Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed limiting the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels, but there’s been concern that the drop in nicotine could exacerbate anxieties in smokers who might already battle mood issues. However, a new study shows that while cigarettes with nicotine at 5% of the normal dose can help anxious or depressed smokers quit, they do so without adding to mood or anxiety problems that led them to smoke in the first place. “There do not appear to be any concerning, unintended consequences of having to switch to very low nicotine cigarettes,” said lead researcher Jonathan Foulds, a professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at Penn State University School of Medicine. “On the contrary, it appears that the result is that smokers feel less addicted to their cigarettes and more able to quit smoking when offered relatively brief assistance with follow-up appointments plus nicotine replacement therapy,” he said. Smokers with mood and anxiety disorders showed no signs of “over-smoking” the very low-nicotine cigarettes, nor was there any sign that switching to them made their mental health worse, Foulds said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed limiting the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels. Doing so could not only lessen addiction, but also reduce exposure to toxic substances and increase the odds… read on > read on >

A single psychedelic trip with psilocybin — the mind-altering component of magic mushrooms — appears to lift the fog of major depression in some hard-to-treat patients, a new clinical trial reports. A 25-milligram dose of a synthetic psilocybin compound called COMP360 caused a “rapid and durable response” in more than a third of patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression, said Dr. Steve Levine, senior vice president of patient access for the London-based pharmaceutical company COMPASS Pathways. It focuses on psilocybin research and created the COMP360 synthetic compound and funded the clinical trial. The results occurred in a phase 2 trial aimed at finding the most effective dose of COMP360, according to a report published Nov. 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, there was one caveat: While side effects were minimal, four patients (out of 79) who took the highest dose either reported having suicidal thoughts or intentionally harming themselves in the weeks that followed. The psilocybin compound will now proceed to a full-fledged clinical trial that promises to be the largest ever conducted for a psychedelic compound, Levine said. The trial testing its effectiveness is expected to include more than 900 people in 14 countries, including the United States, Levine said. It’s expected to conclude in mid-2025. These early findings show that psilocybin could well provide an alternative to standard treatments for major… read on > read on >

Want to live like you did in the carefree days before the pandemic? Just roll up your sleeve when your turn comes to get the COVID-19 vaccine, three major medical groups urge in a new public service campaign. The vaccines are safe, effective and will help end the pandemic, according to the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association. “To defeat COVID-19 and get back the moments with friends and family we all miss, we need as many shots in arms as possible,” said Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the hospital association. “It’s imperative that all Americans consider the health of their loved ones and make the decision to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it is their turn,” Pollack said in a joint association news release. Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, agreed, calling on Americans to exercise civic responsibility. “Whether enough people get the COVID-19 vaccine decides our future and the future toll of the virus, so be ready to do your part,” Bailey said. What if you have concerns in the meantime? Ernest Grant, president of the American Nurses Association, suggested reaching out to a nurse, doctor or other health care professional to get your questions answered. “Try to connect with someone you know and trust who has received a COVID-19 vaccine and ask them about… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Feb. 4, 2020 (HealthDay) — Being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 is not a foolproof shield against reinfection, a small preliminary study warns. The finding stems from tracking nearly 3,250 young U.S. Marine recruits between May and October. Of those, 189 had previously tested positive for the SAR-CoV-2 virus. During the six-week study itself, 10% of those who had tested positive got reinfected. “You don’t have a get-out-of-jail-free card just because you have antibodies from a previous infection,” said study author Dr. Stuart Sealfon. He’s a professor of neurology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, which conducted the study in collaboration with the Naval Medical Research Center. The findings were recently published in the preprint server medRXiv and have not been peer-reviewed. All the Marines were beginning basic training and were initially held in Navy quarantine for two weeks, after two weeks of at-home quarantine, according to the study. Once training began, recruits were tested for COVID-19 every two weeks over a six-week period. The result: 19 of the 189 recruits who already had COVID tested positive for a second infection during the study. Researchers said first- and second- infections involved the same strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and none involved the new, more transmissible U.K., South African or Brazilian strains that have raised alarm in… read on > read on >