Researchers are sounding the alarm: Substances destroys teeth

Cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine and other drugs can have serious consequences for dental health, warns researcher at the School of Dentistry. It writes Dental Journal.

It is well known that drugs can cause physical, psychological and social problems, but a wide range of illicit drugs also affects the teeth and mouth and can cause problems as caries and periodontal disease.

‘Does medical marijuana ‘work’?” That question, posed in an illuminating new book by David Casarett, a hospice physician and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, sounds simple and turns out to be anything but.

It is known that cannabis is effective in helping individuals that suffer from insomnia; of the many medicinal applications of cannabis, sleep aid is certainly one of them. What is strange, however, is that many of those that use cannabis as a regular sleep aid report having a loss of dream activity or an inability recollect any dreams at all. Considering the normal effects of marijuana on normal, waking consciousness, why is it that the dream state is dulled while sleeping under its effects? 

The Food and Drug Administration has approved limited use of the powerful and frequently abused painkiller OxyContin for children as young as 11 years old, the agency announced Thursday.

Dr. Sharon Hertz, director of new anesthesia, analgesia and addiction products for the FDA, said studies by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Connecticut, which manufactures the drug, "supported a new pediatric indication for OxyContin in patients 11 to 16 years old and provided prescribers with helpful information about the use of OxyContin in pediatric patients."

OxyContin is a long-release version of oxycodone, an opioid that acts on the brain like heroin and is intended for only the most severe and chronic pain cases.

A weight loss pill may be available in five years, suggest researchers who found that a combination of extracts taken from cannabis and vitamin A shows promise as a drug to tackle obesity. 

"The results of our study show, for the first time, that particular compounds in cannabis and vitamin A can work together to reduce the deposit of lipids (fats)," said Dr Yann Gibert, the Head of the Metabolic Genetic Diseases Research Laboratory at Deakin University, Australia. 

"This finding opens up exciting opportunities to potentially treat obesity without the need for invasive surgery," Gibert said. 

There is a major problem for Illinois residents who are interested in getting medical marijuana, once the dispensaries open up later this year.

Friday, August 14, 2015, UnityPoint Health-Trinity Chief Medical Officer Paul McLoone said that employees under their system, will not be recommending medical marijuana to patients in the state. Friday, officials at Genesis Health System came out with a similar statement.

“As medical marijuana is not a regulated drug that has the research behind it, there’s not going to be that comfort level with it,” Mcloone said.

Florida lawmakers passed the so-called Charlotte's Web medical marijuana law two years ago -- but to date nobody has been helped.

That may change under a bill filed for the 2016 legislative session that would remove the limit on the number of growers and expand the number of diseases that qualify for use to include HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease, or any terminal illness. Only cancer patients and seizure sufferers qualify now.

The current law has been bogged down in red tape from the Department of Health as well as litigation from nursery owners trying to position themselves as one of only five cannabis growers in the state.

Many scientists are increasingly frustrated by the disregard of scientific evidence on cannabis use and regulation. To set the record straight, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), a global network of scientists working on drug policy issues, released two groundbreaking reports today evaluating the strength of commonly heard cannabis claims.

Forget about weight watchers; new research out of Nunavik suggests the secret to a slim figure might be… marijuana.

Recently, researchers from Quebec looked into why levels of Type 2 diabetes were so low among Inuit.

Dr Michel Lucas is one of the co-authors of a study linking low body weight and marijuana use in Nunavik. (CBC)

The study, called "Cannabis use in relation to obesity and insulin resistance in the Inuit population," analysed health data from 786 adults in Nunavik, and the results took them by surprise.

A new analysis of data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has found that most American adults have experienced some level of pain, from brief to more lasting pain, and from relatively minor to more severe pain. The analysis helps to unravel the complexities of a Nation in pain. It found that an estimated 25.3 million adults (11.2 percent) had pain every day for the preceding 3 months. Nearly 40 million adults (17.6 percent) experience severe levels of pain. Those with severe pain are also likely to have worse health status. The analysis was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and was published in The Journal of Pain.

Pain in the United States