General Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes only. It is not an advertisement for exosomes. Use of exosomes has not been FDA-approved for prevention nor treatment of any disease condition. Anecdotes provided do not constitute scientific proof and all patients were treated in the context of a fully informed consent and patient-physician relationship.
Exosomes 15: Face Blindness
This week’s blog is about a condition known as “face blindness” is called prosopagnosia from the Greek for face (prosopon) and not knowing (agnosia). I met a woman who told me she suffered from this condition and owing to the fact that my friend also has the condition, I knew a little about it. As humans, we need to understand that we are not the best species when it comes to many things such as running, swimming, echolocation, seeing outside our visual spectrum, etc…but there are four things we excel at: abstract thought, language, music appreciation, and facial recognition.
We don’t know if there is dolphin poetry and music but we do know that even the most tone deaf people can pick out a wrong note from a melody. But what kind of a human experience would you have if you were like the estimated 2.5% of people with congenital “face blindness”?
There can be different degrees and aspects for poor facial recognition. Organic mental disorders that affect memory and cognition can certainly contribute. We are speaking of the people who do well with memorizing everything except faces and lesions involving the fusiform gyrus (a specific area on the base of the brain) seem to be involved.
Our patient is a 48-yo woman who had normal facial recognition until her first pregnancy when she noted that she couldn’t remember new faces. Despite having an uneventful pregnancy with no neurological complications or hypertension, she has since suffered from 14 years of very poor facial recognition. For example, she states that she could be sitting and talking to you for two hours at a child’s baseball game and the next day, she wouldn’t recognize you. Frequently, people in her tight-knit community come up to her and she is a totally loss as to who they might be.
Most of us take for granted that when we sit down at a restaurant, despite not knowing the strangers around us, if they were switched with similarly dressed people with different faces, we would find it trivial to recognize the new people. Now imagine the stress associated with not remembering people that you should know, such as social acquaintances, parents of your children’s friends, and customers. Lisa has suffered many years of anxiety from other people judging her as aloof when they greeted her despite her having no recollection of their previous meetings. To add insult to injury, when she attempts to explain why, people don’t even think such as thing is real because they haven’t heard of it!
Now, you and I might have trouble remembering a name or a relationship, but I’d venture a guess that we probably don’t easily forget a face if it had some strong emotional meta tag associated with it.
I’m happy to report that according to Lisa, her life has improved since receiving exosomes since there is about a 30% improvement which has brought her to the point of not being nervous in social situations. Her husband is able to corroborate improved function. It was so satisfying to hear her delight of doing great at a back-to-school night at the local high school and that she aspires to be a “room mom” someday. I hope she continues to improve and whether placebo or organically based, that 30% improvement was enough to bring her back into a comfortably functioning adult role.
The reason I named this blog as I did was because I wanted to riff a little bit on cognitive bias. There is a Ray Charles song that roughly stated “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” In my musings about artificial intelligence and culture wars, I realize that this also applies to cognitive bias. Consciousness is based on discernment which is based on categorization and judgement. Artificial intelligence makes errors because it has no biases (Type I false positive) or too many (Type II false negative). To learn more, read this blog.
The entire process of thinking, one could argue, serves to prevent you from having to be aware of all the sensory and imaginative things one could be aware of. In contradistinction, the successful use of depersonalizing entheogenic (making into god) hallucinogens in treating post traumatic stress and various mental disorders points to the degree to which altered self- awareness and decreased dependence upon our ego-laden traumas can exorcise certain harmful self-directed schemas of thought. Hallucinogens remove the ability of the mind to perceive itself as totally separate from reality. This leads us to understand the Ray Charles song: when functioning properly, the majority of our consciousness is also serving to keep us separate from the reality of our bodies, the environment, and our fellow humans. If it wasn’t for biased thought, we would have no thought at all!
The reason I am embracing bias as the kernel of truth to the human condition is that it seems to drive most of what we do. Rather than see each other as energy beings living in the eternal now, we label each other by sex, race, age, body type, attractiveness, speech, body language. We degenerate into identity politics based on those categories and fail to enjoy the miracle of each other.
Similarly, when I think of the aches and pains that I used to have before exosome treatments, I don’t fully remember that they ever existed. Instead of thinking back to months ago when I had years of the same aching Achilles, popping knee, or torn rotator cuff, I compare my current lack of pain to some time decades ago. That is my cognitive bias from a distorted self-image of health. I don’t actually perceive myself as recovered from an injury that was chronic and unremitting but rather, by default, think that the semi-permanent injury was the aberration and that I am “returning” to health. If I am being logical, I must consider the possibility that the exosomes helped me.
The case of Lisa also illustrates this cognitive bias. Her “new normal” is not a 30% improvement but rather a 70% degradation from what she enjoyed for the first 34 years of living. Despite there being no known cure for acquired prosopagnosia, she has experienced slight, subjective improvement. The password for the video, as for this blog, is “faces”
To take a facial recognition test, go to https://www.testable.org/experiment/373/361870/start
I have excellent facial recognition skills and I only scored 81%. Lisa, three weeks after exosomes intranasally, scored a similar 77% which I thought was very good. Perhaps her 30% improvement was actually a 70% improvement? I suppose what I’m saying is that all of us are pretty poor judges of our objective cognition because we adapt so quickly to the new normal and we perceive ourselves as being “whole” because we don’t really remember what that felt like to be dysfunctional. I’m just happy that she no longer has anxiety about meeting new people and coming off as rude for not remembering people whom she really ought to.
I have heard multiple times from patients after nasal exosomes that their thinking was clearer and future private exosome blogs will address the possible reasons for this and the effects that this regenerative therapy has on the hypothalamic pituitary axis of control.
POSTSCRIPT: For my friends in Hawaii, I am happy to announce that I was approved to practice medicine in Hawaii. If you would like to be invited to a free exosome lecture on Sunday November 10th, in Honolulu, please email me at email@example.com
SEATING LIMITED, please contact me ASAP to reserve your seat.
Archived exosome blogs:
To read the first blog, use password “parkblog”.
I still have voluntary ASMR six months out. Mom’s hand arthritis is greatly improved. Her shoulders are also much improved after injection in early September.
To read blog 2, use password “parkinert”
I explain why I believe exosomes aren’t inert. An amazing case of an overnight in heart rate variability is presented.
To read blog 3, use password “whiplash”
The patient continues to feel well and her hand numbness is gone.
To read blog 4, use password “runners”
Both runners continue to run without the chronic pain and limitation from tendinosis that plagued them for months (in the case of the 60-yo man, and years (in the case of the 53-yo woman)
To read blog 5, use password “coffee”
In this blog, I discussed how complicated clinical medicine can be. Different treatment protocols, ambiguous results ethical dilemmas and strange phenomena like acquired coffee aversion are part of what make treating with exosomes so challenging.
To read blog 6, use password “rogan”
Using my left foot as an example, I attempt to explain that while some exosome effects are immediate, others take time. Remodeling of damaged tissues is a complicated process. My foot is still now almost normal but not quite.
To read blog 7, use password “nerves”
Antonia continues to be pain free after 4 years of suffering.
No password is required for this blog 8
I explain why lab testing of freshly thawed exosomes is SUPPOSED to come back as normal saline.
To read blog 9, use password “videos”
A nine-part comprehensive explanation of exosomes.
No password is required for blog 10
I interviewed the principal scientists of Kimera Labs and other experienced clinicians using exosomes
Password for blog 11 and the video are both “pucci”
65-yo Deb B. She is six weeks out and loving her “new” knees. 100 squats a day for 6 weeks straight after not being able to do even one.
Password for blog 12 is “121miles”
80-yo Doug describes in his video how much his knees have improved since getting exosome injections. He is reaching new athletic peaks with no signs of stopping.
Password for blog 13 is “needling”
My 82-yo mom underwent microneedling with exosomes with fantastic results. Most impressive was the absence of “downtime” from redness or bruising. Mom is going to do my own microneedling in two days!
Password for blog 14 is “shoulders”
54-yo weight lifter with chronic pain from a rotator cuff tear shows remarkable improvement in just four days!