u/UntoNuggan

I've been trying to figure out why my MCAS is flaring so badly this summer if I spend time outdoors. Generally it's just the heat/my POTS, but I get a pleasant break from pollen season + mold season.

I've had to use my whole pollen season protocol much more frequently just from stepping outside for 30-45 minutes (and sometimes less). Wear a mask, change my clothes and shower immediately after coming in. I'm back to using my rescue inhaler and antihistamine nasal sprays. If I don't I'm basically flattened for the next 24-48 hours.

This isn't during wildfire smoke times or fireworks events, but it feels very similar (absent the actual smell of smoke sticking to my hair and clothes).

WELP. Turns out there are a lot of data centers in my area. However the power grid can't keep up with their energy demands, so they are frequently using diesel generators (especially on hot days).

I've started checking Purple Air, AirNow, and Weather.gov religiously every morning to check both air quality and how hot it's going to be. (More heat = more diesel generator use = more emissions) Apparently the color coding system isn't an entirely accurate way to measure emissions? (According to r/AirQuality)

All I know is I'm currently sensitive on code yellow days, and in the past I could tolerate up to code orange without a mask. If it's just rained my tolerance is a *little* better. This is despite the fact that my immunologist just checked my labs in early summer, and my lymphocyte profile is better than it's been in the six years I've seen him.

ANYWAY if you're also experiencing mysterious flares this summer, you might want to check if there are any data centers upwind of you. I used this map (https://www.datacentermap.com/).

Here's a couple articles on the health effects of data center air pollution:

https://news.vcu.edu/article/northern-virginia-data-center-air-pollution-rivals-power-plant-emissions

“Something that we were surprised to learn through this process is you’d rather be living next to a natural gas power plant than living next to a whole bunch of data centers, in terms of the total amount of air pollution they put out per year,” said Damian Pitt, Ph.D., an associate professor in VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/analyzing-air-pollution-health-economic-risks-from-ai-data-centers/

Say I'm interested in propagating native ferns, but don't necessarily want to fuss with growing them indoors under a grow light.

Couldn't I just help disperse the spores a bit further away from the parent ferns? And if so, what is the best time for spore dispersal for maximum success of gametophytes and subsequent fern generations?

I'm in the DC metro area, zone 7a, FWIW.

ETA we are currently in a drought but expecting a very wet El Nino fall/winter, if that affects timing at all.

So there was awhile there where I was reacting to basically every soap, shampoo, lotion, etc that I tried. This gets very expensive very fast, so I switched to a lot of Castile soap products because they tend to have like three ingredients and I knew I tolerated eating olive oil.

This was also during a time when personal hygiene was pretty inaccessible due to fatigue, POTS, heat/cold intolerance, etc. So I was not particularly shocked that I did not have great skin, especially as I still couldn't find ANY lotion my body did not hate

tl;dr I finally went to a derm when I started getting some "is this cancer?" discoloration. And it turns out a big reason why I couldn't find any skincare products is because I'm dealing with two chronic skin conditions with opposing needs.

One is Rosacea, which is a type of chronic inflammation causing red cheeks etc (I also have it in my eyes, fun times). Rosacea *seems* to be related to a particular type of skin bacteria - there's either too many of one strain, not enough diversity, something like that (C. acnes)

Meanwhile on my forehead, chin, scalp, and armpits I have seborrheic dermatitis. This was causing the flaky "dandruff but on my face" problems. Seb derm seems to be caused by an overgrowth of a particular type of yeast (malassezia species). It also contributes to skin inflammation.

Many rosacea treatments are antibacterial or "avoid feeding bacteria," meaning they tend to help yeast species by knocking out the competition. Similarly, many seb derm treatments are antifungal or "avoid feeding the yeast," meaning they tend to help bacteria by knocking out the competition.

To add to the fun, malassezia species eat many common oils - including the olive oil I was using due to the limited ingredients.

Combine this with a fragrance sensitivity, and it's no wonder I was having an extremely difficult time finding any skincare products. I now have separate lotions for different parts of my face, and have moved from "medicated kill phase shampoo etc" to "maintenance mode where I mostly try to avoid disrupting the equilibrium." Due to the ocular rosacea + other eye issues, I also have to wash my eyelids twice a day and use mast cell stabilizing eye drops.

It has made a big difference in my overall inflammatory load. I'd been keeping skin stuff on the back burner because I had so many urgent medical issues (and TBH that was probably a good call). However, the skin is full of mast cells and also a very large "organ."

tl;dr if you're experiencing a really hard time finding skincare products that don't cause an MCAS reaction, I had a really big improvement after getting comorbid conditions diagnosed and finding appropriate treatment/skincare products.

I'm in the US, not Desi just enjoy making and eating Indian food.

Right now cucumbers are in season, and I have a LOT. I have already made a lot of pickles, and was thinking about how nice it would be to have cucumber raita in winter. (Winter cucumbers here are bitter and sad.)

Has anyone tried freezing grated cucumber and using it to make raita later? If so, how did it turn out?

If not, I guess I will try making a small test batch to see.

I'm looking into bringing my cat to the vet teaching hospital in Blacksburg. I'm disabled and coming from outside DC. I am not confident in my ability to make the trip there and back in the same day.

However, I am also incredibly allergic to many commonly used laundry detergents and cleaning products due to the fragrances. It's nothing that's required an epi-pen, it just makes it impossible to actually sleep.

Last time I tried staying in a hotel I was basically itchy and miserable for 3 hours, then left for home. I can tolerate some fragrances better than others, but Tide and Fabreeze and any kind of air freshener are a recipe for misery.

I realize this is a long shot, but are there any suggestions on where I could stay in our near Blacksburg?

Keep messaging people I know being like "can I offer you any rudebeckia? how about boneset or mountain mint?" Showing up to plant swaps with a cardboard box of divided plants.

It's so great and joyful, and then I go to nurseries and it's just kind of a sticker shock seeing how much it costs to buy a nursery propagated coneflower or something.

I don't know what my point is here except that if you're new to growing native plants, maybe go hang out at some plant or seed swaps because you'll definitely learn things and you *might* walk away with free plants.

I'm a new baby citrus tree caretaker, and I have a compost question.

My compost pile has been fed assorted store bought citrus peels etc. Is there a possibility any of these carried HLB? And if so, would it have survived my compost pile?

My pile does get quite hot in spring but I haven't been checking the temperature.

Better to buy some mushroom compost or BSFL frass or something, or should I be ok using homemade compost?

It has been years of weird GI symptoms related to my immune disorder, followed by several months of Severe Symptoms and emergency gallbladder surgery. Pain is less bad than when I had my gallbladder, but still not great. Especially when I dare to eat a nut, have a little extra virgin olive oil on my potatoes, or something ridiculous like that. Oh, and gods forbid I go more than two hours without eating something. (But not something with much fat in it.) Managing my metabolic syndrome has been SUPER fun with all of this too.

My HIDA scan should bile reflux, so I've been assuming this is bile reflux related. I guess I shouldn't be upset that my GI wanted to screen for H pylori and such. But it's taken like six months to actually do all the appointments and tests, and then I still had to push my GI to get him to agree to trial the bile sequestrant meds.

It has been two days. I'm sure there'll be a learning curve and all. But yesterday I went four hours without eating and I did not suffer Revenge of the Bile. I went to sleep and woke up without burning in my esophagus.

I'm afraid to get too excited because maybe this is all just a random coincidence? I also just ate like a handful of plain walnuts and I guess we'll find out if I'm in agony after I lay down or not.