Areas in Brain Actually Identified that are Associated with Analgesia In Nerve Pain with CANNABIS. WOW.

  The anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC) and dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPC) are functionally involved in THC-induced analgesia in chronic neuropathic pain.
 Neurology. 2018;91:e1285-e1294

Light Exposure may Improve Agitation, Mood and Sleep in Dementia

  LED table lights and individual room lights were placed where patients spent most of their waking hours. The lights were turned on when folks woke up and remained on until 6 PM.
  Exposure to light stimulates the circadian system early in the day significantly decreasing scores for sleep disturbances, agitation and depression compared with placebo.
Sleep Health. 2017;3(3):204-215

Cardiovascular Risk Increases with Binge Drinking in Men

  Higher blood pressure, higher blood sugar, and higher cholesterol are associated with young men that binge drank as many as 12 times per year compared with non-binge drinkers.
  Binge drinking women did not have affected systolic blood pressures or total cholesterol.
J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7(13)

Eye Conditions Affect Alzheimer's Risk

  People with recent diagnoses of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma as well as well established age-related macular degeneration may have an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.
  Cataract diagnosis was not a risk factor for AD.
Alzheimers Dement. 2018 Aug 2

New Treatment for Early Memory Troubles ?

  There is a clinical trial in phase 3 led by a researcher at Wake Forest which found earlier that participants that took a long-acting intranasal insulin demonstrated improved cognition in adults with mild cognitive impairment.
  Results will be made  public in 12 months. Fingers crossed for some kind of breakthrough.
  MCI (mild cognitive impairment) is a neurological disorder that occurs in older adults which manifests as cognitive impairment BUT NOT impairment in activities of daily living.
First reported in J Alzheimers Dis 2015;44(30:897-906 20

Low Fasting Insulin Doubles the Risk of Dementia

  A recent study confirmed a shocking finding of 14 years ago (which studied 2,568 Japanese American men) that low fasting insulin in middle age doubles the risk of dementia in later years.
  Insulin deficiency itself is one of the key components of Alzheimer's and that low levels of insulin or insulin resistance are associated with poor brain function.
  These researchers concluded that low insulin must involve a new pathway to dementia different from the well-known metabolic pathway in diabetes.
  Reduced brain metabolism may not be the factor linking low insulin to dementia but rather it may be the role of insulin as a growth factor maintaining the function of neurons that may be vital.
Neurology 2018:Epub 2018 Jul 11
  

ADHD Drugs BAD for Healthy College Students

  Neuroscience researchers at Brown U and URI found that healthy students taking 30 mg of Adderall daily did improve in attention and focus (as expected in those taking a stimulant) but that effect failed to translate to enhanced performance on a battery of neurocognitive tasks that measured reading comprehension and fluency as well as short-term memory.
  The investigators concluded that not only are individuals taking stimulants not benefitting from it academically but in fact they could be negatively affecting their performance.
Pharmacy (Basel). 2018;6(3).