Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/luh_-YXmVT8

Cannabis does relieve pain, the most effective pain relief comes from whole cannabis flower, and the products most likely to help with pain are those with the highest THC rather than CBD content.  These are the conclusions from a University of New Mexico study that analyzed data contributed by nearly 3000 users of the ReleafApp.  

This Releaf app contains the largest available database of outcomes from patient self-directed cannabis administration.  It captures information about the product used, the beneficial effects, and any side effects and complications.

The researchers looked at more than 20,000 cannabis administrations.  The average pain reduction recorded was 3 on a 10 point scale, and cannabis containing THC worked well for musculoskeletal, headache, nerve, and gastrointestinal pain.  The bad news is that the psychoactive THC products did drive more temporary cognitive and functional impairment along with a longer-term addiction risk.

If you do suffer from pain, I’d recommend downloading and using the ReLeafApp.  You’ll be able to record and store your own observations, contribute to the crowd-sourced knowledge about cannabis usage,  and receive summary non-identifying information about others’ experiences.

Xiaoxue Li, Jacob M. Vigil, Sarah S. Stith, Franco Brockelman, Keenan Keeling, Branden Hall. The effectiveness of self-directed medical cannabis treatment for pain. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019; 46: 123 DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.07.022

#Cannabis #pain #THC #Releafapp 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/luh_-YXmVT8

Cannabis does relieve pain, the most effective pain relief comes from whole cannabis flower, and the products most likely to help with pain are those with the highest THC rather than CBD content.  These are the conclusions from a University of New Mexico study that analyzed data contributed by nearly 3000 users of the ReleafApp.  

This Releaf app contains the largest available database of outcomes from patient self-directed cannabis administration.  It captures information about the product used, the beneficial effects, and any side effects and complications.

The researchers looked at more than 20,000 cannabis administrations.  The average pain reduction recorded was 3 on a 10 point scale, and cannabis containing THC worked well for musculoskeletal, headache, nerve, and gastrointestinal pain.  The bad news is that the psychoactive THC products did drive more temporary cognitive and functional impairment along with a longer-term addiction risk.

If you do suffer from pain, I’d recommend downloading and using the ReLeafApp.  You’ll be able to record and store your own observations, contribute to the crowd-sourced knowledge about cannabis usage,  and receive summary non-identifying information about others’ experiences.

Xiaoxue Li, Jacob M. Vigil, Sarah S. Stith, Franco Brockelman, Keenan Keeling, Branden Hall. The effectiveness of self-directed medical cannabis treatment for pain. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019; 46: 123 DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.07.022

#Cannabis #pain #THC #Releafapp 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/z6pAYo_JlkU

Babies at risk for abnormal brain development showed improved tissue microstructure and better functional connectivity when their pregnant mothers consumed pomegranate juice on a daily basis.  These startling results of a preliminary study are being rushed into publication by neonatologists at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The team there conducted a randomized, controlled, double-blind study of 78 pregnant women whose developing babies were diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction at 24-34 weeks.  These growth issues are associated with placental malfunction.  

Half the group received a 8 ounces of pomegranate juice daily while the controls were served a placebo with an identical taste and color.  Pomegranate juice’s anti-oxidant polyphenols are known to cross both the placenta and the blood-brain barrier.

When the neonate brains were analyzed with MRIs at 36-41 weeks, those babies whose mothers received the pomegranate juice were spared some negative neurologic effects of their placental insufficiency.  Though their brains were no larger than controls, they showed improved structure and function. 

The Brigham team is currently mounting a larger study to confirm and extend these results.  Meanwhile, pregnant women with known intrauterine growth problems will almost certainly benefit from daily pomegranate juice.

Lillian G. Matthews, Christopher D. Smyser, Sara Cherkerzian, etal. Maternal pomegranate juice intake and brain structure and function in infants with intrauterine growth restriction: A randomized controlled pilot study. PLOS ONE, 2019; 14 (8): e0219596 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219596

#IUGR #pomegranate #intrauterinegrowthrestriction #placentalinsufficiency

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/z6pAYo_JlkU

Babies at risk for abnormal brain development showed improved tissue microstructure and better functional connectivity when their pregnant mothers consumed pomegranate juice on a daily basis.  These startling results of a preliminary study are being rushed into publication by neonatologists at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The team there conducted a randomized, controlled, double-blind study of 78 pregnant women whose developing babies were diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction at 24-34 weeks.  These growth issues are associated with placental malfunction.  

Half the group received a 8 ounces of pomegranate juice daily while the controls were served a placebo with an identical taste and color.  Pomegranate juice’s anti-oxidant polyphenols are known to cross both the placenta and the blood-brain barrier.

When the neonate brains were analyzed with MRIs at 36-41 weeks, those babies whose mothers received the pomegranate juice were spared some negative neurologic effects of their placental insufficiency.  Though their brains were no larger than controls, they showed improved structure and function. 

The Brigham team is currently mounting a larger study to confirm and extend these results.  Meanwhile, pregnant women with known intrauterine growth problems will almost certainly benefit from daily pomegranate juice.

Lillian G. Matthews, Christopher D. Smyser, Sara Cherkerzian, etal. Maternal pomegranate juice intake and brain structure and function in infants with intrauterine growth restriction: A randomized controlled pilot study. PLOS ONE, 2019; 14 (8): e0219596 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219596

#IUGR #pomegranate #intrauterinegrowthrestriction #placentalinsufficiency

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/qpSt1Nj92lM

When parents simply their speech by using single word replies, shorter sentences, and fewer new words, infants develop language faster.  This observation comes from a Cornell University study just published in the Journal of Child Language.

Pediatric behavioral specialists there studied the vocalizations of 30 infant-mother pairs on two consecutive days.  They discovered that when many parents responded to their baby’s babbling, they tended to simply their language output.  Those infants whose parents did streamline their speech showed accelerated vocal maturation even in the short run.

The study shows that babies actually cue their parents to present language to them in a form they can easily digest.  If you want your own infant’s language skills to soar, follow their lead by responding to their babbling and consistently serving up bite sized language “snacks.”

Steven L. Elmlinger, Jennifer A. Schwade, Michael H. Goldstein. The ecology of prelinguistic vocal learning: parents simplify the structure of their speech in response to babbling. Journal of Child Language, 2019; 46 (05): 998 DOI: 10.1017/S0305000919000291

#Babbling #simplifiedlanguage #linguistics #parenting

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/qpSt1Nj92lM

When parents simply their speech by using single word replies, shorter sentences, and fewer new words, infants develop language faster.  This observation comes from a Cornell University study just published in the Journal of Child Language.

Pediatric behavioral specialists there studied the vocalizations of 30 infant-mother pairs on two consecutive days.  They discovered that when many parents responded to their baby’s babbling, they tended to simply their language output.  Those infants whose parents did streamline their speech showed accelerated vocal maturation even in the short run.

The study shows that babies actually cue their parents to present language to them in a form they can easily digest.  If you want your own infant’s language skills to soar, follow their lead by responding to their babbling and consistently serving up bite sized language “snacks.”

Steven L. Elmlinger, Jennifer A. Schwade, Michael H. Goldstein. The ecology of prelinguistic vocal learning: parents simplify the structure of their speech in response to babbling. Journal of Child Language, 2019; 46 (05): 998 DOI: 10.1017/S0305000919000291

#Babbling #simplifiedlanguage #linguistics #parenting

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ippJoLK0hZU

I learned in med school and then read over and over again that women have different and more subtle heart attack symptoms compared with men.  Cardiologists often warn not to expect the crushing left-sided chest and arm pains if you want to make a clinical diagnosis in women.

A Scottish study, just published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, now labels this medical orthodoxy a medical myth.  Researchers at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary studied the presenting symptoms of 274 heart attack victims diagnosed by the gold standard cardiac muscle protein troponin test.  Ninety-three percent of both men and women had chest pain and 48-49 percent of each gender had pain radiating to the left.  Women did have more pain traveling to the jaw and back as well as nausea, but men also had the gastrointestinal symptom heartburn and also reported back pain.

The assumption that women only have atypical heart attack symptoms has led to delayed diagnoses and over 8,000 avoidable deaths during the last decade in the UK and Wales.  The same is likely true for the US. 

Knowing this latest finding should drive us to demand an EKG and a troponin test for any woman with chest, arm, jaw, or back pain.  Doing so could be lifesaving.

Amy V. Ferry, Atul Anand, Fiona E. Strachan, Leanne Mooney, Stacey D. Stewart, Lucy Marshall, Andrew R. Chapman, Kuan Ken Lee, Simon Jones, Katherine Orme, Anoop S. V. Shah, Nicholas L. Mills. Presenting Symptoms in Men and Women Diagnosed With Myocardial Infarction Using Sex‐Specific Criteria. Journal of the American Heart Association, 2019; 8 (17) DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.119.012307

#Heartattack #women #underdiagnosis

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ippJoLK0hZU

I learned in med school and then read over and over again that women have different and more subtle heart attack symptoms compared with men.  Cardiologists often warn not to expect the crushing left-sided chest and arm pains if you want to make a clinical diagnosis in women.

A Scottish study, just published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, now labels this medical orthodoxy a medical myth.  Researchers at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary studied the presenting symptoms of 274 heart attack victims diagnosed by the gold standard cardiac muscle protein troponin test.  Ninety-three percent of both men and women had chest pain and 48-49 percent of each gender had pain radiating to the left.  Women did have more pain traveling to the jaw and back as well as nausea, but men also had the gastrointestinal symptom heartburn and also reported back pain.

The assumption that women only have atypical heart attack symptoms has led to delayed diagnoses and over 8,000 avoidable deaths during the last decade in the UK and Wales.  The same is likely true for the US. 

Knowing this latest finding should drive us to demand an EKG and a troponin test for any woman with chest, arm, jaw, or back pain.  Doing so could be lifesaving.

Amy V. Ferry, Atul Anand, Fiona E. Strachan, Leanne Mooney, Stacey D. Stewart, Lucy Marshall, Andrew R. Chapman, Kuan Ken Lee, Simon Jones, Katherine Orme, Anoop S. V. Shah, Nicholas L. Mills. Presenting Symptoms in Men and Women Diagnosed With Myocardial Infarction Using Sex‐Specific Criteria. Journal of the American Heart Association, 2019; 8 (17) DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.119.012307

#Heartattack #women #underdiagnosis

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Z2X7Kvrpd9U

Zinc boosts the body’s immune response to Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium that causes  most community-acquired pneumonia.  A just-published Australian study used a mouse model to find out just how zinc works its magic.

Finding that zinc-deficient animals fell victim to Pneumococcal pneumonia 3 times faster than normal mice, the researchers were able to show that serum zinc stresses the bacteria permitting the body’s immune cells to kill them effectively.

Nearly 2 billion people around the world suffer from a zinc deficiency.  Although we now have very effective vaccines against the pneumococcus, Prevnar 13 and 23, zinc also plays a role in our immunity to other bacteria.  You can boost your own zinc by eating beans, mushrooms, dark chocolate, nuts, oysters, beef, lamb, shrimp and scallops.

Bart A. Eijkelkamp, Jacqueline R. Morey, Stephanie L. Neville, etal. Dietary zinc and the control of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. PLOS Pathogens, 2019; 15 (8): e1007957 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007957

#Zinc #immunity #pneumonia

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Z2X7Kvrpd9U

Zinc boosts the body’s immune response to Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium that causes  most community-acquired pneumonia.  A just-published Australian study used a mouse model to find out just how zinc works its magic.

Finding that zinc-deficient animals fell victim to Pneumococcal pneumonia 3 times faster than normal mice, the researchers were able to show that serum zinc stresses the bacteria permitting the body’s immune cells to kill them effectively.

Nearly 2 billion people around the world suffer from a zinc deficiency.  Although we now have very effective vaccines against the pneumococcus, Prevnar 13 and 23, zinc also plays a role in our immunity to other bacteria.  You can boost your own zinc by eating beans, mushrooms, dark chocolate, nuts, oysters, beef, lamb, shrimp and scallops.

Bart A. Eijkelkamp, Jacqueline R. Morey, Stephanie L. Neville, etal. Dietary zinc and the control of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. PLOS Pathogens, 2019; 15 (8): e1007957 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007957

#Zinc #immunity #pneumonia