Because it does

92% of patients say medical marijuana works

A 2013 survey in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly 8-in-10 doctors approved the use of medical marijuana. Now, a wide-ranging survey in California finds that medical marijuana patients agree: 92 percent said that medical marijuana alleviated symptoms of their serious medical conditions, including chronic pain, arthritis, migraine, and cancer.

Maybe Next Year

Happy World Mental Health Day.

40,000 suicides annually, yet America simply shrugs

There's a suicide in the USA every 13 minutes.

And there's been one death from Ebola.

As I was Saying

Well Looky There-

The successful treatment of hypercapnic respiratory failure with oral modafinil.

Hypercapnic respiratory failure is common in advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is usually treated by nasal ventilation. Not all patients requiring such ventilation can tolerate it, with anxiety and phobia influencing their reaction, along with treatment failure. We report the case histories of six patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure who were at risk of death due to refusal of nasal ventilation or its failure despite ongoing treatment. We report their improvement with oral modafinil 200 mg tablets used as a respiratory stimulant, which led to discharge, improved arterial blood gases, and offset further admissions with hypercapnic respiratory failure. This drug is licensed for narcolepsy and is said to stimulate the respiratory system via the central nervous system. Its use in respiratory failure is an unlicensed indication, and there are no case reports or studies of such use in the literature. Its respiratory stimulant effects appear better than those with protriptyline, which was a drug previously used until its production was discontinued. Our findings suggest that a study of modafinil in hypercapnic respiratory failure would be warranted, especially for patients with treatment failure or intolerance to nasal ventilation. This may offer a way of shortening hospital stay, improving outcome and quality of life, and reducing death and readmissions.

Modafinil improves lung function.  Go figure.

Microbial Whak-a-Mole

Influenza A potentiates pneumococcal co-infection: New details emerge

Influenza infection can enhance the ability of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae to cause ear and throat infections, according to research published ahead of print in the journal Infection and Immunity.
In the study, the investigators infected mice with either influenza alone, pneumococci alone, or both at once, and then monitored the populations of bacteria and virus over time. They also monitored the mice for development of middle ear infection.
Influenza infection enhanced the bacterium's ability to colonize the nasopharynx, and to infect the normally sterile middle ear.

"As with most pneumococcal infections, it should be appreciated that localized nonlethal infections are much more common than the rapidly lethal presentations," says Swords.

Heh.  Yes it should.
Workin on it...

Zombie Snake Oil

It looks like the OrexinDiet charlatans are making the rounds again.

I posted about this a couple years ago.   It's completely fraudulent.   Dr. Dev probably doesn't even know they are using his image.

First of all, orexin is not bioavailable via ingestion.  That's why they inject it into brains or abdominal spaces or spray it up the nose.

Secondly, this is a homeopathic product.   They take a drop or two of orexin (maybe), put it in water then dilute it to like a billionth percent.    There is no detectable orexin left.  It is water.  

Brain Damage on a Plate

Nathan Shields' Zombie Pancakes

Yeah they Do

Robert Reich: We let Big Pharma rip us off

Now That's Somethin'

Excellent Review Article.

Orexin A Controls Glucose Metabolism

It regulates insulin.
And liver functions.
And Brown Fat.
And energy to your muscles.

This is interesting-  orexin functions differently if you're bingeing or fasting...
If you're starving, it releases glucose from your liver to your muscles.
If you're not, it stimulates insulin to store the glucose as fat.

It's all there.  So Pretty.

I got nothin

Here.  Says it all.

Further Adventures

Charlie Sheen under investigation for dentist bust-up

Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating claims the “Anger Management” star scuffled with his personal dentist and an oral surgeon while he was in the chair receiving treatment for an abscess.

Dammit Charlie.  You were so close...

Zombie Shopping

Texas groom gives new wife his brain in a jar as a wedding gift

Silliness

South Park goes gluten free.     (yes it's raunchy)

I usually don't watch this show anymore, but it was funny.
Gotta love the dream sequence.

Simple Answers

Facebook may be eyeing your health data. Should you trust it?

Absolutely NOT.

Sensory Integration

Study shows human ear impacted by low frequency noises

Testing was done by using a sensitive microphone that picks up sounds (known as spontaneous otoacoustic emissions or SOAEs) that actually emanate from the ear—a normal byproduct of inner ear mechanics. Normally SOAEs are quite stable over a short period of time. With the volunteers, however, the researchers found the SOAEs began to oscillate after the low frequency exposure, between stronger and weaker emissions until eventually subsiding after about 3 minutes. These findings are troubling because prior research has shown that changes to SOAEs can be tied to hearing damage and they disappear completely when hearing is lost altogether.

I am becoming more and more interested in the cognitive effects of disordered hearing.  Hearing loss is associated with paranoia. 
I have incredible sensitivity to low frequencies, especially fans and motors.   The air conditioning here has been making me nervous all summer,  I'm so glad we can turn it off now.  Those boom box cars make me nauseous.   And there was a natural gas powered bus in Seattle that would paralyze me when it went by.   Scared the living shit out of me one day when I was driving ...

Shocking Results

Energy drinks cause insomnia and nervousness in athletes

Free, long-acting birth control cuts teen pregnancy, abortions

Vitamin D significantly improves symptoms of winter-related atopic dermatitis in children

No medical benefits indeed

Marijuana use associated with lower death rates in patients with traumatic brain injuries

The findings, published in the October edition of The American Surgeon, suggest THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, may help protect the brain in cases of traumatic brain injury, the researchers said. The study included 446 patients who suffered traumatic brain injuries and underwent a urine test for the presence of THC in their system. The researchers found 82 of the patients had THC in their system. Of those, only 2.4% died. Of the remaining patients who didn't have THC in their system, 11.5% died.

Hmmm... since pneumonia is the most common complication of hospitalization, I'll go with some kind of improved lung immunity.

Nonetheless, no toking and driving.  Have a nice weekend.

Correlation Games

Jealous, Moody Women and Alzheimer's Risk

Chronic stress, neuroticism in midlife linked to doubled odds of dementia, researchers suggest.

Sick ladies get stressed and cranky.
Sick ladies are hyperinsulinemic.

Pop Quiz

A weakening sense of smell could mean death is near

What oh what could it possibly be...

Self Medication

Making old lungs look young again: Animal research suggests ibuprofen can reduce lung inflammation in elderly

New research shows that the lungs become more inflammatory with age and that ibuprofen can lower that inflammation.
In fact, immune cells from old mouse lungs fought tuberculosis bacteria as effectively as cells from young mice after lung inflammation was reduced by ibuprofen. The ibuprofen had no effect on the immune response to TB in young mice.
This was a rare look at inflammation in the aging lung environment by Ohio State University scientists who study the immune response to TB. The researchers already knew that old mice had a harder time clearing TB from the lungs than young mice, but had not investigated the role of lung inflammation.

It's so fascinating to me that we gravitate to drugs that actually are effective...  

Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha

Study finds Portal 2 better at improving cognitive skills than Lumosity

Their Vision of Your Future

Poke even more holes in your intestine...

Pill coated with tiny needles can deliver drugs directly into the lining of the digestive tract

Yo Psychs

Behold the actual results of your advice-

Depression increasing across the United States

A study by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean M. Twenge shows Americans are more depressed now than they have been in decades.
Analyzing data from 6.9 million adolescents and adults from all over the country, Twenge found that Americans now report more psychosomatic symptoms of depression, such as trouble sleeping and trouble concentrating, than their counterparts in the 1980s.
"Previous studies found that more people have been treated for depression in recent years, but that could be due to more awareness and less stigma," said Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable than Ever Before." "This study shows an increase in symptoms most people don't even know are connected to depression, which suggests adolescents and adults really are suffering more."

You aren't addressing the cause.   It's as simple as that.

This is pretty hilarious though...   Puts her in brain-eating territory-

Twenge believes Generation Me would benefit from a heavy dose of realism.

Yes, that's predictable.  Blame everyone else.

I suggest she investigate some reality based mechanisms herself.   Like all those high doses of antibiotics and sugar.

Oh Really

Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's reversed

As one example, in the case of the patient with the demanding job who was forgetting her way home, her therapeutic program consisted of some, but not all of the components involved with Bredesen's therapeutic program, and included:

(1) eliminating all simple carbohydrates, leading to a weight loss of 20 pounds;
(2) eliminating gluten and processed food from her diet, with increased vegetables, fruits, and non-farmed fish;
(3) to reduce stress, she began yoga;
(4) as a second measure to reduce the stress of her job, she began to meditate for 20 minutes twice per day;
(5) she took melatonin each night;
(6) she increased her sleep from 4-5 hours per night to 7-8 hours per night;
(7) she took methylcobalamin each day;
(8) she took vitamin D3 each day;
(9) fish oil each day;
(10) CoQ10 each day;
(11) she optimized her oral hygiene using an electric flosser and electric toothbrush;
(12) following discussion with her primary care provider, she reinstated hormone replacement therapy that had been discontinued;
(13) she fasted for a minimum of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and for a minimum of three hours between dinner and bedtime;
(14) she exercised for a minimum of 30 minutes, 4-6 days per week.

Uh Huh.
Been there done that.

Update:  Here's the full text.   I don't see anything about HSV1 or acyclovir.  

Interesting

Medical Mysteries: What was causing a woman’s chronic digestive distress?

Small intestine bacterial overgrowth can apparently be detected by breath tests.

Maybe that's what those narcolepsy diagnosing dogs are smelling...

The Guinea Pig Generation

Obesity risk rises if antibiotics given before age two

More than two thirds of the kids studied were exposed to antibiotics before age two. The increase in obesity risk ranged from two to 20 percent and was seen particularly in children who had been treated with antibiotics four or more times by age two.
Those given broad-spectrum antibiotics, which target a range of bacteria, were also at higher risk of weight problems in childhood.