SO when a cow gives birth, there is a huuuuuge calcium requirement for lactation. Cows also do not eat for a bit after they’ve given birth. Low calcium can cause neuromuscular things like straight up paralysis. So you get a paralysed cow. You give it some calcium and it gets

Back up. So you’d think that to prepare for this, a few weeks pre-partum you’d want to feed her a shit tonne of calcium, yeah? Well that’s actually the absolute worst thing you can do for her and makes it much much worse.

When her blood calcium levels are low, parathormone will be released which causes bone resorption. Calcium will be taken from the bones to the blood.

If you give her a high calcium diet, her body will adapt to having constant calcium intake from the gut. However this isn’t going to be enough, the parathormone absorption pathway is also necessary.

So when she gives birth, her body will no longer produce parathormone properly, and get milk fever (hypocalcaemic paralysis)

Isn’t that fucked up?

Imagine trying to help your damn cow but you actually just made it so much worse for her

Bodies are very complicated. Things are highly regulated and there are so many interactions that a general person won’t be aware of. So stop telling chronically ill people how to get better/explain their condition to them/ over simplify it to them

I promise you that your google search does not understand the nuances of a highly dynamic, interacting environment that professionals spend years to understand even at a general level, let alone at the scope of a specialist

Example: “I googled MCAS and it says mast cells release histamine inappropriately in response to triggers. It doesn’t say anything about being more susceptible to bacterial and viral infections. What’s histamine got to do with that?”

The immune system is extremely complex. WebMD is not sufficient to explain the interactions that happen between a disorder and the immune system straight up nuking your body.

or when absolute walnuts say “take collagen supplements!”

hmmmmmm perhaps no medical professional has ever thought of that and you’ve just cured a genetic disease that is by definition engraved into my DNA for eternity

This started out as just a fact about cows but then it made me think how often I get suggestions from a recent graduate of the school of hard knocks who thinks he has figured it out. What a man! He got it! Decades of medical research couldn’t do what Darryl did in 30 seconds