mix of neurochemicals responsible for the stimulant high of meth, cocaine dexedrine and MDMA is going to reduce anxiety AND ADHD symptoms.

They are not “happy hormones” as the site advertises. What about NMDA receptors and their obvious connection to depression? That’s why ketamine therapy works instantly. Happiness is also directly related to the extensive endocannibanoid and opioid receptor systems. This doesn’t effect endorphin or endocannibanoid levels at all, nor Sigma receptors, AMPA kainite receptors, the glycine receptor or GHB receptor. (Yes GHB is naturally present in every human being.)

Natural does not mean healthy. Strychnine is natural as is morphine, cocaine, anthrax and nightshade. Don’t worry though according to these studies it maybe reduces Parkinson’s in rats. ASD doesn’t respond well to typical and more powerful serotonin or dopamine boosters. What exactly is the binding profile of PS128? We have the technology to compare how strongly it binds to any yet discovered receptor in vitro. If serotonin and dopamine were all we needed to be happy then we’d all be on dexedrine, which happens to be the number one ADHD med and increases levels of both.

A lot of people with ASD find the idea of treating it as a disease to be medicated away insulting. We have to function like you or you see us as ill, in need of treatment. ASD itself doesn’t need treatment. Anxiety and depression caused by a society that views us as outsiders to be fixed by the next new health craze with most of your product reports coming from parents, not patients. As it is not a pharmaceutical it has not gone through clinical trials nor does it have FDA approval. In fact since probiotics are natural they can’t be patented so anyone can sell this.

There are some studies showing promise “However, we did not find significant correlations between changes in salivary cortisol levels and changes in depression, anxiety, or perceived stress. Although this might indicate that the main mechanisms by which PS128TM alleviates depression or anxiety may not be strongly associated with the HPA axis, other possibilities of decreased intestinal permeability or anti-inflammatory effects by bacterial colonization still need to be taken into consideration (61). Further studies with larger sample sizes, placebo comparisons, and examination of inflammatory or neuroendocrinal biomarkers are needed to clarify whether the improvements may be due to adaptive immune, metabolic, or neural pathways.” -From their own website.

Since autism is a spectrum disorder “symptoms” vary widely from person to person. ADHD and autism spectrum are not necessarily co-morbid. Most disturbingly all the studies are on autistic children, most of which were carried out in Taiwan. Children are not capable of providing informed consent. This product is based on research carried out on CHILDREN with their parents consent to try and “control” their less convenient emotions. Now you are pushing a highly suspect “health product” on more delusional parents looking for an easy fix.

5-HTP should be available at any local pharmacy for about ten bucks. It’s a serotonin booster. For natural anxiety treatments valerian, lemon balm, THC, CBD, CBN, magnolia bark, apigenin all for about $10, less if you buy the raw herb. St John’s Wort is a natural SSRI in use for millennia. Kava is also cheap, natural widely available and is a reversible MAOI B inhibitor, meaning it slows the natural breakdown of dopamine leaving more and hence alleviating depression and anxiety.

Neuralli is $140.25 USD/bottle and not covered by health insurance. That could pay for full bottles of every other natural supplement I just mentioned with money left over. Or several prescriptions for generic pharmaceuticals.

Crazy but weed helped me a lot with sleep, anxiety and chronic stomach problems as well as socializing. Now everyone is different but $140 US buys an ounce here and since legalization the effects of each strain have become a science. Microdoses of mushrooms, lysergamides and tryptamine are becoming widespread for treating depression and anxiety despite technically being illegal yet those things are still vastly cheaper than these probiotics.

After years writing content for the natural health and pharmaceutical industries inconsistencies aren’t hard to spot. Consider your options before investing in this and recognize that treating your children against their will for “problematic” behaviour might well cause them to resent you in a couple of years. Just as homosexuality and promiscuity were treated with electroshock therapy forty years ago, and “deviate behaviour” including autism was treated with a pre-frontal lobotomy. An extreme example but I believe in the future forcibly medicating autistic children will be viewed with the same disgust. None of the studies cited are long-term and the autism studies only seem to involve children despite it being a lifelong disorder.

–Jack Blare

Pharmaceutical/Natural Health Content Writer .

Diagnosed with ASD ten years ago.

Dealing with depression and anxiety for 33 years.

For more information:

Neuralli – PS128 medical probiotic