Delusional infestations

I’d never heard of such a thing until recently, when I was drawn to an article about it in The New York Times. Delusional infestation is the belief that you’re being infested by insects or parasites. It’s a complicated and rare phenomenon, but sufferers may go to extreme lengths to try curing themselves. One respected cancer researcher believed that insects were burrowing under his skin. He tried medications, exterminators, and even soaking himself in a bathtub of insecticide.

The point of the article had to do with people’s frustrations at not getting a diagnosis for their symptoms—such as brain fog or fatigue—when there are no visible signs of illness. They're left feeling frustrated and dismissed.

People who suffer from delusional infestations do, in fact, have something wrong with them. The causes might be an autoimmune disease, allergy, nerve damage, a thyroid condition, or drug side effects, all of which can produce an itching or even crawling sensation. Because of their frustration with the revolving door of health care providers, many of these sufferers have turned to entomologists for help.   

Starting in the early 2000s, one entomologist began seeing people who were convinced that bugs were inside their bodies. At first, there were one or two such people a year. In 2025, she received 1,610 inquiries from sufferers. Some people who come to her office have mutilated themselves to extract the phantom parasites. (For one thing, the entomologist explains that bugs need air to breathe and thus cannot burrow under the skin.)

If you have unbearable itching, I wish you good luck at getting a correct diagnosis. You can assume it’s not bugs burrowing into your body.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Your thymus gland

Scientific American recently published new research indicating that the health of our thymus glands may be linked to whether we develop cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, or other life-shortening diseases. As remarked by one researcher, it’s an “important puzzle piece” for understanding long-term health.

The thymus gland sits inside your chest next to your heart and lungs. It’s most active before and during puberty, at which time it’s largely responsible for developing T cells, a critical type of white blood cell that helps fight infections. Because it shrinks and is replaced with fat tissue as we age, its role in adults has been overlooked for years.

In their research, scientists found “enormous variation” in the health of the thymus among the 27,000 people whose CT scans and other medical records they studied. In some, the gland stayed active until a very old age; in others it declined rapidly at a younger age. In other words, people with a healthy, active thymus tended to live longer than others. Unfortunately, the article didn’t explain what constitutes a “healthy” or “active” thymus or how to make it that way.

I remembered reading something about the thymus gland in a book called Your Body Doesn’t Lie, by John Diamond, MD, published in 1979 [!]. I found it on my bookshelf! Doctor Diamond calls the thymus gland the “master controller that directs the life-giving and healing energies of the body,” and that it’s the “first organ of the body to be affected by stress.” His advice for stimulating the thymus gland is to gently tap or pound the center of your chest for 15-30 seconds using your fingertips or soft fist. Do this three or four times a day. Also, he recommends smiling a lot, reading poetry, and listening to “revitalizing” music.

I know. It sounds goofy. It’s the best I could do.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

My new book

My new book, The End is Nigh: An Insider's Guide to Old Age is available on Amazon.

Supplements (again)

Over half of American adults take supplements. Some take prodigious amounts. This can be a bad idea. One paper in The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that supplements are responsible for 23,000 emergency room visits a year, often because of liver damage.

A few supplements have their place. Women who are trying to have a baby benefit from folic acid. People who have been shown to be deficient in vitamin D, vitamin B12, and omega-3s may also benefit from these supplements. This may be particularly true for old people who are not getting enough sunlight and/or their diets are lacking in such foods as fatty fish, plant oils, or certain seeds and nuts.

As to boosting longevity, no large clinical trials have shown that supplements extend human life span.

The supplements market has been described as having a “wild west” nature. Unlike medicines, supplements do not require FDA approval before they can be sold. Also, what’s on the bottle’s label might not match what’s inside the pill. One study of supplements found that, for the majority, the amount of the ingredient shown on the label differed from the actual amount—in some instances by as much as 100 percent.

Some supplements have been found to include lead, arsenic and mercury. Researchers at the University of Michigan estimated that 15 million American adults take a supplement, such as turmeric or red yeast rice, that could potentially cause liver toxicity.

 I’ve taken supplements in the past. I don’t anymore.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.