Day: April 13, 2021

Categories : AddictionTags :

Keto Diet Eases Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms, Study Finds

On By ModernMedia

A team of researchers in the US and Denmark has found that if people suffering from alcohol withdrawal go on a ketogenic (keto) diet  the severity of their symptoms will be reduced.

Alcoholics who stop drinking experience withdrawal symptoms of varying severity.  Since the alcohol withdrawal symptoms are so unpleasant, many people seek assistance, such as checking into rehab. In this new effort, the researchers have found a new tool to help with withdrawal symptoms and which could possibly reduce the rate of recidivism.

The research was motivated by two observations. The first being that prior studies have shown that in long term alcohol dependency, people’s bodies begin to use alcohol-metabolised acetate for energy, and less glucose. The lack of acetate is associated with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. The second is that on a keto diet, the body has more ketone bodies to metabolise for use as an energy source. Taken together, it suggested that people on keto diets could substitute the acetate as an energy source and minimise withdrawal symptoms. 

A ketogenic diet is high-fat, moderate-protein and very-low-carbohydrate. The ratio of these macronutrients are approximately 55% to 60% fat, 30% to 35% protein and 5% to 10% carbohydrates. In a 2000 kcal per day diet, carbohydrates amount up to 20 to 50 g per day.

To test the theory, the study recruited 46 participants newly hospitalised alcoholics, half went on the keto diet and the other half went in a control group. The researchers measured ketone and acetate levels in the volunteers once a week, and also looked for inflammation markers that are common in people in rehab and assessed the amount of medication the participants needed to ease their symptoms. 
Taken together, the data suggested that the keto diet reduced withdrawal symptoms in the volunteers. When the researchers conducted a similar experiment with test rats, they observed that the rats on the diet drank less alcohol than control rats. 

The researchers said that their results are encouraging, but note that additional research is necessary, particularly with outpatient volunteers.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Corinde E. Wiers et al. Ketogenic diet reduces alcohol withdrawal symptoms in humans and alcohol intake in rodents, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf6780

Categories : NeurologyTags :

Impairment Lasts up to 10 Hours After Cannabis

On By ModernMedia

A comprehensive analysis of 80 scientific studies has identified a ‘window of impairment’ of between three and 10 hours caused by moderate to high doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabis component that causes intoxication. According to the researchers, these results have consequences for drug-driving laws around the world.

How long the impairment lasts depends on the THC dose, whether it is taken orally or inhaled, on the usage habits of the cannabis user and the demands of the task. The psychoactive THC component of cannabis has potential medical applications in treating nausea, sleep apnoea, fibromyalgia and chronic pain, though these applications are controversial and currently difficult to study due to legal issues, though off-label use is common. 
Previous research by Dr Arkell and colleagues has shown that cannabidiol (CBD), one of the medically active components of cannabis, does not cause impairment in driving. CBD has analgesic and anti-inflammatory actions, as well as anxiolytic, antiemetic, antipsychotic, and neuroprotective antioxidant properties

Medical and non-medical legal cannabis use is on the rise worldwide.
THC causes acute impairment in driving and cognitive performance, but there is uncertainty among users about the duration of this impairment and when they can start tasks such as driving after consuming cannabis.
“Our analysis indicates that impairment may last up to 10 hours if high doses of THC are consumed orally,”  said lead author Dr Danielle McCartney, Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney. “A more typical duration of impairment, however, is four hours, when lower doses of THC are consumed via smoking or vaporization and simpler tasks are undertaken (eg, those using cognitive skills such as reaction time, sustained attention and working memory). This impairment may extend up to six or seven hours if higher doses of THC are inhaled and complex tasks, such as driving, are assessed.”

A moderate THC dose is considered about 10 milligrams in this study, but could be higher for a regular user, said the researchers.

Co-author Dr Thomas Arkell, also from the Lambert Initiative, said: “We found that impairment is much more predictable in occasional cannabis users than regular cannabis users. Heavy users show significant tolerance to the effects of cannabis on driving and cognitive function, while typically displaying some impairment.”

Regular cannabis users might consume more to get the same effect, resulting in equivalent impairment, the authors noted.

In the case of oral use as in medical cannabis drops, tablets etc, the impairment takes longer to manifest and has a longer duration than the inhalation route.

The findings have implications for so-called drug-driving laws, the researchers said.

Professor Iain McGregor, Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative, said: “THC can be detected in the body weeks after cannabis consumption while it is clear that impairment lasts for a much shorter period of time. Our legal frameworks probably need to catch up with that and, as with alcohol, focus on the interval when users are more of a risk to themselves and others. Prosecution solely on the basis of the presence of THC in blood or saliva is manifestly unjust.

“Laws should be about safety on the roads, not arbitrary punishment. Given that cannabis is legal in an increasing number of jurisdictions, we need an evidence-based approach to drug-driving laws,” Prof McGregor said.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: McCartney, D., et al. (2021) Determining the magnitude and duration of acute Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC)-induced driving and cognitive impairment: A systematic and meta-analytic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.01.003.

Categories : COVIDTags :

US Hits Pause on J&J Vaccine

On By ModernMedia

Reacting to reports of potentially dangerous blood clots, the US is recommending a “pause” in immunisations with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine in order to perform investigations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement that they were investigating blood clots in six women that occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination. The clots, seen in the sinuses of the brain, also had lowered platelet counts. This renders the use of heparin, the standard treatment for blood clots, potentially dangerous.

Out of 183.5 million vaccine doses administered in the US, over 6.8 million doses are the J&J vaccine — the overwhelming majority without serious side effects. The rest is made up by the two other authorised vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer.

Use of the J&J shot will be paused in US federal distribution channels, including mass vaccination sites, with states and other providers being expected to follow.

CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet Wednesday to discuss the cases and the FDA has also launched an investigation into the cause of the clots and low platelet counts.

“Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, and Dr Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a joint statement.

They recommend that people who received the J&J vaccine and are experiencing severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after receiving the jab contact their health care provider.

Officials say that they want to bring healthcare providers up to speed on the blood clot’s “unique treatment” .

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson had said it was aware of the blood clot reports, but no association with its vaccine had been established.

“We are aware that thromboembolic events including those with thrombocytopenia have been reported with Covid-19 vaccines,” the company said in a statement. “At present, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events and the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine.”

In late February, the FDA  granted emergency use authorisation to the J&J vaccine, with hopes that its single-dose and relatively simple storage requirements would speed vaccinations across the country. However, only a fraction of the vaccines administered in the US are the J&J shot. The company has been beset by production delays and manufacturing errors at a contractor’s plant. 

The pharmaceutical company took over the facility to ramp up production to make good on its promise to the US government of 100 million doses by the end of May. Only about 9 million of the company’s doses have been delivered to states and are awaiting administration, according to CDC data.
Previously, concern over the blood clots was confined to AstraZeneca’s vaccine, with European regulators saying last week they found a possible link between the shots and an exceedingly rare type of blood clot presenting with low platelets, a situation found more commonly in young people.

Nevertheless, the European Medicines Agency emphasised that the benefits for the vaccine outweigh the risks. Despite this, several countries imposed restrictions on vaccine eligibility and some such as Britain and Greece recommending that people under a certain age be offered alternatives.

Unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines which use mRNA to train the immune system to recognise the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines use an adapted adenovirus to introduce the spike protein antigen into the body. Adenoviruses were first identified in the 1950s as a family of similar disease-causing viruses. AstraZeneca’s vaccine uses a chimpanzee adenovirus while the J&J uses a human one.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : Exercise Mental HealthTags :

Mental Health and Physical Activity Impacted by Pandemic

On By ModernMedia

A study from McMaster University suggests that mental health has become both a barrier to and a motivator for physical activity.

Surveying over 1600 subjects, the researchers sought to understand the ways mental health, physical activity and sedentary behaviour have changed throughout the course of the pandemic and why. Their findings show that people want to be active to improve their mental health but find exercise difficult because of stress and anxiety. Previous research indicates that physical activity can contribute to the treatment of depression, while sedentary behaviour has a strong negative impact.
“Maintaining a regular exercise program is difficult at the best of times and the conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic may be making it even more difficult,” said lead author Jennifer Heisz, associate professor at the Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University.

“Even though exercise comes with the promise of reducing anxiety, many respondents felt too anxious to exercise. Likewise, although exercise reduces depression, respondents who were more depressed were less motivated to get active, and lack of motivation is a symptom of depression,” she said.

The survey respondents reported higher psychological stress and moderate levels of anxiety and depression due to the pandemic. Their weekly aerobic activity reduced about 20 minutes, strength training down roughly 30 minutes, and sedentary time per day was up about 30 minutes per day compared to six months prior to the pandemic. Physical activity may have exerted a protective effect, as those with the greatest drops in physical activity had the worst mental health outcomes, while those who kept their physical activity levels the same level fared better in terms of mental health. 
Notably, economic disparities played a role, the researchers found, especially among younger adults.

“Just like other aspects of the pandemic, some demographics are hit harder than others and here it is people with lower income who are struggling to meet their physical activity goals,” said co-lead author Maryam Marashi, a graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology. “It is plausible that younger adults who typically work longer hours and earn less are lacking both time and space which is taking a toll.”

After the researchers analysed the data, the researchers produced a guideline to help people become more physically active:

  • Adopt a mindset: Some exercise is better than none.
  • Lower exercise intensity if feeling anxious.
  • Move a little every day.
  • Break up sedentary time with standing or movement breaks.
  • Plan your workouts like appointments by blocking off the time in your calendar.

“Our results point to the need for additional psychological supports to help people maintain their physical activity levels during stressful times in order to minimize the burden of the pandemic and prevent the development of a mental health crisis,” concluded Heisz.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Marashi, M. Y., et al. (2021) A mental health paradox: Mental health was both a motivator and barrier to physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS ONE. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239244.

Categories : LungTags :

Sleep Doctors are Concerned Over CPAP Negative Evaluation

On By ModernMedia

Sleep doctors are concerned about a draft report casting doubt on the clinical benefits of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), the clinical gold standard for sleep apnoea.

Reviewers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that studies of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) have consistently failed to show improvements in non-sleep-related outcomes linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), such as stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and depression.

The report concluded that the published evidence “mostly does not support that CPAP prescription affects long-term, clinically important outcomes,” and it highlighted research gaps and methodological weaknesses in the available studies, along with significant CPAP compliance issues, which have all contributed to the failure to show long-term benefits for the treatment.

OSA specialists who spoke to MedPage Today about AHRQ’s research review agreed that CPAP remains by far the most effective treatment for sleep-related symptoms of OSA. They worried that the report could be misinterpreted as meaning that the treatment has no value. 
The US offers coverage for CPAP therapy under Medicare for patients with OSA, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars per annum.. One recent study of Medicare recipients 56% were at high risk for OSA and possible candidates for treatment.

“The big fear that I have, and many of my colleagues have, is that the way this report is worded could easily be misinterpreted as saying that prescribing CPAP doesn’t improve these (long-term) outcomes, so we shouldn’t be paying for it,” said David Rapoport, MD, who directs the sleep medicine research program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

He said that it is widely recognised that CPAP is the most effective treatment for improving OSA symptoms, such as snoring and daytime sleepiness.

“Nothing else even comes close,” he said. “CPAP is really a remarkable treatment for addressing the breathing disorder associated with obstructive sleep apnea. But it has to be used, and compliance remains a big issue.”

The AHRQ review included data from 47 long term (≥6 or 12 months) randomised clinical trials for OSA.

Investigators noted that the studies used “highly inconsistent” definitions of measures such as respiratory events, as well as the Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI) metric.

“No standard definition of this measure exists and whether AHI (and associated measures) are valid surrogate measures of clinical outcomes is unknown,” the report states.

Elise Berliner, PhD, of AHRQ, told MedPage Today that addressing the inconsistencies and limitations of the existing studies should be a top priority of the sleep research community. She added that definitions should be standardised.

“I do think the community needs to get together and figure out how to do better studies,” she said. “We need larger and longer studies, and there is also the issue of compliance. In most of the studies, people were not using these devices all night long.”

The report found that the existing randomized controlled trials provide low strength of evidence that CPAP affects all-cause mortality, stroke and myocardial infarction risk, or other cardiovascular outcomes. Researchers also concluded that insufficient evidence exists showing an impact for CPAP on the risk for automobile accidents, depression, and anxiety and hypertension.

Sanjay Patel, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, agreed inconsistency and poor CPAP compliance in sleep studies have made it difficult to assess its  impact on mortality and most other long-term outcomes.

But he, like Dr Rapoport, expressed concern that some will interpret the findings to mean that CPAP is ineffective.

“The thinking in the field has been that treatment may help prevent diseases like diabetes and heart disease that are related to sleep apnea,” he told MedPage Today. “This report says we don’t have good evidence on this, but it doesn’t really distinguish between outcomes where we do and do not have enough research to say definitively that treatment with CPAP isn’t beneficial.”

Dr Patel served on the writing committee for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s (AASM) latest clinical practice guidelines for OSA treatment with CPAP. He observed that the guidelines differ from the AHRQ findings, in that CPAP has been shown to lower blood pressure in hypertensive OSA patients.

The AHRQ analysis was also restricted to 6 month follow-ups or longer, while the AASM’s writing committee considered studies with shorter follow-up times.

“The effect [of CPAP] on blood pressure can be seen at 1 month,” he said. “Multiple studies with 3 months of follow-up show improvements in blood pressure, but AHRQ did not look at those studies.”

While CPAP is still considered the most effective treatment for OSA, Dr Rapoport said there is a growing recognition within the sleep medicine field that it’s not for everyone, given the ongoing issues with compliance.

“In the past, other treatments such as mandibular advancement devices have been marginalized,” he said. “These treatments don’t work nearly as well as CPAP in terms of lowering AHI, but they do work well for many patients, and people who are prescribed them actually use them. Until recently, there wasn’t much acceptance that this was good enough. But there is now greater recognition that we should maybe be prescribing treatments that aren’t perfect if people are more likely to use them.”

Source: MedPage Today

Categories : Cancer General Interest PaediatricsTags :

Donated Afro Hair Wigs Now Possible Thanks to UK Girl

On By ModernMedia
A silhouetted woman with afro hair reading a book by a window. Photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels

A British girl who was told her afro hair was too delicate to donate for wig-making prompted a new wig-making approach to use it, BBC News reports.

When eleven year old Carly Gorton wanted to donate her afro hair to the Little Princess Trust charity, which makes natural hair wigs for children who have lost theirs from cancer treatment and other causes, she was initially frustrated as the charity said the hair was too delicate. Undeterred, Carly had urged the charity to rethink, which it did.

Following research and a trial to make them possible, the charity described the new wigs as a “historic breakthrough”.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Carly, of one of the new wigs.

A BMJ study showed that wigs positively impact psychological wellbeing for people with alopecia, attributed to increasing their confidence of going out in public and the perception of fewer comments about hair loss.

At a special school assembly, Carly’s mother Anna Mudeka then cut her daughter’s hair and it was donated for use in the first new wigs to be worn by other children.

Phil Brace, The Little Princess Trust’s chief executive, said Carly’s “determination” to donate her hair had pushed them to find a solution.

The charity worked with the 120-year-old London company Raoul to develop a wefting method to weave and tie the donated locks.

Carly’s mother, Anna Mudeka, said: “History has been made and we are so proud of Carly.

“Through her sheer determination and everyone pulling together to hear her voice, children of black and mixed heritage can now donate their hair to the Little Princess Trust.”

Ms Mudeka, of Southburgh, added that children needing wigs through illness could now receive a wig “true to their heritage”.

Carly and her mother’s campaign had created a “fundamental change in wig manufacturing”, said Mr Brace. “The commitment and work that has gone on has shown just what is possible when groups of people get together and bring different skills to find a solution.”

Source: BBC News