This should probably be labeled under TMI. But I feel that this series of entries may be able to help many individuals out.

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I was planning to lay this down in one concise article, but things are progressing too quickly and the facts are too diverse. So, in a multi-part series, I’m going to be detailing my medical history, explaining the clusterfuck that is the modern hospital, medication, insurance, and the real answer to our longevity. I’m not a medical expert by any means, but have always had a love for the body’s biology.

Fact: our genes are mutable.
Fact: 46% of Americans take at least one prescription drug daily.
Fact: we have the technology and knowledge to decode our genetic makeup on an individual basis.

My history:

4 years of age:	Contracted Mononucleosis.
5 years of age:	“Mono” was still running rampant.
6 years of age:	Contracted Mono, again, despite that being “impossible.”
7 years of age:	Started to have normal levels of epstein-barr virus.
10-13:	Chronic fatigue and general chronic illness. Resting heart rate around 170bpm. My exercising heart rate was 220bpm.
13-16:	Spouts of heart palpitations and racing heart beats (tachycardia).
17-19:	“Anxiety” issues. Neurologist prescribed Celexa (citalopram), discontinued 2 months after use. Also tried a beta blocker for heart issues, which did not do much. I generally felt “okay.” But I never felt right. Many OCD like symptoms began to creep into my day to day life. Social situations were impossible for me.
20:	Swore off drugs of any kind and moved to NYC. A hard place to swear off drugs. I became a very good photographer and started a very successful retouching studio.
21:	Woke up in a panic in the middle of the night clenching my chest with my heart beating so fast I thought I really was going to die. After being admitted to the ER, they could not remedy my heart rate of 170bpm. After giving me Ativan, I fell asleep and my heart rate continued at 140bpm, while I was sleeping. I was admitted. After numerous tests, they told me what I could have diagnosed, “you have a fast heart rate,” and kicked me out with a bottle of Atenolol, a extremely generic beta-blocker. Inefficient and physiologically conflicting.
22:	My birthday was soon after the incident at the hospital which spawned a year of change and research. Nightmares ensued from the Atenolol. I discontinued its use (which was somewhat difficult). I was basically useless for a good few months. I failed a tilt-table test miserably; and proceeded to find a doctor in Alabama, specializing in Dysautonomia - a diagnosis most heart doctors shove off as a myth, yet that nearly every astronaut experiences. I was prescribed a different betablocker, Zebeta, Lexapro, and Klonopin. My dosages were 5mg, 20mg, and 1mg, respectively.
22.5:	I began to come out of my “life coma”. But I knew things were not right. So, I began searching for something more. I wanted to feel alive. I didn’t want to rely on a pharmaceutical companies for the rest of my life. I knew there was a bigger picture to be seen.
22.5-24:	I discovered nutrigenomics with the help of Dr. Roberts.

That’s my background. You probably didn’t want to know, but what I’ll describe in the next few installments may save your life - it saved mine.

An attempted layman’s explanation:

Let’s start with my symptoms. Dysautonomia: compromising, POTS, mitral valve prolapse (MVP), heart palpitations, premature heart beats, general tachychardia, and all the fun stuff that comes along with that, depression, anxiety, etc. It’s tough to swallow, but the nervous system is one delicate beast. Brilliantly engineered to constantly balance, but throw one variable out of whack and the whole system flips on its side.

What is dysautonomia?

Basically, it’s an imbalance in the conscious and unconscious autonomic nervous systems (parasympathetic and sympathetic).

What causes it?

Genetics. Stress. Anything can cause it, really. What we’ll find out is that, your genes and previous medical encounters play a huge role in the serverity, frequency, and duration.

So, what can you do about it?

The basic strategy that any doctor who acknowledges the disorder will do is presribe medications to counter-act any bad things. A betablocker to slow down your heart, lexapro for depression and fainting (vasovagal syncope), and klonopin to “reset your clock” and slightly stone you out.

My next thought was: so, why do I still feel like crap? “Cause your trying to cover up the real problems with drugs,” was my only answer. The drugs brought my day-to-day life back to a semi-acceptable norm, but not something that would allow me to function at the level I felt was acceptable.

And, like magic, I stumbled upon a certified cardiologist who didn’t mind thinking outside the box.

More to come…

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• I’m now on a plane headed for the pacific rim. You will not see me or hear from me for 6 days.
• Dean blogs!
• Stefan Sagmeister is my hero. His TED talk was great. His book “Things I have learned in my so far,” is amazing. Here’s an article about him.
• I got married. It was the happiest day of my life. Pictures are forthcoming.
• I got a new job. I’m extremely honored. I’ll explain more, when I’m not busy sipping coconut juice and eating fresh pineapple while the natives give me hot stone massages.
• Draplin vs. USA I can’t explain how close I feel to these words. I mutter this stuff every day.

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And she couldn’t be more beautiful, smart, and loving…

Thank you all for your support and love. It’s going to be one wonderful day!

This also means I’ll probably be off the radar for quite a while. See you then…

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With my wedding just a week and three days away, I decided to show off the hard work we put into our letterpressed wedding invitations. You can check out the writeup and pictures over here at eight6.

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I wrote this a month or so ago, and never published it.

We live in amazing times. Just amazing.

The internet has blessed us all with the power to communicate with each other. It took a while, but we finally realized that the internet doesn’t have to be all about cats and animated gifs. Even though, those are still two very popular topics.

Not just geeks are on the net anymore, either. I just learned, Kanye West has a blog… and it’s probably actually HIM blogging on it! Not to mention he has a Vimeo account (”suck on that Flickr,” says Vimeo founder j/k)! BTW, Kottke, who I rubbed the wrong way many years back, alerted me to all this, on his unimaginably popular blog.

After watching this video, how can you not love the internet?

We’ve finally learned that there is more to life than “me” and that the “we” is what makes the world go round.

The internet does have a heart. It enables us to do some really amazing things.

Recently, along with Coudal Partners, 37Signals, Metafilter, Happy Cog, Iconfactory, Core77, Daring Fireball, Emma, Business Brickyard, and skinnyCorp, I got to help kids benefit from your filthy gambling habit. My design studio eight6 donated $1000 to buy some books for kids, by matching your donations.

I’ve always been unnaturally excited to help others. Being able to do that through my work, is gratifying. eight6 is heavily focused on helping the world and it will always be a core part of who I am and what my company represents. It sounds “deep,” and kind of corny. But it’s pretty simple. We build and design things (usually websites), using design to clarify communication and in return, help make good things happen.

In the next few months I’m going to be launching a program to help loving geeks help the world become a better place, just by doing what they do. Sounds interesting? I think it is. It will be an experiment, but an interesting and, hopefully, a fruitful one.

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Buy less, do more. That is the mantra for the rest of my days.

Somewhere in between NYC and Detroit I lost my sanity. Scratch that, somewhere between 23rd between 3rd and 2nd. It was a great thing to loose. It gave me the chance to rebuild.

Less isn’t just more in what we create, less is more in the life we live.

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I get to marry her, in 44 days approximately. :)

This has been what my entire year was like:

I’m getting married July 5^th (two months from today), To this beautiful woman (yes, that’s me on the right, her on the left, :P)

Our invitations are getting letter-pressed. I’m giddy.

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Happy Earth Day. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Save water. Walk more. That’s all.

My life is changing. I’m growing up, in a pretty accountable way. I’m getting married.

It’s amazing. I never knew I’d be this astonishingly happy to be “getting married.” I found someone, that is so indescribable, that it makes me forget what time of day it is when I think about them.

I’m so lucky.

But that’s not all. Lots of things in my life have changed. I went to school, aged 4 years, and started two companies (selling one of them off - that had attained Condé Nast contracts in under 6 months of business, and also, my latest venture, eight6).

So, since my personal life is changing, I think that my personal domain should to.

leavesrustle.com is now jcksn.com

Live redesign commences.

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My Dad is a Dentist.

Flossing is important.

So, do what “Ze says”:

remember to floss tonight. i know its a pain in the butt, but its very good for you. and life is long.

Ze Frank

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My company, eight6 is going to match up to $1000 worth of bets, to buy a ton of books for underprivileged kids.

I love good causes. And, this one is fun! Get on over to the Making Book page and place your bets. Skip the casino, and gamble to buy books for kids!

From coudal:

Each bet costs $10 and all the money bet will go to First Book, “a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.”

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• Let me ramble, for the internet was made for this nonsense.
• Sorry for not writing as much as I did a long, long time ago… (reading my old weblog makes me laugh hysterically).
• I got a new apartment that has really tall ceilings and I’m almost positive my heating bill will be ridiculous and make me cry.
• In other news, PhotoStack will have video capabilities very soon. I can’t show it to you yet, but, it works pretty well right now if your server has ffmpeg installed.
• In some other really big news. Aw shoot, I can’t tell you. But Christmas time will be a great time for all and I promise to come bearing gifts of angle brackets and storage space.
• I’ve been trying to build a Garrard 401 turntable setup - slowly I’m gathering parts. I found the perfect tonearm, and when I sent it to get properly wired up, the post office just plain lost it. :(
• The new Holy Fuck album is good, so is the Daft Punk: Alive 2007 disk.
• A great art website I recently discovered is http://www.artbreak.com/ - some really amazing original art.
• I’m so excited for the new year - I’ve got some great things to share with you all.
• Money tip: He who reaches 1:1 first wins.
• My Dad is the best guy I know. Thanks for everything. Mom, you are the best woman I know - thanks for helping me move all that crap into my apartment this week. :)

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Last Tuesday, my girlfriend and I went to see Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk at The Ark in Ann Arbor.

It was truly amazing. Hearing them live was so powerful. They talked about their songs too, which made it even more gratifying and intimate. If you ever have the chance to see either of them, do it, it will be a show you’ll never forget.

The best part of the night was getting to speak with Josh and Schuyler, who were both just so radiant and happy to meet their fans. And, I got to tell them how much their music has helped me, especially this past year, and that they really have made a difference in my life. This past year has been a crazy one, especially with my Dysautonomia, and their music really has touched me.

Oh, and if you ever read this Schuyler, I have to admit, I’ve got a crush on you. :)

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This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen lately; a history of religion in 90 seconds.

It’s official. I’ll be attending UM Dearborn in the fall. Yay!

Today I went for a massage, which included a Reiki ((霊気) treatment. I had no idea what Reiki was before I showed up. I still don’t know quite what it is, but I know that it was really unbelievable.

Wikipedia has a good explanation of what goes on

In a Reiki session, the practitioner asks the recipient to lie down and relax. The practitioner then is said to act as a channel for Reiki energy, theoretically allowing “Reiki energy” to be channelled through the practitioner to wherever the patient is thought to require it. Usually the practitioner moves their hands close to or on various parts of the recipient’s body. Some patients report feeling various sensations: heat, tingling, cold, pressure, etc. Practitioners of Reiki attribute these sensations to Reiki energy filling energetic deficiencies in the body and aura of the recipient, repairing and opening their energy channels (meridians or nadis), pulling out “negativity,” and dissolving the blockages of “stale” energy.

It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before - definitely not just a treatment, but a ful on experience. I actually feel kind of crazy for believing it all; it was very real. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend it.

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I’ve been posting lots of links and short entries — mostly in an attempt to ignore really writing something. So, instead, here we go.

I’ve been sick. I’ve been trying to ignore that too. Mostly because I’ve been really sick and in a highly unconventional way. I have MVP Syndrome (sometimes called dysautonomia).

It’s not fun… My day begins and ends with a rapid heart rate and odd arrhythmias (upon postural changes); interspersed with anxiety, panic attacks, a diabetic like hypoglycemic reaction to sugars, and a general lack-luster shine. Despite this sucking, it at least lends a hand at explaining my unexplained ailments during my teens.

I hate Paris Hilton. She’s a tramp. I mean, she did have me fooled. Really. All that money could fool anyone, though. But, when she started ripping on Lindsay Lohan, that just pissed us all off (at least it pissed me off). Did she even see Mean Girls? However, if Lindsay keeps this partying up, I’m gonna kick her ass.

So…

Web 2.oh.my.god.kill.me.now… Who in their right mind coined this term? I think I’m going to get business cards printed with “Noel 2.0″ on them. I’m just so sick of seeing “Top Web 2.0 Apps” lists on so many sites. It’s disgusting. End it, please.

Speaking of Web 2.0, I met Jeffrey Zeldman. For a kid who remembers reading “Taking Your Talent to the Web” I’ve had so much appreciation for this man. Jeffrey is the kindest guy I’ve ever met. After meeting him and being greeted with, not a handshake, but a great big bear hug, you realize why he’s so successful - he’s a sincere and extremely genuine man. I had a great time at An Event Apart - I highly suggest you go.

When you’re sick, you really appreciate the things you love and can’t live without. So much so that you make a list:

• Stephanie, my beautiful girlfriend of 5 years, you fill every day with beauty and hope and wonderful thoughts of the future. I will never be able to show you the kindness you’ve shown me.
• Mom, you show me kindness beyond comprehension.
• Dad, you’re everything I hope to be - thanks for saying “I love you.”
• Lee, you matter to me more than you’ll ever know.
• Erin, you really have cheered me up a lot lately.
• Daisy, Joy - thanks for licking me inappropriately at times… you care more than you should.
• Aunt Mim, Uncle Vince - far away, but never far from heart - thanks for calling and caring as much as you do.
• Aunt DeeDee, you are sweet like my Mom, thanks for being so caring - you don’t have to, but you do.
• Bri, Char, Marty, Brian, Rich, Lilly - Thanks for being so close and so fun, I love seeing you guys.
• Grandma, your vibrance and sheer happiness make me live my life that much more carefree.
• Emily, I’ve known you for 10 years - you’ve shown me just how wonderful life is.
• Tim, you’re always there and always insightful, you are a great friend.
• Dean, you’re insight has helped me out time and time again. You care too much for your own good.
• So many more people that I haven’t listed…

This is at which point I noticed - my list doesn’t involve anything but the ones I love around me… I’m so blessed. It’s sappy. I know. It is. But in this world of LCDs, angle brackets ,and PHP errors, you get lost. Appreciate the things you have - or more importantly the people you have.

What matters most to you?

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