I'll start. The skin where my groin meets my thighs peels off if I scratch it and I don't know if it's causing a bit of a whiff down there.

I've been pissing and cumming blood for months.

The ratio of blood is gradually going up.

>>5493
Why are you all obsessed with mega threads? Just make a thread. What are you worried will happen if it doesn't meet your arbitrary definition of "deserved"?

It's clear we're mostly all that kid at school who would only talk if asked a question. Your trivial aches and pains are important to us; make a thread.

>>5495
That's not fucking minor

>>5497

Maybe to you because it is different from what you are used to. Personally I'd rather have that than need glasses, we only treat the idea of being blind without technology as not a serious problem because it is so common and we have a 'fix'.

Most likely a kidney stone tore my urethra, I pass them all the time. So much so the actual number i have passed is unknowable. Never had a problem other than sometimes blood squirts out of me.

>>5496

Because that is the format dictated by the moderation and the pace of this site.

The concept that a thread could just die after an evening of talking or you might not see a thread is alien now.

Personally I am fine with most 'megathreads' except the midweek thread I think the lack of focus means they are less helpful than if people just started minor threads about what they were up to.

>>5499
>Because that is the format dictated by the moderation
I've consistently harped on about the midweek and weekend threads killing discussion for years, and other mods have agreed with me, but none of us have had a solution for weaning you all off them that wouldn't cause a shitstorm, so I don't see how that can possibly be true.

I don't even bother reading those threads anymore unless I see a report. They're banal shite.

>>5498
For the love of god, go to a doctor. You shouldn't regularly be passing kidney stones, you berk. That's not normal.

>>5500

Some of us like banal shite.

>>5500

I don't think star can exist at the same time as a constant rolling flow of ephemeral, 10 post threads. It just makes longer form threads make more sense, when basically the entire week's posts can be seen on the front page of star.

And as others say, banality is really our specialty. On top of that, I don't really see long vs. short threads making a difference to discourse, in reality. It's not like people aren't posting off kilter subjects in the megathreads, which then spawn a handful of replies, just like they would have if the thought was a separate thread.

>>5501
>For the love of god, go to a doctor.

What is it you think the doctor will do to fix the problem exactly? Take out my kidney and replace it with new ones?! How do you think I discovered I was regularly passing kidney stones in the first place?

Do you know what the normal treatment a GP recommends for kidney stones is? It is drink some water and take an ibuprofen. Just because you have no experience of life doesn't mean what you don't understand is a medical emergency.

>You shouldn't regularly be passing kidney stones

I should be, it is a direct result of the structure of my kidney but thanks for the medical lecture professor.

>>5504

>I should be, it is a direct result of the structure of my kidney but thanks for the medical lecture professor.

Then why fucking post about it in a medical thread?

Cunt.

>>5505

Because fuck you.

I think I need to totally change my sleeping technique. I sleep with a hand under the pillow and I've found myself waking up in the middle of the night more often because my hand has fallen asleep. Wasn't much of an issue when I was younger and had better blood circulation.

>>5494
This sounds like an infection, fungal or bacterial. If you call 111 or ask nicely at boots they'll give you the appropriate creams. Make sure you're wearing clean clothes and changing your towel regularly.

>>5495
This is serious. Call 111 and tell them your symptoms.

>>5504
You should be on Allopurinol and a diet which will facilitate the breakdown of kidney stones.

>>5507

Sleeping with your hand under a pillow is poor form.

>>5507
Even though I'm always fit and healthy I've always had a tendency to having cold hands and fit, and get pins and needles in them with the slightest bit of pressure on my armpits etc. I've often woke up in the night with my arms dead to the point of not even being able to clench my fist and I have to flail my arms around for a minute to get some life back into them.
Touchwood I've been better in the past few months as I've been cycling a lot more and improved my cardiovascular health a bit.
You might also want to try taking l-arginine tablets, they're good for circulation.

>>5504
I understand how Kidneys are supposed to work just fine, teenlad. An otherwise healthy person would not be given the same advice. So maybe you should have qualified your cry for attention if you didn't want follow up enquiries.

My fingers hurts from playing guitar too much.

I'm fully aware of why they hurt and fully expected them to hurt after I was finished because I haven't played in a while, but I'm going to make a post about it anyway.

Please don't give me medical advice, or I may become passive aggressive.

>>5501

I can't believe that's a real, it'd be too painful to have been ignored and "coped" with.

>>5513
Well, best of luck developing callouses again, I suppose.

>>5512
>cry for attention
>didn't want follow up enquiries.

So which is it I am doing professor, make up your mind?

This is an ailments thread on an image board mate, the entire point is to have a piss and a moan about your ailments, and you’ve gotten awfully high and mighty about the purpose of the thread pretty quickly if you think anyone is coming before seeking medical advice, and not just to complain. If you don't want a banal thread you need people to actually share interesting problems.

>>5508
>This is serious
Not as serious as you would think. First time it happened doctors were concerned it could be stage 4 bladder cancer as it has a lot of shared symptoms, facing your own mortality like that is terrifying, after that kidney stones felt like a blessing.

>>5509
Never heard about that before I'll ask my doctor about it next time we talk about this. Thanks

>>5514
I don't know what to tell you other than it is real and it isn't that painful. Most kidney stones are passed with no real problem at all, even the tearing of your urethra is something you can, not notice. It is only when they cause a blockage you get the real pain, not being able to pee is deeply unpleasant you switch from normality to intense unbearable sweating agony in seconds, I’ve felt like vomiting on the off chance I might dehydrate myself enough to not need to piss anymore., then if it clears again on its own it is like nothing ever happened and you are fine.

I've suddenly found myself much more tired over the past week. I haven't changed anything which has me scratching my head. I just feel sluggish and hungrier than usual. I'm male so I think I can rule out pregnancy.

I've tried having a rest from working out but I still feel like shit.

>>5681
I'm not a doctor, but I am a reactionary, and that sounds like something that could be nothing or the early signs of a very bad thing. Wouldn't fuck about, contact your GP.

>>5682
A reactionary isn't someone who reacts to things. I do second everything else you said though, no harm in getting a blood test or whatever.

I seem to have developed a space between my first and second molar on one side. This is most annoying because I get stringy food caught between them and have to use tweezers to pull out whatever is caught, especially when I eat steak and kidney pie.

I'm due to see a dentist in a couple weeks for a check-up anyway so I probably won't die but what can I do the meantime? There's a vicious cycle at work because I use interdental brushes to keep the space clean yet know that this is probably making it worse and if I don't then anything caught that I don't notice will cause an infection.

>>5695
Start carrying tweezers.
You're getting older, your gums are receding. Getting "long in the tooth". It's not likely to improve until you get false teeth.

>>5681 Hayfever? It can be a right cunt, and this is prime time for some of the more common tree pollens.

The fingers on my right hand ache if I straighten them and seem to be naturally crooked compared with my left. I think it's from holsojg my phone too much recently.

So after months of invasive procedures after all of your "OMG YOU HAVE TO GO TO A DOCTOR RIGHT NOW I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU COULD URINATE BLOOD!!" The urologist has concluded 'bugger if I know why this keeps happening' and life continues on regardless much in the way I knew it would last time I went to doctors about this. The only real loser here is obviously myself. But I really hope this serves as at least some sort of a lesson about not being alarmist when someone tells you something you don't understand, and the madness of online crowds.

>>5706
If you find a lump and it turns out to be benign, deciding that means you shouldn't have bothered getting it checked out, is the wrong attitude.

>>5707

I had already had it checked out before I posted in the thread previously and I said words to the effect of such but that didn't stop people screeching that I should be going into A and E immediately.

>>5708

The doctors put you through those procedures on a whim did they?

>>5709

I think that urologist just wanted to finger my arse, and who could blame her she’s only human.

Apparently they couldn’t access my previous records so everything was new and exciting to them when they discovered what I already knew, the newbie ultra sound girl got a hell of a crash course looking at all of the oddities of my urinary tract, she didn’t know what the fuck she was looking at.

>>5710
>she didn’t know what the fuck she was looking at
A typical .gs poster.

Is there any genuine medical backing for the death-grip masturbation phenomenon? I have sex approximately once every two years, and I have never in my life ejaculated into a woman. The general consensus is that this is because of all the wanking I do, and my dick doesn't know what a fanny feels like. It's not used to this situation, so it sort of clams up and gets nervous and doesn't jizz everywhere. It doesn't go soft; it just stays in the hard and ready position until I give up. Again, maybe this is too much wanking. Maybe this is wanking to things that are too unrelated to vaginas. But it could also be nerves, or some kind of undiagnosed social anxiety, or maybe my cock is too redpilled to trust the treachery of semen-thieving women who want to abduct my seed for secret nefarious experiments. Lots of things are possible.

Has this ever been researched? Would a temporary couple of weeks of no-fap help me out? Please show me some published research if you know of any; everybody speculates but I want some genuine truth (if there is any).

>>5712
>I have sex approximately once every two years

Look, there's digging we could do on the physical side (johnnies are a bit of a minefield for start) but your problem is clearly beyond physical.

I can assure you from my own experience as someone that wanks multiple times a day that death grip isn't real. Your experience instead reminds me of being wanked off in a message parlour when I was younger where it actually did take ages and where it was painful to finally cum because I was so tense. You need to find yourself a good woman and get comfortable with her is my advice, someone you will no doubt end up living inside because of how right it feels.

>>5712

Masturbation is easier to climax from for men and women, I don't think it desensitizes you to sex so much as sex is just a more complex deed to do.
So if you don't feel satisfied during sex it's likely due to lack of practice more than the 'death grip', you need to figure out how to make it work out for you.

Oh, take it from me, you can absolutely kill your dick through too much wanking.

>>5715

Take two weeks off and you'll be spaffing like an over-excited teenager.

>>5712

Dunno if it's the same, but my dick doesn't seem to enjoy being in a vagina most of the time. It either feels like it's being crushed, when she's on top, or not much at all in other positions. Maybe it's too skinny to feel much, and it doesn't help that it struggles to stay hard. It's especially bad with condoms.

Maybe I'm just gay or something.

>>5717
It's not as tight as the vice-like grip of your hand. It can't be. So you feel like you're waving your dick out of the window, even when you aren't. This is why the running joke is that you're gripping too hard, that it's "death-grip" masturbation. But I have no idea if that really is the reason why it feels this way.

>>5718

In personal experience I wouldn't say so. I wank a lot, have always wanked a lot, yet sex still feels great. I have had performance issues before, but they have been psychological. I think people are often quick to jump to a physical problem when it comes to sex, but really it's a minefield for anxieties and tension.

It could also be that your dick isn't hard enough, mind.

>>5695
>>5696
It turns out that I'm in shit order. That or I'm getting proper fucked by my dentist - £600 for a night guard on top of frequent cleaning and another filling.

So on the grinding part, how do I stop being stressed lads. I thought I was good with stress, people say I'm chilled anyway but now I'm having to consciously think about not putting my teeth together. My advice is to not get old.

I've already called 101 and looked online, I'm expecting a callback within 6 hours, so by 1am. It's not painful, but I can feel something. Live just round the corner from a hospital so if anything changes I'll probably get a cab there.

I've had a tightness in my balls over the past few days, and I thought it was maybe muscle strain from fucking my knees on Crib Goch and waddling down Snowden. Though a couple of days before, I was wanking in bed and I felt one of the fellows settle into some sort of socket, and I had to lightly dislodge it back to its travels. It could be years of wanking catching up with me.

It mostly feels like a tightness around the base on the left and right, like my balls are trying to retract or I'm wearing really tight boxers. Now it's still not painful, the right one was aching very slightly earlier but then it went to the left then disappeared, but I just feel incredibly uncomfortable, and I can't tell how much of it is in my head.

Anyone had something similar? No discolouration yet, they both look and feel (with fingers) fine. But I feel like you feel when you're almost done recovering from being tapped in the balls, but it could go either way again. If you lads ever feel slightly burpy when you're almost recovered from a tackle smack, I've got that. Not sure if the rest is in my head as I'm proper squeamish.

I'll be sad if I lose my balls, though just one wouldn't be so bad. Not even frozen any sperm, could leave a teaspoonful in the freezer for the lass when the pill wears off.

>>5773
The "socket" you mention is a real thing. I think all men have one; you can put your balls in there with a bit of effort and it's absolutely fine to do so. Transvestites do it on purpose, but I have certainly never done it nor even attempted such a thing.

>>5773

Testicular torsion rapidly becomes absolutely excruciating; most patients turn up at hospital groaning and retching with the pain. If you haven't already gone to hospital, it probably isn't torsion.

The most common cause of altered sensation in the testicles (and the most likely in your case IMO) is referred pain the lower back - pressure on your lumbar spine makes you feel like your balls are numb or painful. Unless you've slipped a disc, it should get better on its own.

An infection or an inguinal hernia might also explain your symptoms, but neither situation is a medical emergency. If your balls get worse then see your GP, but I'd wager that you'll be fine in a couple of days.

>>5775

>Testicular torsion rapidly becomes absolutely excruciating; most patients turn up at hospital groaning and retching with the pain. If you haven't already gone to hospital, it probably isn't torsion.


This is reassuring to know.

I occasionally get a bit of a dull ache in my left nut, but usually I think it's just a massive fart brewing and presumably causing that bit of your guts around the pelvic area to stretch things about in an uncomfortable way.

Probably the only reason I never noticed it earlier in life is that I was such a skinny fucker as a younglad.

>>5774
Gosh, that sounds terrifying. What if it gets caught? Maybe I shouldn't ask now, I feel a bit sick.

>>5775
Thought this was the case, I was expecting it to happen at any moment and coming to terms with the possibility of excruciating pain and possible impotence.

My posture is shite but this hasn't been a problem before, so maybe you're right and it's one more thing breaking down. Cheers! Got a GP apt this afternoon anyway.

They rang back at 11:30 with a 'courtesy call' to say that I wouldn't be called by a clinician tonight, didn't seem much need for it. Sensation persists but it's okay. No blood in the cum or owt, which I assume is a good sign.

>>5777
It's fine, give it a go. I sometimes tuck'em in when in bed, for no particular reason, just something to fiddle with.
(I read about it in a James Bond book when I was a weelad, it was in a bit about fighting, and it said something like 'that kick should have incapacitated him' - 'no, oriental fighters can hide their testicles inside themselves, so they can't be hurt', and I thought that sounded handy, so I had a rummage. Educational stuff, Fleming)

>>5778
>'no, oriental fighters can hide their testicles inside themselves, so they can't be hurt', and I thought that sounded handy, so I had a rummage. Educational stuff, Fleming)
I want to say that's a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Pei_Pu but I don't think the chronology makes sense.

>>5774
>>5777
>>5778
My left fella decides to go up into my torso quite often. The first time it happened to me was with a girl, and I posted on /emo/ that I was really worried there was something wrong with my meat and two veg, only to be laughed off the front page. In hindsight, it was just what I needed.

sage for using .gs as a diary.

>>5779 Just digging further - found this on 'pedia.
"Sir Hugo Drax, the antagonist of Moonraker, was named after Fleming's acquaintance Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax;[96]"
That's a hell of a name. I shall call my cat that.
Sage4lackoftesticles.

>>5781
Ancestor of Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, AKA Richard Drax, Tory MP.

I always thought a Tory MP sharing a name with a Bond villain was an amusing coincidence but to find out it's not a coincidence at all is utterly hilarious.

>>5774
>>5778
>>5779
>>5780
I cannot help but be absolutely certain this is all a bit of 'microwaves clean your iphone' banter, and that if I do it the first movement of my legs or hips will obliterate the little fellows and I'll be posting on here about it and you'll all be gobsmacked at my stupidity for not getting the joke.

I've booked an appointment with an older gentleman I found on the internet to feel them up after work tomorrow.

I think it's just some swelling/tightness in those...connective tissues on the side? Like if you grip a bit of the skin either side then there are those wiry muscly strings that seem to connect the base to the balls. It's there on the right hand side, so thankfully probably not anything serious.

Thanks lads, check your balls. Check your friends, too.

>>5784

Shoving your balls up your inguinal canals is called "tucking" and it's routinely used by transwomen and drag queens to hide their bits. It's perfectly safe, but somewhat uncomfortable if you're not used to it.

The stringy bits on your balls are a cluster of blood vessels and sperm ducts. If they're tender or sore, the most usual cause is a bacterial infection of the sperm ducts. It's often just a UTI, but if you've been recently sexually active you should get tested for chlamydia and gonorrhoea. In either case, it's easily treated with a short course of antibiotics.

Your GP will check you out for lumps and bumps, but I wouldn't worry yourself about nut cancer - the early symptoms are usually a painless hard lump on or in the bollock.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/epididymitis/

>>5785
>transwomen and drag queens

You mean dragqueens.

>>5786

Dr. Christian has probably bankrupted himself and is now begging for donations.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/dr-christian-jessenarlene-foster

Let's say, hypothetically, that I was tempted to try the old testicle-conceal. Before I try anything, how would I get them out again?

>>5794
A nice hot bath and it'd pop out of its own accord.

>>5794
Don't, it's a ploy to pop them.

>>5794
Gravity and 10 seconds of not being poked in will do the job. Default position is out.

>>5797
Where's the guarantee that the movement of my pelvis won't result in any crushing?

>>5798
If bits of your pelvis are moving relative to others, you should probably get that seen to rather than fiddling with your balls.
Just tuck'em in. Or don't. You're wildly overthinking this. It's neither as risky or as satisfying as you seem to be imagining.
Surely, in this day & age, there are youtube guides.

Got a bug bite of some sort in the park yesterday, I crushed the fucker on contact (accidentally, it felt like a stray hair) and it looked tiny, saw a red dot where it had bitten me, thought nothing more of it. Now it's swollen and I can't even fit my hand around the area, it's covering the lower 180 degrees of my lower thigh and extends halfway down my calf, the red area is about 18 inches long now, it could be two separate bites, one below and one above my knee, but the area is contiguous.

I've had no nausea and the itching isn't overly frequent, but it's feeling super tight when I walk and quite uncomfortable.

Can anyone reassure me my leg won't fall off? I've never had a bite this big before and it's still growing in area 30 hours after the fact, I suspect maybe it's an allergic reaction from the time I had bedbugs a few years back.

Do you reckon it was a spider? I was just sitting in a fairly popular sitting area in the park, nothing more. Presumably if there were killer bugs on the loose then I'd have heard something by now.

>>5812

I'd personally be pretty alarmed if my leg was that swollen, to be honest. It does sound like an allergic reaction, but is certainly worth getting looked at in case it's an infection, or indeed, an exotic killer bug on the loose.

>>5813
The alarm is building, waiting for 111 to answer now. On the outer edges it resembles a rash, and it seems like the redness is radiating from two separate areas so I think that's why it's gotten so massive.

I've been number 2 in the queue for 10 minutes now, seems statistically unlikely.

I've demarcated the area in biro, as you can see it comes in at the knee to the tendon, but it's all red on the lower 90 degrees of my knee.

Getting a callback soon, if it falls off I'll let you lads see what it looks like. Assuming they let me keep it.

>>5812
You need to make sure it isn't a tick bite. If it is, they are fairly easily removed but you need to deal with it.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lyme-disease/

>>5812

Try some anti-histamines. If it gets worse, go to the walk-in centre.

>>5816
I inspected the bite location when leaving the area and was satisfied it wasn't a tick, as I've removed them from my pets before - unless I took the fucker out the second he burrowed in, and the remnants of his face are still in my leg, but there's no bullseye marking. That's been drilled into me by Scrubs. Lyme disease is one of those names that sounds trivial but turns out to be horrific. I've heard people develop potentially lethal allergies to red meat, for example. 'Fortunately' the redness is contiguous.

>>5817
Been looking all round the house for it, got nowt. Shops all closed. Will grab some tomorrow.

>>5815
You have quite feminine legs, m8. I can't stop thinking about them resting on my shoulders while I thrust into you with wild abandon. Is that medical advice? Perhaps.

Sent photos to a doctor and she said it was massive, she sounded genuinely incredulous on the phone until I'd sent some pics through. She said the rash was quite big as well, probably inflammatory reaction and should be fine with some antihistamines

>>5819
Thanks, I'm gorgeous. I also have long eyelashes and very fine eyebrows. I'd probably be a dream otter if I didn't find men physically repulsive.

I have piles.

>>5824

Eat more fibre, drink more water, get more exercise.

I cut my calories by around 1000 a day and have been doing up 40-60 minutes more intensive exercise five days a week. It's been a month and there's no appreciable difference to my weight. Is this not long enough to see a difference? Should I be exercising more? Is it possible I'm building muscle fast enough to replace lost fat resulting in no weight loss?

>>5835

How are you tracking your calories? It may be that you're off with your estimate of a 1000 calorie deficit. I'd recommend just focusing on switching out calorie dense foods for micronutrient dense foods for a week, and eat until you're completely full. If you track that, you can use that as a baseline for comfortable fullness, then the next week you can cut overall calories by 250 - 500.

What's "an appreciable difference"? Are you weighing yourself at a consistent time each day and under the same conditions? Hydration and food weight can sway your weight by over 1kg, easily.

Credit to you for sticking it out for a month, and I'm sure you've seen some positive changes (are you getting stronger or are you developing better endurance from the exercise?), but the problem with starting out on a big deficit and five days per week of training is it doesn't give you much room if you decide to cut down further. Believe me, you don't want to be living off less than 1300 calories a day and trying to do two-a-days, it's gruelling and unsustainable.

>>5836
>How are you tracking your calories?
I stopped drinking and I'm not eating any more than I did previously. Without alcohol I no longer have junk food cravings so that's gone too.
>What's "an appreciable difference"?
My weight so far is just fluctuating around the same figure. My scales are a bit fucked so it's hard to get a meaningful reading from them but it's around the same 81, 82 kg mark.

Physically I'm feeling better and my extremities are visibly more toned and gaining muscle. It's just the lack of change in the one definite metric that is weight.

>>5835

A kilo of body fat contains about 7700 calories. Moderately intense exercise burns 400-600 calories per hour.

It's possible that you're gaining significant amounts of muscle, but the more likely explanation is that you're under-estimating your calorie intake.

>>5838
That's a lot! I'll keep increasing the duration and intensity at a reasonable rate but try to be more conscious of portion size too.

>>5837
I recommend myFitnessPal as a way of recording your calories properly. You're probably undercounting your food.

>>5840
I'm happy to exercise more and be conscious about what I'm eating but using an actual calorie tracker and limiting myself to numbers means I'm going to spend half the day hungry, with low blood sugar and unable to sleep or function properly because of it.

>>5841
No, you don't have to do any of that. You just faithfully record a food diary in an application that has a database, like myFitnessPal - and then you actually get a proper reading on how many calories you are consuming and why your exercise perhaps isn't getting the results you want.

>>5842

It says I've eaten 501 calories today (1404 in, 903 burned exercising) so that's 999 under budget.

>>5843

>903 burned exercising

I would caution using those numbers, they will rarely be accurate.

>>5844
If it's less than +/- 1000 I think I'm probably doing okay.

>>5845

Agreed, just saying though.

This myfitnesspal thing is making me look at my nutrition/vitamin intake too and it's a bastard of a catch-22 trying to get the iron levels up. Seems like I have to either have basically no iron or far, far too much vitamin A.

>>5847
I think its particularly brilliant for that and the nutrient breakdowns it gives you - even when I was hitting the right number of calories per day, at one point my diet was almost entirely carbohydrate.

Its for this reason I think it's a really useful tool, even if you're not yet following a diet plan; I think it gives you very useful insight into what and how much, you're actually eating.

>>5848
I can see the appeal of following a diet plan out of sheer laziness in that it'll tell me what to eat instead of having to think about it.

>>5849
That's exactly why I find following a diet so easy.

>>5849
And yet you called me weird for eating Pizza Hut every day.

>>5851
Weirdo.

>>5851
Given the repetitive nature of my diet nowadays, you were years ahead of your time and I was wrong.

>>5848
It is a little like I predicted. Weekdays are fine because I'm burning a lot of calories so can eat a satisfying amount to balance it out but any rest day (for me, the weekend) I can only eat 1500 calories total so I'm actively hungry for hours including when I try to sleep.

>>5854

You might consider introducing more satiating but low calorie foods on your rest days. Don't overdo it or introduce it too quickly (mainly for the sake of your arsehole), but potatoes and other fibrous vegetables, or simply a fair whack of whole fruit, can really do a lot to make you feel full without getting a lot of calories.

I consider myself to have a really good appetite, but something as simple as a big orange can leave me feeling full for ages.

I've started drinking this guy's smoothie every day. He claims it's more or less "nutritionally complete". Is it good? Could it be made better? At the very least, I know I'm consistently ticking off at least a couple of my five a day where I wasn't before.

tl;dw it's spinach, kale, banana, strawberries, blueberries, flax seeds, chia seeds, milk. (He adds oats, peanut butter and protein powder too but I skip those, I probably get enough fat and protein from meat.)

>>5856
Based on the thumbnail alone I'm going to say no, purely on the basis of that smug cunt face he's pulling.

>>5857
>Based on the thumbnail alone

>>5856
How can anyone be in need of nutrients when Huel already provides them?

>>5856
But then you won't chew anything. Chewing is important.

>>5860
Chewing is important for what? The continued good health of teeth? Which are important for what? This seems very circular.

>>5861

There's probably a better reason the other poster's alluding to but if nothing else you'd be a lot uglier without any jaw muscles.

>>5860

They do solid food now, which is actually quite nice. It's a lot like a pot noodle except good for you.

We've got a shit load in the cupboard for lazy meals/work lunches/apocalypse prepping. If all that was left after the end was liquid Huel, I'd take my chances with the nukes and/or zombies, but this stuff isn't bad.

Yet again Big Huel derails a thread. So no-one has anything to offer on the smoothie recipe I'm chugging?

>>5861
Yes, I've heard various people talking about chewing being important for your lower jaw, and making room for teeth (Hence wisdom teeth having to be removed since they just don't have room for them).

I read a book called Breathe by James someone, and that mentions also about having more room for your tounge, which means you have more room for air to travel down from the nose. If the jaw is smaller, the tounge sits further back, restricting airflow from the nose, and encouraging mouth breathing.

This may all be bullshit, but it sounded very plausible.

>>5865
Top wisdom teeth don't have room because of modern humanity's gigantic brains. I still have all of my wisdom teeth.

>>5862
Well according to https://www.hownormalami.eu/ I am abnormally good looking, so clearly I can afford to jettison my teeth.

Or maybe AI is just bollocks.

>>5867
All this did is confirm that I have a good side.

Started getting a sensation in one of my Achilles tendon occasionally that feels like someone is taping or flicking it seems to come just after the apex of a stretch of it during walking. No pain but I'm not sure what it means. Is this damage or a health development with improving fitness even though it is an odd alienating sensation?

>>5865
>I read a book called Breathe by James someone, and that mentions also about having more room for your tounge, which means you have more room for air to travel down from the nose. If the jaw is smaller, the tounge sits further back, restricting airflow from the nose, and encouraging mouth breathing.

Everything I've ever read about it is the opposite way round. Kids who grow up with allergies or asthma spend a lot more time breathing through their mouth because they can't get enough air through their nose. While you're still growing you need the slight pressure of your teeth pressing together and tongue on the roof of your mouth to make the jawbones spread out correctly as you grow, hence mouth-breathing as a child leads to permanently under-developed jaw and overbite.

I was lucky, I was heading down that path but I was sent to a good orthodontist who fitted me with a brace designed to force me to bring my jaw forward, and now I've got all my wisdom teeth through with no issues.

>>5882
I used to get that sometimes, it went away.

I have my first haemorrhoid. Looking on NHS it seems I'm on my own unless it doesn't heal this week.

Do they sell haemorrhoid cream in the pharmacy aisle? Which brands work best? I'd rather not talk to my pharmacist about this so my next go would be Amazon if the sudocrem doesn't work.

>>5885

They sell haemorrhoid cream everywhere that has a drugs aisle. It's a pretty common problem, I've had a couple even though I'm not really in any risk groups and my diet is, dare I say, healthy.
If it's a big boy the creams tend to do very little to help anyway. You could end up with a thrombosed haemorrhoid, which is a whole new world of discomfort.

I took my first ever MMA class last night and someone fell on my hand, now the joint between my intermediate and proximal phalange on my ring finger hurts quite badly to bend. It will bend all the way in both directions but it hurts if I'm not gentle. Does anyone have any idea how long this is likely to take to recover? I'd like to go again on Saturday but it's a bit of a waste of a tenner if I have to skip all the grappling and punching parts.

>>5887

Hands are notoriously slow to recover in certiain spots, in my experience. The fingers have no musculature, as such, only tendons. I remember I once had a slight crush injury to my thumb that took ages to feel right again, I think probably due to the (comparative) lack of blood flow compared to areas with tissue like muscle that take in more fluid and blood.

I'm never tried MMA, but I think even if punching and grappling are out, footwork and kicking are also really important parts of the sport. Can you not continue to work out while the other parts are being worked on? Or even just work on conditioning? Better cardio is never bad for MMA.

>>5888
Thanks. We only covered punching and grappling in that first class so I didn't think of that. I still can't make a fist and the end joint is purple but it's not hurting as much and the swelling had gone down. I'll be able to do my home workout routine this week and I'll probably attend the next weekend class even if it hasn't significantly improved.

>>5889

If you have a coach or instructor you can also let them know and get some advice.

Boxing was my thing, so hand injuries were always shit, but MMA has a lot more scope.

>>5889

Learn to wrap your hands and tape your fingers. There are loads of guides on YouTube and it'll save you a lot of grief. Wraps and tape will reduce the risk of injury when your hands are heathy and allow you to train without making things worse when you're injured. Your ring finger will probably feel fine if you buddy tape it to your middle finger.

When I did MMA I used to wear some wraps similar to these. The have some padding for your knuckles and give good wrist support. All without have to spend ages wrapping up your hands and they dried a lot quicker than a traditional boxing wrap. It also meant you could go from bag/pad work into grappling or vice versa much quicker. I found having the extra wrist support helped when grappling as well, because it gave a bit of extra friction when trying to engage a Gable grip and just helped stop my wrists getting bent backward.

As previously mentioned if you can't make a fist because of a hand injury you can still do bag work and get some kicking practice in or footwork. If you carry on with doing it I would definitely recommend getting yourself some decent shin guards and a good cup if you end up doing sparring. The best kind of athletic support I found were the kind that are made to be held in place by compression shorts with a soft foam flange around them.

You picked the worst time for it given ER and GPs are still overloaded, but if you can get someone who knows what they do to have a look at it. Best case it's all fine, medium case you have a permanent bony lump, worst case you lose some mobility. Hand injuries (that aren't cuts or abrasions) should be taken seriously.

I don't do any martial art but I had a (push-)bike accident which "sprained" a joint in one of my fingers. Took a few months to heal, found out during an unrelated X-ray years later that I'd actually shattered bits of my ring finger bone and it just kind of fused to together in the period I'd assumed it would take a tendon to heal. A friend of mine had an unlucky catch with a soft ball of all things which made one of his thumbs a bit sore. Not a big deal, except it shattered one of the joints and by the time a doctor got a look at it it was too late so now his right thumb is a bit buggered.

Treat hand injuries like a pain in yout balls, one day is fine but more than that you want to make sure you know why it hurts. Your body wants you to carry on and doesn't care how it cripples you.

>>5893
You were right, it still doesn't bend properly. There's a bony protrusion on the side of the second knuckle and it's constantly an angry red. My grip in that hand is notably weaker too.
I'll try to make a GP appointment now.

Big toenail is starting to grow in again. I clipped the edge off for a little relief - yes i know you're not supposed to - which worked for a day or two but it's now sore again. Worn out dirty shoes don't help but thankfully it's not infected, just a little plasma-y.

>>5913
No mate, cut your nails, doesn't matter your situation. Keep them short, clip them, etc. if you keep them long you already know hat you're getting into, but for basic care... dude, cut your towies.

I have pain in my lower right, rear jaw. It feels like a toothpick being jammed into the gum between two of the rear molars. It comes and goes all day and night. Drinking anything hot or cold makes the pain spread across that whole quarter of the jaw, increasingly further. Laying my head on that side does the same. Not immediately, but a few seconds later. The pain is enough to make my eyes water. The combination of paramol and ibuprofen at recommended isn't enough to stop it. I can't sleep, eat or think straight.
I'll get an emergency dentist appointment when there is one available but I've already been, they just told me my teeth were fine, to use a different toothpaste and come back if it gets worse.
I think I'm just complaining but if you have any idea what the fuck is happening I would like to know.

>>5915
Did they give you an xray at least?

>>5916
Yes, nothing out of the ordinary on them.

I just caught the reflection of the sun in a skylight across the street and it felt like ten suns at once. Looked away immediately and pulled the blind down but it's been 5 minutes and I still feel like I've just looked at the sun for a second. I can see fine and haven't lost any clarity, but there's that strain/discomfort you get after you've just caught the sun in your eyes. Am I going to turn out like those indian lads or is this damage recoverable and just a matter of minutes/hours rather than seconds as I'd consider normal?

I caught that cold that's been making its way across the south. Nasty bugger; piercing headache across the left temple and deep confusion during sleep, alongside the usual symptoms. I had to keep raising from bed to remind myself where and who I was. My dreams were a labrynth, It was horrible.

I hear this winters Cold and Flu strains are expected to be stronger than usual, due to the lockdowns begative effect on immune systems. Be careful lads!

Think I might have broken my toe, but I'm currently packing up my life to move on Wednesday, so rest isn't really an option.

>>5934

Let us know.

>>5962
You should be fine. I'm a massive fanny and managed a Christmas Eve bar shift on a broken toe in my youth. Just don't push yourself and you'll be alreet. Assuming it's not jutting out the skin.

>>5962

I broke toes quite often when I did a lot of Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. Splint it and you'll probably be fine.

Bout 3 days ago I noticed that I couldn't inhale all the way, like when you yawn or have one of those 'big' breaths, and you can feel your lungs proper filling. I've got an appointment with a lung person in a couple of days but I'm a bit worried, since my lateral flow tests are showing negative and I've been smoking for 10 years. This just all came on in the last week, very noticeably so - can I take that as a good sign or are lungs known to suddenly just stop bothering?

Anyone know what to expect? I'm otherwise a fairly healthy 30 year old besides the smoking. I'm worried about googling symptoms because right now I've got 'lungs like swiss cheese from long covid', 'emphysema' and 'lung cancer' floating around my skull. I obviously need to stop smoking but my vape broke and I can't get the willpower.

Escitalopram Vs Citalopram.

My psychiatrist has switched me from Citalopram to Esci, apparently I shouldn't feel any changes whatsoever initially, just less side effects. But day two and my anxiety is sky high.

>>5967

Talk to your doctor.

Your brain will likely be readjusting to the new drugs and things will calm down again shortly.

The spike in anxiety could be due to the time of year, and concern about the increase in cases of covid. May be unrelated to the change of med?

>>5966
Then buy a new vape?

The pain in my jaw came back, not as bad as before but enough that I couldn't sleep or concentrate all week. What it really felt like was something jammed right down between the hind teeth, out of reach of floss and too tight to dislodge with the waterpik. I did try to get to it with those but it just made my gums sore and inflamed. The dentist was closed and I can't afford to keep going there just to be told they can't see anything.
I did a cold water extraction on half a packet of paramol, drank that, got something tough to bite down on hard so the teeth would be forced apart then sprayed the waterpik in there. Almost blacked out from the pain and the whole area swelled up badly enough it's visible through my cheek but the sensation of something being in there went immediately and by the time I went to bed it had stopped hurting enough that I could sleep. 24 hours later the swelling is going down and I haven't had to take any painkillers since the act. Possibly a really stupid thing to do but it seems to have worked.

>>5967
Escitalopram is known to cause anxiety and (hypo)manic symptoms in people with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. If you notice any (hypo)manic symptoms such as less need for sleep, increased libido, sudden hyper-focused interest in new projects, increased extroversion, impatience, increased alcohol intake, etc then do make sure to talk to your doctor.

>>6004
>increased libido, sudden hyper-focused interest in new projects, increased extroversion
Maybe it's just me, but those would tell me that the antidepressants are working as intended.

I walked too far early last month and ever since there's been no feeling in part of my sole. It's like cold rubber.

>>6006
Be careful with foot issues and numbness like that - it can be a symptom of diabetes. I walk a load for fitness - it's worth learning a few stretches, particularly calf muscles.

I feel like my body is falling apart quicker than I anticipated and I want to get an update on my health.

How do you go about getting a doctor to check you for all the big ones, like lung cancer, prostate cancer etc? Also I think my bladder or kidneys are a bit fucked. I can get private healthcare through my work if that changes anything.

I just don't want to die through complacency, especially when we're just around the corner from minor immortality.

>>6008

You can get an NHS health check if you're over 40, but it's a fairly cursory checkup - blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and a chat about your diet.

Most private healthcare providers offer much more comprehensive checkups, so I'd suggest looking into what your employer offers.

>>6009
Cheers, sounds good. My internal organs must be nearing 70 but I'm only 30 unfortunately. Will check in with employer.

>>6007
Ta. I'll maybe do something more about it if it gets worse with no obvious cause but it seems like I just walked on a nerve funny that day.

Got the weirdest cold I've ever had. Lat flow says it's not the plague.

Whenever I get a cold I usually produce industrial amounts of snot, but I'm completely dry this time; the main feature is that my right nostril (and just my right nostril) feels like it's been superglued shut. It doesn't even do the thing of switching sides every hour or two like a normal cold. My left nostril is free and clear.

I can barely sleep or concentrate as it feels like there's a force pushing my nostril shut and it's very very distracting.

>>6012
Do you know what, I had exactly that this time last year - like all my snot dried up. Obviously another weird bug going around.

I've been working long 12 hour shifts and frequent nights since the height of the pandemic, and I can start to feel it taking it's toll on my health. I'm pushed for time and resorting to fast food out of convenience, and just too tired when I get home to do any kind of exercise. I've kind of forgotten my old routine and I've forgotten the foods I used to enjoy or how to make them, it's all just drained out of my head as the days of the last couple of years have blurred together.

What can I eat that's both fast and easy, as well as relatively healthy? I don't want "easy" cheflad suggestions, I mean I want ACTUALLY easy, as in takes me five minutes or less with little to no prep; and ideally something that can be done in the microwave, because that's the only cooking resource I have when I'm at work. I'm going to commit to going for a walk/jog and get some weights to at least keep a bit of exercise up on my days off, and obviously make sure I eat real food those days too. The trouble is those 3/4 days where I'm on shift, and the fact that my actual shift patterns are all over the place. Is it a major problem if I can't keep an exercise routine consistent?

I mean like, it needs to be as simple as warming up some carrots, microwavable rice and some pre-cooked chicken, but I need more ideas and guidance on how to get all my needs out of food that simple.

I've even considered the fanny custard, but it's too rank, I can't stomach it.

>>6014
Batch cooking. Do a load of mince and then you can have it separate days with rice, pasta, mashed potato, etc.

>>6015

Nah, I've tried it before and I never stick to it because then my meals are too samey.

>>6016

Depending on freezer size you could do a couple of different batches to alternate then break up the monotony by having something more raw; carrots, hummus and pita bread, maybe a salad if you have the time to chop. Raw stuff doesn't take long to prepare.

SSRIS, specifically escitalopram for me but I've tried many and they are all the same.

They work magnificently for mental well-being. But they've removed the pleasure from orgasms. I've lost that eye rolling pleasure, now, oddly, it feels at that bit when you're about to cum and fizzles out during actual ejaculation.

I've tried to find the answer to this, but WHY is that the case? Do they not understand why this is impacting orgasm for so many people?

>>6018
Now, oddly, it feels good at that bit**

>>6018

>Do they not understand why this is impacting orgasm for so many people?

Not really - we understand SSRIs reasonably well, but we don't understand orgasm. There are at least 14 different types of serotonin receptor and we're not sure which are involved in orgasm.

Personally I quite liked the sexual effects of citalopram, but I've always been fond of edging. Still got the scars on my foreskin, mind you. Sertraline has no effect whatsoever on my knob, but for some people it's a boner killer. The brain is weird.

>>6018
Strangely that didn't happen to me with SSRIs but it did with SNRIs. When I was on SSRIs I could fuck for hours and had to basically shag the shit of the bird to get there, but when I did I actually had a proper orgasm.

SNRIs were the opposite: completely normal time to orgasm but absolutely no "brain pleasure" at all. I finally noticed that I wasn't getting any "brain pleasure" from anything at all; no warm tingling feeling in the brain after a few beers, no accompanying pleasure during exhilarating activities, basically it felt like the whole pleasure center in my brain had been turned off.

I decided to simply not take them any more and I take a whole different set of medications these days but at least my sex life is basically normal.

Sage for rambling nonsense.

Is it possible for escitalopram to fuck your stomach up? Have been taking it for a few months, missed a dose then stupidly doubled up the next day (still a low dose overall), and ever since I've had a bloated stomach, nausea, a mix of pebble shits and liquid. My stomach has never been great on them, but that missed dose seems to have done me over.

>>6030

90% of serotonin receptors are in the gut. Gastrointestinal side-effects are quite common when starting or stopping SSRIs. The missed/double dose will have been a shock to your system, but things should settle down after a couple of days.

I went into A&E today because I twisted my lower back very badly last night while cleaning house, to the point that I woke up with excruciating pain in my bed this morning and almost couldn't move at all, let alone get out of bed, and was almost going to call an ambulance. I eventually managed to crawl out of bed quite literally on all fours and found some ibuprofen in the bathroom, and when that kicked in, I was able to drive to the hospital myself. I told them I suspected a slipped disc because the pain was similar to when I actually had one a few years ago, but the X-rays came back negative and the doctor said it was probably just a pinched nerve. I was sent home with some extra-strength 800 mg Ibuprofen and advised to do frequent heat treatments on my lower back, like taking a hot bath or a hot water bottle, and to go see an orthopedist by the end of the week if that doesn't help.

I've never needed to be aware of sexual health. Is it physically unhealthy to sleep in your own lovejuices? What if you're playing some kinky game where you don't wash for a few days (a week?) while continuing to interact with your partner? Is that what a 'dirty weekend' is?
Is this how STD/I's generate?

>>6037
>Is it physically unhealthy to sleep in your own lovejuices?
Not especially. Not more than simply not washing is unhealthy.
>What if you're playing some kinky game where you don't wash for a few days (a week?) while continuing to interact with your partner?
>Is this how STD/I's generate?
You might increase your chances of a UTI or a yeast infection through cross-contamination but if you're having regular unprotected sex with them in the first place, chlamydia or gonorrhoea aren't going to spontaneously generate in your genitals.
>Is that what a 'dirty weekend' is?
No.

You will get smelly very fast.

>>6037

Good question. I'm not sure of the specifics here, maybe NHSlad can pop in with a more informed point of view. Insert a typical "not a doctor" disclaimer here, and if in doubt go to a GUM clinic or get a GP to check your junk.

As I understand it, leaving any area of your body unwashed leaves you more susceptible to infection, especially bacterial. I'm not sure if semen and vaginal secretions pose any unique threat, but bodily fluids generally aren't sterile and can encourage growth of pathogenic organisms.

I'm not sure of the length of time it would take to actually grow some nasties that might present as a skin infection, but I don't think sleeping overnight would present any danger if both partners have a healthy immune system and no open sores or anything.

One concern with general bad hygiene that also applies here is just transference from one area of the body to another. If you're not washing for days, including handwashing, then any pathogens you get on your hands (from your body or otherwise) are likely to get to an area more prone to infection, like the mouth, gut, eyes, etc.. To put it crudely, any wet hole.

>Is this how STD/I's generate?

Do you mean this in an evolutionary sense, like "where did syphilis come from"? Or in the sense of, "if I don't wash, am I more likely to catch an STI"?

Again, I could be corrected on this, but the things we class as STIs are those pathogens that are so infectious that they take hold despite good hygiene practices. Having unprotected sex someone who has an STI then washing afterwards won't have much of an effect.

>>6039
>>6037

NHS microbiologylad here. You know it's me because I quote posts in reverse order because one of you once said it pisses you off.

The only real risk I'm aware of when it comes to this sort of thing is that women can be quite prone to urinary tract infections if they don't go for a wee after sex. All the motions of shagging tend to shove skin flora and vaginal bacteria up there, so urinating serves a natural process in flushing it out.

Men basically don't have to worry about anything. The penis is a lot more resilient to infection than the vagina, even despite all the foreskin-industrial complex's propaganda about "hygiene benefits". which is a dirty, nasty hole crawling with gribblies even in "normal" conditions. What causes issues is upsetting the balance of those organisms- Too high or low pH, excessive moisture/dryness, that kind of thing. Bacteria love nothing more than a warm, dark, moist environment, and that means your missus' ladygarden is a fertile environment in more ways than one.

However, while normal bacterial infections aren't something a bloke really has to worry about, they primarily affect women, you do still have to worry about things like the clap, treatment resistant super-gonorrhoea (I know we're all Beestonlads here and Leeds is rife with it), and the nastier ones like HIV. So do bag up if you're with somebody new or you have any reason to believe your partner is sleeping with anyone but yourself.

If you're leaving it longer than a week then... Jesus, get a shower, you scruff. But I can't see it causing serious trouble if you're not doing it regularly, as long as you're usually hygienic and you don't have any rashes, sores or eczema etc to provide a starting off point. Things can get very nasty if you give the wrong sort of bacteria a place to start.

>>6042
NHSlad taking on Big Foreskin.

>>6043
>Big Foreskin

I adore NHSlad and his posts, but I am struggling to see the angle on this. I think he's arguing the opposite; the foreskin-industrial complex is in favour of their removal in the name of spurious health benefits - but as ever I look forward to his clinical explanation and clarification on this point.

>>6050
>>6043

Yeah I bungled that bit of the post because I added it in after the rest and meant to put it in more clarifying brackets; my point was that despite the supposed health benefits of circumcision there's really very little risk of infection with ot without it. It's vanishingly rare for me, personally, to see samples from a lad with a gammy knob compared to the dozens I see daily resulting from a poorly maintained gash.

Without wanting to stray into boo territory I think it's very plausible that the entire reason for the practice of circumcision in the West (ie the States) outside of necessary cases of phimosis, is because the material harvested is used in manufacturing skin grafts, and because they get to add extra onto the medical bills if they do it.

I was eating soft sweets on Friday night and there was something hard in one that took out a filling and cracked the tooth. We're talking about a quarter of the tooth has chipped away, I'm not in pain and put in a temporary filling on Friday night

Anyway, I got in touch with my dentist today and they won't see me for 3 weeks! I've put a few leads out with other dentist but they've all been quick to say they don't take new NHS patients, despite the fact that I was clear I was paying private and needed to know how soon they could see me. So I probably won't get much better shopping around despite this liable to need a crown which is a relatively expensive treatment.

The state of this shithole country aside, what can I do here. I'm supposed to call in for an emergency appointment if I'm in pain i.e. when it gets infected but "we'll see you when it hurts" is fucking stupid. Will my temporary filling last 3 weeks or what do I do here?

>>6053
I've had a bit of my tooth chip off before lockdown. You'll be reet.

>>6053
Got to Google translate, and translate Dentist into either Bulgarian or Polish (or whatever eastern European language - Russian and Hungarian works too). Whatever you get, type it in Google Maps and find which ever one can barely speak English. It is private but at least you will be seen within this week and it isn't too pricy.

Welcome to Britain.

>>6051

There is some evidence to suggest that it became a routine procedure in America and elsewhere in order to allow Jewish and Muslim men to blend in so they can't ever be witch hunted ever again purely by being scanted and that used as evidence for them being semites.

>>6057

Is there? Where? That sounds like some Elder Protocols tier bullshit.

>>6057

I would imagine, especially in a country where many people openly supported eugenics and eugenecist-adjacent ideas on genetics up until the whole Nazi business made it unfashionable, there are plenty of other ways people would be willing to use to tell if you're a smite other than looking at your willy. Perhaps starting with the colour of your skin. I don't know, I'm not a historian, I don't have any counter evidence, but I suspect that idea is completely and utterly full of shit.

What I would like to talk about however, since we're on the subject, is how a lot of American lads have a kind of hard, intense Stockholm syndrome for their mutilated knobs. They defend and argue in favour of the practice wherever the subject comes up because, I suspect, to do otherwise would feel like an admission that they are less of a man, and that they were appallingly abused with their own parent's consent. It is too existentially difficult to grapple with, and that is part of the reason the practice persists so stubbornly.

>>6059
Absolutely yes, but you do sound like you care more passionately than you really need to. I see it more like parents smacking their kids: the world is full of both battered and unbattered children who are now fully grown up, and they both utterly insist that their way never did them any harm. They're right; it didn't, in most cases. But doing the opposite choice is fine too.

>>6058

It's not, it's actually quite a sensible precaution considering America's history with anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish propaganda. America could have just as easily joined the war on the side of the Nazis if they hadn't lost the Eastern front, in the name of stamping out communism of course, but there was still a lot of anti-Semitic vitriol floating about America in the 40s and it wouldn't have taken much to tip the scales for Jews living there if America had decided to forge and alliance with the Reich. America's love affair with the Jewish peoples (i.e Israel) is a new thing even in the context of their very short history as a nation.

>>6059

>there are plenty of other ways people would be willing to use to tell if you're a smite other than looking at your willy.
And yet, unfortunately, the Nazis did just that often with no other evidence other than "no foreskin".

>>6051
>phimosis
I've got a mate who repeatedly frames his circumcision as having been necessary because "his knob was too big for his foreskin", as opposed to his foreskin being too tight for his knob. I'm sure it's six of one, half a dozen of the other when it comes to the actual geometry of the penis, but his choosing to view it as originating from an oversized cock rather than an undersized foreskin just strikes me as deluded.

>>6059
Remember you're also talking about a country where practically every teenager goes through orthodontics to ensure they don't go into adulthood bearing the shame of imperfect teeth and jawlines. Being a medical doctor in America must be a right laugh, you just make something up and tell people they simply must have it or their kid will be weird, then go home to your McMansion.

>>6061
>It's not, it's actually quite a sensible precaution
You still haven't given any evidence, just repeated the hypothesis. One that requires either all of the US to decide out the goodness of their hearts to cut bits of their penis off, or to have been tricked into doing it by those sneaky Semites and their friends.

>>6057
Nope completely false, it was widespread in the USA long before then.
It took off mainly among American Christians in the late 19th century thanks to people like Kellogg who believed circumcision would stop boys from wanking. And it carried on through the 20th century mostly due to parents having it done because they already were with the hygiene myth supporting it.

Is it normal for 5mg escitalopram to work magically for 2-3 months and then stop? I've read its a pretty low dose, but still. Never had that on an anti depressant before.

>>6086

Psychopharmacology is basically educated guesswork, but the obvious option is to just try 10mg and see how you go.

Has anything changed in your life that might have triggered a worsening of your symptoms?

>>6087
Not that I know of. I even had a psychiatrist tell me he was amazingly happy with my progress just a few weeks ago. All the fears and obsessions I felt I had gotten over, have just slowly come back. They are bad enough as they are, let alone when you feel you've rid of them, and tasted happiness/normality.

>>6086
Not escitalopram specifically, but I've been on many different antidepressants, and find with some the benefit of them dwindles over time. Not sure if this is due to difficulties in life or just tolerance to the drug, but if you feel it's not working there are shitloads of alternatives out there that might work.

Think I might have the old peptic ulcer lads - had to leave work on Wednesday because I was burping furiously from the morning which developed into nausea in the afternoon, eventually managed to vomit properly in the evening, after which point my arse immediately decided it needed a piss and I felt a bit better, but it's been a baseline since then of getting gassy when I'm moving and having maybe 1 proper meal a day due to reduced appetite. Now the lass wants to go for a birthday pubcrawl and while I relish the idea of walking several miles and consuming half pints of water on the route, I'm not sure I should just stay in my wanking den.

But a few people have had a stomach bug at work recently so I'm unsure, should probably get a GP appointment right? Looks like ulcers are bacterial infection anyway so should be antibiotics either way. Chances of dying if I don't go to the hospital today?

I fucked up my toenail again. Had it treated a few years ago after it'd been ingrowing for a long time.. slowly got used to cutting it across and never below the edge but it had started becoming uncomfortable again recently. I got frustrated and cut deep into the groove, can't even pull out the nail section as it's still connected somewhere. It bled a bit and the pain is sharper than usual, but It's not pus-y(?) anymore, which is a plus .. but i'm gonna pay for it.

What's the rabies protocol for having a bat collide with your head?

Shall I tell the doctor I'm 99% sure I have rabies? Last night I was in the park and something hit me in the head, felt like a massive fly and I saw some bats about so I think it was one of them wot did me in, and I didn't see any marks but you know how the tiny fuckers are.

>>6112
Call 101, I've heard on the grapevine that rabies needs to be dealt with extremely quickly.

>>6112
It's highly, highly unlikely you'll have contracted rabies, but given how serious untreated rabies is there's nothing to lose acting as if you definitely have rabies. But again, the chances of you becoming another rabies statistic are beyong tiny, subatomically so, smaller than the smallest thing ever and then half of that, that's right even smaller than your cock.

-ate hot wings from a chicken shop Saturday
-heated up a frozen pepperoni pizza at 5 AM, fell asleep, reheated it at 11 AM
-ate hot wings from another chicken shop Sunday, gave some to a dog whose tongue brushed against the fingers I was eating with
-later on shook a homeless man's hand after giving him a cigarette

Which of the above was the most likely cause for the terrible food poisoning I suffered Sunday night?

>>6116
My money's on the second one. But then I do like hot wings.

>>6116

It's probably not even food poisoning lad. Just garden variety upset stomach because you've put too much shite into it.

>>6116
It's always good practice to put objects you're donating to the homeless on the floor. You're not supposed to touch them the same way you're not supposed to touch dead animals.

>>6118
Can an upset stomach come with a fever and chills? It felt a lot like the time I got food poisoning after buying some dodgy jerk chicken from a Jamaican outside a betting shop.

>>6120

>It felt a lot like the time I got food poisoning after buying some dodgy jerk chicken from a Jamaican outside a betting shop.

Seriously m8, getting the shits is the least of your worries. Have you got Prader-Willi syndrome? Do you eat the foam out of sofas if you're left unattended? Sort your fucking life out.

>>6121
In my defence, I was 13 and listening to a lot of Bob Marley at the time.

I think I fainted today. I've never fainted before, because you're not supposed to, are you? I carried a load of shopping home, got home, and went in the kitchen for a drink. Delicious Pepsi Max from the fridge. But it was so cold that as soon as it hit my stomach, I was in confusing agony. My stomach cramped up, and I put the glass down having decided to give myself a moment for the pain to pass. In this way, it was like a freezing cold version of when you drink something on top of air in your throat and the air gets forced down too. It was that sort of pain. So I gave myself a moment for it to pass, and the next thing I knew, it had passed. But I was suddenly flat on my kitchen floor with no idea how I'd got there. I got up, and was absolutely fine again from that moment on. Nevertheless, it's very scary.

I assume my blood pressure just dropped calamitously and knocked me out, but why?

>>6125
I had exactly the same thing, years ago. Cold fizzy drink, something goes calamitously wrong with your innards, excruciating, worse than a kick to the bollocks. I only greyed out, not a full faint, but yeah.
Thirty years on, I still don't just neck a cold can of anything fizzy.

>>6125

There's probably, but I'm not a doctor nothing to worry about, it's just a quirk of your vagus nerve.

For weird evolutionary reasons, there's a massive nerve in your neck that isn't your spinal cord, but is wired up to most of your internal organs. Stimulating the vagus nerve can cause a drop in blood pressure sufficient to cause fainting, but there are loads of things that can stimulate the vagus nerve because it's wired up to so much stuff. Coughing, vomiting, holding your breath or straining for a shit are the most common culprits, but a cold drink could cause stomach cramps strong enough to cause fainting.

There are a few case studies in the medical literature. The only real risk is that you might hurt yourself when you fall; the only known treatment is to avoid cold drinks, or at least to sip rather than gulp.

https://jmedicalcasereports.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13256-020-2358-3

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3318096/

I have started regularly smoking to reduce stress. It started out of bordom, smoking at peak 5 in a day before flushing the pouches contents down the loo. It was numerous weeks, perhaps months, before even considering buying any more. Recently I bought some straits, used 5 and left the rest in a bus stop for the next person. Except now I'm anticipating an event I don't particularly want to face - ran out for some smokes and found instant relief the moment of lighting up.
I don't think i'd mind being a light smoker, but my experience thus far has been an extra fag a day until all I can taste is tobacco, feel a nasty background headache and I begin to fear sleeping for the sake of the resultant sleep apnoea.

I'm starting to understand the necessity of censoring cigarettes from broadcasts and popular culture depictions. Seeing anything to do with smoking is a direct reminder that 'Oh yeah, I have smokes in my coat pocket".

I guess meditation would be in aid to address this needful feeling to consume.

>>6128
Is it worth switching to vaping? You can get disposable vapes for £5 nowadays, that are the equivalent to a pack of fags. Or if not vapes, then maybe roll ups? The extra effort of having to assemble the cigarette may remove that impulsive element of just grabbing a cig from your pocket.

>>6129
Disposable vapes usually have LiPo batteries in them which is a dream if you want to recharge or rebuild them but wasteful if you don't. The tech in one of those vape sticks is truly amazing, don't just bin them :)

>>6128
>I have started regularly smoking to reduce stress

Lad, you know full well you're being stupid. Everyone starts as a light smoker before hitting into about the average intake. And you like smoking because it's cool and exciting to spark up and adds a nice ritual to your day but you'll soon be hooked if not already.

>I'm starting to understand the necessity of censoring cigarettes from broadcasts and popular culture depictions. Seeing anything to do with smoking is a direct reminder that 'Oh yeah, I have smokes in my coat pocket".

Don't be a poof. As a former smoker I can say you'll get the odd craving throughout your life and I find the big trigger is events or simply having a time where I want to step out of a social situation to have a ciggie because I feel awkward.

>>6130
What am I supposed to do with old vapes anyway? I have two sitting in a drawer with the more expensive costing about £50 back in 2020.

>>6131
Power your sensors? Just make sure they have a charging circuit.

>>6131

>As a former smoker I can say you'll get the odd craving throughout your life and I find the big trigger is events or simply having a time where I want to step out of a social situation to have a ciggie because I feel awkward


I quit smoking almost exactly 11 years ago, had my last-ever fag at the end of February of 2012. Haven't touched a single cigarette since. I'm in my 40s now, and I can honestly say that I feel more physically fit in my 40s without smoking than I did in my early to mid 30s while I was still puffing away one pack of Marlboros a day.

As far as cravings, I guess I had them loads until about five or six years into being a new non-smoker. Especially in the first two to three years, there was often a moment where I thought, wouldn't it be nice to just have a fag. But I knew that I'd come too far to give it all up again just for one moment of weakness. I tried to quit many times before I finally succeeded, so I knew what was at stake.

The final clincher for me to quit was that I kept getting laryngitis every winter, and at some point my ENT specialist told me that it's a proven fact that smokers are more likely to have recurring laryngitis, and that laryngitis is often a starting point for laryngeal cancer later on. If you've never had it, laryngitis feels like you're swallowing razorblades. It can be very painful and annoying, to the point that you can't talk for more than a few minutes at a time without feeling sharp pain in your throat. You'll spend much of your day drinking Lemsip and devouring packets of lidocaine lozenges.

Well and also, people in my parents' generation who had actually been lifelong smokers for 30 or 40 years started dying from it. Not all of them had lung cancer, mind, two or three died from things like coronary heart disease or even bladder cancer. In all of those cases, smoking drastically increases your likelihood. And I knew that if I wasn't going to quit while I was still relatively young and in good health, that would be me someday.

I smoked 6 or 7 today after the stressful event I'd mentioned. Shredded a further 6 into the bin, left 3 for tomorrow. That'll be it. I recognise 'you might as well just dump them all, now', but fuck that. I'll smoke the rest tomorrow before making this face 2 hours after the last of them.

The pattern has emerged that i'd buy more in a couple of weeks to a month, but I reckon i can ignore that from here on seeing as i've made it semi-public. I'll just have to find something else to do with my time - hopefully it won't be eating again. Spring is in, could try to get more walking done.

>>6133
What bothers me about having quit for a few years is knowing that my lungs are scarred and don't operate within my age range. Probably the same is true of a lot of me. It's all a laugh when you're younger because you just assume your body will recover entirely when you stop but that's only true for some things.

>>6134
>I smoked 6 or 7 today

You absolute tit. Might as well order Allen Carr's Easy Way now.

Long walks won't work because it's a perfect excuse to swing by the shop and a meditative ciggie on a walk is ace. Get a computer game to lose yourself in for hours - there are specific ones for that like RDR or grand strategy. You'll fuck up your life a bit when you get into them but it keeps you occupied.

I take an active interest in the bedroom. Don't get me wrong, I like the girl riding me sometimes but overall I'm a big lad and the lonely teenage years has left me with an overactive sex-drive.

The problem is I must push myself too hard because I always end up with cramping in my groin as I try to get to sleep. The bit between the thigh and your balls. Obviously let's be practical but what can I do about this issue? Finding some exercises might be an idea or do I knock some stretches in on the sly? I'm open to suggestions.

>>6136

Get into yoga m8. It's good for flexibility, core strength and having a cheeky stare at some arses.

>>6136
>I'm a big lad
Having been skinny, put on weight then lost it again I suggest getting in shape. Not to fat shame anyone at all but sex is just better in every respect when you're in athletic shape. Stamina, power, reduced recovery time, fewer injuries or cramps, more sensitive touch from the reduced bodyfat, a wider range of positions and most importantly a bigger build-up of endorphins. Not to mention the difference in how partners and other people look at you. You're less likely to snore after the deed, too.

>>6136
That bit you're describing is what hurts after pushing wheelbarrows up ramps too much. Get yourself a weekend job mucking out stables and you'll be invincible.
You'll also reek of horse piss, so you won't be getting any sex either, so it's a double win.

>>6139

Not even posh horsey girls? Horse piss is like cologne to them, surely.

Do you ever have a cup of tea that upsets your tumtum? It usually happens to me if I have a cup of tea around 2pm but coffee is fine. I hope I'm not allergic to tea.

About six years ago, when I was 22, I had an on-off sexual relationship with a local tart for a few months right after she’d split up with her boyfriend.

It turns out, her ex-boyfriend was a nutter and low-level drug dealer who held a grudge. This led to him threatening my life when he saw me, and even posting threats about me by name on social media.

Even now, whenever he sees me in the street when I’m driving or he’s driving, he will beep his horn and gesture threateningly (wanker signs, cut throat etc.), with a face like thunder. I’ve always ignored him and the situation has never escalated even when he had an opportunity to actually physically assault me (e.g., when I’m behind him in traffic), so it think it’s more a weird psychological domination thing he enjoys rather than acting out on it.

The trouble is, there’s always the risk I bump into him in an alley without cctv and he decided to swing at me. I’ve got a partner, child, and a good job now. Whereas he seems to still be living a low-life criminal existence. This means he basically has nothing to lose, whereas I have everything to lose.

I’m not sure what the best way out of the situation is. He’s rough and has been involved in many fights, so it’s unlikely I could beat him up. And a preemptive strike with a knife or something is out of the question for the previous reasons.

>>6160
Whoops, looks like I posted in the wrong thread.

>>6160

He's not really angry at you, he just doesn't know how to process the emotions around being dumped. He threatens you as a way of dealing with/avoiding those feelings. He has mostly moved on, but randomly seeing you rekindles those feelings. If he was going to kick your head in, he would have done it at the time. He hasn't, because it isn't really about you at all and battering you wouldn't give him any satisfaction. Keep out of his way and you'll be fine, because that's what he wants.

>>6160
Ring the police and tell them he's harassing you. No point putting up with some petty gangster trying to lord over you.
Even if you fucked his Mrs