Have a Nice Weekend

Marijuana fights diabetes, another study confirms

A study in the February issue of the journal Obesity found that regular cannabis users had a lower body mass index, lower fat percentages, and lower fasting insulin — adding to the growing body of research debunking the ‘fat, munchie-chomping stoner’ stereotype.
Canadian researchers looked at 786 adults in the an Inuit community where more than half the population used cannabis. They found that cannabis use was statistically associated with lower BMI, and other metrics of obesity.
The study mirrors findings of several others, including a French study in 2011, and a U.S. study in 2012 that concluded “marijuana use was independently associated with a lower prevalence of diabetes mellitus.”

citation

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic

Microbiomes of human throat may be linked to schizophrenia

In the most comprehensive study to date, researchers at the George Washington University have identified a potential link between microbes (viruses, bacteria and fungi) in the throat and schizophrenia. This link may offer a way to identify causes and develop treatments of the disease and lead to new diagnostic tests.
"The oropharynx of schizophrenics seems to harbor different proportions of oral bacteria than healthy individuals," said Eduardo Castro-Nallar, a Ph.D. candidate at GW's Computational Biology Institute (CBI) and lead author of the study. "Specifically, our analyses revealed an association between microbes such as lactic-acid bacteria and schizophrenics."

You don't say.

Well Howdy

Antibiotic use linked to type 2 diabetes diagnosis

A person develops diabetes, which is characterized by high blood sugar levels, when the individual cannot produce enough of the hormone insulin or insulin does not work properly to clear sugar from the bloodstream.
More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, according to the Society's Endocrine Facts and Figures report. Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the condition, accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases.
"In our research, we found people who have Type 2 diabetes used significantly more antibiotics up to 15 years prior to diagnosis compared to healthy controls," said one of the study's authors, Kristian Hallundbæk Mikkelsen, MD, of Gentofte Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark. "Although we cannot infer causality from this study, the findings raise the possibility that antibiotics could raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Another equally compelling explanation may be that people develop Type 2 diabetes over the course of years and face a greater risk of infection during that time."

Or maybe BOTH, huh?

Thanks Denmark.   We really needed this.

A couple for you

Serious childhood infection tied to metabolic disease later in life

 The researchers found that early-childhood Infection-related hospitalization  (IRH) correlated with adverse adult, but not childhood, metabolic variables: increased body mass index and metabolic syndrome.   The age at which differences in adult BMI became persistent was related to age of IRH in childhood. Cases with more than one childhood IRH had the greatest increase in adult BMI.

What's lurking in your lungs? Surprising findings emerge from microbiome research

In a paper last year in The Lancet, Dickson and Huffnagle reviewed what's known about exacerbations -- flare-ups of diseases such as asthma, CF, COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. In many cases, they conclude, these events can be linked to a disruption in the microbiome of the patient's lungs -- a state known as dysbiosis.
"The old explanation for a lot of these exacerbations was that the airways are acutely infected with bacteria," says Dickson. "But a large number of microbiome studies have shown that this just isn't so. Our old definition of 'infection' doesn't explain what's happening at all."
Instead, argue Dickson and Huffnagle, exacerbations happen when the bacterial communities in a patient's airways are disordered, which creates inflammation, which in turn further disorders the bacterial communities. This cycle of dysbiosis and inflammation is common across a number of chronic inflammatory lung diseases.

Yes, This.

Why the world’s remaining hunter-gatherer societies are some of its biggest pot smokers 

What’s clear is that the Aka people are managing to keep at bay an otherwise deadly infestation of intestinal worms entirely through diligent application of cannabis.

They are not doing it on purpose, however. The Aka, also known as Pygmies, enjoy weed because of what it does to their heads, not their intestines. A 1977 study of the group described its use as motivational: They “smoke to increase their courage on a hunt, dance better, increase their vital force, or to increase their work capacity when working for Europeans or village people,” researcher Barry Hewlett wrote at the time.
This next generation of Congo researchers, led by Washington State University researcher Ed Hagen, found the same. And then they deduced that the health benefits of enjoying a leaf-wrapped spliff in a Central African rainforest are evolutionary. The Aka may be unconsciously self-medicating.
This goes way beyond pot and Pygmies. Hagen thinks human use of all plant-based drugs followed the same path.
“We might have evolved a ‘taste’ for drugs for some utilitarian reason, such as defense against parasites,” Hagen said by email, “but then we elaborate this behavior in rituals, etc., exactly as we do for eating food and every other utilitarian behavior.

A thousand times YES.
Alcohol, nicotine, opiates, volatile aromatic chemicals, sugar, fat, fasting and exercise all affect the immune response...

Presents

From Lydia.  Nice finds.

Adolescent gamma-hydroxybutyric acid exposure decreases cortical NMDA receptor and impairs spatial learning

Together, these data indicate that GHB exposure in adolescent rats negatively impacts spatial learning and this is associated with altered regulation of cortical NMDA receptor.

γ-Hydroxybutyric Acid–Induced Cognitive Deficits in the Female Adolescent Rat

These data indicate that GHB exposure in adolescent female rats has a negative impact on spatial learning and memory.

Neurotoxic effects induced by gammahydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in male rats

Stereological quantification showed that this drug produces a drastic neuronal loss in the hippocampal region and in the prefrontal cortex, two areas clearly involved in cognitive and neurological functions. ... The results show for the first time that the repeated administration of GHB, especially at very low doses, produces neurotoxic effects. This is very relevant because its abuse, especially by young persons, could produce considerable neurological alterations after prolonged abuse.

Pop Quiz

Gestational diabetes: A diabetes predictor in fathers

Gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy, affects between three and 20 per cent of pregnant women. Those who develop gestational diabetes are 7 times as likely to eventually develop type 2 diabetes in the years following pregnancy. Now, in a large study analyzing 20 years of data from Quebec, a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) has demonstrated that gestational diabetes signals future diabetes risk not only in mothers, but also in fathers. The study was recently published in Diabetes Care.
"We observed that the incident of diabetes was 33% greater in men whose partner has gestational diabetes compared with men whose partners did not have gestational diabetes," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, endocrinologist at the MUHC and an associate professor of Medicine at McGill University. "This is the first study to demonstrate a link between gestational diabetes in mothers and diabetes incidence in fathers."

What is a likely, logical explanation?

Extra Credit Question-  Why do they not know this?
really, someone tell me...

Big fat clue in bold

Case report describes benefit of ketamine in child with PTSD

Ketamine may be beneficial for children with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and episodes of severe aggression and emotional dysregulation, according to a case report published online Aug. 10 in Pediatrics.

Anna C. Donoghue, M.D., from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues report on a case of a 7-year-old boy treated with ketamine for PTSD and episodes of severe aggression and emotional dysregulation. The episodes involved destruction of property and the symptoms were refractory to multiple medical and behavioral interventions.
The authors note that the child demonstrated sustained remission from symptoms (eight to 13 days) when exposed to ketamine on two occasions: when he underwent surgery for tonsillectomy and when he underwent sedated magnetic resonance imaging. On both occasions the patient demonstrated a reduction in the intensity and frequency of aggressive behaviors and exhibited an ability to control his emotions.
"There is a growing literature supporting ketamine for treatment-resistant depression in adults and, more recently, PTSD," the authors write. "This case report suggests the need for future study using ketamine as a treatment option for children with a history of trauma and severe behavioral dysregulation who have not responded to first-line medication and behavioral therapy approaches." 

Yes, well, psychotropic medications and behavioral therapy do not address sepsis in any way.   But Ketamine does.
This is infection.    Period.  No emotional trauma required.
A hundred dollars says that kid had multiple rounds of antibiotics before that surgery.
And if they let it go on... he will end up with narcolepsy.  Hell, it's probably too late already.

Puffy droopy cheeks on that boy too.

Preliminary Results: Ear Exercises

Fun fact:   Orexin helps keep the muscle tone in your Eustachian tubes.   That's why your hearing changes when you fall asleep.   They close up.
And yawning is apparently the thing to do if you want them to open back up.

I have been having problems with my ears since moving to Arizona and taking that round of Keflex.  I find the effects much more annoying than the regular old nasal or tooth headaches.   Lots of screeching in my head, weird anxiety attacks, no desire to leave the house when it flares up...

Anyhow, I took Flonase for a while- and it helped a lot, but made my skin more sun sensitive.  So I've been looking for more practical ways to alleviate the problem.

I have taken some information from these articles, done some experiments,  and had some success-

About 85% of People Only Breathe Out of One Nostril at a Time
There is something called the Nasal Cycle which alternates the sinuses that are open vs closed by alternating partial congestion and decongestion of the turbinate tissue.

Could body posture during sleep affect how your brain clears waste?
 By using dynamic contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image the brain's glymphatic pathway, a complex system that clears wastes and other harmful chemical solutes from the brain, Stony Brook University researchers Hedok Lee, PhD, Helene Benveniste, MD, PhD, and colleagues, discovered that a lateral sleeping position is the best position to most efficiently remove waste from the brain.

Blowing balloons 'treats glue ear'
Using the nose to inflate a balloon helps heal middle ear infection.

If I lie on one side, I can feel the turbinates switch so the upper sinus is decongested.
Then I plug the lower nostril and do forceful exhales through the top one.  After a few of these I can feel my ears pop and the tube opens and drains.   Rapid breathing through it seems to work too.   If I'm in the correct position, the parotid salivary gland will drain too, and wash my mouth with saliva.
The nasal cycle is kind of slow though, when you turn over, you have to wait for the other sinus to open...

For the record, this feels really good.   Makes my whole head tingle.

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Nancy Zucker
Severe 'Picky Eating' May Point to Mental Health Issues in Kids

The researchers discovered that kids who eat selectively are unusually sensitive, and that this sensitivity affects their eating and their emotional health.

"They have a stronger sensitivity to the world outside and to how their body feels," Zucker said. "That sets them up to have more vivid experiences -- more intense food experiences, more intense emotional experiences. None of that is pathological, but it could be a vulnerability for later problems."

You have this completely backwards.
This is not psychological. And yes it is pathological. This is the expected result of digestive dysfunction. Those kids have intestinal problems, and the intestines are wired to emotional parts of the brain. They get sick from certain kinds of foods, and that is experienced as revulsion.

Sick people are hypersensitive and irritable.
I would really like to know what is so frakkin hard to understand about that.

Article Roundup

Novel fatigue syndrome in feedlot cattle discovered
Feedlot cattle get constant dosing of antibiotics.  Uh huh.


Why Depression Needs A New Definition

Many psychiatrists believe that a new approach to diagnosing and treating depression—linking individual symptoms to their underlying mechanisms—is needed for research to move forward.

I'm workin on it...

High glycemic index diet as a risk factor for depression

The investigators found that progressively higher dietary GI scores and consumption of added sugars and refined grains were associated with increased risk of new-onset depression in post-menopausal women.

Believing you are overweight may lead to further weight gain
No, but going on a low fat diet because of those beliefs will, though.

Diabetes drug modulates cholesterol levels

More people are dying in custody. And more people are committing suicide in local jails.
First they came for the criminals, and I said nothing...

That's Not Love

Amusing Drawings Illustrate an Easily Relatable Deep Love of Sleep

RIP

Co-Founder of Mr. Coffee Company Dies in Ohio at Age 91

Vincent Marotta, one of the co-founders of the iconic Mr. Coffee brand that helped revolutionize how Americans make their morning brew, died Saturday at his home in suburban Cleveland. He was 91.  Marotta and his business partner and high school friend Samuel Glazer turned Mr. Coffee into a household name after asking two engineers to create a drip brewing system like those found in restaurants.

Rest in Peace dear man.  I owe you my sentient existence.