DIY:
DIY lens could turn phone into microscope - MedicalPhysicsWeb
While making PDMS using conventional moulds, Lee noticed that droplets of spilled gel that had hardened overnight in the oven were lens-shaped. He showed them to a friend who is a medical doctor, who pointed out that there is a demand for medical-imaging lenses that are simple and cheap to make.
Images of human tissue taken using a PDMS lens (left) and an Olympus BX 51 microscope. The field of view is about 750 Āµm wide. Image courtesy of: Biomedical Optics Express
To show that the lenses can be used for practical medical applications, the team has created a simple "clip-on" device that converts a smartphone into a "dermascope": a medical device that is used to diagnose skin cancers and that can cost $500 or more. Built for about $2 using a 3D printer, the device integrates a lens, battery and a light-emitting diode (LED) into an imaging module that can be attached to a smartphone.
It doesnāt surprise me to see that vitamin C looks so dynamic.
In my anecdotal experience with it, I havenāt been sick with even just a common cold for many years now since I learned to drink a few swigs of orange juice (with lots of pulp) every couple of days throughout the week. Even friends who were highly skeptical have come around on this after many years. Itās undeniable since I started my OJ regimen I just donāt get fricken sick anymore despite being around plenty of sick, sneezy people in stores, sick loved ones and friends, sick kids, filthy thrift stores with grubby stuff I get my hands all over, heavy flu seasons and cold ass winters in Colorado.
Iām not even using expensive, fresh squeezed OJ, itās the ācrap from the vatā that Tropicana and Simply Orange sells as ānot from concentrateā and reintroduces essence of orange flavor (from the actual orange) later to make up for the otherwise poor taste induced from the shitty, heated vat storage. Itās processed, but at least the processing doesnāt involve anything but the natural orange itself, heat and pasteurization ā so Iām cool with it. The flavor packets they add is all processed orange parts. No artificial colors, chemical flavorings or preservatives. Fresh squeezed is an expensive hassle and Iām not getting sick with my current OJ, period.
At least with my particular physiological setup, vitamin C dispersed into my body through this silly OJ method has removed cold and flu from my life. It doesnāt exist for me whether I have lack of sleep, exercise or both.
Iāve also noted that itās perhaps altered my pH levels or something. If I get lazy and skip OJ for a while, I notice that once I get back on the OJ wagon it tastes far more acidic and feels more acidic in my belly. But, as I get back into the regimen of swigging it every couple of days again consistently, it slowly becomes less acidic tasting and I begin to throughly enjoy it again with a refreshing taste I crave and without any acidic feelings in my stomach, mouth, throat, etc.
I know thereās a lot of natural sugar in the OJ I use, but I literally only take a small squig or two every couple of days. One 59 oz container lasts me about a week to a week and a half.
Iām a pretty firm believer that the best way to properly absorb certain nutrients and vitamins is through food when itās practical and affordable.
For example, in my opinion foods deliver nutrients into my body as catalystic containers (as I ridiculously call them). I can eat straight up potassium supplements all day long and piss it out, but I eat a banana and Iāve got myself an extremely complex, badass, potassium delivery system thatās evolved to break down throughout my digestive system in ways that pills cannot compete with.
MRI of banana flower (link to full size)
This applies to many things (including fish) and this ties into the need for an enteric coating on the fish oil I take. Fish oil thatās distilled to remove impurities is the only supplement I take since itās more practical than cooking stinky fish every night and dealing with the elevated dioxin and mercury that comes along with a fish diet nowadays.
I donāt pretend to know how exactly the OJ (with lots of pulp) properly implements the vitamin C, etc. within my body to make me impervious to cold and flu all these years, but I do know I havenāt been sick at all since I started.
Thank you, vitamin C from OJ.
Disclaimers:
ā¢ I am probably just a freak of nature, this weirdness may not work for anyone else. I may be slowly dying from this regimen. But, if youāve tried it in a similar way as I have and you donāt get sick or illness becomes very rare, please let me know. I want to know if Iām just a weird anomaly. Or, if you try it and get different, shitty results, please let me know so I can tell you youāre doing it wrong.
ā¢ Research shows that for most people, vitamin C supplements or vitamin C-rich foods do not reduce the risk of getting the common cold.
ā¢ However, people who take vitamin C supplements regularly might have slightly shorter colds or somewhat milder symptoms.
ā¢ Taking a vitamin C supplement after a cold starts does not appear to be helpful.
ā¢ I am not opposed whatsoever to flu vaccines. I just donāt need them and, yes, Iāve been exposed to flu many times over the years since I started my OJ thing including being in a hospital with a loved one for extended periods of time during peak flu seasons.
ā¢ If you do decide to try this, contact your doctor first and tell them a nutjob on the Internet sent you.
As far as enteric coasted fish oil goes. Donāt listen to me, listen to the prestigious Mayo clinic and as with anything above, seriously see a doctor before doing anything I do.
There are specific fish oil supplies you can purchase that do not contribute in any significant way to the collapse of fisheries in the oceans. Research it. Also, I never take fish oil that isnāt enteric coated. If a label doesnāt mention any enteric coating, I find that the fish oil is (almost) worthless even if itās the super expensive, āfancyā kinds versus cheap, Walmart enteric coated capsules.
Iāve seen where enteric coated fish oil can cause people painful digestion problems if they are prone to problems or have previous gastrointestinal illnesses. If you have those issues, there are other ways besides enteric fish oil capsules to get the benefits, but youāll have to research them.
Although not having to deal with fish burps is nice, the reason I only use enteric coated fish oil capsules is so theyāll be properly absorbed in the small intestines after protecting long-chain fatty acids from hydrolysis in gastric acidity in the stomach, etc.
Iāve found that enteric coated fish oil in moderation helps me in all kinds of ways (limits headaches and grogginess if I lack sleep, vastly better memory, mood enhancer despite my ornery nature, better sleep, better weight control, no heart palps with lack of sleep, I seem to be aging slower in some ways, etc.) after about a decade of testing. Too good to be true? Probably, I guess. Just my genetics, maybe with placebo effect in tow perhaps, but Iāve seen major differences while experimenting (Iād stop taking it for extended periods to see what happens and journaled it).
Beware that fish oil supplements can thin your blood to some extent. But, in my own case Iāve sliced my arms and legs open ritually while mountain biking here (Iāll be releasing Go-Pro style videos to heavy soundtracks after this summer) and even with deep, vicious cuts I wasnāt getting unusual bleeding, but your mileage may certainly vary.
Finally, for all I know all of this is just an extremely effective placebo effect so donāt get your hopes upā¦ or do get your hopes up and perhaps join me in my delusional, placebo fish oil bliss.
wow, youāve got a lot to say on these topics! i suspect that vitamin C is absorbable enough to not need a ābinderā, as potassium does. potassium supplementation is probably also a good idea, especially if you drink coffee since this can reduce the availability of potassium greatly. i found a brand of protein powder which has quite a bit of potassium (in addition to other desirable qualities), and use this regularly. [added: potassium depletion by coffee is well-documented and though caffeine-induced diuresis is definitely a contributing factor, it may not be the only one.]
i can only add that if you take a lot of ascorbic acid at once (about 10 grams), it has some very mild hallucinogenic/entheogenic-type effects. on the downside, youāll exude a sort of metallic smell and it will screw with your digestion a bit.
i suspect that vitamin C is absorbable enough to not need a ābinderā, as potassium does.
As far as vitamin C being absorbable enough as to not need a ābinderā, that may be true, but most experts recommend getting vitamin C from a diet high in fruits and vegetables rather than taking supplements.
For me itās not just about pure absorption, itās about the rate of absorption and where it gets absorbed into the body among many other factors. ā In my view, our bodies have (literally) evolved to best absorb minerals, nutrients, etc. and utilize them from the very food weāve (literally) evolved ourselves through cultivation along with natural selection.
Thatās why the only supplement I do take, fish oil, is enteric coated so it better simulates the absorption process and rate of absorption I would get by eating fish. Fish oil in capsule form is basically just processed, concentrated fish unlike many other supplements which attempt to simply give me a specific vitamin, etc. that cannot match the complexity of how food breaks down and delivers it into my body. Even powders that attempt to replicate this process fail miserably in matching the complicated process of food, in my view.
For this reason, if it were practical, Iād choose fish over fish oil, but unfortunately the reality of too much mercury and dioxin in many fish supplies I would enjoy to eat has ruined that for me. I only eat fish on occasion, so I begrudgingly supplement it with fish oil.
Thatās not to say that thereās not other perhaps superior ways to get Omega 3ās, etc. for other people, but enteric coated fish oil is what appears to work best with my particular physiology.
potassium supplementation is probably also a good idea, especially if you drink coffee since this can reduce the availability of potassium greatly.
Agreed, but I enjoy bananas and other foods high in potassium which in my opinion deliver it in a much more efficient manner for reasons I mentioned in my paragraphs above. In my opinion, most supplements canāt stand up to the evolutionary complexity in which actual food delivers vitamins, nutrients, etc.
Even if someone gets blood work done and measures levels of specific vitamins within their body, I think that only tells a part of the story. Even if the blood work is checked daily over weeks, months and years, thereās too much going on in between and far around those simplistic test levels.
Some of which are things that I donāt believe we fully understand yet because there hasnāt been enough research on this topic and/or it gets distorted by various industries that have ulterior motives in presenting flawed research. For example, I donāt know how many fricken studies Iāve seen on fish oil that never takes into account whether itās enteric coated or not, etc. rendering the studies critically flawed.
But, yes, for people that canāt or wonāt eat foods high in potassium and are deficient, they should probably take a supplement, which is certainly better than nothing.
i can only add that if you take a lot of ascorbic acid at once (about 10 grams), it has some very mild hallucinogenic/entheogenic-type effects.
Weird, I didnāt know that. Then again, that would be about 140 oranges or soā¦ at onceā¦ 
ah, i thought that you were mixing extra vitamin C into your OJ for some reason (poor reading comprehension, sorry). but along those lines, you should know that just as some of the flavor is reintroduced after pasteurization, so is some (most?) of the vitamin C in many brands. ascorbic acid is somewhat fragile. iām suspicious of the āwhole foodsā principle, just as iām suspicious of the supplementation industry. sure, itās generally a good idea to eat real food, but if you really want specific nutrients, it may not be necessary or desirable in every case to bother with it. also sheer bioavailability isnāt the only factor of efficiency. if āartificialā nutrient is 20x cheaper but half as available, just eat twice as much.
i use the protein powder for the protein too, and itās convenient.
you should know that just as some of the flavor is reintroduced after pasteurization, so is some
(most?) of the vitamin C in many brands
Right, I mentioned the flavor packets (made only from parts of oranges) in my initial post, but the brands I mentioned donāt re-add vitamin C, add preservatives or even water to the OJ and also have vast amounts of vitamin C left over after pasteurization. There is nothing but oranges in my orange juice choices.
If flavor packets made from oranges freaks people out, theyāre welcome to research brands that donāt have it here: Orange juices with/without flavor packs and pulp-dissolving enzymes - Toxinless But, frankly, Iām not concerned about it myself since I havenāt seen any research that says the packets are harmful and non-packet kinds of OJ are much more expensive and not located at most average, cheap grocery stores. I see a lot of hippies that freak out over flavor packets, but when I ask them whatās wrong with them they have no clue except itās ābad because itās processedā. If and when someone can bring me some good scientific research that the flavor packet process is harmful, Iāll switch to the other brands.
It would perhaps be more ideal if I ate truly organic oranges, but taking a quick couple of swigs of OJ with lots of pulp every other day is more practical, less time consuming and cheaper for me. And, I donāt catch colds or flu, literally at all, for the many years since Iāve started this regimen. So, the results āas isā are optimal in my case. Thatās also why my friends over the years and family are shitting bricks. I justā¦ donātā¦ getā¦ sick. Period.
Before I started my OJ regimen, I tried vitamin C supplementation with mixed results. It would tend to make my colds and flu shorter in length, but it didnāt have the effect of eliminating them from my life entirely as my specific OJ regimen has.
Why does OJ have this effect on me when vitamin C supplements do not?
Well, as Iāve been implying, itās very complexā¦
I strongly suspect thereās something in the way the OJ (with high pulp) delivers vitamin C combined with the other nutrients, complex fiber, acidity (affecting my pH levels), minerals, pectin, potassium, vitamin A, antioxidant properties, magnesium, etc., etc. that are all within the orange juice, pulp and orange essence within the packets made of natural orange ingredients combined with the OJ enabling my biosynthesis of collagen, L-carnitine and regenerating other antioxidants within my body, including alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), absorption of nonheme iron, etc. etc. (the list and combined complexity goes on and on).
The OJ I choose with its ingredients is a massively complex, biosynthetic, antioxidant, immunosupportive horror show for bugs that want to give me the cold and flu. My body is Satan for these unwanted bugs. We thankfully donāt need to invent a massively complex, perfectly formulated, synthetic cocktail to emulate what time, human evolution and food cultivation has produced (pun intended) within oranges and humans symbiotically already. And, Iām not sure weāve reached that level of knowledge anyway.
Find me a vitamin C supplement thatās going to kick the asses of bugs like that, has no notable side effects except the positive ones Iāve mentioned, tastes as good and is as cheap as my OJ and Iāll scarf that shit down right now. 
I know my views are unpopular among the conventional wisdom health-nut crowd. But, Iām also enjoying my non-convential imperviousness to common cold and flu all these years without spending a bunch of money to do it. And they can certainly keep their conventional, seasonal colds and flu they catch every year.
iām suspicious of the āwhole foodsā principle
My intention isnāt to promote someone elseās āwhole foodā principles, Iām saying what works for
me and why I suspect it does. Iām suspicious of food fads, pop diets, etc. and youāll notice I donāt
mention that or try to jump into that fray since I think everyone has different physiological setups and itās fruitless (pun intended) to try to apply one diet to everyone else.
itās generally a good idea to eat real food, but if you really want specific nutrients, it may not be necessary or desirable in every case to bother with it.
Agreed, and I addressed that in my post above in regard to as why I take enteric coated, liquid fish oil capsules.
sheer bioavailability isnāt the only factor of efficiency.
Agreed, and I mentioned that in my previous post as well.
if āartificialā nutrient is 20x cheaper but half as available, just eat twice as much.
I didnāt understand that part of your post. Please elaborate.
i use the protein powder for the protein too, and itās convenient.
If it works with your physiology and lifestyle and youāre pleased with the results, then it sounds to me like your protein powder is great in your case. I also hope that you can trust your particular powder manufacturer to not surreptitiously use any harmful ingredients. Thatās one my concerns with using my fish oil capsules as well.
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