Tag: study

Is It Possible To Overdose On Caffeine?

A new article delved into the potential risks of ingesting too much caffeine.

Though caffeine is technically a “drug,” its effects are relatively benign.

The naturally-occurring stimulant can be found in certain plants, nuts, seeds, and food products like sodas, teas, and chocolates.

The normal daily serving of caffeine—per the U.S. government’s dietary guidelines—is up to 400 mg of caffeine, or 3-5 8-ounce cups of coffee. The effects range from alertness and a faster heart rate, to anxiousness, dehydration, and headache.

Caffeine will begin to affect the body at a concentration of 15 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in the blood. Most of the time the effects are benign and do not cause lasting harm.

However, while a fatal or even life-threatening overdose of caffeine is quite rare, consuming large amounts of caffeine can be harmful.

According to Medical News Today, a concentration of 80 to 100 mg/L of caffeine in the body can be fatal.

A death resulting from too much caffeine is typically caused by ventricular fibrillation—a rapid, inadequate heartbeat that prohibits the heart from pumping blood and leads to cardiac arrest.

Symptoms of a caffeine overdose include a fast/irregular heartbeat, shakiness, nausea or vomiting, confusion, and a panic attack. Treating a caffeine overdose may include receiving intravenous fluids, supplements, or activated charcoal.

According to a 2018 review of scientific journal articles dating back to when online databases began, there have been 92 total reported deaths from caffeine overdose—researchers believe that about one-third of these deaths were “likely to be suicide,” according to Medical News Today.

Coffee and tea typically do not pose a risk of caffeine overdose, but the risk is higher with dietary supplements and caffeine tablets, which contain higher concentrations of caffeine.

Purified caffeine powder poses the highest risk of an overdose. According to Medical News Today, it is “highly dangerous and much more likely to cause an overdose.”

One teaspoon of caffeine powder can be equivalent to 28 cups of coffee, according to the Food and Drug Administration; each teaspoon can contain 3,200-6,400 mg of caffeine.

Mixing caffeine with alcohol can carry its own set of risks. Having caffeine with alcohol, a depressant, can “mask the effect” of alcohol by making a person feel more alert and believe they can drink more than they normally would.

Recently the long-held belief that coffee can sober you up from a night of drinking was debunked.

“We know from wider research that coffee isn’t an antidote to alcohol,” said Professor Tony Moss of London South Bank University. “Taking coffee as a stimulant that will reverse that feeling of being slightly tired as your blood alcohol is coming down.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 September 2018
Are Chocolate Chip Cookies As Addictive As Cocaine?

Researchers examined the ingredients in chocolate chip cookies to determine why they are so addictive for some.

Science has turned in a humdinger: studies indicate that sugar and sweetness can induce reward and craving that are comparable to those induced by cocaine.

Research giving laboratory rats rewards of sugars and sweets shows that these goodies can not only replace a drug, but can even surpass the drug in the rats’ preference.

CNN reports there are a variety of reasons for this powerful effect, including an emotional connection to good memories of baking. Kathleen King, founder of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton, New York, and maker of a top-rated chocolate chip cookie, shared with CNN, “If I’m celebrating, I can have a couple of cookies, but if I’m sad, I want 10 cookies. While the cookie is in your mouth, that moment is happiness—and then it’s gone, and you’re sad again, and you have another one.”

The study shows that at a neurobiological level, the qualities of sugar and sweet rewards are apparently stronger than those of cocaine. The study indicates evolutionary pressures in seeking foods high in sugar and calories as a possible reason for this.

In addition, according to CNN, chocolate contains trace amounts of the compound anandamide. Anandamide is also a brain chemical that targets the same cell receptors as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. So there may be another chemical basis for the intense pleasure that many people get from a chocolate chip cookie.

This also explains the insane popularity of “marijuana brownies” which combines THC and the chemical hit of chocolate. These chewy treats are so beloved that guru Martha Stewart even has a recipe for pot brownies.

Salt is an important element to the chocolate chip cookie’s addictive quality.

“It is what adds interest to food, even if it’s a sweet food, because it makes the sugar and other ingredients taste better and come together better,” Gail Vance Civille, founder and president of Sensory Spectrum, told CNN. “A pinch of salt in cookies really makes a difference, and it enhances sweetness a little bit.”

Gary Wenk, director of neuroscience undergraduate programs at the Ohio State University and author of Your Brain on Food, notes that cookies high in fat and sugar will raise the level of anandamide in the brain regardless of what other ingredients are in the cookie.

“The fat and sugar combine to induce our addiction as much as does the anandamide,” Wenk told CNN. “It’s a triple play of delight.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 September 2018
Can Pre-Birth Opioid Exposure Lead To Learning Disorders?

A new study examined the potential link between pre-birth opioid exposure and developmental issues.

Children born to mothers using opioids may grow up to demonstrate difficulty learning, a new study has found.

The study examined the potential long-term issues for infants born to mothers who used opioids while pregnant, according to NBC News.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that one in seven children affected by a mother using opioids needed to be placed in special education classrooms for various issues, including developmental issues and speech delay. In comparison, one in 10 children who were not exposed to opioids before birth required the same.

About 7,200 children from Tennessee’s Medicaid program were involved in the study, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years old. Of those children, nearly 2,000 were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS)—or, in simpler terms, withdrawal from opioids due to a mother’s use.

Tennessee has been greatly affected by the opioid epidemic, which is reflected in the number of infants exposed to opioids before birth. In 1999, it was one per 1,000 infants. But in 2015, it was 13 per 1,000.

Researchers said they took specific factors into account like birth weight and mother’s education and tobacco use, but that those did not change the results.

According to study co-author Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, the results make sense, as other studies have determined that there are brain differences in children affected by opioids while in utero.

Dr. Mary-Margaret Fill, lead author and a researcher with Tennessee’s health department, tells NBC News that affected children “are definitely not doomed. There are great programs and services that exist to help these children and their families. We just have to make sure they get plugged in.”

Because the study was focused in Tennessee, it’s not clear if the results are similar in other U.S. states, and no other studies with the same focus have been conducted in the country.

However, a similar study was conducted in Australia last year, and found that children exposed to opioids before birth had worse academic scores in seventh grade in comparison to others their age. The U.S. study did not examine academic performance.

Dr. Matthew Davis, co-chair of the Opioid Task Force at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, tells the Chicago Tribune that the study results should serve as a sign that opioid use affects a wide range.

“There’s a sense that the opioid epidemic is somebody else’s problem, but it affects more than those who take the drugs,” Davis said. “I hope the study is a wake-up call, so people understand that this epidemic is a community-level, multigenerational problem that will only grow if we don’t take the proper steps to address it.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 September 2018
Can Ketamine Use Trigger Opioid-Like Dependency?

Researchers investigated whether ketamine works on depression by acting like an opioid in the brain.

Though ketamine has gained the support of some mental health professionals as a possible therapy for depression, a new study suggests that the drug’s anti-depressive qualities may also have a hidden and potentially dangerous side effect: ketamine may offer relief from depressive symptoms by activating the body’s opioid system, which in turn may make some users dependent upon it, like an opioid.

In an editorial that accompanied the study, Dr. Mark George, professor of psychiatry, radiology and neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina, wrote, “We would hate to treat the depression and suicide epidemics by overusing ketamine, which might unintentionally grow the third head of opioid dependence.”

The study, conducted by researchers from Stanford University and published in the August 2018 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, was comprised of a double-blind crossover of 30 adults with treatment-resistant depression, which was defined as having tried at least four antidepressants and receiving no benefit from them.

The authors looked at 14 of the patients—of which 12 had received, in randomized order, two doses of 0.5 mg of ketamine—once after receiving 50 mg of naltrexone (or Vivitrol) which blocks the brain’s opiate receptors and diminishes cravings for opioids; and once after receiving a placebo instead of the naltrexone—with the injections occurring about a month apart.

The goal of the study was to determine whether the naltrexone and ketamine combination would reduce the latter drug’s antidepressant qualities, or its dissociative or opioid-like response.

The authors’ analysis found that when patients received the placebo/ketamine combination, they experienced what Live Science called a “dramatic reduction” of their depressive symptoms. But the naltrexone/ketamine combination appeared to have no effect on their symptoms.

Additionally, those participants who received naltrexone experienced the dissociative effects of ketamine, which include hallucinations, which prompted the authors to cut the study short to avoid exposing more participants to a “clearly ineffective and noxious combination treatment,” as the study noted.

The scope of the study was small, and as George (who was not involved in the study) noted, additional research is required in order to determine if the ketamine’s antidepressant qualities are caused by its impact on opioid receptors or another receptor. He ultimately expressed caution in regard to using ketamine for the treatment of depression.

“Ketamine clinics that do not focus on accurate diagnosis, use proper symptom rating instruments and discuss long-term treatment options are likely not in patients’ best interests,” he wrote in the editorial. “We need to better understand ketamine’s mode of action and how it should be used and administered.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 September 2018
No Amount Of Alcohol Is Safe To Drink, Game-Changing Study Reveals

Alcohol accounted for 20% of deaths in 2016, according to a new report.

Even one drink occasionally may be one too many, researchers are now saying.

This information came from the Global Burden of Diseases study, which is carried out at the University of Washington in Seattle, and was recently published in the Lancet medical journal.

According to the Guardian, the Global Burden of Diseases study is the “largest and most detailed research carried out on the effects of alcohol.”

The researchers found that in 2016, alcohol led to 2.8 million deaths and was the leading risk factor when it came to premature mortality and disability in those ages 15 to 49, in which it accounted for 20% of deaths.

According to the study, current habits when it comes to alcohol “pose dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today. Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men.”

Researchers at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation studied the alcohol intake from people in 195 countries using data from 694 different sources ranging from 1990 to 2016 to determine “how common drinking was.”

They then examined 592 worldwide studies involving 28 million people to determine the potential health risks associated with alcohol.

Specifically, the study found that alcohol consumption was a cause of cancer in those over age 50, especially women. According to previous research, one in 13 breast cancer diagnoses in the UK were related to alcohol.

The study determined that across the world, 27.1% of cancer deaths in females and 18.9% in men over age 50 were connected to alcohol consumption.

Among those in younger age groups, causes of death linked to alcohol were tuberculosis (1.4% of deaths), road injuries (1.2%) and self-harm (1.1%).

Additionally, about 2.4 billion people around the world drink alcohol. One-quarter of women drink, while 39% of men do.

Senior author Emmanuela Gakidou of the University of Washington says that the results indicate that new policies on alcohol may be necessary in the future.

“Our results indicate that alcohol use and its harmful effects on health could become a growing challenge as countries become more developed, and enacting or maintaining strong alcohol control policies will be vital,” she told the Guardian.

Dr. Robyn Burton, of King’s College London, stated in a commentary in the Lancet that the study results were clear.

“Alcohol is a colossal global health issue and small reductions in health-related harms at low levels of alcohol intake are outweighed by the increased risk of other health-related harms, including cancer,” she wrote.

Burton stated that when it comes to public policy, methods to reduce alcohol intake could include price increases, taxation and setting prices depending on the strength of the drink. She also stated that limiting alcohol marketing could help.

Dr. Max Griswold, lead author of the study, said, “Previous studies have found a protective effect of alcohol on some conditions, but we found that the combined health risks associated with alcohol increases with any amount of alcohol.

“The strong association between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer, injuries, and infectious diseases offset the protective effects for heart disease in our study. Although the health risks associated with alcohol start off being small with one drink a day, they then rise rapidly as people drink more.”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 August 2018
Scientists Dosed Artificial Brain With Meth For New Study

Scientists chose to use meth on the brain replica because much is still unknown about the the drug and its effects on the body.

It’s no secret that certain drugs are bad for your brain. However, scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering can now tell you exactly how bad meth is for you, after dosing an artificial brain with the drug and watching the results.

To do this, researchers used organ chips, computer chips lined with living human cells that can be used to test how human organs function and react to substances.

In this case, the researchers were focused on the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This filter normally allows some substances to pass into the brain, while keeping other potentially harmful substances out. Using drugs, including meth, can alter the BBB, making it easier for toxins to reach the brain, according to Motherboard.

To show this and study exactly how it works, researchers dosed a brain chip mimicking the function of the BBB with meth.

“Just like in the brains of people who choose to smoke meth, the BBB chips started to leak,” Kit Parker, professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics, told Digital Trends. “That’s exactly what happens when you smoke meth—and why you shouldn’t.”

Ben Maoz, one of three lead study authors from the Wyss Institute, said that the team chose meth because it is known to be particularly harmful to the brain.

“Our primary reason for choosing this drug is that it is one of the most addictive drugs responsible for thousands of deaths,” Maoz said to Motherboard via email. “Given this tragic statistic, it is surprising that much is still unknown. Therefore, we sought to use this novel system to unveil the metabolic effect of meth on the different parts of the [neurovascular unit].”

Researchers found that about 10% of the dose of meth went through the BBB, similar to what happens when people smoke meth. Researchers were then able to examine how parts of the brain communicate, giving them insight that they wouldn’t be able to glean without the organ chips.

“The novelty relating to organ chips is that they enable us to carry out what is essentially a ‘synthetic biology’ approach at the cell, tissue, and organ level,” said Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute.

“In this study, we could use this synthetic approach to break down a complex organ—in this case, the human brain—into individual sub-compartments of the brain microvasculature and normally tightly intertwined neuronal networks. Because we can separate out each compartment and control ‘ins and outs,’ while analyzing them with state-of-the-art analytical technologies, we were able to gain insights into how cells within these different compartments communicate with each other.”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 August 2018
Can Nerve Stimulation Help Depression?

Researchers discovered that using vagus nerve stimulators to treat depression changed patients’ quality of life.

A new study has shown that nerve stimulation can improve quality of life for depression patients, even if their symptoms aren’t totally alleviated.

“When evaluating patients with treatment-resistant depression, we need to focus more on their overall well-being,” lead author Charles R. Conway, MD, a Washington University professor of psychiatry, told Science Daily. “A lot of patients are on as many as three, four or five antidepressant medications, and they are just barely getting by. But when you add a vagus nerve stimulator, it really can make a big difference in people’s everyday lives.”

For the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, researchers followed about 600 patients who were being treated for depression. Some continued “treatment as usual,” which could include medication, electro-convulsive therapy, talk therapy or a combination of these.

The researchers compared these individuals with 328 people who continued with their usual treatment, but were also given vagus nerve stimulators, which are implanted in the neck or chest and deliver regular, mild pulses of electricity to the brain.

Comparing 14 measurements including relationships, physical health and ability to work, researchers found that people with the stimulators had a better quality of life.

“On about 10 of the 14 measures, those with vagus nerve stimulators did better,” Conway said. “For a person to be considered to have responded to a depression therapy, he or she needs to experience a 50% percent decline in his or her standard depression score. But we noticed, anecdotally, that some patients with stimulators reported they were feeling much better even though their scores were only dropping 34 to 40%.”

This suggests that the nerve stimulation can improve life for people with depression, even if it doesn’t put the depression into remission. Study participant Charles Donovan was hospitalized for depression multiple times and found treatments ineffective until he got a vagus nerve stimulator.

“Before the stimulator, I never wanted to leave my home,” he said. “It was stressful to go to the grocery store. I couldn’t concentrate to sit and watch a movie with friends. But after I got the stimulator, my concentration gradually returned. I could do things like read a book, read the newspaper, watch a show on television. Those things improved my quality of life.”

Conway said that stimulating the vagus nerve might enable people to concentrate better, which makes their day-to-day lives better.

“It improves alertness, and that can reduce anxiety,” he said. “And when a person feels more alert and more energetic and has a better capacity to carry out a daily routine, anxiety and depression levels decline.”

View the original article at thefix.com

24 August 2018
Mixing Energy Drinks With Alcohol May Put You At Risk

A new study investigated how the main ingredient in energy drinks affected behavior.

Red Bull, according to the company itself, does not have any dangerous effects when mixed with alcohol. However, a new study indicates that this may not be the case—at least not with zebrafish.

According to Esquire, researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil took a common energy drink ingredient called taurine, mixed it with alcohol and tested it with zebrafish.

The zebrafish that were given the combination were then compared to zebrafish that had been exposed to water, taurine or alcohol separately. The fish, Esquire reports, were then observed to see how they interacted with one another and how they responded to potential threats.

Researchers found that the fish that had been exposed to alcohol and taurine combined were less likely to socialize with the other fish and were more likely to engage in risky behavior, like spending time in what researchers referred to as a “predator zone.”

“Taken together, these data appear to suggest that mixing alcohol and taurine might be a factor in increasing some of the negative effects of alcohol,” said Dr. Matt Parker, study co-author and senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, according to Science Daily. “People should be aware that drinking energy drinks in combination with alcohol may impair their judgement, and should do so with caution.”

Parker also stated that this particular study was the first of its kind to indicate that mixing alcohol and energy drinks can increase the risk of behaviors like fighting and violence.

“Binge drinking and general alcohol misuse is a key problem in the UK and across the world, with the numbers of hospital admissions resulting from illness or injury following intoxication costing the NHS millions per year,” Parker told Science Daily. “Alcohol reduces our inhibitions, and in low doses can cause relaxation and euphoria. However, in higher doses this low inhibition can cause problems with fighting or risky behavior. Zebrafish have similar biological and behavioural responses to alcohol, and are a highly social species, making them ideal for studying the effects of alcohol on behavior.”

While the results of this study seem to imply that the combination of alcohol and taurine can lead to risky behavior, it’s important to note that the study was done on fish, not humans.

Meanwhile, Red Bull maintains that there are no side effects of drinking the beverage with alcohol.

“There is no indication that Red Bull Energy Drink has any specific effect (negative or positive) related to alcohol consumption,” the company’s website reads. Red Bull also states that this claim is backed up by a 2012 decision from the UK Committee on Toxicity.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 August 2018
Could Informing Doctors Of Patients' Opioid Deaths Curb Prescribing?

How are doctors’ prescribing behavior affected when they’re notified of their own patients’ opioid-related deaths?

Some California doctors have recently received letters that changed how they prescribed opioids, according to new research.

The letters informed doctors of the deaths of patients to whom they had prescribed opioids, according to the Washington Post. Such letters were part of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California and published Thursday (August 9) in the journal Science.

The letters were sent by the San Diego County Medical Examiner Office to hundreds of doctors who, in the past year, had prescribed opioids to a patient who later died.

“This is a courtesy communication to inform you that your patient [name, date of birth] died on [date]. Prescription drug overdose was either the primary cause of death or contributed to the death,” the letters read. “We hope that you will take this as an opportunity to join us in preventing future deaths from drug overdose.”

According to the Post, the idea behind the study was to close the gap between a doctor’s care and a doctor’s knowledge about the potential consequences of prescribing opioids.

While many doctors are aware that opioid use disorder is a widespread issue, they may believe that the consequences affect other doctors’ patients rather than their own, the Post noted.

According to the results of the study, doctors who learned of a patient’s death at the hands of opioids were 7% less likely to prescribe opioids to new patients. Doctors who received a letter also had a tendency to prescribe fewer high-dose prescriptions within the next three months of receiving the letter. The total amount of opioids these doctors prescribed decreased by 9.7%.

“What’s particularly interesting to me is the personal nature of it,” Alexander Chiu, a surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital who was not involved in the study, told the Post. “Depending on what field you’re in, [the opioid epidemic] can feel a little remote. If you’re not a pain doctor or a primary-care doctor, it’s not quite as common to know or see your actions having a negative impact, which is what this is showing—it makes it very real. As evidence-based as we are as a profession, sometimes anecdotes can be really powerful.”

Lead researcher Jason Doctor, director of health informatics at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, tells the Post that while doctors have knowledge of facts, they are still human.

“One of the takeaways I’d like people to have is that doctors learn a lot of clinical facts, but when it comes to clinical judgment and decision-making, they fall prey to the same biases that we all do,” he said.

According to Doctor, San Diego County plans to continue sending these letters, and other counties have also said they are interested in doing something similar.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 August 2018
How Binge Drinking May Affect Young Adults

Young adults who are heavy drinkers may be heightening their risk for future cardiovascular issues, according to a new study.

In addition to the obvious effects of excessive drinking, young adults who binge drink may also be at risk of heart disease and stroke as they age.

Authors of a new study published in Journal of the American Heart Association suggest that the one-in-five college students who binge drink have reason to be concerned for their health.

In the study, researchers examined the responses of 4,710 individuals between 18 and 45 years old who had taken part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between the years 2011 and 2012, and 2013 and 2014.

Those individuals were then broken into three categories: those who did not drink, those who binge drank 12 or fewer times per year, and those who binge drank 12 or more times per year.

Of the individuals involved, about 25% of men and about 11% of women binge drank “frequently.” For those who binge drank 12 or fewer times per year, 29% of men and 25% of women fell into the category.

Researchers found that those who binge drank frequently seemed more likely to exhibit risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which could lead to cardiovascular issues and strokes later in life.

Researchers also looked at the effects of alcohol consumption on young men versus young women. They concluded that men who binge drank often had higher blood pressure and higher cholesterol than those who did not binge drink often. When compared to low frequency drinkers, women who binge drank had higher blood sugar levels.

Mariann Piano, an author of the study and professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing, tells Newsweek that a main takeaway from this study is that risky behavior can be changed.

“Implementing lifestyle interventions to reduce blood pressure in early adulthood may be an important strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life,” she said to Newsweek. “As part of this intervention pattern, young adults should be screened and counseled about alcohol misuse, including binge drinking, and advised on how binge drinking may affect their cardiovascular health.”

This study is only one of a few recent studies focusing on how unhealthy lifestyles in youth can affect them later in life.

In July, researchers in England published a study that found that being overweight as a teen could change the heart’s shape and affect the manner in which it functions.

Like Mariann Piano, Ashleigh Doggett, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, also told Newsweek that habits can be changed at a young age to avoid such dangers later in life.

“It can be a common misconception that heart-related issues only affect an older demographic, which we know isn’t the case,” she said. “This study highlights the importance of endorsing a healthy lifestyle from a young age—the earlier we reinforce healthier habits, the greater impact it can have.”

View the original article at thefix.com

16 August 2018