Lifestyle « 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 >

When it comes to love, first impressions matter. But what exactly fuels the flames of romance? It turns out that compatibility and popularity are two of the key factors shaping who people pursue as potential partners, a new speed-dating study suggests. “Although we expected that compatibility would be an important factor, we were amazed to find that compatibility was just as strong of a predictor of romantic pursuit as popularity was,” said study author Alexander Baxter, a PhD candidate in the psychology department at the University of California, Davis. For the study, researchers analyzed romantic first impressions among more than 550 speed-daters, including some men who date men, to rate their romantic interest in potential partners. There were more than 6,600 speed-dates in total during the experiment. The research team looked at three factors that affect how romantic first impressions form: selectivity, popularity and compatibility. “If Daniel liked Rose because he tended to like everyone, this would be selectivity,” Baxter explained. “If Daniel liked Rose because everyone liked her, this would be popularity, and if Daniel uniquely liked Rose above and beyond his own flirty disposition and her general popularity, this would be compatibility.” After the speed-dating events, the researchers asked folks if they dated anyone they met and how their feelings changed over the next two to three months. They used a statistical model… read on > read on >

A virus-linked cancer killing California sea lions is sounding a chilling alarm for mankind. Exposure to environmental toxins significantly boosts risk for the herpes-like cancer, which was discovered in sea lions in 1979. Since then, between 18% and 23% of adult sea lions admitted to a California animal rescue-and-research center have died of the disease. That’s the highest rate for a single type of cancer in any mammal, including humans, the researchers said. “The decades of research looking into this deadly disease clearly shows the ocean environment we all share is in trouble, and that we need to find solutions to protect our collective health,” said study co-author Pádraig Duignan, chief pathologist at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif. The study — based on more than 20 years of research and examination of nearly 400 California sea lions — was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The researchers said more must be done to stop ecosystem pollution in order to prevent virus-caused cancer in both wildlife and humans. The study found that the blubber of California sea lions has among the highest levels of some organic pollutants found in any marine mammal. “Even though some of the pollutants we’re finding in the blubber have been out of use for years, these cancer-causing elements remain in the environment for a very long… read on > read on >

Combining drugs with driving is a potentially deadly but all too common combination in the United States, according to a new report. University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers found that almost 9% of adults reported driving under the influence of alcohol. Marijuana use among drivers was more than 4%, while many adults also use both pot and other drugs in combination with alcohol. The most commonly reported drugs used while driving were marijuana and opioids, the study found. “We need to focus our efforts on drugged driving, in addition to drunk driving, because drugged driving causes such a high level of fatalities,” said study lead author Andrew Yockey. He’s a doctoral student in UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services. With lawful marijuana use rising in the United States, there are concerns about road safety, the researchers said in a university news release. Keith King, director of the UC Center for Prevention Science, said, “There is serious concern as to how legalization will affect driving behaviors among adults.” King called for more research to evaluate the impact of legalization. The team also emphasized education at an early age and identifying culturally relevant prevention strategies. For the study, the researchers used sample data from the 2016 to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The investigators found that men were significantly more likely than… read on > read on >

Being rushed into hospital care can be an emotional experience. So, what a surgeon says to trauma or emergency surgery patients plays a role in how satisfied they are after their operations, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 187,000 patients discharged from 168 HCA Healthcare hospitals in the United States in 2018 and 2019. HCA Healthcare is a publicly traded company based in Nashville, Tenn. The goal was to determine how several factors — including interactions with nurses and doctors — contributed to satisfaction ratings in five patient categories: trauma; elective surgery; emergency surgery; emergency medical; and elective medical. “Nurses uniformly come out as the most highly ranked, and that’s because they provide wonderful bedside care and have so much contact with the patients,” said study author Dr. Samir Fakhry, vice president of HCA Healthcare’s Center for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Research. “But in the case of the trauma patients, and to a lesser degree the emergency surgical patients, physician communication ranked as the number two factor,” Fakhry added. Among trauma and emergency surgery patients, physician communication had a significant impact on overall satisfaction after nursing factors were accounted for, representing a 12% increase in the former and an 8.6% increase in the latter group, the researchers found. Among elective surgery and medical admission patients, physician communication didn’t even rank as… read on > read on >