Monday, February 6, 2017

A Possible Physical Explanation For Trump's Mentally Unstable Behavior

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"Goddamit! I am not insane! I am not! I just want the whole planet to follow my damned orders! BWAHAHAHAHAAA!"

Finally, an author has advanced a possible physical explanation for Donald Trump's insane rants, unhinged blowouts by tweet and over the phone, antagonizing most sentient people in the civilized world. As a recent editorial in The Barbados Nation put it:

"The greatest concern for the next four years –– if indeed Mr Trump’s sojourn in the White House lasts that long –– is his judgement, public conduct and practical vision for the United States vis-a-vis the rest of the world, and the likely fallout that would impact those of us in the Caribbean. Sadly, upon assuming the greatest authority on Earth, we have seen little metamorphosis in his shamelessness (groping aside),vanity and threatening image....

The brash United States leader might also take a Barbados Community College course in communications and diplomacy. Can you imagine Donald Trump this week slamming the phone in the ears of Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after a testy exchange between them over a refugee deal signed with the Barack Obama administration? "

The author, urologist  Daniel Marchalik - writing in The Washington Post - described the cause as a potent side effect of a hair loss prescription called "finasteride ".  He wrote:

"President Trump’s personal physician recently revealed that the president takes finasteride, a drug used to combat male-pattern baldness. The medication has been in the news for another reason: its potential side effects. In factapproximately 1,370 lawsuits have been filed against Merck, which markets finasteride. A class-action lawsuit against the company will examine the pharmaceutical giant’s culpability in the multitude of reported sexual side effects potentially associated with the drug. Merck did not respond to a request for comment..

He goes on:

The constellation of potential symptoms, sometimes referred to as post-finasteride syndrome, may include sexual, physical and psychological changes. Of these, the sexual side effects are perhaps the most extensively reported. In fact, in 2012, the Food and Drug Administration announced a label change for Propecia and Proscar, requiring the manufacturer to warn that the medication may be associated with “libido disorders, ejaculation disorders, and orgasm disorders that continued after discontinuation of the drug.”....

At the same time, a recent study demonstrated changes in the levels of certain steroids in cerebrospinal fluid of men taking finasteride for hair loss. These steroids have been shown to influence brain function, and their presence may help explain the profound psychological changes such as depression and suicidality that have been associated with finasteride use.

Merck sells finasteride under the brand name Propecia, a 1-milligram formulation of the medication. It is available as a prescription for treatment of male-pattern hair loss. Its big brother, Proscar, is a 5 mg preparation commonly prescribed for the treatment of symptoms associated with enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia."

The most salient observation was:

"Together, finasteride and a closely related compound dutasteride (sold under the brand name Avodart) are a class of drugs called 5-alpha-reductase-inhibitors (5-ARIs) which work by blocking the conversion of testosterone to its more potent form, dihydrotestosterone."

Recall, in one of my posts (July 17)  on hormone treatments for  prostate cancer I referenced chemical castration therapies. One of these entailed the secretion of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone  (LHRH) which in turn stimulates the pituitary gland  to produce luteinizing hormone (LH) as well as follicle -stimulating hormone (FSH) . Then LH signals specialized cells in the testicles to secrete testosterone into the bloodstream. When testosterone reaches the prostrate it is converted into di-hydrotestosterone (DHT) a much more potent form of testosterone, via the action of an enzyme:5 -alpha reductase. The objective of medical castration then is to break this cycle, usually in one of two ways: 1) via  LHRH agonists or 2) LHRH antagonists.

In (1) the medication stops the testicles from making testosterone. This is achieved by inducing a continuous message from the brain to produce testosterone which over-stimulates the testes. They respond by being "overworked" so switch off.

In (2) the medication also induces the testes to stop producing testosterone but not by over stimulation. Rather it occurs by blocking conversion of testosterone to its more potent form.

The differences between the assorted chemical castration agents and their effects are discussed here for those interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtIfsvQh2qI

In thirty percent or more of these administrations, one of the primary side effects is a condition called gynecomastia which is briefly outlined via one case in this issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. (I warn all males, especially those now taking 'high T' supplements or shots, this may well be your future as I will show below!)

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1209166#t=article

One is led to inquire if Trump is suffering from any of these symptoms, including impotence and large breasts and if these are causing him to go off like a gas-lit fire bomb every few days. We don't know but we do know these sort of hormone interventions can wreak psychological havoc  including severe depression and intermittent explosive disorder. Indeed, a number of men using these therapies have reported their ghastly effects on the prostate cancer survivor's group to which I belong: They include: blowing up at wives and gfs, making impulsive decisions which create chaos in their lives, and an inability to think clearly and settle in to work the tasks at hand. That includes lack of concentration to meet work demands, leading to low productivity.

In the case of Trump, as numerous leaks have revealed, we behold a guy unable to settle into the role demanded by the job of President. Instead, as shown yesterday a.m. (CNN presentation, with Frdericka Whitfield) this joker spends hours each day with eyeballs glued to the tube, starting with 'Morning Joe', then 'Fox n' Friends' and others. Some of the leaking staff members estimate he's at it nearly 7 hours a day. The only time they have him looking like he's doing anything is when he signs Bannon's "executive orders".

As one commentator of the piece said afterward: "You wonder how or when he is actually attending to the job."  And the real howler is that this character used to knock Obama for "taking so much time off".  Yet Trump can't even put in a full day at the office, and he left for his Mar-a-Lago holiday at exactly 2: 45 p.m. on Friday. Any ordinary employee leaving like that from a corporation might be canned the next day. A real pity the Donald can't fire himself. It would be the most heroic act he could perform right now, kind of like an honorable form of Hari-Kari.

But again, if indeed finasteride is the source of his  unhinged behavior, he is only to blame if he allows his narcissism and vanity to get the better of him. In other words, he needs to stop using the damned Propecia!  Far better to be a sober, respected chief executive who is in touch with reality but with pattern baldness, than a fully cropped orange-haired nut who can't even work an hour a day at the most important job in the nation. And - in the words of the Barbados Nation editorial - has inspired "gargantuan hatred".

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/norman-solomon/71062/the-house-can-start-impeachment-against-trump-now



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