For people recovering from surgery or dealing with a painful injury, an expert suggests that there are a number of safer alternatives for managing pain than using potentially addictive opioids. “Today, more than ever before, we have a host of other methods that can effectively lessen pain,” Dr. James Grant, chair of the department of anesthesiology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, said in a hospital news release. The United States is grappling with an opioid addiction epidemic. There were 218,000 overdose deaths involving prescription opioids in 2017, five times higher than in 1999, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people become addicted when they receive prescription opioid medications after surgery or a major injury. The first step in reducing opioid addiction is making patients realize that managing pain doesn’t mean they are going to be pain-free, according to Grant. “It’s important for patients to understand that when you undergo surgery, you won’t be entirely pain-free,” he said. “We need to manage expectations and make sure patients understand there likely will be some discomfort associated with any procedure. But as days go by after the procedure, the discomfort should progressively subside a little until you get back to your pre-procedure state.” Grant also outlined a number of ways to manage pain without opioids. For many patients, over-the-counter nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory medications like…  read on >

Many parents of lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) children take years to adjust after learning about their sexual orientation, a new study finds. The study included more than 1,200 parents of LGB youth aged 10 to 25. The parents visited a website with LGB resources and were asked to complete a questionnaire. Of those parents, 26% had learned that their child identified as LGB in the past month. The parents were asked: “How hard is it for you, knowing that your son or daughter is gay, lesbian or bisexual?” They responded on a five-point scale, ranging from not at all hard to extremely hard. The survey revealed that adjusting takes time. Parents who had learned about their child’s sexual orientation two years ago struggled just as much as those who had recently been told. Black and Hispanic parents reported a harder adjustment than white parents, and parents of older youth had greater difficulty than parents of younger children, the findings showed. Fathers and mothers had similar levels of difficulty, as did parents of boys and girls, according to the study published June 18 in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Parents who’d known for five years or more that their child is LGB reported the least amount of difficulty. “Surprisingly, we found that parents who knew about a child’s sexual orientation for two years struggled…  read on >

Most Americans think they won’t get caught driving while high on marijuana, a new AAA Foundation survey finds. Nearly 70% of the nearly 2,600 licensed drivers polled think there’s a low chance that a driver using pot will be stopped by police. “Marijuana can significantly alter reaction times and impair a driver’s judgment,” said David Yang, the foundation’s executive director. “Yet, many drivers don’t consider marijuana-impaired driving as risky as other behaviors like driving drunk or talking on the phone while driving.” Seven percent of survey respondents said they approved of driving after recently using marijuana, more than other dangerous behaviors such as alcohol-impaired driving (1.6%); drowsy driving (1.7%); and prescription drug-impaired driving (3%). Millennials (nearly 14%) were most likely to report having driven within an hour of using marijuana in the past month, followed by Generation Z (10%). (Millennials are 25 to 39 years old; members of Generation Z are 24 and younger.) Men (8%) were more likely than women (5%) to report driving shortly after using marijuana in the past month, the survey found. The findings suggest that about 14.8 million people drove within an hour of using marijuana in the past month. That’s significant because most impairment occurs within the one to four hours of using the drug. Drivers high on marijuana have nearly double the crash risk, according to the foundation.…  read on >

Face-lifts and hair transplants. Chin implants and forehead lifts and lip augmentation. Baby boomers hoping to retain their youth — and maybe get back into the dating scene — are seeking plastic surgery in ever-increasing numbers, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Nearly 50,000 more cosmetic procedures were performed on Americans 55 and older in 2018 than the year before, new statistics showed. “Older Americans are vibrant and living their lives to the fullest, and they want the way they look to reflect that,” said Dr. Alan Matarasso, president of the society. More than 4.2 million cosmetic procedures took place in 2018, including nearly 381,000 surgical procedures and 3.8 million minimally invasive ones. Among the specific procedures and techniques: Hair transplants went up 18%. Lip augmentation increased 5%. Liposuction and breast augmentation increased 4%. Botox injections and fillers went up 3%. Two-thirds of all face-lifts are performed on people 55 and older, along with roughly half of eyelid surgeries, forehead lifts and lip augmentations, the stats showed. These numbers reflect what is happening in the practice of Dr. Lyle Leipziger, a plastic surgeon in Great Neck, N.Y. “People are taking better care of themselves. They’re dieting. They’re exercising. They’re seeing their doctor for any medical indications,” said Leipziger, chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. “These…  read on >