HEALTH & WELLNESS

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in nonmedical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl. Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded. In 2016, my colleagues and I found that patients who came to the emergency department reporting a heroin overdose often only had fentanyl present in their drug test results. As the Chief of Medical Toxicology at UMass Chan Medical School, I have studied fentanyl and its analogs for years. As fentanyl has becom...

What Exactly Is Toe Jam? From Harmless Gunk To A Feast For Bugs

6May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, TOP FOUR

What Exactly Is Toe Jam? From Harmless Gunk To A Feast For Bugs

Toe jam can be a source of fascination, disgust or barely noticed. It can be a sign you need to wash your feet or rethink your choice of footwear. It can also lead to major health issues. Toe jam, the gunk and debris between your toes, has even made it to a Beatles song. But it was unlikely John Lennon was thinking about foot hygiene when he wrote the lyrics to the second verse of Come Together: He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football He got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola He say, ‘I know you, you know me’ One thing I can tell you is you got to be free. Yes, The Beatles really mentioned toe jam in Come Together (YouTube). What is toe jam, actually? Toe jam isn’t a medical term. There is no formal medical term to describe the dead skin cells, sweat, sock lint and dirt that comb...

Men, Women, Kids And Adults In Developed Countries Are All Moving Less – A Boom In Fitness Trackers Isn’t Leading To A Boom In Physical Activity

4May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, TOP FOUR

Men, Women, Kids And Adults In Developed Countries Are All Moving Less – A Boom In Fitness Trackers Isn’t Leading To A Boom In Physical Activity

Worldwide sales of fitness trackers increased from US$14 billion in 2017 to over $36 billion in 2020. The skyrocketing success of these gadgets suggests that more people than ever see some value in keeping tabs on the number of steps they take, flights of stairs they climb, time they spend sitting and calories they burn. The manufacturers of these devices certainly want consumers to believe that tracking fitness or health-related behaviors will spur them on to increase their activity levels and make them healthier. Our analysis of research published over the past 25 years suggests otherwise. We are professors of kinesiology – the science of human body movement – at Boise State, the University of Tennessee and the University of North Florida. To learn whether and how physical activity ha...

Men’s Mental Health Supported By Building Healthy Relationship Skills

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Men’s Mental Health Supported By Building Healthy Relationship Skills

Healthy relationships positively influence men’s well-being. Men who are partnered or married live longer lives than single men, and they have better mental health than women and unpartnered men. Marriage appears to offer a protective influence on men’s health, reducing loneliness, depression and suicidality, and is associated with less substance and alcohol use. Despite these benefits, male suicide continues to be a global crisis. As men’s health researchers, our focus has been on men’s suicidality. Much of this work is motivated by the fact that men complete suicide at three to four times the rate of women, and are known to use more lethal methods (guns, asphyxiation) to end their life. While major depression is a contributing factor to suicidality, a recent review concluded that being...

Red Wine Better On The Waistline Then Beer And Spirits

22Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Red Wine Better On The Waistline Then Beer And Spirits

Beer and spirits have more detrimental effects on the waistline and on cardiovascular disease risk than red or white wine. Drinking beer and spirits is linked to elevated levels of visceral fat – the harmful type of fat that is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and other health complications – whereas drinking wine shows no such association with levels of this harmful fat and may even be protective against it, depending on the type of wine consumed. In fact, we found that drinking red wine is linked to having lower levels of visceral fat. These are some of the key takeaways of a new study that my colleagues and I recently published in the Obesity Science & Practice journal. Although white wine consumption did not influence levels of viscer...

Essential Reads On The Uses, Effects And Potential Of Cannabis

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Essential Reads On The Uses, Effects And Potential Of Cannabis

As states have legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational use, and federal law now allows sale of hemp-derived products, cannabis and its derivatives are getting more attention and study. The Conversation has compiled excerpts of articles from scholars who have been watching recent marijuana developments. 1. Studies may support CBD claims Soaring sales of products containing the marijuana extract CBD followed Congress legalizing CBD in 2018. CBD sellers and users swear by its ability to relieve pain and anxiety. Although science isn’t yet sure about that, there are reasons for encouragement, writes Hillary Marusak, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Wayne State University. “Neuroimaging studies in humans show that CBD can reduce activity in the amygdala and anterior ci...

The Early Intervention For Psychosis: Not Just Popping Pills

15Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

The Early Intervention For Psychosis: Not Just Popping Pills

A controversy is brewing on the website Psychology Today and subsequently in The Australian newspaper. At the heart of the issue is US psychiatrist Dr Allen Frances’ comments on the Australian Federal Government’s planned mental health reforms in early psychosis. Dr Frances has linked these reforms with another issue that is being hotly debated in the psychiatric literature: whether to create a new diagnosis of “risk syndrome for psychosis” or “attenuated psychosis syndrome” in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These two issues have become confused by Dr Frances and many other commentators. Hopefully this piece will allay some of this confusion. First, the proposed “risk syndrome” diagnosis. This diagnosis is based on work conducted in...

An Epidemiologist Scoured The Latest Research And Has Some Answers To The Question – Do You Need A Second Booster Shot?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, IN OTHER NEWS

An Epidemiologist Scoured The Latest Research And Has Some Answers To The Question – Do You Need A Second Booster Shot?

In late March 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster shot of COVID-19 vaccines for vulnerable populations in the U.S., a move that was soon after endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People ages 50 years and older and certain immunocompromised individuals who are at higher risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death are eligible four months after receiving the initial booster shot. A second booster shot is equivalent to a fourth dose for people who received a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA series or a third dose for those who received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In Israel, people in these same vulnerable categories began receiving fourth doses in January 2022. The U.K. recently started administering a four...

One In Four People Regrets Having Tattoos – Can You Make It Go Away?

12Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, TOP FOUR

One In Four People Regrets Having Tattoos – Can You Make It Go Away?

Almost half of people between 18 and 35 have tattoos, and almost one in four regrets it, according to a 2016 Harris Poll. Based on an estimate of about 60 million people in that age group, that would mean that about 7.5 million people have tattoo regret. As a primary care physician, I’ve noticed anecdotally that many of my younger patients have regrets about their tattoos. When I ask about them, many say that they got them when they were young, and at the time put little or no research into the decision. With no source (reliable or otherwise) of tattoo information to suggest to my patients, I began to investigate the topic myself. My goal was to write a quick reference for teens that reviewed the health and social issues they might encounter after getting a tattoo. What I found was myri...

If Congress Makes Daylight Saving Time Permanent – 5 Ways Americans’ Lives Will Change

6Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

If Congress Makes Daylight Saving Time Permanent – 5 Ways Americans’ Lives Will Change

The U.S. Senate approved the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022, with the goal of making daylight saving time permanent starting in November 2023. If that happens, the U.S. will never again “spring forward” or “fall back.” Following the Senate’s vote and a recent hearing in the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce – at which I testified – the subcommittee is now considering the issue. The full House of Representatives will need to vote in support of permanent DST before the bill goes to President Biden’s desk for his signature. In my research on DST, I have found that Americans don’t like Congress messing with their clocks. However, the move to DST year-round makes a lot of sense. In an effort to avoid the biannual time change in spring and fall, some DST critics ha...