Author Archive

Turning Off Internet on Your Phone Improves Attention, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Just 14 Days

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/turning-off-internet-on-your-phone

Turning Off Internet on Your Phone Improves Attention, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Just 14 Days

A randomized trial finds blocking mobile internet improved mental health more than antidepressants.
Jan 20, 2026

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

As the world has become increasingly reliant on mobile computing technology for work and entertainment, few people stopped to consider the downstream consequences.

A recent randomized controlled trial found that simply removing mobile internet access—while still allowing calls and texts—can produce measurable improvements in psychological functioning in as little as two weeks. Researchers effectively turned smartphones into “dumb phones,” and the results were striking: improved sustained attention, improved mental health, and higher subjective well-being.

This was a month-long preregistered randomized controlled trial with a cross-over (waitlist) design, enrolling 467 iPhone users in the U.S. and Canada. Participants installed the Freedom app, which blocked all mobile internet access (Wi-Fi and cellular data) for two weeks, while still allowing calling, texting, and internet use on other devices like laptops or desktops. Outcomes were measured at baseline (T1), two weeks (T2), and four weeks (T3), allowing researchers to compare changes during restriction periods versus normal-use periods.

After two weeks without mobile internet, participants experienced significant improvements in subjective well-being (including life satisfaction and positive/negative affect), mental health (a combined index including depression, anxiety, anger, personality functioning, and social anxiety), and objectively measured sustained attention using the validated gradCPT task (d-prime accuracy). Notably, about 91% of participants improved in at least one of these core outcomes, suggesting that the effect was widespread rather than limited to a small subset.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Other studies have found:

  • Productivity gains — A 2023 field experiment at Carnegie Mellon University reported increases in task completion and focus duration with website blockers.[7]
  • Flow state and immersion — Research by Mark, Czerwinski, and Iqbal at Microsoft and the University of California, Irvine reported greater immersion and flow experiences among users of blocking tools.[6]
  • Design principles — A 2024 article in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction identified “undesign” features—limiting short‑term user agency to support long‑term focus goals—as central to the design of digital detox apps including Freedom.[8]
  • Cultural framing — A 2024 study introduced the concept of “disconnective media,” analyzing how Freedom commodifies temporary disconnection in contemporary work culture.[9]

For more:

 

Category:

Activism, EMF, Psychological Aspects

A Blind Spot on Autism

https://www.lymedisease.org/autism-infectious%E2%80%91disease-lens/

Looking at autism through an infectious‑disease lens

The following excerpt comes from A Blind Spot on Autism. The book is co‑authored by Debbie Kimberg, a mother and advocate whose writing for LymeDisease.org has chronicled her son’s improvement after treatment for vector‑borne infections including Borrelia, Bartonella, and Babesia. She partners with Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt, one of the world’s leading Bartonella researchers. Together, they blend lived experience and scientific expertise to explore biological patterns they believe have been overlooked in autism research.

By Debbie Kimberg and Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt

Article Excerpts:

From the moment we step into a doctor’s office, we’re taught to think of health problems as separate boxes. A child’s learning issues go to a specialist for educational testing. A sibling’s anxiety is treated by a mental health professional. A parent’s autoimmune disease is managed by a rheumatologist. A grandparent’s memory loss goes to neurology.

Medicine is organized this way.

This book brings together two perspectives rarely combined: the lived experience of navigating these patterns as a parent and patient advocate, and the decades of research from one of the world’s leading infectious disease experts. Our goal is not to dismiss the work already done on autism, but to attempt to connect the dots between existing research that has remained scattered across a thousand scientific papers, often among different fields of study. When viewed together, these studies point toward a hypothesis that could explain both the near-exponential rise in autism cases and the convoluted web of health problems in so many families.

This is not the first time medicine has been blindsided by an invisible infectious cause. History is full of examples where an infectious trigger hid in plain sight for decades before science caught up. Syphilis was once thought to be a mysterious neurological illness, ulcers were blamed on stress, and HIV was first recognized only by its complications. Each time, the truth emerged slowly, in pieces, and often against the resistance of the medical establishment.

….Bartonella species may represent one of the most stealth and dangerous pathogens seen in generations, pathogens that have been allowed to spread silently, reshaping the health of millions without recognition.  (See link for article & ordering info)

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**Comment**

Sadly, autism is only one such illness with an infectious connection.  In this study, it was found that 92% of pediatric bip0lar disorder had tick-borne infections exposure.  PANS is connected with Lyme and mycoplasma.

For more:

 

Category:

Autism, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Uncategorized

Lyme Community Loses Three Leaders and Friends

Lyme Community Loses Three Friends

The Lyme community has recently lost three trail blazers: Dr. Alan B. MacDonald (pathologist), Dr. Alex Shikhman (rheumatologist & advocate), and Dr. Charles Crist (physician & advocate).

RIP – you will all be greatly missed.

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme

How Ticks Became Bioweapons

https://spectator.com/article/how-ticks-became-bioweapons/

How ticks became bioweapons

By Kris Newby

1/19/26

On December 18 last year, Donald Trump signed into law an order to “review and report on biological weapons experiments on and in relation to ticks [and] tick-borne diseases.” The investigation is long overdue but even so, the facts it uncovers will come as a shock to many. A growing body of evidence shows that during the Cold War ticks were tinkered with and used as delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents. And these weaponized ticks may have been released both intentionally and unintentionally on an unsuspecting public by the US military.

Ticks and the diseases they transmit (such as Lyme) pose a growing threat to Americans, the military and to agriculture. Record numbers of tick bites have been reported in New York (in 2024), Maine (in 2024), and Wisconsin (in 2023). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates approximately 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually. About one-third of patients do not respond to recommended treatment protocols.

Bioweapons specialists infected ticks with pathogens to cause disabilityand death to potential enemies

If these microbes have been genetically altered, we need to know. If the military harmed civilians through irresponsible experiments, the government has an obligation to acknowledge and remedy those harms. And if the original outbreak near Lyme, Connecticut, in the 1970s resulted from a hostile foreign act, future biosecurity protections must be strengthened. Knowing the root cause of an epidemic is vital in developing treatment strategies, containing the outbreaks and preventing future ones. And then there’s the issue of what else ticks may be carrying. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Sadly, Newby propitiates the ‘climate change’ myth regarding tick and disease proliferation.  This is a key point as there are only so many research dollars which are highly sought after.  By perpetuating a myth, we purposely limit those funds even further by funding research that has already been proven false.

The article does, however, go through the chronology of tick research as well as the fact researchers dropped these infected ticks on unsuspecting populations (Operation Mongoose, etc.)

Important excerpt:

….documents obtained by the CIA during the Cold War showed that the Soviets were conducting bioweapons-related experiments on ticks, including exploring ways to get ticks to reproduce more rapidly, selectively crossbreeding tick species so they could carry disease agents that caused tick-borne encephalitis and dropping infected ticks from aircraft and balloons. Intelligence reports on “entomological warfare” stoked fear and paranoia in the Pentagon, and the Cold War bug-borne weapons race began.

For more:

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

U.S. Officially Withdraws From WHO

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/america-officially-withdraws-from

America Officially Withdraws from the World Health Organization

With the Pandemic Treaty in place, the Gates Foundation and GAVI now fill the power vacuum as top funders — putting WHO member states in danger.
Jan 22, 2026

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, citing its COVID-19 failures, lack of reforms, and disproportionate U.S. funding.

Today, that one-year notice period has officially expired — and the United States has formally withdrawn from the WHO, leaving the Gates Foundation and GAVI to fill the power vacuum as top funders:

My heart goes out to all remaining WHO member states… now answering directly to the vaccine cartel.

It’s important to remember that in May 2025, the WHO officially approved the WHO Pandemic Agreement — setting the stage for fast-tracked experimental vaccines, top-down emergency mandates, digital vaccine passports, expanded cross-border surveillance, and coordinated censorship of dissenting scientists and physicians under the banner of “misinformation.”

Last month, the WHO exposed just how degraded it has become by releasing an embarrassingly weak autism-vaccine report. The McCullough Foundation — with ~0.007% of the WHO’s budget — produced a far more comprehensive and scientifically grounded analysis.

We can chalk up this official withdrawal as a major win for the public health of America.

For more:

Category:

Activism, vaccines