A beautiful Spring day (so far) and what better time than to sit and write about all the news that was missed during the past week.
Locally–Weather has been good lately….highs around 80…. lows around 70-75 the problem is the humidity has been over 90% for the last week and predicted to continue…..looks like Summer cannot wait to torture us down here.
Personal–It has been an exhausting week….working on Sue’s estate and spent a good portion of everyday on the phone with insurance, auto, and other such things…..plus with each phone call I seem to get more and more emotional and had to take breaks.
Shall we take a look at what was missed?
As someone who is dealing with cancer I am always interested when I see some research that could be promising….
Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for some time, providing relief from pain, insomnia, anxiety, and nausea. Now, scientists say that pot shows promise in fighting the big “C” itself. The Guardian reports on the largest-ever study on using medical marijuana to treat cancer, with “overwhelming scientific support” for pot’s potential to alleviate symptoms, as well as to mitigate the progression of the disease itself. “Our goal was to determine the scientific consensus on the topic of medical cannabis, a field that has long been dominated by a war between cherry-picked studies,” says Ryan Castle, research director at the Whole Health Oncology Institute and lead author of the new study published Monday in the Frontiers in Oncology journal.
The huge meta-study reviewed more than 10,000 peer-reviewed studies on the matter using AI-driven “sentiment analysis,” which looked to see whether each study had a negative, positive, or neutral conclusion on how cannabis could be used to treat cancer and its symptoms. Castle and his team figured they’d find “a moderate consensus” on using cannabis to treat cancer, expecting a “best-case scenario” of about 55% of the studies suggesting a positive correlation. Instead, that figure was more like 75%, Castle notes, calling that level “shocking.” “That 3:1 ratio—especially in a field as rigorous as biomedical research—isn’t just unusual, it’s extraordinary,” notes a release.
Researchers found there was especially support for cannabis use in treating some of the symptoms of various cancers, including nausea, appetite loss, and inflammation. The Guardian notes that, “perhaps more surprisingly, it also showed that cannabis has the potential to fight cancer cells themselves, by killing them and stopping their spread.” “This is one of the clearest, most dramatic validations of medical cannabis in cancer care that the scientific community has ever seen,” Castle notes in the release. He and his crew hope that this study will also help to spur the DEA to reclassify cannabis so it’s no longer an illegal Schedule 1 narcotic—a fact that has stymied clinical research on cannabis used for cancer patients.
I will start with some medical news…there has been a wealth of news lately about microplastics….and now there is more….
A high-end medical practice is offering clients the purported service of scrubbing their blood of microplastics.
In an interview with Wired, Clarify Clinics CEO Yael Cohen said that her London facility’s bespoke blood-filtering service — which is otherwise known as apheresis and generally used for plasma donation or other so-called therapeutic plasma exchange procedures — is so comfortable that some patients doze off during it.
“Once it’s running, you feel nothing. It’s very comfortable,” Cohen told the magazine of its Clari procedure, which costs more than $12,000 per session. “Patients take calls, do Zooms, watch movies, sleep. The ones who sleep are my favorite.”
…
While there don’t appear to be any studies about the effectiveness of the Clari procedure, there’s a pretty strong body of evidence suggesting that therapeutic plasma exchange in general is a safe and effective treatment for some autoimmune and neurological disorders.
https://futurism.com/neoscope/microplastic-blood-cleansing-clinic
News about what happens to your brain if you are a heavy drinker….
Boozers beware: a new study has found links between heavy alcohol consumption, brain damage, and earlier death.
As the American Academy of Neurology notes, Brazilian researchers established in a new study that heavy drinkers — defined as those who have “eight or more alcoholic drinks per week,” so not a particularly gigantic quantity — have a greater risk of developing brain lesions that can cause issues with memory and cognitition.
Known as hyaline arteriolosclerosis, the lesions caused by this condition occur when small blood vessels in the brain narrow and become stiff and tight.
“This makes it harder for blood to flow,” the press release notes, “which can damage the brain over time.”
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Neurology, pathologists from the University of São Paulo looked at records, both pre- and postmortem, for nearly 1,800 subjects that were published in the United Kingdom’s first-class Biobank health database. Cross-referencing brain autopsies with living health record details, the researchers grouped the subjects into four groups: those who never drank, moderate drinkers who had “seven or fewer drinks per week,” people who used to drink heavily, and those who drank heavily until the time of their death.
https://futurism.com/neoscope/heavy-drinking-brain-research
Scientists have a new anti-viral chewing gum….
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine have created a chewing gum that can neutralize viruses responsible for causing influenza and herpes in humans.
This antiviral gum is made using lablab beans (hyacinth beans), which contain a unique protein capable of reducing virus count by 95 percent. The gum stops the viruses in the mouth only, preventing them from entering and infecting other body parts.
This is an important breakthrough because viruses, including influenza andherpes simplex that collectively affect over a billion people globally each year, are transmitted through the mouth. Moreover, traditional vaccines may not fully prevent their transmission, especially for viruses like HSV (herpes simplex virus), for which there is no vaccine at all.
Autism has been in the news lately and now some research has provided some (hopefully) answers….
Scientific research continues to uncover interesting connections between the gut microbiome and human health, including everything from depression to PTSD to autoimmune disease. Another example of this are emerging ties between gut health and autism. Exciting new research, now moving to Phase 3 human trials, has found boosting microbial diversity via fecal transplants can dramatically reduce autism symptoms in the long term.
One in every 59 children born in the US is diagnosed with autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and unfortunately for many of them, chronic gastrointestinal issues are a harsh reality of their condition. According to scientists at Arizona State University (ASU), who conducted the current study, around 30 to 50% of people with autism experience serious gut problems like constipation, diarrhea and stomach pain.
“Many kids with autism have gastrointestinal problems, and some studies, including ours, have found that those children also have worse autism-related symptoms,” ASU’s Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown said back in 2019 during the early stages of the work. “In many cases, when you are able to treat those gastrointestinal problems, their behavior improves.”
https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/fecal-transplants-for-autism-delivers-success-in-clinical-trials/
Moving on from medical stuff….how about some nutrition news?
Among nutritionists, the type of protein we should eat is always a cause for debate. A new global analysis has brought the conversation into sharper focus.
In a study spanning six decades and over 100 countries, researchers at the University of Sydney found that plant-based proteins are linked to longer adult life expectancy, while animal proteins appear to benefit survival in early childhood. The findings strengthen the case but also add a layer of nuance to the global push toward sustainable, plant-forward diets.
The study mined national food supply data and demographic records from 101 countries between 1961 and 2018. It considered not only how much protein people had access to, but also where it came from—plants or animals.
Using a sophisticated statistical approach called the geometric framework for nutrition, the researchers matched national protein supplies to age-specific survival data, adjusting for economic disparities and population sizes.
They found that a high supply of animal-based proteins—such as meat, eggs, and dairy—correlated with better survival rates among children under five. These nutrients are dense in essential amino acids, iron, and vitamins like A and B12, which are critical during early development. In settings with adequate calories, adding animal protein seemed to give young children a survival edge.
One final thought…..have you ever asked yourself why are urinals shaped like that? (Come on I know you have)
Urinals aren’t a new concept. In fact, some of the earliest known examples can be traced back to around 1000 CE, when Sri Lankan monasteries began installing elaborately carved stone receptacles. European versions began taking hold in the 19th century thanks in large part to the work of Parisian civil servant Claude-Philibert Barthelot. By 1917, the public restroom staple was culturally ubiquitous enough to inspire Marcel Duchamp’s “La Fontaine.” Since then, basic urinal design has remained similar, if not nearly identical, to Duchamp’s famous dadaist art piece. And as any urinal user knows, there are still drawbacks—or, rather, splashbacks.
While most people only occasionally experience the unpleasant splash, pee droplets add up. A 2019 study estimated that in the US alone, the country’s roughly 56 million urinals splatter public bathroom floors with as much as 1 million liters of urine every single day. Urine is mostly sterile, but the liquid quickly becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. Meanwhile, its ammonia-laden odor frequently seeps into the ambient air. The results are urinals and floors with significantly higher bacteria concentrations compared to toilets requiring additional cleanup efforts. More cleanup means more labor, which in turn costs public institutions more money, time, and resources.
https://www.popsci.com/science/new-urinal-design/
Our little grand-daughter has quite severe Autism, and also has problems with constipation, so that interested me.
I used to drink at least 12 glasses of wine a week, so looks like my fate is sealed. Microplastic blood-scrubbing sounds like an expensive scam to me, I need more evidence that it works.
Most of the people I knew who smoked a lot of cannabis back in the day are already dead, and quite a few of them from cancer. Maybe they should have used the oil instead of smoking the leaves.
Sorry to hear about the upset of settling Sue’s estate. I had to do that for my mum in 2012, so I completely understand.
Best wishes, Pete.
I agree about the scrubbing….autism is so misunderstood that needs to change…..Sue’s estate has been complicated and it is not over yet….chuq
My drinking has always been comparatively minimal, so I guess my chances of being around for awhile longer are fairly decent. 🙂 I only tried marijuana a couple of times — did NOT like the effects. (I’m sure I’m in the minority.)
Your comments about the residual effects of Sue’s death are good reminders of what some of us may also have to face someday. I don’t think any of us truly realize what all is involved.
As distasteful as it is pre-planning is a must….saves a lot of wear and tear on your survivors. chuq
I have just enough native american blood to make alcohol intake sketchy; even a few swallows of near beer like o’doul’s has me staring into space for a half hour. My husband (also some NA in him) is fine with beer but give him any kind of hard liquor and he’s a maniac. And like you, Nan, I was in a room with people who were smoking weed, just once, and was sick for two hours afterwards.