THE QUESTION Marijuana has been investigated as a medicinal aid for people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions. Might smoking marijuana help relieve the muscle spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis? THIS STUDY involved 30 adults (average age, 51) with MS who had spasticity (tight, difficult-to-control muscles) that had not responded well to treatment. To get... (read more)
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in one of the deepest, most isolated caves in the world could mean good news in the battle against superbugs. Researchers from McMaster and the University of Akron have discovered a remarkable prevalence of such bacteria in New Mexico's Lechuguilla Cave, a place isolated from human contact until very recently. The discovery that bacteria have developed defenses ... (read more)
Three new studies published on Wednesday added to growing scientific evidence suggesting that taking a daily dose of aspirin can help prevent, and possibly treat, cancer. Previous studies have found that daily aspirin reduces the long-term risk of death due to cancer, but until now the shorter-term effects have been less certain - as has the medicine's potential in patients already diagnosed with cance... (read more)
An increasing number of teens and young adults are turning to synthetic marijuana compounds with nicknames such as "K2," "Spice" and "Mr. Smiley" in search of a legal high. But as several new case reports point out, more and more teens and young adults who use these substances are turning up in hospitals with signs of intoxication. In the latest edition of the journal Pediatri... (read more)
Children aged 3 to 5 years whose mothers used methamphetamine during pregnancy have a higher risk of suffering from behavioral problems, researchers from Brown University in Providence reported in the journal Pediatrics. The authors wrote that the risk of developing depression or suffering from heightened anxiety was found to be greater among kids whose mothers used methamphetami... (read more)
After a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in 2010, Steve Colburn of Portland, Ore., began taking a cholesterol-lowering statin at the maximum dose. Soon, he began experiencing memory problems. “Thinking and remembering became so laborious that I could not even recall my three-digit telephone extension or computer password at work,” said Mr. Colburn, 62, a sales representative and product developer.... (read more)
Scientists from Norway have pooled and re-analyzed data from old trials that tested lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the treatment of alcoholism and concluded that a single dose of the psychedelic drug was effective in decreasing alcohol misuse. They report their findings in the early online 8 March issue of the Journal of Psychopharmacology. From the 1950s to the 1970s, many research centres... (read more)
Prescription drugs to treat some of the most common chronic diseases, such as high cholesterol and diabetes, may become available over the counter under a plan being considered by U.S. regulators. In what would be a major shift in policy if finalized, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking public comment until Friday on a way to make these medications more readily available. It will also have a meet... (read more)
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to receive opioids for pain if they have mental health disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers said. Those with PTSD were nearly three times as likely to receive opioids for their pain as those without any mental health conditions (RR 2.58, 95% CI 2.49 to 2.67), Karen Seal, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center at the... (read more)
A major downside of the medical use of marijuana is the drug's ill effects on working memory, the ability to transiently hold and process information for reasoning, comprehension and learning. Researchers reporting in the March 2 print issue of the Cell Press journal Cell provide new insight into the source of those memory lapses. The answer comes as quite a surprise: Marijuana's major psychoactive ingredient (THC) impairs memor... (read more)
Daily doses of a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease significantly improved function in severely brain-injured people thought to be beyond the reach of treatment, scientists reported on Wednesday, providing the first rigorous evidence to date that any therapy reliably helps such patients. The improvements were modest, experts said, and hardly amounted to a cure, or a quick means of “waking up... (read more)
Health regulators are adding warnings to the labels of widely used cholesterol lowering drugs, such as Lipitor, to say they may raise levels of blood sugar and could cause memory loss. The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday the changes to the safety information on the labels of statins such as Pfizer Inc's Lipitor, AstraZeneca's Crestor and Merck & Co's Zocor that are taken by tens of m... (read more)
A provocative new study finds that people who take prescription sleeping pills -- even once in a while -- have a higher death risk than non-users. The top third of sleeping-pill users had a 5.3-fold higher death risk. They also had a 35% higher risk of cancer, the study found. "We are not certain. But it looks like sleeping pills could be as risky as smoking cigarettes. It looks much more dangerous to ... (read more)
The RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine is examining how drugs can be matched to a patient's genetic information through the study of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Taisei Mushiroda from the Laboratory for Pharmacogenetics explains... Drugs are not equally effective on all patients. A treatment that is dramatically effective on some patients can be ineffective on ot... (read more)
A new treatment for advanced skin cancer almost doubles survival times, according to an international study. Doctors say 132 patients in the US and Australia who were given the drug vemurafenib gained several extra months of life. Research in the New England Journal of Medicine found those in the study lived an average of 16 months, compared with nine months on conventional treatment. Vemurafenib (Zelboraf) ha... (read more)
Antibiotics won't chase away patients' sniffles any faster than watchful waiting, researchers found. In a randomized trial, patients with acute rhinosinusitis had no differences in symptoms or quality of life three days after starting on amoxicillin compared with patients who received a placebo instead, Jay Piccirillo, MD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Medic... (read more)
With Valentine's day upon us, I figured it would be cliche and expected to write about something related to the heart... and that's exactly what I'm about to do. So, put down your chocolates for a minute and get your learning cap on! Let's start with some basic setup. The heart is pretty important. There are a lot of vessels called arteries that come off of the heart. These arteries supply the body wit... (read more)
So Valentine’s Day is here, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the love of my life. Sleep. I love you, Sleep! Most people think of doctors and medical students as intense, “type A” personalities who hate to sleep. That is BULL-HONKY. We love to sleep. Any surgeon will tell you that nothing makes you appreciate sleep more than spending 24 consecutive hours elbow-deep in a patient’s abdomen removing bul... (read more)
For more than a decade, Renu Kohli, 53, of Denver teetered on the edge of high cholesterol. Kohli worried about her risk for a heart attack, since she had a family history of heart disease. "I felt uncomfortable because I live by myself and I always wondered what I would do if anything happened to me," she said. Her daughter, a cardiologist, suggested taking a statin, a class of drugs us... (read more)
A prescription drug that is also used as a powerful horse tranquiliser could offer an almost instant remedy for people suffering from depression, say scientists. Doctors at Ben Taub General hospital in Houston, Texas, are testing the effect of ketamine on patients with a severe form of the condition. The Class C drug, which is illegal to possess or sell, can cause a loss of fee... (read more)
Caffeine changes women's estrogen levels and has different effects in Asian and white women, a new study says. More than 250 women, ages 18 to 44, took part in the study between 2005 and 2007. On average, they consumed 90 milligrams of caffeine a day, about the equivalent of one cup of caffeinated coffee. Estrogen is the reproductive hormone produced by the ovaries. Asian women who consumed an a... (read more)
People who enjoy drinking black tea throughout the day may get the added benefit of a slight reduction in their blood pressure, suggests a new Australian study. Although the study cannot identify specific components of the tea that might lead to a drop in blood pressure, the researchers said past studies have shown flavonoids, compounds found in many plants such as tea, are good for heart health. "The mes... (read more)
More than half a century ago, author Aldous Huxley titled his book on his experience with hallucinogens The Doors of Perception, borrowing a phrase from a 1790 William Blake poem (which, yes, also lent Jim Morrison’s band its moniker). Blake wrote: If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all ... (read more)
Tiiu Leek's pain began suddenly nearly a decade ago, upending her successful career as a television newscaster for KCLA in Los Angeles. "I got this intense burning pain in the right groin and it did not go away," said the now 61-year-old. "It was as if someone had taken a hot iron and simply put it in my body on a nerve." "It was a two-and-a-half year nightmare," she said. &... (read more)
A British company is conducting landmark trials which could see medicines derived from or inspired by the cannabis plant itself making their way to American pharmacy shelves. GW Pharma is in advanced clinical trials for the world's first pharmaceutical developed from raw marijuana instead of synthetic equivalents - a mouth spray it hopes to market in the US as a treatment ... (read more)
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