Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic” mushrooms, is getting renewed interest as a potential treatment for various health conditions. Now, a new research review argues that migraines should be added to that list. Psilocybin mushrooms have long been used recreationally as hallucinogens — meaning they alter users’ perceptions of their surroundings. That can lead to euphoria on one end of the scale, or — if things go badly — anxiety, panic or dangerous hallucinations. Medical research into psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD began in the 1950s, and then famously ended after a surge in recreational use by the 1960s “counterculture.” But recent years have seen a new interest in the drugs as medical therapy. Researchers at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, New York University and the University of California are studying psilocybin as a treatment for conditions like depression, addiction and eating disorders. While most of the research is focused on psychiatric conditions, psilocybin has also shown hints of promise against cluster headaches and migraines. In the new review, published recently in the journal Current Pain and Headache Reports, Dr. Emmanuelle Schindler, an assistant professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine, describes the research done so far. That includes her own 2021 pilot trial, where Schindler and her colleagues tested the effects of psilocybin — given under medical supervision — in 10 patients… read on > read on >

As cannabis use has become legal in many U.S. states for medical or recreational use, Americans’ views on the drug may have gotten rosier. In fact, a new report finds that over 44% of adults now believe smoking weed each day is safer than inhaling tobacco smoke. That perception is counter to the science, however, and could have a serious impact on public health. “The research that has been coming out is actually suggestive that there’s a lot of overlap in terms of the toxins and carcinogens that are in [both] cannabis and tobacco smoke,” noted study author Dr. Beth Cohen, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. “What we’ve learned in the past few years seems more concerning, not less concerning.” For this study involving more than 5,000 adults, researchers focused on public perceptions of smoking the two substances, using data from 2017 to 2021. Many of those surveyed felt daily cannabis smoking was safer than smoking tobacco every day. While about 37% thought it was safer in 2017, that grew to 44% by 2021. The researchers saw a similar pattern for secondhand smoke, with 35% considering secondhand cannabis smoke as safer than tobacco smoke in 2017, compared to 40% in 2021. The reality is that smoke of any kind isn’t good for your lungs, the study… read on > read on >

If you’re moving into a home where smokers lived, the first thing you should do to protect your lungs is rip out any old carpeting, new research suggests. Scientists found that tobacco smoke clings to carpet fibers long after smoking has stopped, and ozone generators that purify the air and surfaces can’t remove it completely. This leftover residue, also known as “thirdhand smoke,” can pollute indoor spaces for an extended period of time, according to investigators from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. “Because it does not reach deeply into materials, ozone [purification] has a limited ability to ‘clean’ permanently,” study lead author and researcher Xiaochen Tang said in a lab news release. “In the case of carpet, the best solution may be replacing it with a new one.” This thirdhand smoke reenters the air, rather than just settling into surfaces, and can sometimes transform into a new type of contaminant, the research found. To study this, researchers gathered old smoke-contaminated carpet from homes in the San Diego area, along with new carpet exposed to fresh smoke in the lab. Ozone generators partially removed a group of compounds named polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from both types of carpet samples. However, it was relatively ineffective at removing deeply embedded nicotine. Ozone generators work by releasing ozone gas that can react with… read on > read on >

The link between pro football and the risk for a neurodegenerative disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is well known, and now a new study suggests that football may also up the risk for Parkinson’s disease, even among past high school and college players. “Parkinson’s disease has been commonly reported in boxers, but we have not explored this link in great detail in football,” said study author Michael Alosco, an associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. “This is additional evidence that shows a link between football and later-in-life neurologic problems.” The common denominator is likely blows to the head. Parkinsonism is an umbrella term for a group of neurological disorders that result in movement problems. Parkinson’s disease is the most common cause. Symptoms include tremors, stiffness, a shuffling gait and slow movement. Exactly what causes Parkinson’s disease is not fully understood, but a combination of genetic and environmental factors likely play a role, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. For the study, researchers evaluated 1,875 athletes, including 729 men who played football, predominantly at the amateur level, and 1,146 men who played other sports. All of the participants were enrolled in Fox Insight, an online study of people with and without Parkinson’s disease sponsored by the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Participants who did not… read on > read on >

A single hardwired brain circuit might be responsible for male sexual drive, a new mouse study reports. Researchers have singled out in lab mice a brain region that controls sexual interest, libido, mating behavior and pleasure, said senior researcher Dr. Nirao Shah, a professor of psychiatry and neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, in California. This region uses sensory input from the environment to recognize the sex of another mouse — “Aha, this is a female, maybe I can mate if she’s willing,” Shah said. “That recognition is then transformed into the desire to mate and the act of mating by this circuit,” he added. “Also, the circuit enables the behavior to be pleasurable so animals will seek to do it again, which is very important, because for a species to survive, animals need to reproduce.” While this study was in mice, Shah said similar brain structures have been found in other mammals — and perhaps even humans. “There are analogous anatomical counterparts we think in the human brain, but of course their function in the human brain remains to be determined,” he noted. For their experiments, Shah’s team used adult virgin male mice that had not seen a female mouse after being weaned at about 3 weeks of age. That way, the brain activity and behavior they observed would not have been shaped… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Aug. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) – As demand for the wildly popular weight-loss drug Wegovy continues to climb, drug maker Novo Nordisk said Thursday that it will continue restrictions on starter doses of the medication into 2024. The new plan extends by months existing restrictions and means patients who are not already taking the medication will have to wait to start. “We are going to continue to supply the market, but it’s just going to be on a limited form so we can have that continuity of care,” Doug Langa, executive vice president of North America Operations for Novo Nordisk, told CNN. “We’re still producing all strengths and we’re still supplying all strengths to the market,” Langa said. The company had previously expected the restriction to last through September. Eli Lilly is also struggling with supply and demand issues for its type 2 diabetes medication Mounjaro. That medication does not yet have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval as a weight-loss drug. “Supply will likely remain tight in the coming months and quarters due to significant demand,” Eli Lilly Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told CNN. Mounjaro targets a hormone known as GLP-1 and another called GIP, while Wegovy is a GLP-1 agonist, using semaglutide as its key ingredient. Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic also uses semaglutide, but in a smaller dose. Prescriptions for… read on > read on >

It may not get the publicity of some better-known vitamins like D, but vitamin K — found in leafy green vegetables — may boost lung health. A new, large study — published Aug. 10 in ERJ Open Research — suggests that people who have low levels of this vitamin also have less healthy lungs. They are more likely to report having asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and wheezing. “Our results suggest that vitamin K could play a part in keeping our lungs healthy,” said researcher Dr. Torkil Jespersen of Copenhagen University Hospital and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. “On their own, our findings do not alter current recommendations for vitamin K intake, but they do suggest that we need more research on whether some people, such as those with lung disease, could benefit from vitamin K supplementation,” Jespersen said in a journal news release. In addition to leafy greens, vitamin K is found in vegetable oils and cereal grains. It has a role in blood clotting, helping the body heal wounds, but researchers know very little about its role in lung health. To study this, the Danish researchers recruited more than 4,000 Copenhagen residents, ages 24 to 77. Study participants underwent lung function testing, called spirometry, which measures the amount of air a person can breathe out in one second (forced expiratory volume… read on > read on >

It seems obvious that texting and walking can be a dangerous duo, but now a new Australian study offers solid evidence of the dangers. Emergency room doctors Dr. Michael Levine and Dr. Matthew Harris, who were not involved in the study, weren’t surprised by the findings. “I think we’ve had, this summer, several people who either have been distracted while walking and have been hit by a car or been hit by a bicycle,” said Harris, from Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “I’ve definitely seen people stepping off curbs when they were not supposed to, not seeing cars come… because they were too busy looking at their phone when they should have realized where the sidewalk ended,” added Levine, from UCLA Health. “So, I’ve seen all different permutations of people getting injured from texting and walking across the street.” For the study, Australian researchers recruited 50 students from the University of New South Wales and had them go through four exercises. One was to text while sitting, another was to walk without texting, another was to have them walk and text, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” and the last one was to have students walk and text the same message while going through a walkway specifically designed by one of the scientists to have tiles slip out of place.… read on > read on >

It’s already known that the “healthy glow” of a tan actually represents damage to skin cells. But a new study of people on vacation has found that sunbathing also can disrupt the skin’s microbiome, altering the populations of bacteria that live on the skin in ways that could be harmful to health. The microbiome recovers within a month, but during that time a person will be more vulnerable to skin problems, said senior researcher Abigail Langton. She is a lecturer with the University of Manchester’s Center for Dermatology Research, in England. “During this 28-day post-holiday period of recovery skin may have reduced health, making it more susceptible to infection or irritation due to the loss of Proteobacteria [a type of bacteria that lives on the skin] and the overall change in skin microbiota balance,” Langton said. For this study, researchers analyzed the skin of 21 healthy volunteers prior to scheduled vacations in sunny locales. The team noted the makeup of the skin’s microbiota, specifically the three main bacterial communities found there. The research team then analyzed participants’ skin the day they got back, and at 28 and 84 days post-vacation. The investigators sorted the vacationers into groups based on sun exposure — eight “seekers” who picked up a tan while away, seven “tanners” who already had a tan before they left, and six “avoiders” who… read on > read on >

Patients with a type of multiple sclerosis (MS) known as relapsing-remitting MS could have less fatigue if they got more active and were in better physical shape, according to new research. The study also found that a lower disability rate was also associated with less fatigue. “The findings are interesting and support previous studies very well,” said corresponding author Marko Luostarinen, a doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, in Kuopio. “Patients with MS should find a suitable form of exercise, taking into account their disability, which maintains their functional capacity and reduces fatigue.” In relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), patients experience periods of new symptoms or relapses that are followed by quiet periods of remission that can last months or even years. Fatigue is a common MS symptom. The aim of the study was to investigate the connection between fatigue and disability in patients with RRMS. The study used several methods to gauge this, including measures of fatigue, disability and physical activity. Patients whose level of disability, as assessed by a measure called the expanded disability status scale (EDSS), was moderately low (0 to 2.5) had a higher level of fatigue than healthy participants with whom they were compared, the study found. At the same time, they had less fatigue than patients whose disability was higher (EDSS of 3 to 5.5). The researchers found a… read on > read on >