Addiction, cortisol level and signs of addiction
Cortisol Levels Could Play Role in Relapse After Alcohol Abstinence
In a recent Private MD Labs report, researchers are suggesting that those who struggle with alcohol addiction may want to look into cortisol testing. If this hormone level is too high, it could play a role in alcohol dependency.
University of Liverpool researchers have determined that alcoholics tend to have higher levels of cortisol in their systems. This stress hormone is normally associated with the response to stressful situations. It is now being suggested that chronically high levels may contribute to addiction.
Lead investigator Abi Rose noted that drinking and withdrawal from alcohol can contribute to cortisol functions. Rose suggests that cortisol dysfunction – which includes high levels generally observed when alcohol is withdrawn – may play a part in the high rates of relapses reported in alcohol dependent individuals, even several months after recovery.
The findings from this study could help in the development of drugs that will target elevated cortisol levels, which could help to significantly reduce the chances of any relapse among individuals recovering from alcoholism. Further research is suggested into this area to help promote potential treatments.
Connie’s comments:
Normal Cortisol level should be between 11-14 microgram/dL
Number of hours of sleep at night should be around 7 hours
C-reactive protein normal level should be 0.0 – 1.0 mg/dL
Traumatic Brain Injury Podcast from Veterans
The TBI Family Podcast
Launched in November 2016, this series is for caregivers of service members and veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Each episode offers information, resources and tips for caregivers and shares caregiver stories. You can listen to The TBI Family episodes or download them via SoundCloud(link is external), iTunes(link is external) or Google Play(link is external).
This episode focuses on the first days after becoming a caregiver to a family member or friend with TBI. Guest speakers Dr. Joel Scholten, national director of physical medicine and rehabilitation for the Veterans Health Administration, and Ms. Kathy Helmick, DVBIC deputy director, discuss what caregivers should know about TBI. Ms. Emery Popoloski of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation(link is external) shares her personal story of how she came to terms with her role as caregiver for her husband. Also highlighted are free training options for caregivers.
In the second episode, we talk about balance problems after TBI and how caregivers can support providers with treatment efforts. We also explore an ancient mindfulness technique that helps people cope with the challenges of caregiving. Guest speakers include Dr. Katie Stout, director of clinical affairs for DVBIC, and Jill Bormann, a nurse researcher with the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System(link is external).
Resources in this episode:
In this episode we talk about respite care, a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) service that pays for a caretaker to come to a veteran’s home, or for a veteran to go to a care facility, to temporarily relieve their caregiver from caretaking responsibilities. Guest speaker Dayna Cooper, director of Home and Community Care at the(link is external) VA, discusses how caregivers and veterans can benefit from this program. We also chat with Danny O’Neel, an Army veteran who cares for his fellow veterans.
Resources in this episode:
In this episode we are in Baltimore, Maryland, to check out the Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Medical Foster Home Program. The program helps keep veterans out of nursing homes by finding them a place to receive care in a private home. We also visit a local grocery store to talk about one method of cognitive rehabilitation — a group of practices designed to repair or mitigate cognitive deficits caused by brain injuries. Guest speakers include Nicole Trimble, coordinator of Maryland’s Medical Foster Home Program(link is external); Dayna Cooper, director of Home and Community Care at the VA(link is external); Joanne Anderson-West, medical foster home provider; Ralph Stepney, veteran; Dr. Inbal Eshel, DVBIC senior principle science and speech-language pathologist; and Linda Picon, VA liaison to DVBIC and speech-language pathologist.
This episode focuses on a single topic: substance use, including drugs and alcohol, and TBI. Deborah Bailin with DVBIC speaks with Lars Hungerford and Ezra Aune about risk factors for substance abuse, effects of substance use on TBI recovery, what caregivers can do to help, and related research. Hungerford and Aune are DVBIC experts from Naval Medical Center San Diego. Capt. Daniel Hines, an Army nurse, shares a story about how a timely intervention helped prevent his friend from spiraling out of control because of his TBI and struggles with substance use.
Resources in this episode:
Since 2012, research staff from DVBIC and National Intrepid Center of Excellence(link is external) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, have been conducting a study, titled “Health Related Quality of Life in Caregivers of Service Members with Military Related Traumatic Brain Injury.” This 15-year study is investigating the effects of caregiving on the caregivers and families of service members and veterans with a TBI. In this episode, we hear from those leading the caregiver study about the reasons for the study and what they have learned so far about the experiences of caregivers. We also highlight how caregivers and others can show their support during Brain Injury Awareness Month.
Learn more about the “Health Related Quality of Life in Caregivers of Service Members with Military Related Traumatic Brain Injury” study and how someone can participate by calling 855-821-1469 or sending an email(link sends e-mail).
In this episode, we focus on a single subject — how making art can help caregivers deal with the stress of caregiving. We discuss the recent history of arts programs for veterans and service members, talk with leaders of organizations who make those programs possible and learn how these programs are expanding to include caregivers and family members. Throughout the episode we hear from participants about their experiences in these programs.
Resources in this episode:
- Creative Forces: National Endowment for the Arts Military Healing Arts Network(link is external)
- IMPART(link is external)
- Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP)(link is external)
- Writers Guild Initiative(link is external)
- National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military National Network Directory(link is external)
- Operation We Are Here(link is external)
In this episode we stop by Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill, discuss driving after a traumatic brain injury and chat with singer/songwriter and advocate Cristabelle Braden on music, positivity and the importance of caregivers to those who, like her, have sustained a serious traumatic brain injury.
In this episode, we talk to Meg Kabat, director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Caregiver Support Program, about the VA’s Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers. Kabat explains why benefit revocations have been put on hold and the VA’s efforts to make sure it’s doing right by veteran caregivers. Also, we discuss how to talk to kids about TBI.
Speech patterns, hearing loss may increase dementia risk
Your speech may, um, help reveal if you’re uh … developing thinking problems. More pauses, filler words and other verbal changes might be an early sign of mental decline, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, a study suggests.
Researchers had people describe a picture they were shown in taped sessions two years apart. Those with early-stage mild cognitive impairment slid much faster on certain verbal skills than those who didn’t develop thinking problems.
“What we’ve discovered here is there are aspects of language that are affected earlier than we thought,” before or at the same time that memory problems emerge, said one study leader, Sterling Johnson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This was the largest study ever done of speech analysis for this purpose, and if more testing confirms its value, it might offer a simple, cheap way to help screen people for very early signs of mental decline.
Don’t panic: Lots of people say “um” and have trouble quickly recalling names as they age, and that doesn’t mean trouble is on the way.
“In normal aging, it’s something that may come back to you later and it’s not going to disrupt the whole conversation,” another study leader, Kimberly Mueller, explained. “The difference here is, it is more frequent in a short period,” interferes with communication and gets worse over time.
The study was discussed Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London.
About 47 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5.5 million people have the disease. Current drugs can’t slow or reverse it, just ease symptoms. Doctors think treatment might need to start sooner to do any good, so there’s a push to find early signs.
Mild cognitive impairment causes changes that are noticeable to the person or others, but not enough to interfere with daily life. It doesn’t mean these folks will develop Alzheimer’s, but many do — 15 to 20 percent per year.
To see if speech analysis can find early signs, researchers first did the picture-description test on 400 people without cognitive problems and saw no change over time in verbal skills. Next, they tested 264 participants in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention, a long-running study of people in their 50s and 60s, most of whom have a parent with Alzheimer’s and might be at higher risk for the disease themselves. Of those, 64 already had signs of early decline or developed it over the next two years, according to other neurological tests they took.
In the second round of tests , they declined faster on content (ideas they expressed) and fluency (the flow of speech and how many pauses and filler words they used.) They used more pronouns such as “it” or “they” instead of specific names for things, spoke in shorter sentences and took longer to convey what they had to say.
“Those are all indicators of struggling with that computational load that the brain has to conduct” and supports the role of this test to detect decline, said Julie Liss, a speech expert at Arizona State University with no role in the work.
She helped lead a study in 2015 that analyzed dozens of press conferences by former President Ronald Reagan and found evidence of speech changes more than a decade before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She also co-founded a company that analyzes speech for many neurological problems, including dementia, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers could not estimate the cost of testing for a single patient, but for a doctor to offer it requires only a digital tape recorder and a computer program or app to analyze results.
Alan Sweet, 72, a retired state of Wisconsin worker who lives in Madison, is taking part in the study and had the speech test earlier this month. His father had Alzheimer’s and his mother had a different type of dementia, Lewy body.
“Watching my parents decline into the awful world of dementia and being responsible for their medical care was the best and worst experience of my life,” he said. “I want to help the researchers learn, furthering medical knowledge of treatment and ultimately, cure.”
Participants don’t get individual results — it just aids science.
Another study at the conference on Monday, led by doctoral student Taylor Fields, hints that hearing loss may be another clue to possible mental decline. It involved 783 people from the same Wisconsin registry project. Those who said at the start of the study that they had been diagnosed with hearing loss were more than twice as likely to develop mild cognitive impairment over the next five years as those who did not start out with a hearing problem.
That sort of information is not strong evidence, but it fits with earlier work along those lines.
Family doctors “can do a lot to help us if they knew what to look for” to catch early signs of decline, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer’s Association’s chief science officer. Hearing loss, verbal changes and other known risks such as sleep problems might warrant a referral to a neurologist for a dementia check, she said.
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Audio of example test: http://bit.ly/2sZklbU
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Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP
Prison workers’ exposure to second hand smoke – SHS
To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide comprehensive evidence of prison workers’ exposure to SHS throughout a country’s entire prison system.
Across a suite of measurement methods that include air sampling, biological markers of exposure, and subjective self-report, we have provided evidence of SHS exposure within cells, prison landings, halls, and other communal areas that is regular and systematic in all prisons, but varied by time of day, and between and within different prisons.
The 6-day PM2.5 concentrations measured in a residential hall of each prison are comparable with studies from other countries. The median value reported here was 31.7 µg m−3 (range 11–136 µg m−3) which is similar to the median value of 35.6 µg m−3 (range 27–70 µg m−3) reported from five prisons in England and Wales assessed in a near identical manner using the Dylos DC1700 device (Semple et al., 2015a). Other data from four prisons in England (Jayes et al., 2016) used a TSI Sidepak AM510 to measure PM2.5 concentrations over shorter periods (mean 6.5 hours) on residential landings and reported average concentrations of 43.9 µg m−3 on wings where smoking within cells was permitted. Given that Jayes et al.’s data were gathered during ‘daytime hours’, it is worth noting that the 6-day residential hall results from the present study were 36.5 µg m−3when restricted to daytime hours.
Studies from prisons in other parts of the world provide more divergent results. A study in a single New Zealand prison (Thornley et al., 2013) used the TSI Sidepak AM510 to measure PM2.5concentrations before the introduction of a tobacco ban and reported a GM value of 6.6 µg m−3 over a 14-day period. The device was positioned in the staff base adjacent to the four prison wings. Previous work examining PM2.5, again with the TSI Sidepak AM510, in six prisons in the USA (Proescholdbell et al., 2008) provided mean values of 93.1 µg m−3 from measurements in prison dormitory areas and lobbies. These 14 measurements were taken over short periods with between 43 and 91 minutes spent in each of the six prisons. A study in a Swiss prison (Ritter et al., 2012) reported PM10concentrations made in three prison areas with mean values of 30, 120, and 180 µg m−3, however, duration of measurement was not reported.
The 31.7 µg m−3 PM2.5 median in the current study can also be compared to other smoking and smoke-free environments. For context, the average values reported for smoke-free homes in Scotland is 3.1 µg m−3 (Semple et al., 2015c). Smokers’ homes in Scotland have a median value of 31 µg m−3 (Semple et al., 2015c)—very similar to the 6-day area value measured across the 15 Scottish prisons in this study. Data on PM2.5 concentrations measured in Scottish pubs and bars prior to smoke-free legislation in 2006 indicated a mean value of 246 µg m−3 (Semple et al., 2007b), nearly eight times greater than that measured in Scottish prisons.
The GM for the 86 mobile PM2.5 measurements was 24.1 µg m−3(GSD 4.2), very similar to that for 70 ‘spot’ measurements using a near identical protocol in six prisons in England and Wales (GM 24 µg m−3; GSD 3.5) in 2015 (Semple et al., 2015a). Time-course graphs of both the area and mobile monitoring results show the wide range of PM2.5 concentrations measured, by prison, time of day and specific locations and activities. The mobile measurement results suggest that some areas of most prisons, including health care, sports/gym facilities, teaching, and reception areas, are essentially smoke-free. Many workshop area measurements also indicate little, if any, SHS exposure. However, staff exposure is considerable in many other areas, particularly those close to cells. Staff offices, corridors, and landings show evidence of SHS drifting from prisoners’ cells to these communal areas.
Concentrations during recreation activities were particularly high. Activities involving cell unlocking, cell searches, cell fabric inspections, and cell maintenance generally suggest considerable exposure.
These activities may result in staff being exposed to concentrations that are several times higher than the WHO guideline for PM2.5 with some of these activity-based measurements indicating values comparable with those measured in Scottish bars when smoking was permitted (Semple et al., 2007b).
The airborne nicotine measurements reported in this study had a median of 0.32 µg m−3. These values are considerably lower than we would have anticipated given the PM2.5 results from the co-located Dylos DC1700 devices together with the data on likely nicotine concentrations from saliva samples.
We note that the ‘Rosetta stone’ equations developed by Repace and colleagues (2006) suggest that PM2.5 concentrations are roughly 10 times those of airborne nicotine in settings where SHS is present. Given the Dylos median of 31.7 µg m−3, we would anticipate an air nicotine median of about 3.2 µg m−3. In comparison, Hammond and Emmons (2005) measured weekly airborne nicotine concentrations in three US prisons before smoke-free rules were put in place. Their analysis of 84 locations indicated average values ranging between 3 and 11 µg m−3 in most living and sleeping areas within these prisons. Ritter et al. (2011) reported mean values of 7.0 µg m−3 in a Swiss prison, while work in smoking homes by Phillips and co-workers (1996) and by Butz et al. (2011) indicated airborne nicotine concentrations of 1.1 and 1.4 µg m−3, respectively. Both these studies (Butz et al., 2011; Ritter et al., 2011) also reported PM concentrations very similar to those measured by our Dylos DC1700 devices in prisons (39 and 35 versus 32 µg m−3). Our results using pre- and post-shift cotinine also suggest that prison workers’ nicotine intake matches with the 20–30 µg m−3 estimate of PM2.5 when using the Repace (2006) Rosetta Stone equations.
There are two possible explanations for the low concentrations of airborne nicotine we measured: firstly it is possible that the nicotine results we report are correct given that they were collected using a validated method; alternatively, it is possible that some systematic loss of nicotine occurred during the storage, transportation, or analysis of the filters.
While we acknowledge the possibility of the former, we consider that the latter is more plausible given the evidence of SHS exposure that we report here and the lack of alternative sources of the PM2.5 measured. We also note a strong and consistent relationship (R-squared = 0.91) between the airborne nicotine values and the PM2.5 concentrations suggesting that the measured PM2.5 was reflecting particle emissions that were linked to SHS. After extensive discussions with the laboratory to explore potential reasons for the low nicotine results, we identified that, for a week prior to shipping to the USA, the nicotine monitors were stored in a laboratory where temperatures regularly exceeded 27°C. We are also unaware of the environmental conditions in terms of temperature and pressure that the filters may have experienced during airfreight transport. We postulate that there may have been some systematic nicotine loss from the filters during either storage and/or air transportation to the USA after collection that resulted in a systematic error. Future work should aim to collect and analyse spiked samples to examine if such losses occur and calculate recovery efficiencies for this methodology.
The high level of agreement between the Dylos measured PM2.5results and the nicotine concentrations suggest that real-time measurement of PM2.5 with these low-cost devices presents considerable advantages over nicotine monitoring. The information on temporal changes of SHS concentrations, coupled with the simplicity of data collection with no laboratory analysis costs, provide significant practical benefits for future work in this area.
The salivary cotinine data taken at the end of the work-shift indicates a GM (GSD) value of 0.15 (2.48) ng ml−1. This compares to a GM (GSD) of 0.12 (3.39) ng ml−1 in 54 prison workers in England and Wales in 2015 (Semple et al., 2015a). A salivary cotinine GM of 0.09 ng ml−1 was reported in the most recent (2014/5) population-level survey of non-smoking adults in Scotland (Scottish Health Survey, 2015), while historically, the GM (GSD) value measured in bar workers in Scotland prior to smoke-free legislation in 2006 was 2.94 (2.28) ng ml−1 (Semple et al., 2007a). These data indicate that prison staff have exposure that is markedly higher than the general adult non-smoking population in Scotland, but also suggest that prison workers experience much lower exposures than those of bar workers prior to smoke-free legislation in 2006.
Using the difference between the pre- and post-shift saliva samples, we utilized Repace and colleagues’ (2006) ‘Rosetta Stone’ equations to estimate a PM equivalent exposure during the work-shift. The median increase in salivary cotinine for the 149 non-smoking workers to whom we could apply this method was 0.138 ng ml−1; this equates to a work-shift average of SHS-PM of 24.8 µg m−3. We acknowledge that this method excludes over 60% of those non-smoking prison staff who arrived at work with salivary cotinine levels <LOD and so may not be representative of the exposure of all prison workers. However, we note that the results generated by this approach are broadly in agreement with the personal PM2.5measurements made on 22 prison staff in England monitored for an average of 4.2 hours (Jayes et al., 2016) where a mean value of 23.5 µg m−3 was reported, and a study of six English prisons (Semple et al., 2015a) where the GM (GSD) personal exposure of 30 prison staff to PM2.5 was 19 (2.2) µg m−3.
Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells Ameliorate Aging Frailty
Estimating the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and thyroid disorders using medication data in Flanders, Belgium
Google Local Guides and Motherhealth Health Guides
Email Motherhealth@gmail.com to be a local health guide that can provide feedback or share your experience in various health issues and health cues/topics/DIY to the community.
For example, one friend suggested not to use a learning hospital for some specific health issues such as cancer to get better care. This is his opinion and observed by another. 2 votes on this one.
Another suggested to cut on red meat and other inflammatory foods to relieve of arthritis pain.
Harvard Health Letter
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Email motherhealth@gmail.com if you have answers to some health related questions posted here. Aside from medical and scientific findings, we also need to know your experience about health, drugs/meds, and other health issues.
Unfit to serve T-shirts
The impeachment process has begun.
Rep. Brad Sherman — a moderate Democrat — has formally introduced articles of impeachment in the House against Donald Trump for obstruction of justice, joining leaders like Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Al Green in openly working to impeach Trump.
This is important. If Trump feels he can break the law, obstruct justice, and get away with it on the Russia investigation, he will be able to break the law with impunity when it comes to issues like the Muslim ban, immigrant rights, climate action, women’s rights, civil rights, and so much more.
Impeachment is written into the Constitution as a tool for a moment like this — when a president becomes a danger to our rights and our freedoms.
When even a moderate Democrat like Rep. Sherman embraces impeachment, it’s clear momentum is building fast. Even then, we know it will take person-to-person conversations to win support and change minds.
Nothing starts that conversation better than a T-shirt, travel mug, or bumper sticker.
The constant revelations linking Trump to Russia have forced some Republicans to admit the truth.
As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer begrudgingly said on Fox News:
“This was a bungled collusion. This was amateurish collusion. This was Keystone Kops collusion. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was attempted collusion and it undoes the White House story completely.”
Still, Republicans aren’t going to embrace impeachment quickly. They will cling to Trump as long as they can. And that’s another case for impeachment — bringing Trump down means bringing down the party that put him in power, kept him there, and resisted all efforts to stop his horrible, bigoted, greedy actions.
The argument against Donald Trump is building momentum, but to create the groundswell of support for removal from office, we need to be making the case to family, friends, and co-workers.
It’s win/win: “Unfit to Serve – Impeach Trump” gear is the perfect way to build grassroots support and fund the campaign to impeach Trump at the same time.
Thank you for helping to lead the resistance, support the work of DFA members across the country, and hold Donald Trump and Republicans accountable.
– Jay
Jay Henderson, Digital Strategy Manager
Democracy for America
Medpage Today
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Dr Perlmutter on ADHD and diet, ketosis and Parkinsons, and Dementia
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You Can Learn So Much About Your Dog’s Health By Looking In His Mouth!
Tell Congress: Finally repeal the blank check for endless war
| Tell Congress: Finally repeal the blank check for endless war | ||
| The petition to the House of Representatives reads: “Congress has the explicit duty to debate and authorize war. Repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force – the flawed blank check that authorizes the president to wage war, anywhere at any time. It has now been nearly 16 years of endless war, it’s time for Congress to finally do its job.” Add your name:
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Dear Connie,
Since 2001, Congress has allowed a state of endless war. They passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in the days following 9/11, and since then presidents have used it to justify warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, the lethal use of drones and so much more.1 But now, after 16 years, Congress has finally taken a crucial first step towards repealing it. The House Appropriations Committee recently passed progressive champion Rep. Barbara Lee’s amendment to sunset the 2001 AUMF.2 This is the first time that a congressional panel has voted to repeal the AUMF and if this amendment continues to move forward, it could finally force Congress to do its job to debate and vote on entering into war against ISIS and al Qaeda.3 We can’t let this opportunity pass by – will you help? The time to repeal the AUMF is long overdue. It is a flawed, overbroad blank check that presidents have used to justify waging war anywhere, at any time. A 2016 report showed that presidents have used the AUMF to justify war acts at least 37 times, in 14 countries.4 The authorization empowers the president to target anyone they deem a threat, even civilians, and fails to specify or limit what actions are authorized, in any way. The AUMF is vague and overbroad – that’s why such widespread application and interpretation is possible and why it’s so important that we seize this opportunity to repeal it. Rep. Lee has been fighting the AUMF since she was the sole vote against it in 2001, and she finally has some other members of Congress standing with her against endless war. It’s clear why: We can’t afford another presidency with a blank check for war. Throughout Trump’s racist and misogynistic campaign, he tried to present himself as an anti-war candidate. Since his election, he has failed to invest in staff or strategies that will lead to anything other than American and civilian bloodshed. He has recklessly ratcheted up tensions in North Korea, threatening – in Trump’s words – a “major, major conflict.”5 Those are not just empty words – he has sent aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and a host of other military forces toward the region. In the past six months he has also escalated our involvement in the Syrian conflict, including illegally launching Tomahawk missiles6 and significantly escalated air strikes in Yemen, dropping more bombs in one week than the Obama administration did in any given year.7 Rather than working to counter terrorism and weaken ISIS, escalating our military entanglement in Middle Eastern countries – with the inevitable escalation of civilian casualties that comes with it – has been shown to actually help terrorists with recruitment. When Trump and his administration are sloppy and reckless with foreign affairs, our troops and innocent civilians will suffer the consequences. Open-ended military engagement, with no end in sight, undermines our long-term national security. At CREDO, we have been proud to stand with Rep. Barbara Lee in her fight to repeal the AUMF, and now that some members of Congress are realizing the urgency, we have to push all of them to take a stand. Tell the House of Representatives: Pass Rep. Lee’s amendment to repeal Trump’s blank check for endless war. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/repeal_AUMF?t=8&akid=24136.11103932.iPeTbp Thank you for standing for peace, Tessa Levine, Campaign Manager Add your name:
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