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Thursday, 31 March 2016

Curing Cancer Is Within Reach




One of the most frightening words a patient can hear from a doctor is “cancer.” We know it from the experience of our families and friends, and the millions of Americans who hear it directly from their doctors each year.

In President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, he compared the effort required to eradicate cancer to a “moonshot,” summoning the American ingenuity and scientific pursuits that sent humankind to the moon. We believe that it’s time for a full and complete national commitment to rid the world of this disease, because the truth is that ending cancer as we know it is finally within our grasp.

A key element of the cancer moonshot is to incentivize more cooperation between the government and the private sector. We recognize that while the U.S. government has tremendous resources at its disposal, we also know a lot of our best expertise exists outside the government, within the private medical and research community. There is little doubt that this will be the site of the next big breakthroughs in cancer treatment. We know it because we’ve seen it at the world’s best cancer research centers across America, led by the world’s greatest cancer doctors, researchers and philanthropists -- many of whom we’ve met with over the last few months.

To that end, and in support of the cancer moonshot, we are thrilled that Johns Hopkins University will create the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, thanks to private grants of $125 million. This new institute will build on the school’s groundbreaking work in immunotherapy, one of the most promising avenues of research today.


Here’s why: Cancer involves the uncontrolled growth of our cells. Cancer cells co-opt the processes of normal cells, using them to grow, spread and cloak themselves from detection by the immune system. Immunotherapy seeks to redirect patients’ highly individual immune systems to better detect and destroy cancer cells.

Led by Dr. Drew Pardoll and funded in partnership with the philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, the institute will support the same scientists who performed some of the first clinical trials of immunotherapy agents known as checkpoint blockade inhibitors. These agents interfere with molecules that shield tumor cells from the body’s immune system. In fact, two of these inhibitors have already been approved by the FDA for use against lung cancer and melanoma, and show promise across almost every cancer.

Discoveries like these inhibitors are what will ultimately make it possible to cure cases of cancer that might have been hopeless just a few short years ago. We know that there’s no silver bullet, and no one expects it to happen overnight. But the truth is that because of exciting advances in science and technology over the last 10 years, we are far closer to major breakthroughs than many people realize.

With the right partnerships, we can bolster the incredible work that is already occurring among immunologists, geneticists and other scientists with new innovations from the technology sector. Recently, an entire industry has sprung up with the power to process medical and scientific information on a massive scale. This computing power is already allowing researchers to accelerate their progress like never before. By aggregating big data from cancer studies in one central location that’s accessible to scientists, researchers and physicians, we can further speed up advances in research.

With the cancer moonshot and public-private partnerships, we are not trying to make incremental change. We’re looking to make quantum leaps. Our goal is to make a decade’s worth of medical advances in the next five years. And with new institutions working together and new resources dedicated to the problem, we know we can finally gain the upper hand on a disease that has already robbed the world of far too much talent and love.

The original mission to the moon was a government-led, -directed and -funded initiative. The cancer moonshot will be a true partnership between government, the private sector, academia and the philanthropic community. It has the potential to save millions of lives.

It could prove to be a model for how public-private partnerships can overcome even the most difficult challenges. And it could turn cancer from a death sentence into a chronic, manageable disease -- or in many cases, a curable one -- for millions of people around the world.

www. bloombergview .com

What Helps Prevent Cancer – Superfoods Or Lifestyle Changes?




The World Health Organization and the American Institute for Cancer Research estimate that between 67 and 72% of all cancer cases are preventable. And that prevention offers the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer as prevention of a chronic disease is infinitely less expensive than treatment (God help our health care system!).

Cancer: What Are The Big Risk Factors?

Some of the major risk factors for cancer are:

Tobacco use,
diet and obesity,
activity levels,
occupational exposures,
alcohol use, and
UV exposure.
These are within our individual control for the most part. While some may feel this leads to ‘blaming the victim’ should someone develop cancer, I see it completely differently. Rather than blaming a person, I see it has a huge opportunity to take control over one’s health.

Some cancer risks are out of our control. Cancer doesn’t discriminate and even those with the healthiest of lifestyles can still develop this feared disease.

With respect to risk reduction, there’s no shortage of confusion. It seems you can’t turn on the TV, surf the net, or poke around on social media without being inundated with the latest tip, supplement, so-called superfood or general fear-mongering that’s either going to spare you from cancer or cause it.

It’s extremely important to not lose sight of the forest for the trees and get bogged down with the minutia of dietary dogma, others’ philosophies, rules, and hyperbole. Rather, focus on what the bulk of the evidence from well-designed research has shown and make small meaningful changes every day that will give you the biggest return on your investment.

Myths About Superfoods

For starters, there’s no such thing as a superfood per se. The word “superfood” is typically leveraged to imply that a given food has, and can do it, all; imbued with panacea-like properties whether that’s restoring health or preventing cancer for example.

The reality is, that’s simply not true. No one food can do it all; it’s the sum of all our dietary choices that either moves us towards health or away from it. This is the total diet concept – at the end of the day, week, month, and year, when all our choices are added up, what is our nutritional bottom line? Are we in the red or in the black?

Sorry folks, if you think all you have to do is just add some goji berries or kale to your diet to reduce your risk for cancer, you’ve been misled.

When it comes to GMOs and pesticides, I’m not worried about them when it comes to chronic disease risk. This doesn’t mean that I’m set in my ways or won’t ever change my mind if good quality research proves otherwise.

But the bulk of the research is clear, you CAN significantly reduce your risk for cancer (starting today) simply by making changes that are easy to include in your everyday life. You can do this without having to focus on the minutia like GMOS, organic vs. non-organic or pesticides. By the way, organic farming uses its fair share of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. Produce and crops from both types of farming have residue levels that are far below the highly-regulated permissible acceptable maximum levels.


The World Cancer Research Fund’s report Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Prevention of Cancer. A Global Report is the culmination of a review of 7,000 rigorously designed scientific studies by 21 world renowned scientists who distilled the findings into 9 general recommendations and specific recommendations for two sub-groups. It’s worth noting, that on the surface these may seem like common sense or perhaps too good to be true. If reducing almost three-quarters of all cancers was this simple, then everybody would be doing it right? The fact of the matter is most Canadians routinely miss the mark. As a specific example, the average number of servings of fruits and vegetables Canadians are getting every day is about 4 ½ or about half of the recommended 7 to 10 per day.

General Recommendations For Cancer Prevention

Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.
Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day. Limit sedentary behaviour.
Avoid sugar drinks. Limit consumption of energy/calorie-rich foods.
Eat more and eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, 100% whole grains, and pulses [chickpeas, lentils, dried peas and beans].
Limit consumption of red meats and processed meats.
If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 per for men and 1 per for women.
Limit consumption of foods with a lot of salt and highly processed foods with salt (sodium).
Don’t rely on supplements to protect against cancer.
Avoid tobacco including smoking or chewing it.
Avoid excess sun exposure.
Minimize stress.
While stress in itself isn’t a risk factor for cancer, being under stress may be a barrier to making healthier choices. It can derail your regular healthy routine making you skip the gym, eat on the run, use alcohol to de-stress; in short, put our self-care on hold.

Cancer is not simply the result of having ‘unlucky genes’; most cancers develop through the interaction our genes and the environment. While we can’t change our genes, we do have some degree of control over how our environment interacts with them.

Cancer risk is estimated to be attributed to

31% for tobacco use,
31% for poor diet and being obesity,
5% for physical inactivity,
3% for habitual alcohol and
2% for excessive UV exposure.
Meaning you can lower cancer risk by a whopping 72%; something no medication that can boast. My only question is, what are you waiting for?

www. curejoy .com

Man sets up foundation for patients seeking alternative treatments after curing his own cancer with cannabis oil




Cancer survivor David Hibbitt is creating a patient support foundation after curing his own cancer with cannabis oil.

David, 33, was diagnosed with stage III bowel cancer in July 2012 and underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery to treat his condition.(1)

Despite these efforts, doctors told David that his cancer was terminal. He took matters into his own hands by trying cannabis oil as a last resort. He purchased marijuana from a local dealer for $70 a gram.(1)

The father of one declares he has been cancer-free since early last year and hopes to set up a support group for cancer patients who are seeking alternative treatments.

“Friends had told me about cannabis oil and I dismissed it at first. I’ve never been into drugs,” David told sources.(1)

“But in February last year I was told I only had 18 months to five years to live, and I felt I had to try everything I could. I felt like the chemo was killing me and I had nothing to lose. I couldn’t accept I was going to die.”(1)

The royal oil
After doing some online research of his own, David found a bountiful amount of information about the medicinal benefits of cannabis oil and decided to try it.

“When I was told I had terminal cancer, I just couldn’t accept it. I was in my early 30s and I had my son to think about, so I decided to try alternative treatments,” he said.(2)

“A few people had already suggested using cannabis oil, so I decided to look into the research before I decided to give it a go.”(2)

He starting using small amounts of cannabis oil in May 2014 in conjunction with courses of chemotherapy.

“I took very small amounts at first alongside chemotherapy, but I started missing my appointments at the hospital for one reason or another.”(2)


“Come to the end of August, I felt that the chemotherapy was actually making me poorly. I thought that if I was going to die, I didn’t want to feel this ill, so I decided to stop my treatment.”(2)

“I continued taking cannabis oil, but I also had other treatments such as radiotherapy, and I also had an operation at the end of October 2014.”(2)

Giving hope to other cancer patients
David was given the all clear last April following a scan in January. He is currently working on setting up the David Hibbitt Foundation.

“Since telling others about my story, I have had a lot of people get in touch wanting to know more about alternative treatments.(2)

“It just seems like there is nowhere for people to go to get this sort of advice.(2)

“I don’t want people to think that cannabis oil is a miracle cure, but I just want people to know there are other treatments out there that can help.(2)

“The Foundation will have a support group that is completely free to join and it will be a place where people can get advice, as well as talk to each other about their experiences. It’s about giving people a bit of hope.”(2)

Others have testified to the medicinal benefits of cannabis oil in wake of David’s recovery, including cancer patient Gary Cartlidge, aged 59: “I was diagnosed with terminal cancer in October 2014 and the doctors only gave me between three and six months to live.

“I started using cannabis oil about 12 months ago, and I am still here.”(2)

“What David is doing is tremendous because there are people out there who need help, but don’t know where to go for advice on alternative treatments.”(2)

Cannabis isn’t just an an effective way to help chemo patients with a suppressed appetite eat. In an ironic twist of turns, in some cases, it may also be the cure.

newstarget .com

Pepsi Creates Dumbbell Bottle So You Can Drink Soda While Working Out ???




What exactly was the point of Pepsi’s new design of this ‘dumbbell’ bottle ?? We have no idea. Pepsi transformed its two-liter Pepsi Light bottle into a two-kilogram dumbbell. A lot of controversy has stirred up on the internet about Pepsi’s new concept design, mainly about it being contradictory to what the product is.

Although It’s a calorie free product, this beverage is not what a gym rat or any health/fitness enthusiast would drink – especially during their workout. And although this is an interesting design indeed, it would have been more suitable for a sports drink brand (like the Gatorade maybe).

We weren’t entirely sure this wasn’t an early April Fools’ joke, but we heard that Brazilian agency AlmapBBDO created the packaging and distributed the bottles to gyms.

Whatever the case is, we recommend that after drinking or whatever you do with the beverage, you can just fill the bottle up with sand and use it as a real dumbbell.

What are your thoughts on this ? Write us in the comments. In the meantime if you want to use a supplement during your workout, here is a list of the best intra workout supplements.

www. fitnessandpower .com

8 Really Effective Stretches For Runners That You Should Be Doing




Types Of Stretching:

There are various types of stretching and before you start practicing you need to know the basics (1). These are:

Static stretching
Ballistic stretching
Active stretching
Dynamic stretching
PNF stretching
Isometric stretches
Passive (or relaxed) stretching
While each type has its inherent benefits, recent studies indicate that runners and athletes benefit the most from practicing the methods of dynamic stretching. It is true that a few runners resort to static stretching to warm-up before a run, but caution should be exercised. Experts recommend that stretching after an intense workout or downhill acceleration is not a viable thing to do.

Stretching Tips For Runners:

Runners need to choose the most suitable stretching techniques to cope with muscle stiffness, joint issues and performance boosts (2). There are a number of stretches that can aid you in coping better with aches and pains experienced by runners.

Below listed are a few handy tips runners can benefit from:

Runners should ideally focus on stretching methods that aid warm muscles. That is why fitness experts suggest you should stretch after performing regular exercises. This is the time when your body muscles are quite warm. Even the joints are lubricated and there would be lesser stress on them.
There is a dispute regarding the efficacy of stretching before going for a run. A few experts claim that it aids the runners while others feel doing so actually negates the benefit of warming up.
In general, you should remain in a pose for each stretch for a duration of 15 seconds or so. If applicable, repeat the steps for the other side.

It would be a good idea to do some light jogging before you resort to stretching every time to warm up the muscles to an extent. It is a bad idea to stretch cold muscles (3). If you want to do stretching after a run, it is okay, but give yourself a short break.
Pre-Run Stretches:

These are dynamic stretches that aid in loosening up and stimulating the muscles in your legs, hips, and calves.

1. Leg Swings:

You need to hold on to a heavy and sturdy object, such as a table or a bar.
Stand on one of the legs and swing the other leg backward and forward.
Do it 20 times and then swing the leg side-wise 20 times.
Repeat the steps for the other leg as well.

2. Walking Lunges:

Take a big step forward with one leg and then bend your knee till the thigh becomes parallel to the ground.
Your knee should be aligned with the ankle. Focus on keeping these walking lunges fluid.
Do 20 lunges for both the legs.

Post-Run Stretches:

These stretches are meant to be done after running. They target the major leg muscles and enhance the range of motion and flexibility. You may try the stretching poses and remain in the positions for 30 seconds or a little more.

3. Standing Quad:

For this stretch, you need to stand with both the legs together.
Bend the left leg so that your heel touches the butt.
Then hold your left foot with the left hand.
Repeat this for your right leg.

4. Kneeling Hip Flexor And Hamstring:

Get into a kneeling position first and then put the right foot on the floor in front.
Bend your leg at 90 degrees. Your ankle and knee will be aligned.
Then press forward, while keeping the spine erect, into your right hip.
Your left knee will be pressed on the floor so that the right hamstring and left hip get stretched.


5. Standing Calf:

For this stretch, you will have to stand facing the wall, and both the hands should be on the wall at the chest level (4).
Now, place the right foot’s ball against the wall so that heel touches the floor.
Slowly, lean into the wall till your calf gets stretched and keep the leg straightened.

6. Groin Stretch:

Also called the butterfly stretch, this pose works on your groin area and inner thighs.

Sit on the floor with the soles of both your feet touching in front. Your knees will be spread to the sides.
Move your feet close to the groin as much as possible.
Ensure your knees remain close to the ground at this time.
When you become an expert in this stretch, try leaning forward to bring the nose close to the floor. However, be cautious when you do so. Be in this pose for 15 seconds or so.

7. Quadriceps Stretch:

This standing stretch makes your hamstrings contract and eventually strengthens them. It is true that flexible and strong quads aid in lifting your knees and enhancing speed.

Lie down on the floor with your face facing the ground.
Ensure your legs are on the ground and are parallel to each other.
Now grab the right foot using the right hand so that your thighs remain lined up close to each other. Inhale deeply and remain in the posture for 30 seconds.
Do the same for the other side.

8. Hamstrings Stretch:

Runners often have to cope with the problem of tight hamstrings which leads to pulled muscles and lower back problems. Needless to say, tight hamstrings can limit the range of motion, thus affecting performance. This hamstring stretch can counter such issues.

Lie on your back and keep legs extended. Your lower back should be on the floor.
Now, bend your right knee to the chest while keeping your left leg stretched on the ground.
Gradually make the right knee straight while grabbing the back part of your leg with the hands.
Then pull the leg towards the upper torso while keeping both hips placed on the floor.
Inhale deeply and remain in the pose for 20 seconds or so.
These exercises will help strengthen your core muscles and other parts of your body that will help you perform better on the track. Dedicate 45 minutes a day to perform these exercises and see for yourself how your body responds! Let us know how they worked for you.

www. stylecraze .com

Exercise Makes Our Muscles Work Better With Age




To keep our muscles healthy deep into retirement, we may need to start working out more now, according to a new study of world-class octogenarian athletes. The study found substantial differences at a cellular level between the athletes’ muscles and those of less active people.

Muscular health is, of course, essential for successful aging. As young adults, we generally have scads of robust muscle mass. But that situation doesn’t last.

Muscles consist of fibers, each attached to a motor neuron in our spinal column by long, skinny nerve threads called axons. The fiber and its neuron are known as a muscle unit.

When this muscle unit is intact, the neuron sends commands to the muscle fiber to contract. The muscle fiber responds, and your leg, eyelid, pinky finger or other body part moves.

However, motor neurons die as we age, beginning as early as in our 30s, abruptly marooning the attached muscle fiber, leaving it disconnected from the nervous system. In younger people, another neuron can come to the rescue, snaking out a new axon and re-attaching the fiber to the spinal cord

But with each passing decade, we have fewer motor neurons. So some muscle fibers, bereft of their original neuron, do not get another. These fibers wither and die and we lose muscle mass, becoming more frail. This process speeds up substantially once we reach age 60 or so.

Scientists have not known whether the decline in muscular health with age is inevitable or whether it might be slowed or altered.

There have been encouraging hints that exercise changes the trajectory of muscle aging. A 2010 study of recreational runners in their 60s, for instance, found that their leg muscles contained far more intact muscle units than the muscles of sedentary people of the same age.


But whether exercise would continue to protect muscles in people decades older than 60, for whom healthy muscles might be the difference between independence and institutionalization, had never been examined.

So for the new study, which was published last week in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers from McGill University in Canada and other schools contacted 29 world-class track and field athletes in their 80s and invited them to the university’s performance lab. They also recruited a separate group of healthy but relatively inactive people of the same age to act as controls.

At the lab, the scientists measured muscle size and then had the athletes and those in the control group complete a simple test of muscular strength and function in which they pressed their right foot against a movable platform as forcefully as possible. While they pressed, the scientists used sensors to track electrical activity within a leg muscle.

Using mathematical formulas involving muscle size and electrical activity, the scientists then determined precisely how many muscle units were alive and functioning in each volunteer’s leg muscle. They also examined the electrical signal plots to see how effectively each motor neuron was communicating with its attached muscle fiber.

Unsurprisingly, the elite masters athletes’ legs were much stronger than the legs of the other volunteers, by an average of about 25 percent. The athletes had about 14 percent more total muscle mass than the control group.

More interesting to the researchers, the athletes also had almost 30 percent more motor units in their leg muscle tissue, and these units were functioning better than those of people in the sedentary group. In the control group, many of the electrical messages from the motor neuron to the muscle showed signs of “jitter and jiggle,” which are actual scientific terms for signals that stutter and degrade before reaching the muscle fiber. Such weak signaling often indicates a motor neuron that is approaching death.

In essence, the sedentary elderly people had fewer motor units in their muscles, and more of the units that remained seemed to be feeling their age than in the athletes’ legs.

The athletes’ leg muscles were much healthier at the cellular level.

“They resembled the muscles of people decades younger,” said Geoffrey Power, who led the study while a graduate student at McGill and is now an assistant professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Of course, this type of single-snapshot-in-time study can’t tell us whether the athletes’ training actually changed their muscle health over the years or if the athletes were somehow blessed from birth with better muscles, allowing them to become superb masters athletes.

But Dr. Power, who also led the 2010 study, said that he believes exercise does add to the numbers and improve the function of our muscle units as we grow older.

Whether we have to work out like a world-class 80-year-old athlete to benefit, however, remains in question. Most of these competitors train intensely for several hours every week, Dr. Power said. But on the plus side, some of them did not start their competitive regimens until they had reached their 50s, providing hope for the dilatory among us.

well. blogs.nytimes .com

Patty Duke’s Death Announcement Is A Milestone For Sepsis Awareness




Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke, star of “The Patty Duke Show” and the Broadway play and film “The Miracle Worker,” died of sepsis from a ruptured intestine on Tuesday.

Simple though it may seem, her death announcement is a major milestone for the sepsis awareness movement, said Thomas Heymann, executive director of the Sepsis Alliance. The more people are aware of this condition, Heymann said, the stronger their likelihood of saving their own lives or the lives of their loved ones.

“The fact that they said Patty Duke’s cause of death was sepsis is relatively new,” Heymann said. “It very often would have been left as a complication of surgery or an infection, but it’s not a complication — it’s sepsis.”

Sepsis, a reaction to infection that leads to systemic organ failure, kills more than 258,000 Americans every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the ninth-leading cause of disease-related deaths in the country. While most people can fully recover from sepsis, some survivors are left with permanent organ damage or missing limbs due to amputation.

Despite these alarming facts, less than half of Americans have even heard of sepsis, according to polls conducted by the Sepsis Alliance in partnership with official polling companies. In a 2015 online survey of 2,000 participants, only 47 percent of Americans were aware of sepsis. Meanwhile, 86 percent knew about Ebola and 76 percent knew about malaria — two diseases that are much rarer in the United States.

People who have sepsis experience organ dysfunction caused by their body’s overreaction to an initial infection, whether viral, bacterial or fungal. This overreaction is overwhelming for the body, and can lead to death. It’s most common in people with compromised immune systems, like the very young, the very old and those with chronic diseases like AIDS, cancer, or diabetes. But people can also develop sepsis from a simple scrape, wound or burn that was not properly cleaned.

Sepsis is also on the rise: It was the primary or secondary cause of 1.6 million hospitalizations in 2009, more than double the sepsis-related hospitalizations in 1993, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. And it was the single most expensive reason for hospitalizations in 2009, adding up to nearly $15.4 billion in hospital costs.

Sepsis can hide in plain sight

In one highly publicized, tragic story, a 12-year-old boy named Rory Staunton scraped his arm while playing with friends in 2012 and eventually began vomiting and complaining of pain in his leg. Doctors sent him home with Tylenol, but three days later he died from severe septic shock.

Rory’s case highlights a major difficulty doctors face: Sepsis symptoms can be hard to discern from those of a simple infection that could go away on its own.


What’s more, sepsis is often thought of as a hospital-acquired infection, making doctors more likely to look for it among hospital patients and the chronically ill. But about two-thirds of cases are first documented by the emergency department, which means that they were acquired outside of a hospital setting, explains Dr. Craig Coopersmith, professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and the former president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

To avoid deaths by sepsis, Coopersmith has two basic rules for physicians: If a person has an infection, check for organ dysfunction. And if they have organ dysfunction, check for sepsis.

Context also counts for a lot when spotting the signs of sepsis. In addition to symptoms such as high fever, elevated heart rate, or abnormal white blood cell count, a medical history of pneumonia, infection, wounds or urinary tract infections could provide important clues for health care providers, notes a sepsis review published in the journal Nursing Practice.

Other clues, like a patient’s cancer and chemotherapy history — known factors that can suppress the immune system — are stronger clues that an infection could actually be sepsis, notes ABC News.

You could save your own life, simply by knowing what sepsis is

The signs of sepsis can be broken down in a simple acronym, notes the CDC.

S - Shivering, fever, or feeling very cold
E - Extreme pain or general discomfort, as in “worst ever”
P - Pale or discolored skin
S - Sleepy, difficult to wake up or confused
I - “I feel like I might die”
S - Shortness of breath

Once spotted, doctors treat sepsis by addressing the initial infection, supporting the body’s organs and preventing drops in blood pressure and oxygen levels. But time is of the essence when it comes to sepsis treatment. A 2006 study analyzing over 2,000 septic patients found that over six hours, each hour of a delay in treatment was linked to a 7.6 percent decrease in survival, but treatment within the first hour of a documented drop in blood pressure, a tell-tale sign of sepsis, was linked to an 80 percent survival rate.

Because of this, if you suspect you have sepsis — perhaps after a surgery, or because of a prior infection or wound that isn’t healing well — it’s important to actually say the word “sepsis” to your doctors, the CDC says. They advise patients to say, “I am concerned about sepsis,” in order to get the most timely treatment possible for a potential infection complication. Your life could depend on it, says Coopersmith.

“If you get sepsis, you have a higher chance of dying than if you have a heart attack, stroke or trauma,” Coopersmith said. “There is no question that increasing awareness of sepsis would save lives.”

www. huffingtonpost .com

Custom 3-D printed scalp, hair helps cancer survivors feel like themselves again




Sheri Valle was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in April 2011, but the idea of re-growing the hair she lost from treatment gave her hope for normalcy after she finally beat the disease. After going into remission in early 2012, Valle would get her hair back— just not in the way she expected.

Valle, who lives in Fanwood, New Jersey, ended up suffering permanent hair loss after undergoing precautionary radiation on her brain, where doctors feared the cancer could have spread. But thanks to a custom, 3-D printed prosthetic scalp hand-injected with healthy human hair follicles to match her natural head shape and strands, Valle feels normal again. In fact, she’s more confident than ever.

“I always had nice hair, but I never got the comments I get now,” 51-year-old Valle, who got her hairpiece in May 2015, told FoxNews.com. “People say, ‘Wow, I love the color,’ and ‘It’s so shiny!’ I’ve heard that a million times.”

Valle got the custom hair and scalp system, called the CNC, at Transitions Hair Solutions in Wall Township, New Jersey. She’s about one of 60 customers who’s gotten the service at the center, said Transitions owner Danielle Grillo, who offers the CNC not only to cancer survivors, but also to people with alopecia, or hair loss, and trichotillomania, a disorder whereby an individual can’t resist pulling her hair out.

The caps themselves are produced out of Bologna, Italy-based Cesare Ragazzi Laboratories, but CNC-certified centers worldwide, like Grillo’s, apply them to clients’ heads then help them maintain the system.

“It’s not a traditional hairpiece or wig— it’s ultra-custom,” Grillo told FoxNews.com. “It’s the most natural thing I’ve seen in the 21 years I’ve been doing this.”

Like human hair, the follicles can be dyed, highlighted and styled however the client wants. But unlike wigs, the scalp portion of the CNC is made with biomedical-grade material that’s antimicrobial, antifungal, and breathable. Because the CNC is secured to the head, clients can also go swimming, windsurf or do anything a normal person with normal hair can, Grillo said. They can even go to a regular salon, and often the hairdresser won’t know their hair isn’t growing from their head.

“They turn back into how they used to be,” Grillo said of her clients, “and they let you in to do that. I can’t think of a better feeling.”

From design to application, preparing the CNC for a client is a three-month process. First, Grillo observes and records specific details of the client’s hair, including texture and direction of growth, as well as the client’s scalp pH, hydration levels and pigmentation. The client’s scalp is then mapped out and a replica mold is created based on how much of the head the client would like covered. The mold is then sent to Bologna, where bioengineers create an exact replica of the client’s scalp using 3-D printing. Virgin, unprocessed hair based on the client’s specifications is then injected into the custom scalp.


At centers like Transitions, the final custom CNC is then applied to the client’s head using medical-grade glue or adhesive tape. Clients don’t take them off at all— showering and sleeping in the CNC— until they return to Transitions for follow-up appointments every four to six weeks. At that time, Grillo trims any hair that’s grown underneath, treats the client’s natural scalp, and disinfects the CNC in a custom solution. A client typically uses two CNCs that last a year apiece, alternating the systems at each follow-up appointment.

Depending on the unique design of the client’s scalp and hair, the CNC system can cost anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000, Grillo said.

Michael Suba, owner of Toronto, Canada-based Continental Hair, also offers the CNC to his clients. Like Grillo, about 60 of his customers have them. Suba himself got a CNC after suffering from hair thinning due to thyroid medication he had to take following radiation for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he had been diagnosed with at age 25.

“I play hockey with mine,” 51-year-old Suba, who got the CNC about three years ago, told FoxNews.com. “It’s not hot; it’s not uncomfortable.”

Suba worked with Grillo for a documentary on one of Suba’s longtime clients, Kea Buote, who traveled with Grillo to Bologna to get the CNC and has since pursued her dream of becoming a dancer. In the documentary, “Kea Can Dance,” Buote describes how suffering from alopecia due to a rare disease impacted her self-confidence on a daily basis. With the CNC that she got in March, she’s able to focus on dancing, not on her hair.

Buote’s story is like that of many patients of Grillo’s and Suba’s, the two say.

“You have these women in a lot of distress who have hair loss,” Suba said. “They’re always thinking about the limitations of what’s out there: a wig or a hair piece or things that don’t fit or don’t stay on right … it’s so important for them to know there’s something that can help,” he said. “It really gives you a ray of hope.”

For Valle, having a full head of hair again has given her the confidence to walk her 27-year-old son Anthony down the aisle next month, when he’s getting married.

“Just having hair for that is a big to-do,” she said. “Just being alive is a big to-do because I survived small cell lung cancer. I’m glad every day when my foot hits the ground, but when it hit the ground without hair, it was very depressing.”

www. foxnews .com

Coconut Water (Nariyal Pani) Benefits for Skin, Hair & Health




Mix half a cup of coconut water with a teaspoon of honey and apply it on your skin. Wash after 10 minutes. This helps in treating acne.

As you age, signs of aging like wrinkles, fine lines and age spots may appear on your skin. But if you take care of your skin well, you can delay these signs of aging. Coconut water is a good remedy for delaying signs of aging. Mix 1 tablespoon of coconut water with 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt. Apply this on your face and wash off after 15 minutes with cold water. Do this twice a week.

Coconut water contains cytokines, which promote cell growth and helps in repairing the skin faster. Yogurt contains lactic acid, which is an effective but gentle exfoliator. So, it removes dead skin cells and keeps your skin moisturized.

Effectively Moisturizes skin:

Proper hydration is essential for healthy and beautiful skin. Sun, harsh soaps, pollution and chemicals can remove natural moisture from your skin. Applying coconut water can help in keeping your skin well hydrated.

Make a face mask with 2 tablespoons of coconut water, ½ teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of honey. Apply this on your skin with the help of cotton balls and massage gently. Wash after 30 minutes. Applying this every alternate day can keep your skin well moisturized.

Treats bacterial and fungal skin infections:

By applying coconut water topically on the affected parts, you can get relief from skin infections due to the anti-viral, anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties present in it.

Benefits of Coconut Water for Hair:

Makes hair soft and smooth:

Coconut water can add shine to your hair. For this, after you shampoo your hair, wash your hair with water. Now take 1 cup of coconut water and dilute it with 4 mugs of tap water. Use this as the final rinse. With regular use, you will see that your hair become healthier and shinier.

Promotes hair growth:

Apply coconut water on your scalp and massage your scalp gently with your fingertips. You can leave it overnight and wash in the morning with a mild shampoo. With regular use, your hair will start growing well.

Health and Medicinal Benefits of Coconut Water:

Aids digestive system:

As you know, for proper digestion you need to take in enough fiber in your diet. This makes your digestive system function properly. Coconut water is rich in fiber and therefore good for the proper functioning of the digestive system. The water you get from a single coconut provides you 9% of the amount if fiber that you need per day.

Helps in weight loss:

If you want to lose weight effectively, drink coconut water regularly. It is low in calories by but contains enough of dietary fiber in it. It is also low in sugar compared to other aerated drinks. The fiber in coconut water keeps your stomach full for a longer period and thus reduces hunger. As a result, you will eat less.

Helps to manage diabetes:

Diabetic patients can also have this drink. It helps in lowering the levels of blood sugar in diabetic patients and also prevents the formation of blood clots. However, diabetic patients must keep a regular check on their blood sugar for signs of hypoglycemia when they drink coconut water.

Maintains optimum cardiovascular health:

Adding coconut water to your daily diet helps in keeping your cardiovascular system healthy and in functioning properly. Have tender coconut water once a day. This can lower the risks of heart attacks and also reduce blood pressure and hyper tension. However, one coconut may contain about 5 gm of sugar in it. So drinking too much of it may not be good.


Maintaining healthy blood pressure:

According to studies made, coconut water can lower blood pressure in people suffering from high blood pressure. It is also good for lowering hypertension and reducing the levels of cholesterol. The antithrombotic effects of coconut water make it great for preventing blood clots as well.

Metabolism rate is improved:

With improved metabolism, you burn more calories. Coconut water is great for improving your metabolism. This is because it is a good source of manganese, which burn carbohydrates and fats into energy.

Prevents as well as treats dehydration:

You suffer from dehydration when the water present in your body drops. This can happen when you drink less water or when you lose water from the body through excretion. Coconut water helps in hydrating your body. So, this water is often taken after a workout. Dehydration also removes essential slats and nutrients from your body, which you can get back by drinking coconut water.

Reduces risk of kidney stones:

When crystals that should go out of your body along with urine fail to go out and accumulate in your kidney, you will suffer from kidney stones. This condition takes place due to a number of reasons. Sometimes this may cause pain and may lead to serious health problems. According to researches made, coconut water helps in reducing the amount of crystals that are deposited in the kidney and reduce the formation of kidney stones. So, drink coconut water regularly to stay away from kidney stones.

Reduces stomach bloating:

Bloating is often caused due to gas in the stomach. Sometimes, it is also the result of taking in too much of sodium in your diet. Coconut water contains potassium in high amounts, which has the power to reverse the effects of sodium.

Relive muscle cramps:

Muscle cramps can take place when your body is deficient in potassium. Taking foods rich in potassium helps in solving this problem. Excessive exercising can also cause muscle cramps, which can be treated by consuming electrolytes. Coconut water is rich in potassium and other nutrients and therefore an excellent drink to avoid muscle cramps and provide you energy.

Strengthens bones and joints:

Coconut water is rich in calcium and magnesium, which are needed for strong bones. So, drinking coconut water is good for strengthening your bones.

www. stylishwalks .com

The Disappearance of Hillary Clinton's Healthcare Platform




In an extraordinary magic trick, performed on a national scale, Hillary Clinton's healthcare platform has been disappeared. While policy analysts, news anchors, and columnists have been engaged in an intense debate over Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” proposal, Clinton’s incremental alternative has escaped almost all scrutiny - even among those who say they prefer it.

Combining the election-season writings of our most prolific, liberal-leaning columnists at the New York Times, Huffington Post, Vox, Mother Jones, Politico, The American Prospect, etc. you’ll find dozens of articles critiquing Sanders's single-payer plan. None have mentioned a single Clinton healthcare proposal as a point of comparison - merely that she supports a philosphy of incremental reform.

Take Paul Krugman, a high-profile advocate of Clinton's approach to healthcare reform. Krugman has published two op-eds in the New York Times and five additional blog posts arguing that "[progressives] should seek incremental change on health care... and focus their main efforts on other issues - that is... Bernie Sanders is wrong about this and Hillary Clinton is right." In all seven pieces, Krugman focuses exclusively on Sanders's single-payer proposal and fails to mention even a single Clinton policy.

The disappearance of the Clinton healthcare platform has even been carried out by pollsters. The Kaiser Health Tracking Survey included a bizarre question in its February 2016 poll, which was widely cited in the press. Respondents were asked to pick one of four possible directions for the future of U.S. healthcare. Among the choices were "The U.S. should establish guaranteed universal coverage through a single government plan" and "Lawmakers should build on the existing health care law to improve affordability and access to care." Thirty-three percent of Democrats chose the single-payer option, while fifty-four percent chose the incremental option. The questions were clearly intended as stand-ins for the Sanders and Clinton healthcare proposals, but note that the single-payer option is a policy, whereas the incremental option mentions no actual policies, but asks respondents whether they support the (universally desirable) outcomes of improving affordability and access.

What would happen if the media lifted the curtain on Clinton's healthcare platform and introduced any level of scrutiny to her proposed improvements on the Affordable Care Act? They would find two categories of Clinton proposals: some that are so vague they're difficult to evaluate, and other more concrete plans that follow in the footsteps of one of Congress's most practiced healthcare incrementalists: Senator Bernie Sanders.

For example, one of Clinton's clearest incremental proposals is to repeal the Affordable Care Act's poorly named "cadillac tax" on health plans with high premiums. She announced this proposal on September 29, drawing the ire of White House spokespeople. The move, however, followed in the footsteps of a Senate bill to repeal the Cadillac tax introduced by Bernie Sanders and seven Democratic Senators just a few days previously on September 24. Clinton's position was correctly seen by reporters as necessary if she didn't want to lose labor union support to Sanders.


Many of Clinton's well-defined healthcare proposals are rolled into a package of prescription drug reforms, which she released on September 22, 2015. They bear a striking resemblance to the Sanders prescription drug plan announced on September 1, filed as legislation on September 10. Both would legalize importation of prescription drugs from Canada, where costs for identical drugs are much lower due to Canada's single-payer healthcare system. Sanders was a pioneer of importation, and in 1999 started driving busloads of American patients who couldn't afford breast cancer drugs across the Canadian border. Both candidates call for empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices - even Donald Trump jumped on board in January. Both would ban "pay-for-delay" deals between brand-name and generic drug makers, and increase prescription drug rebates for Medicaid and/or Medicare.

Because Clinton's healthcare platform has received zero public scrutiny, she has had the luxury of floating other policy ideas in broad outlines, too vague to evaluate. Take the proposal to expand the use of Accountable Care Organizations. How? According to Clinton's December policy brief: "In the coming months, [Clinton] will provide full detail on her plans for delivery system reforms that drive down costs." With the primaries drawing to a close, no such details have been released. The same could be said of another proposal to "create a fallback process" to review insurance premium rate hikes in states that don't already review rates. There has been no explanation of how such a plan would work, or whether it would require new legislation.

This is the double standard at work in almost all national coverage of Clinton and Sanders on healthcare reform: Clinton has been taken at her word that her incremental plans will be politically feasible, succeed in improving affordability and access to care, and are not shared by her opponent. Sanders on the other hand received intense public pressure to release details of his single-payer healthcare proposal, and when he did the proposal was subject to an avalanche of public analysis and scrutiny.

This double standard is all the more remarkable because single-payer healthcare is an established policy, practiced in one form or another in almost every developed nation in the world. Incremental reforms that work within the market-based healthcare system of the U.S. are far more uncertain, and deserve greater scrutiny. They are easier to enact but dramatically more likely to fall short of their goals. This is because incremental reforms in the United States usually focus on expanding access to care, without significant cost controls, in order to avoid opposition from the healthcare industry. The resulting policies are often unsustainable; make little headway against national trends of rising costs and eroding access; or simply move costs around (e.g. from premiums to deductibles and co-payments, or vice versa).

Previous national trends in incremental healthcare reform - from managed care through pharmacy benefit management, chronic disease management, narrow networks, and beyond - have often created lucrative new industries, but had dubious impacts on underlying healthcare costs or access to care. Most of Clinton's healthcare platform falls exactly into these danger zones, and should be received with a critical eye.

The national discussion of single-payer healthcare reform is long overdue. However, when the full range of national media outlets force one candidate to run on real policies, while allowing another to run on values and aspirations, we aren't having a real discussion of systemic vs. incremental reform, we are merely aiding the corrosion of informed democracy.

www. commondreams .org

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Ear infections in babies falling, breastfeeding could be a reason




Rates of ear infection among American babies in their first year of life have dropped significantly over the last 20-30 years, say researchers who cite increased rates of breastfeeding as one of the reasons.

The team - from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston - reports the findings in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers find that compared with similar studies from 20-30 years ago, rates of ear infection in American babies have fallen from 18% to 6% in 3-month-olds, from 39% to 23% in 6-month-olds, and from 62% to 46% in 1-year-olds.

They suggest use of vaccinations, higher rates of breastfeeding and a decline in smoking rates could be major reasons.

In the US, acute otitis media (AOM), or ear infection, is one of the most common infections in babies and young children.

Ear infection is also the biggest cause of childhood doctor visits and the most common reason children are prescribed antibiotics or have to undergo surgery, note the researchers.

There is evidence, they add, that repeatedly having ear infections up to the age of 6 months can lead to suffering the complaint more frequently later in life.

Lack of breastfeeding major risk factor
For their study, the team followed 367 babies from the age of under 1 month to their first birthday over the period 2008-2014. Altogether, the study covered 286 child-years.

The infants' parents informed the team whenever their child showed signs of ear infection or having a common cold (an upper respiratory infection, or URI). A doctor appointed by the team then examined the child within 5 days.

The researchers regularly took nose and throat mucus samples from the infants, and also whenever they had a cold. They analyzed the samples for presence of bacteria and viruses.


The team also collected information about family history of ear infection, exposure to cigarette smoke and whether the infants were breastfed.

During the study period, the authors documented 887 cases of URI (affecting 305 babies) and 180 cases of AOM episodes (143 babies - nearly half of the group).

Lead author Tasnee Chonmaitree, a professor in pediatrics, says their analysis clearly shows that frequent colds, having bacteria in the nose and not being breastfed were major risk factors for ear infections.

She notes that prolonged breastfeeding was linked to significant reductions in both colds and ear infections - which commonly develop from a cold in babies.

Breastfeeding provides babies with antibodies, including Immunoglobulin A (IgA), which helps to protect the mucous membranes from infection.

However, Prof. Chonmaitree also comments:

"It is likely that medical interventions in the past few decades, such as the use of pneumonia and flu vaccines and decreased smoking helped reduce ear infection incidences."

In addition, she and her colleagues note that interactions between bacteria and viruses may play a significant role in the development of ear infections and should be investigated further.

In September 2014, Medical News Today learned how another team, from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, found that nasal infection with a flu virus can cause bacteria in the nose to travel to the middle ear.

www. medicalnewstoday .com

Smokers at higher risk of TB because of 'clogged-up immune cells'




The risk of becoming infected with TB is increased by exposure to smoke from cigarettes and burning fuel. Now, a new study shows this is because smoke clogs up immune cells and weakens their ability to fight TB bacteria.

The international study, led by the University of Cambridge in the UK, is published in the journal Cell.

It looks at the effect that smoke particles might have on macrophages - literally the "giant eaters" of the immune system. Macrophages act like "vacuum cleaners" for unwanted material, helping to dispose of and recycle billions of dead cells every day.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It can spread to any organ in the body, but it is most commonly found in the lungs.

TB spreads from person to person through the air and can cause breathlessness, wasting and, eventually, death. Treatments exist and typically last for about 6 months.

Macrophages are the immune system's first line of defense against TB when it first enters the body. The immune cell engulfs the bacterial cell and tries to break it down. In most cases, this is successful - macrophages wipe out the TB bacteria and infection is avoided.

However, sometimes, the TB bacteria manage to avoid being broken down. Moreover, they even use the macrophages to give them a ride deep inside the body and spread infection.

Once it is established, TB then organizes the macrophages into tight clusters called tubercles, or granulomas. At this stage, the macrophages still have not given up, but if they lose this last battle, the bacteria use the structure to spread from cell to cell.

Clogged-up macrophages cannot engulf TB bacteria so well
For their study, the team used zebrafish to observe what happens inside macrophages when they encounter TB bacteria. Zebrafish are particularly useful for this kind of study because they are transparent.


Fast facts about TB
Global annual deaths to TB dropped 47% between 1990-2015
TB is curable and preventable
Worldwide, 9.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died from it in 2014.
Learn more about TB

The researchers genetically screened zebrafish to find out which gene variants made them susceptible to TB. One gene mutation made them particularly susceptible: it causes a deficiency in macrophages.

Macrophages break down unwanted material and they also recycle it. They have special digestion compartments inside them called lysosomes. The researchers found in the TB-susceptible zebrafish, mutant macrophages accumulated undigested material in their lysosomes.

The authors note that this accumulated undigested lysosomal material disrupts the macrophages' ability to recycle, and it also "impairs their migration to, and thus engulfment of, dying cells."

In the next phase of their study, the researchers showed that clogging up the macrophages' lysosomes in the zebrafish with non-biological material - such as tiny plastic beads - has the same result. They could not respond to infection when they were clogged up.

Macrophages become fatter and less agile
Lead investigator Lalita Ramakrishnan, a professor in Cambridge's Department of Medicine, explains that the macrophages, unable to recycle the debris, become "bigger and fatter and less able to move around and clear up other material," and adds:

"This can become a problem in TB because once the TB granuloma forms, the host's best bet is to send in more macrophages at a slow steady pace to help the already infected macrophages."

But the enlarged macrophages cannot move into the TB granuloma. The result is that the macrophages that are already inside the structure burst and form a "soup" in which the bacteria can grow and spread the infection.

Finally, the researchers examined macrophages from the lungs of people who smoke. They found their lysosomes were also clogged up, as they note in their conclusion:

"A majority of their alveolar macrophages exhibit lysosomal accumulations of tobacco smoke particulates and do not migrate to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The incapacitation of highly microbicidal first-responding macrophages may contribute to smokers' susceptibility to tuberculosis."

The researchers suggest stopping smoking reduces the risk of developing TB because it allows the clogged-up, slow macrophages to die off and gradually be replaced by new, fit cells.

In January 2016, Medical News Today learned it may be possible to make old anti-TB drugs strong again by looking at 3D models of the compounds interacting with the bacteria.

www. medicalnewstoday .com

Stem cell therapy enables spinal regrowth




Functional tissue has been grown in the spines of rats using stem cell techniques, according to research published in Nature Medicine.

Stem cells form the basis of regenerative medicine. Regeneration is when body tissue grows back after damage. Skin, for example, replaces itself, and the liver can regrow in a human adult.

The Center for Regenerative Medicine describe stem cells as cells that continuously divide and produce exact copies of themselves; they can also change into specialized cells. This is called differentiation.

Euro Stem Cell explain that omnipotent stem cells produce all the tissues that a body needs, but not all stem cells are omnipotent; there are different types of stem cells with different strategies for regeneration.

Scientists have been looking for ways to direct stem cells to replace functional cells damaged through trauma or by other causes, and the search is on to find the right kind of stem cell.

The human corticospinal tract carries bundles of nerves from the cerebral cortex in the upper brain down into the spinal cord.

Successful regeneration of corticospinal axons
Previous experiments using stem cells have led to degrees of functional recovery in rats following spinal cord injury, but none of the studies involved regeneration of corticospinal axons. Humans need corticospinal axons to carry out voluntary movement.

It was not thought that corticospinal neurons would have the internal mechanisms needed to allow for regeneration.

Researchers at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, with colleagues in Japan and Wisconsin, collaborated to investigate the feasibility of using corticospinal neurons for this purpose.

They grafted multipotent neural progenitor cells into the injury sites of rats with spinal cord injury. Multipotent cells are stem cells that can regenerate into different types of cell.


The team directed the cells to develop specifically as a spinal cord.

The cells developed more successfully than the authors expected, replacing lost tissue and forming functional synapses that enabled the rats to move their forelimbs more than they could before.

Senior study author Dr. Mark Tuszynski, PhD, professor in the UC-San Diego School of Medicine Department of Neurosciences and director of the UC-San Diego Translational Neuroscience Institute, says:

"The corticospinal projection is the most important motor system in humans. It has not been successfully regenerated before. Many have tried, many have failed, including us, in previous efforts."

Still a long way to go
Dr. Tuszynski says that this was the first time for the team to use neural stem cells to find out whether they would support regeneration, where other cell types had not.

He had been skeptical that therapies could be developed to improve function in humans, but the possibility of regenerating "the most important motor system for humans," now looks more likely.

There is still a long way to go before stem cell therapies can be tested on humans or used in treatment.

The first step is to carry out animal studies that demonstrate that such treatments can be used safely and with long-term functional benefit.

Then, says Dr. Tuszynski, scientists will need to use larger animal models to develop ways to transfer the technology to humans. They will also need to identify which is the best type of human neural stem cell to use.

Medical News Today recently reported that an injection of stem cells had reversed osteoporosis in mice.

www. medicalnewstoday .com

Cannabis vs. alcohol: economic and social impacts




As the legality of cannabis drifts through a period of flux, the spotlight of scientific research is rarely far away. A new study, following heavy cannabis users, yields further insight into the drug's financial and social ramifications.

Both legal and public opinion of cannabis is changing in America.

Today, in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, the possession and sale of cannabis for medicinal and non-medicinal purposes is legal.

Alongside these four states, another 15 are considering legalizing recreational cannabis use.

Washington, DC, legalized the personal use (but not commercial sale) of cannabis in 2015.

And a national survey conducted in 2013 found that 52% of Americans thought marijuana should be made legal.

As the law steadily softens across the country, research into the long-term effects of cannabis is more important than ever.

Cannabis research on the rise
There are few areas of medical investigation as controversial as cannabis research, but previous studies into the social impact of cannabis have yielded contradictory or unclear findings.

Despite these controversies, a study team, led by Magdalena Cerdá at the University of California, recently conducted a thorough investigation into the social and economic aspects of heavy cannabis use.

Alcohol abuse is more likely than cannabis to play a role in events such as traffic accidents and violence. However, when cannabis and alcohol's effects on relationships, delinquency and education are measured, results are less conclusive.

The number of potential factors to consider are vast, making results difficult to analyze and interpret. These factors include the likelihood of cannabis and alcohol users to abuse other drugs; also, the illegal status of cannabis means that users might be tied to other illegal activities, or incarcerated, both of which have negative consequences unrelated to cannabis itself.

Additionally, heavy cannabis use from an early age might have its roots in underlying psychopathology or preexisting social or economic problems at home.

Cerdá's research attempts to head off as many of these confounding variables as possible.

A fresh look at the impact of cannabis
The study, published in Clinical Psychological Science, uses data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study that followed 1,037 New Zealand children from birth until the age of 38.


The group represented a cross-section of the population and received a maximum of 11 follow-up assessments over the years.

For the current study, the researchers utilized data from 947 individuals.

In total, 18% of participants were considered marijuana-dependent in at least one of the assessments, and 15% were classified as regular cannabis users in at least one assessment.

According to Cerdá, the team found that "regular cannabis users experienced downward social mobility and more financial problems such as troubles with debt and cash flow than those who did not report such persistent use."

He adds:

"Regular long-term users also had more antisocial behaviors at work, such as stealing money or lying to get a job, and experienced more relationship problems, such as intimate partner violence and controlling abuse."

These findings remained constant even after controlling for factors such as childhood socioeconomic problems, lower IQ scores, depression and antisocial behavior in adolescence, lower motivation to achieve, higher levels of impulsivity, criminal convictions and the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

Alcohol, lesser of two evils?
The results showed that both alcohol and cannabis abusers experienced similar declines in social class; they were both more likely to carry out antisocial behaviors in the workplace and to have relationship problems.

However, the heavy cannabis users were more likely than the alcohol abusers to have severe financial difficulties; for instance, they more regularly reported difficulty finding enough money to enable them to eat.

Moffitt, a psychologist at Duke University and the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, UK, sums up the findings: "Cannabis may be safer than alcohol for your health, but not for your finances."

These results and others like them are increasingly important as the legal status of cannabis shifts. As Cerdá says:

"Alcohol is still a bigger problem than cannabis because alcohol use is more prevalent than cannabis use. But, as the legalization of cannabis increases around the world, the economic and social burden posed by regular cannabis use could increase as well."

The researchers are quick to remind readers that their research "does not support arguments for or against cannabis legalization," their results simply show that "cannabis was not safe for the long-term users tracked" in their study.

Although results from previous investigations have been contradictory, this study has paid particular attention to the detail and offers a deeper insight into the long-term social and financial implications of cannabis abuse.

Further research is sure to follow, and the picture will grow clearer with time. Medical News Today recently covered research investigating cannabis' effect on the processing of emotions.

www. medicalnewstoday .com

Sleepwalking: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment




Sleepwalking (somnambulism) is a type of parasomnia, an abnormal disruptive behavior that occurs during sleep. Most commonly seen in children ages 3-8 years old, sleepwalking is hereditary and typically resolves spontaneously during adolescence.

Sleepwalkers may jump out of bed, walk around or even act out different activities, ranging from eating and rearranging furniture to leaving the house and driving a car. Individuals who sleepwalk usually have no memory of the event.

The cause of sleepwalking is not well understood and rarely involves any serious underlying medical or psychiatric problems. Treatment of sleepwalking is centered on improving sleep hygiene, identifying and managing potential triggers and keeping the sleepwalking individual safe from harm.

Contents of this article:

What is sleepwalking? Causes of sleepwalking
Symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of sleepwalking
Fast facts on sleepwalking
Here are some key points about sleepwalking. More detail and supporting information is in the main article.
Parasomnias, common in the general population, arise as the brain transitions between rapid eye movement sleep (REM), non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and wakefulness
Sleepwalking is an incomplete disconnection of wakefulness from sleep that occurs during NREM sleep
Sleepwalking occurs in about 15% of children, peaking between age 8 and 12 years and typically resolving during adolescence
Children who sleepwalk will often talk in their sleep and have night terrors
For most children, treatment is unnecessary; the child is usually unaware of the event at the time of occurrence and does not recall the event in the morning
Childhood-onset sleepwalking continues into adulthood in 20% of cases
Adult sleepwalking affects 2.5% of the general population
Around 1 out of every 3 people will sleepwalk at some point in their lives
Individuals have a 10-fold or higher increased risk of developing sleepwalking if one or both parents were sleepwalkers
Stress can play a significant role in triggering sleepwalking
Drug and alcohol consumption has been linked to sleepwalking activity
Sleepwalkers should be kept safe and gently guided back to bed without being fully woken.

What is sleepwalking?

Sleepwalking is a parasomnia - an unwanted event that occurs during sleep. Other parasomnias include sleep paralysis, confusion arousals and night terrors.

Sleepwalking is a disorder of arousal that occurs while the brain is in deep non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM stages 3 and 4). This period of sleep happens during the first third of the night.

In a sense, sleepwalking is an error in timing and balance, where something triggers the brain out of deep sleep and into a transitional state between sleeping and waking. As dreaming only occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, sleepwalkers are not acting out their dreams.

A sleepwalking event may last from several minutes to up to an hour.

Individuals with this type of parasomnia who are awakened during sleep are typically disoriented and confused. The sleepwalking individual's mind is asleep but their body is awake, allowing the individual to perform complex behaviors such as eating, walking around and engaging in conversations.

During episodes of sleepwalking, the individual exhibits decreased awareness and responsiveness to their surroundings. The sleepwalker appears clumsy and may trip over furniture, walk into mirrors, walk through a window or fall down stairs, potentially resulting in injury.

The frequency of sleepwalking episodes varies from person to person. Some have only isolated, rare occurrences, while others may have multiple events per night.

The majority of sleepwalking episodes do not result in any harm or accidental injury. Individuals will likely return to bed without incident, or may find themselves waking up in a different location in the house.

Causes of sleepwalking
N-REM is the deepest part of the sleep cycle, when the brain is most resistant to awakening. This period of sleep is when the brain repairs itself and balances necessary chemicals and hormones.

The exact cause of sleepwalking is not well understood, although research suggests children are most vulnerable because a child's brain is still maturing.


Known triggers of sleepwalking include:

Comorbid sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
Sleep deprivation
Alcohol
Fever or illness
Menstrual cycle or pregnancy
Extreme exercise or fatigue
Environmental stimuli
Bladder fullness
Sleeping in strange surroundings
Emotional or situational stress
Childhood separation anxiety
Medications including phenothiazines, chloral hydrate, zolpidem and lithium.
Some medical conditions such as stroke, head injury, migraines or a seizure disorder may also contribute to sleepwalking episodes.

Signs and symptoms of sleepwalking

Sleepwalking is a general term that can involve many varieties of movements and activities that are not typical of sleep. Some behaviors may be bizarre and life-threatening such as driving a car or discharging a weapon.

Examples of sleepwalking include:

Sitting up in bed with a blank stare
Walking around the room or house
Urinating in inappropriate places (for example, in a closet)
Rearranging furniture
Climbing out a window
Leaving the house
Driving a car
Engaging in sexual activity.
Although the majority of sleepwalking incidents are harmless, sleepwalking can be dangerous and can lead to serious harm to the individual experiencing the event, as well as innocent bystanders.

The sleepwalking individual is in an altered state of consciousness and has impaired judgment. When told of their sleepwalking behavior the next day, they may be dumbfounded, with no recollection of their nighttime behavior. Some adult sleepwalkers are more apt to recall fragments or vague impressions of the event.


Diagnosis of sleepwalking
All individuals who experience more than an occasional sleepwalking episode should see a health care provider for a complete evaluation. Most of the time, sleepwalking can be diagnosed through gathering a good history.

The provider will review the patient's medical history and current state of health. They will ask for a sleep/wake diary that provides details of any events such as the time of an event, how long it lasted, what movements and actions were involved and if there were any identifiable triggers. Blood work may also be carried out to rule out a hormone imbalance.

In order to look for other existing sleep disorders such as OSA, a sleep study (polysomnography) may be recommended for sleepwalking adults. An electroencephalogram (EEG) may also be obtained to determine if the sleepwalking could be a type of seizure. EEG abnormalities have been reported in up to 47% of patients with parasomnias.

Treatment and prevention of sleepwalking
Although sleep quality is generally not affected by the occasional sleepwalking event, recurrent episodes of sleepwalking can not only lead to significant worry for both the sleepwalking individuals and their families, but can also cause harm to the sleepwalker.

Infrequently occurring (one to two times per month) sleepwalking episodes do not require medical treatment but rather reassurance that sleepwalking is a benign condition that eventually resolves on its own.

Because sleepwalking can result in accidents and self-injury from falls or leaving the house, safety measures must be put in place.

Sleepwalking safety measures include:

Locking windows and doors leading outside
Placing mattresses directly on the floor or using a sleeping bag
Keeping the sleeping area uncluttered and removing dangerous objects from the bedroom, including mirrors and floor obstructions
Keeping firearms or other weapons locked and out of reach
Using padding on nearby furniture and the floor beside the bed
Using a bedroom on the ground floor in a multilevel home
Installing a bedroom door alarm
Equipping the top of the stairs with a barrier or toddler gate.
Not all episodes of sleepwalking can be prevented. However, it is possible to lessen the frequency of episodes by being aware of and managing the common triggers that are under an individual's control.

Management of sleepwalking includes:

Keeping a regular sleep schedule and getting adequate sleep
Maintaining a sleep-friendly environment with comfortable bedding, cool temperatures and room-darkening window covers
Eliminating and managing stress is essential to getting sleepwalking under control
Managing medication: there are also drug therapies that can be used to control symptoms - choices of medications might include lorazepam, clonazepam, amitriptyline or trazodone.
Treating any other sleep disorders such as OSA, restless leg syndrome or other medical problems including gastroesophageal reflux, depression and anxiety may help alleviate sleepwalking.

Recent developments on sleepwalking from MNT news
Sleepwalkers 'feel no pain' in accidents
Although sleepwalkers have an increased risk for headaches and migraines when awake, while sleepwalking, they are unlikely to feel pain even after suffering an injury. These are the findings of research published in the journal Sleep.
Study identifies genetic risk for childhood sleepwalking
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, as many as 17% of children sleepwalk. Now, a new study suggests children are much more likely to do so if their parents have a history of sleepwalking, indicating there may be a genetic element to the disorder.

www. medicalnewstoday .com
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