Enlightened via https://xitter.cf/t.co/bRbwiodDZz Groundlessness, but, like, hyperanalytical. 10k-20k+ hours like water flowing downhill
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Joined June 2014
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My old follows are utterly filled with weird sun twitters. All collected in a private list now as I clean house. There were so many
🤔 [claude opus 5.5]
How do I get a complete list of every persistent virus in my body?
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Searched the web
Short answer: there’s no single test that can give you a truly complete list, but you can get surprisingly close with two approaches, each covering the other’s blind spots.
Why “complete” is hard. Many persistent viruses hide in tissues rather than circulating in blood. Herpes simplex and varicella-zoster (chickenpox/shingles) sit latent in nerve ganglia; Epstein-Barr hides in B cells; JC and BK polyomaviruses live quietly in the kidneys; papillomaviruses persist in skin and mucosa. A blood sample won’t contain most of these viruses directly. Separately, roughly 8% of your genome is ancient endogenous retroviruses, which no one counts as an “infection” but are technically viral DNA you carry permanently.
Approach 1: antibody testing (what you’ve been infected with). Your immune system keeps antibodies against viruses it has met, so IgG serology is the best proxy for “what’s persisting in me.” A doctor can order a targeted panel for the main lifelong ones: HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, EBV, CMV, HHV-6, HHV-8, hepatitis B and C, HIV, and HTLV-1/2. The broad version of this idea is VirScan, from Stephen Elledge’s lab at Harvard. It looks for antibodies your body produced against earlier viral infections and can detect past exposure to more than 1,000 strains from 206 species. Caveats: it can miss some small infections and may confuse two related viruses, and it can’t distinguish a virus that’s still persisting from one you cleared (like most flu or cold viruses). As far as I know it’s still mainly a research tool rather than something you can order from a regular lab, though the phage-display approach behind it has been licensed and used in some research and commercial settings; asking an academic immunology lab or a research study is the likeliest route. upper waypoint +2
Approach 2: sequencing (what’s actually present now). Metagenomic sequencing of blood cell-free DNA (e.g., the Karius test, used clinically for hard-to-diagnose infections) detects viral genetic material directly. It reliably finds things like anelloviruses, which nearly everyone carries harmlessly, plus anything actively replicating. But it misses viruses that are latent in nerves or organs, it’s expensive, and it’s usually only ordered when there’s a clinical reason.
Realistic plan: ask your doctor for a persistent-virus serology panel (the list above), which insurance may or may not cover without symptoms. If you want breadth beyond that, look for a research VirScan or PhIP-seq study. Combining antibody results with what’s known about which viruses establish latency gives you the closest thing to a complete list that current science allows.
Sources:
KQED: How this new blood test reveals your history of viral infections
KQED (alt): VirScan limitations
The human brain is INSANELY good at untangling high-dimensional time-varying causal structure. That includes your brain.
The Roche diagram makes me v angry, not because it’s (not) inspiring and beautiful and exciting, because it is, but because people wield it to intimidate people out of gaining knowledge of their own bodies.
The inputs and outputs are v simple:
inputs: essential and conditionally essential micronutrients found all on one page on Wikipedia; em wavelengths from uvb to IR, time, temperature, sleep, movement, fun, people
outputs: do you feel good
if not, tweak inputs, wait, check outputs again, repeat
The Roche diagram makes me v angry, not because it’s (not) inspiring and beautiful and exciting, because it is, but because people wield it to intimidate people out of gaining knowledge of their own bodies.
The inputs and outputs are v simple:
inputs: essential and conditionally essential micronutrients found all on one page on Wikipedia; em wavelengths from uvb to IR, time, temperature, sleep, movement, fun, people
outputs: do you feel good
if not, tweak inputs, wait, check outputs again, repeat
everyone i rmeove will go to a list which i can programmatically check whenever to see if someone has started poasting again
🎃 Mark 👻 🟡⚪️🟣⚫️ retweeted
I always considered myself a well-rounded person. Then I got a PhD and became an expert on a topic that only 7 people understand. Four of them think I’m an idiot.
In the eating whole blocks of cheese phase of what is my body doing right now (deep squat and immune reconstitution era)
🎃 Mark 👻 🟡⚪️🟣⚫️ retweeted
feels like half my job as a tai chi teacher is just encouraging students to keep trying. progress is slow and sometimes invisible. the only thing you need to get better is persistence. the worst students will become the best since the best have already quit
n=1 it is indeed v anti-inflammatory, at least below some threshold, with adequate micros
I basically have never drunk alcohol almost ever, in part because alcoholism runs on both sides of my family, but via @ChrisMasterjohn I’ve been drinking a 1/2 oz of vodka around lunchtime every day for a couple months.
Big sustained quality of life improvement—fifteen more minutes of deep sleep each night, at minimum, and probably other things.
(Emphasis on “at noon” (not at night) and “1/2 oz”—I measure it.)
ymmv; I have no nutrient deficiencies!
I basically have never drunk alcohol almost ever, in part because alcoholism runs on both sides of my family, but via @ChrisMasterjohn I’ve been drinking a 1/2 oz of vodka around lunchtime every day for a couple months.
Big sustained quality of life improvement—fifteen more minutes of deep sleep each night, at minimum, and probably other things.
(Emphasis on “at noon” (not at night) and “1/2 oz”—I measure it.)
ymmv; I have no nutrient deficiencies!