Sunday, August 31, 2014

New Life Saving Treatments in Opioid Overdose

  There are 19,500 deaths annually due to overdoses of prescription pain meds or heroin....every 27 minutes...think Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Winehouse, Jim Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin,etc,etc,etc. These deaths may have been prevented with a timely dose of a rapid-acting opioid antagonist naloxone.
  Only available to patients on prescription narcotics at risk is Evizio Auto-injector, the newly approved device that when placed against the skin injects naloxone intra-muscularly...a recorded voice coaches treating bystanders !
  Option 2 for illicit-opioid abusers...Naloxone Nasal Rescue Kit. BTW NYC has distributed 25,000 doses since 2010...but these kits require training for successful administration. Reckitt Benckiser recently licensed an intranasal naloxone device and is fast-tracking the spray to market.
WIRED mag August 2014 p.040 by Emily Dreyfuss

Increase Survival Following MCA Stroke

  Increased survival after middle cerebral artery distribution stroke was achieved in patients that underwent decompressive hemi-craniotomy.
NEJM March 20, 2014

Decrease Stroke Risk : Eat Like a Mediterranean

  Mediterranean diet decreases stroke risk.
Ann Neuro 2013

Increase Motor Function After Stroke

  According to the FLAME study, fluoxetine improves motor function in patients with weakness/paralysis following stroke.
Lancet Neuro 2011;377(9778):1693-1702

Adverse Effects of Marijuana Use

  An NIH study advises caution and the need for further study as more states explore marijuana legalization.
NEJM June 5, 2014

Correct Vitamin D Deficiency and Improve MS Outcomes

  From Harvard researchers and he BENEFIT study, normalizing vitamin D levels early in the treatment course of MS patients with interferon beta 1-b likely improves the outcome for patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Suicides More Likely in Wee Hours of the Night

  Suicides are much more likely to occur between midnight and 4am than at any other time during the day.
  According to Michael Purlis, PhD at the U. of Pennsylvania, archival analysis of the National Violent Death Reporting System and the American Time Use Survey this data review is the first to suggest that circadian factors may contribute to suicidality and that insomnia, nightmares and the simple fact of being awake during these early morning hours may be risk factors for suicide.
  An important implication of these results is that treatment of insomnia may decrease the risk of suicide.

Smoke Pot and Impair Your Sleep

  Marijuana use is associated with impaired sleep quality including difficulty falling asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, experiencing non-restorative sleep, and feeling daytime sleepiness. Also people who started using marijuana before age 15 were more likely to have sleep difficulties as an adult.
Presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies

Copper Therapy for ALS ?

  Mutations in copper-zinc-superoxide dismutase ( SOD 1 ) are believed to cause ALS in humans and transgenic mice. Researchers found that most of SOD1 in the spinal cord of mouse models of ALS was copper deficient. Treatment with copper ( ATSM ) could provide a therapy for patients with ALS.
Journal of Neuroscience June 4, 2014

Cardio for Cognitive Health

  Researchers analyzed data from the REGARDS study to determine cardiovascular health status based on the American Heart AssociationLife's Simple 7 score and found the risk of developing cognitive impairment is significantly higher for individuals with poor cardiovascular health.
Journal of the American Heart Association June 11, 2014

Eat Your Fruits, Vegies and Protein

  Stroke risk decreased by 32% with every 200 grams of fruit consumed daily and 11% with every 200 grams of vegetables consumed daily according to a meta-analysis of 20 studies published within the last 19 years.
Stroke May 8, 2014
  Also, for every extra 20 grams of protein eaten daily the risk of stroke decreased by 26%.
Neurology June 11, 2014