sábado, 17 de fevereiro de 2018
Eating yogurt may reduce cardiovascular disease risk
Date: February 15, 2018 Source: Oxford University Press USA Summary: A new study suggests that higher yogurt intake is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk among hypertensive men and women.
A new study in the American Journal of Hypertension, published by Oxford University Press, suggests that higher yogurt intake is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk among hypertensive men and women.
High blood pressure is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor. Clinical trials have previously demonstrated beneficial effects of dairy consumption on cardiovascular health. Yogurt may independently be related to cardiovascular disease risk.
High blood pressure affects about one billion people worldwide but may also be a major cause of cardiovascular health problems. Higher dairy consumption has been associated with beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease-related comorbidities such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance.
For the current analyses, participants included over 55,000 women (ages 30-55) with high blood pressure from the Nurses' Health Study and 18,000 men (ages 40-75) who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
In the Nurses' Health Study, participants were asked to complete a mailed 61-item questionnaire in 1980 to report usual dietary intake in the preceding year. Participants subsequently reported any interim physician-diagnosed events including myocardial infarction, stroke, and revascularization. Permission was requested to access medical records to confirm all reported new diagnoses.
Higher intakes of yogurt were associated with a 30 percent reduction in risk of myocardial infarction among the Nurses' Health Study women and a 19 percent reduction in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study men.
There were 3,300 and 2,148 total cardiovascular disease cases (myocardial infarction, stroke, and revascularization) in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, respectively. Higher yogurt intake in women was associated with a 16 percent lower risk of undergoing revascularization.
In both groups, participants consuming more than two servings a week of yogurt had an approximately 20 percent lower risks of major coronary heart disease or stroke during the follow-up period. When revascularization was added to the total cardiovascular disease outcome variable, the risk estimates were reduced for both men and women, but remained significant.
Higher yogurt intake in combination with an overall heart-healthy diet was associated with greater reductions in cardiovascular disease risk among hypertensive men and women.
"We hypothesized that long-term yogurt intake might reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems since some previous small studies had shown beneficial effects of fermented dairy products," said one of the paper's authors, Justin Buendia. "Here, we had a very large cohort of hypertensive men and women, who were followed for up to 30 years. Our results provide important new evidence that yogurt may benefit heart health alone or as a consistent part of a diet rich in fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Oxford University Press USA. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Justin R Buendia, Yanping Li, Frank B Hu, Howard J Cabral, M Loring Bradlee, Paula A Quatromoni, Martha R Singer, Gary C Curhan, Lynn L Moore. Regular Yogurt Intake and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Among Hypertensive Adults. American Journal of Hypertension, 2018; DOI: 10.1093/ajh/hpx220
Cite This Page:
Oxford University Press USA. "Eating yogurt may reduce cardiovascular disease risk." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180215141722.htm>.
sexta-feira, 16 de fevereiro de 2018
Researchers challenge claims that sugar industry shifted blame to fat
Did research funded by the sugar industry unfairly tilt science and policy away from the health risks of sugar in the 1960s? Not so, write historians
Date: February 15, 2018
Source: Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Summary:
In recent years, high-profile claims in the academic literature and popular press have alleged that the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and emphasize instead the dangers of dietary fat. Historians challenge those claims through a careful examination of the evidence.
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quinta-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2018
Os condimentos e a saúde
Link:
MARCOS FURLAN 08 FEVEREIRO 2018
Na culinária, uma pequena quantidade de condimento, além de realçar ou melhorar o sabor, pode proporcionar que menores porções do alimento, do qual faça parte, já sacie a vontade de se alimentar. Mas o destaque, atualmente, para os condimentos, e objetivo principal deste artigo, são as suas propriedades funcionais e medicinais.
São considerados alimentos funcionais porque previnem doenças e fornecem nutrientes, e são medicinais porque atuam no tratamento de doenças. Estas atividades podem ser obtidas por meio dos usos das plantas condimentares in natura, secas ou até mesmo em molhos.
Deve-se realçar que há muitas confusões no Brasil quando se faz referência ao condimento utilizando o nome popular, o que justifica ter o conhecimento de seu nome científico, inclusive, quando se possível, o nome da cultivar ou da variedade.
Alguns exemplos: há pelo menos quatro plantas com o nome açafrão (o legítimo, de cultivo raro no Brasil, é o Crocus sativus); aneto, endro e dill são sinônimos, há dezenas de plantas que recebem o nome de pimenta (maioria do gênero Capsicum), assim como de manjericão, e o manjericão do molho pesto é o cultivar Genovese.
Quanto à saúde, há inúmeras pesquisas comprovando as propriedades medicinais dos condimentos. Uma das mais estudadas é a Curcuma longa, denominada popularmente, por exemplo, por cúrcuma, açafrão-da-terra e falso-açafrão.
Há centenas de artigos científicos que evidenciam suas ações anti-inflamatória, no tratamento da diabetes e antimicrobiana. É considerada uma esperança bastante promissora no tratamento de alguns tipos de canceres.
Quanto à C. longa, a ciência demonstrou algo que o conhecimento popular do Oriente já disseminava, isto é, que a eficiência da planta é mais eficaz quando utilizada no molho curry. Esta mistura contém, dentre outros, a cúrcuma e a pimenta-do-reino (Piper nigrum). Esta última fornece a substância piperina, que melhora a biodisponibilidade da curcumina da cúrcuma.
Há relatos da antiguidade sobre os usos da raiz da salsinha como diurética, atividade terapêutica comprovada pela ciência. Alho, também referido como medicinal em textos antes de Cristo, é considerado antisséptico e coadjuvante no tratamento da hipertensão.
Importante destacar que o alho, assim como outros, pode interagir com medicamentos sintéticos, ou seja, é importante dizer em consulta médica quais condimentos está consumindo. Estas interações também ocorrem entre alimentos, medicamentos sintéticos e medicamentos à base de plantas, como os fitoterápicos.
Atividades antimicrobianas são comprovadas cientificamente para vários condimentos, tais como: alecrim (Rosmarinus officinalis), orégano (Origanum vulgare), sálvia (Salvia officinalis) e tomilho (Thymus vulgaris). As pimentas (do gênero Capsicum), graças ao composto bioativo capsaicina, são consideradas termogênicas e vasodilatadoras.
Quanto à ação preventiva de diversas doenças, como câncer, diabetes e hipertensão, as plantas condimentares também são consideradas eficazes, o que justifica a sua inclusão na alimentação. Os compostos responsáveis são aquelas com capacidade antioxidante, isto é, combatem o excesso de radicais livres, responsáveis pelo início de muitas doenças.
A quantidade a ser incorporada na alimentação não é muito. Uma colher de chá diária de manjericão, alecrim, orégano, tomilho ou manjerona, por exemplo, já é o suficiente para proteger nosso corpo.
Eng. Agr. Marcos Roberto Furlan – Prof. Faculdade Cantareira
quarta-feira, 14 de fevereiro de 2018
Organic food provides significant environmental benefits to plant-rich diets
The study of more than 34,000 people is the first to investigate the environmental impacts of both food choices and farm production systems
Date: February 9, 2018 Source: Frontiers Summary: A study of the diets of 34,000 people confirms that a diet high in fruit and vegetables is better for the planet than one high in animal products. The study also finds that organic food provides significant, additional climate benefits for plant-based diets, but not for diets with only moderate contribution from plant products. This is the first-ever study to look at the environmental impacts of both food choices and farm production systems.
A major new study confirms that a diet high in fruit and vegetables is better for the planet than one high in animal products. The study also finds that organic food provides significant, additional climate benefits for plant-based diets, but not for diets with only moderate contribution from plant products. Published today in open access journal Frontiers in Nutrition, this is the first study to investigate the environmental impacts of both dietary patterns and farm production systems. It is also the first to investigate the environmental impact of organic food consumption using observed diets rather than models.
Many organizations, including the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, advocate the urgent adoption of more sustainable diets at a global level. Such diets include reduced consumption of animal products, which have a higher environmental impact than plant-based products. This is mainly due to the high energy requirements of livestock farming as well as the very large contribution of livestock to greenhouse gas emissions. Intensive livestock production is also responsible for significant biodiversity loss due to conversion of natural habitats to grass and feed crops.
The method of food production may also influence sustainable diets. Organic agriculture is generally considered more environmentally friendly than other modern production techniques. However, while many studies have investigated environmentally sustainable diets, these have rarely considered both dietary choices and the production method of the foods consumed.
"We wanted to provide a more comprehensive picture of how different diets impact the environment," says Louise Seconda from the French Agence De L'Environnement Et De La Maitrise De L'Energie and the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Unit one of the article's authors. "In particular, it is of considerable interest to consider the impacts of both plant-based foods and organic foods."
To do this, researchers obtained information on food intake and organic food consumption from more than 34,000 French adults. They used what's called a 'provegetarian' score to determine preferences for plant-based or animal-based food products. The researchers also conducted production life cycle environmental impact assessments at the farm level against three environmental indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand and land occupation.
"Combining consumption and farm production data we found that across the board, diet-related environmental impacts were reduced with a plant-based diet -- particularly greenhouse gas emissions," says Louise Seconda. "The consumption of organic food added even more environmental benefits for a plant-based diet. In contrast, consumption of organic food did not add significant benefits to diets with high contribution from animal products and only moderate contribution from plant products."
However the researchers caution that the environmental effects of production systems are not uniform and can be impacted by climate, soil types and farm management.
"We didn't look at other indicators such as pesticide use, leaching and soil quality which are relevant to the environmental impacts of productions systems," says Louise Seconda. "Therefore future studies could also consider these as well as supply chain and distribution impacts of food production."
The authors also say it will be important to conduct further studies to confirm these results and to expand our understanding of how the entire food production lifecycle impacts sustainability.
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Materials provided by Frontiers. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Camille Lacour, Louise Seconda, Benjamin Allès, Serge Hercberg, Brigitte Langevin, Philippe Pointereau, Denis Lairon, Julia Baudry, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot. Environmental Impacts of Plant-Based Diets: How Does Organic Food Consumption Contribute to Environmental Sustainability?Frontiers in Nutrition, 2018; 5 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2018.00008
Cite This Page:
Frontiers. "Organic food provides significant environmental benefits to plant-rich diets: The study of more than 34,000 people is the first to investigate the environmental impacts of both food choices and farm production systems." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180209100721.htm>.
Palm oil in your Valentine's chocolate? Beware
Date: February 13, 2018 Source: Université de Montréal Summary: A diet rich in saturated fat and sugar not only leads to obesity, it creates inflammation in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that controls mood and the feeling of reward. And this inflammation can lead to depressive, anxious and compulsive behavior and disrupt metabolism,according to a new study.
A diet rich in saturated fat and sugar not only leads to obesity, it creates inflammation in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that controls mood and the feeling of reward. And this inflammation can lead to depressive, anxious and compulsive behaviour and disrupt metabolism, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). Published in the journal Molecular Metabolism, the study on mice provides new evidence confirming the harmful effect of saturated fat on health.
"The depressive, anxious and compulsive behaviours and the metabolic changes observed with a diet rich in sugar and saturated fat were not observed with a diet rich in sugar and monounsaturated fat, the type of fat found in olive oil," said Stéphanie Fulton, a CRCHUM researcher and professor in the Department of Nutrition of Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine. The metabolic changes observed with the diet high in saturated fat, such as hyperinsulinemia and glucose intolerance, are associated with pre-diabetes.
Fulton and her team of researchers worked with two groups of mice fed a diet containing the same number of calories every day, 50 per cent of which were from fat. One of the groups was fed a saturated-fat diet, while the other received monounsaturated fat. A third group of mice was fed a low-fat diet. "The animals with the diet rich in saturated fat voluntarily ate more grams of food, and therefore, more calories," said Léa Décarie-Spain, the study's first author and a PhD student in the laboratories of Fulton and her colleague Thierry Alquier. "It took only 12 weeks for the diet rich in saturated fat to cause obesity, anxiodepressive behaviours and the metabolic changes associated with prediabetes."
Many studies conducted on humans have shown that a Mediterranean diet low in saturated fat has a protective effect against depression. In this study, the researchers were able to identify the neuronal mechanisms that link obesity to depression.
The study showed that anxiodepressive behaviours result from inflammation observed in the nucleus accumbens. A genetic manipulation made it possible to inhibit the molecule that plays a key role in spreading the inflammation to that part of the brain.
"This manipulation succeeded in protecting the mice with a diet rich in saturated fat from inflammation; consequently, the signs of depression and anxiety and the compulsive behaviours associated with sugar disappeared," explained Décarie-Spain. These advances pave the way for further research into an anti-inflammatory genetic intervention in the nucleus accumbens that could inhibit depression caused by inflammation.
This discovery is also a good illustration of the vicious circle experienced by people with obesity caused by a diet rich in sugar and saturated fat. "Their diet leads to negative emotions, which stimulates the quest for comfort through food, which increases the risk of developing compulsive behaviour," noted Décarie-Spain.
Saturated fat is found mainly in palm oil, widely used in the processed food industry, as well as in products of animal origin.
This study was conducted with animals, but it is believed that the mechanism that occurs in the nucleus accumbens of humans is similar.
"We hope that this study will help educate people about the importance of diet, not only because of the cardiovascular diseases and cancers associated with obesity, but also because of the neurological and psychiatric problems that are increasingly linked to obesity," said Fulton. "We also hope that our results will put pressure on the food industry to replace these types of fat with monounsaturated fats."
A few cookies or a hamburger from time to time won't bring on a case of depression, the researchers cautioned. "We should simply avoid eating such foods on a regular basis in order to keep our metabolism healthy and free of inflammation," said Décarie-Spain. "It's a question of moderation."
This study follows on an earlier study published by Fulton in 2013 which showed that obesity leads to anxiodepressive behaviours and hormonal changes, which have an impact on the reward signal and vulnerability to stress.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Université de Montréal. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Léa Décarie-Spain, Sandeep Sharma, Cécile Hryhorczuk, Victor Issa Garcia, Philip A. Barker, Nathalie Arbour, Thierry Alquier, Stephanie Fulton. Nucleus accumbens inflammation mediates anxiodepressive behavior and compulsive sucrose seeking elicited by saturated dietary fat. Molecular Metabolism, 2018; DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2018.01.018
Cite This Page:
Université de Montréal. "Palm oil in your Valentine's chocolate? Beware." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180213112344.htm>.
Efforts are needed to tap into the potential of nutraceuticals
Date: February 13, 2018 Source: Wiley Summary: A growing demand exists for nutraceuticals, which seem to reside in the grey area between pharmaceuticals and food.
A growing demand exists for nutraceuticals, which seem to reside in the grey area between pharmaceuticals and food. The products are thought to provide medical or health benefits "beyond the diet, but before the drugs." A new review published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology looks at the potential of nutraceuticals, stressing the need for a proper definition of nutraceuticals and clear regulations to ensure their safety.
In the review article, a team led by Ettore Novellino, PhD and Antonello Santini, PhD, of the University of Napoli Federico II in Italy, states that nutraceuticals with proven efficacy and health benefits substantiated by clinical data could be used as powerful tools to prevent and treat medical conditions, especially in individuals who may not yet be eligible for conventional pharmaceutical drugs. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to have a proper and unequivocal definition of nutraceuticals, to conduct clinical studies on their safety and efficacy, and to have standardized regulations for their use. In addition, nutraceuticals require a specific classification apart from food supplements and pharmaceuticals.
The authors propose the following definition for nutraceuticals: the phytocomplex of a vegetable or the pool of secondary metabolites from an animal. Both are concentrated and administered in a pharmaceutical form and are capable of providing beneficial health effects, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease.
"Nutraceuticals, in the collective imagination of the consumer, tend to be confused and wrongly identified with many other products available on the market on the basis of potential health benefits," said Dr. Novellino. "An evaluation of the safety, the mechanism of action, and the effectiveness of nutraceuticals -- and substantiating this with clinical data -- is the central point that differentiates nutraceuticals from food supplements."
Dr. Santini added that the growing demand and interest in nutraceuticals justifies the need for a restructuring of the entire regulatory framework that differentiates nutraceuticals from food supplements. "We propose a regulatory system that is similar to the one used for drugs, which is more rigorous and more complex than the one commonly accepted for food supplements," he said. "It is important for consumer protection that national authorities and regulatory agencies require manufacturers to provide data to support any claim in the labels of products when the term nutraceutical is used."
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Materials provided by Wiley. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Antonello Santini, Silvia Miriam Cammarata, Giacomo Capone, Angela Ianaro, Giancarlo Tenore, Luca Pani, Ettore Novellino. Nutraceuticals: opening the debate for a regulatory framework. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/bcp.13496
Cite This Page:
Wiley. "Efforts are needed to tap into the potential of nutraceuticals." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180213084414.htm>.
Diet may influence the spread of a deadly type of breast cancer, study finds
Date: February 7, 2018 Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Summary: A single protein building block commonly found in food may hold a key to preventing the spread of an often-deadly type of breast cancer, according to a new multicenter study. Investigators found that by limiting an amino acid called asparagine in laboratory mice with triple-negative breast cancer, they could dramatically reduce the ability of the cancer to travel to distant sites in the body. Among other techniques, the team used dietary restrictions to limit asparagine.
Asparagus (stock image).
Credit: © Nelly Kovalchuk / Fotolia
A single protein building block commonly found in food may hold a key to preventing the spread of an often-deadly type of breast cancer, according to a new multicenter study published today in the medical journal Nature.
Investigators found that by limiting an amino acid called asparagine in laboratory mice with triple-negative breast cancer, they could dramatically reduce the ability of the cancer to travel to distant sites in the body. Among other techniques, the team used dietary restrictions to limit asparagine.
Foods rich in asparagine include dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood, asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy and whole grains. Foods low in asparagine include most fruits and vegetables.
"Our study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests diet can influence the course of the disease," said Simon Knott, PhD, associate director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics at Cedars-Sinai and one of two first authors of the study. The research was conducted at more than a dozen institutions.
If further research confirms the findings in human cells, limiting the amount of asparagine cancer patients ingest could be a potential strategy to augment existing therapies and to prevent the spread of breast cancer, Knott added.
The researchers studied triple-negative breast cancer cells, which grow and spread faster than most other types of cancer cells. It is called triple negative because it lacks receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone and makes little of a protein called HER2. As a result, it resists common treatments -- which target these factors and has a higher-than-average mortality rate.
Research from past studies found that most tumor cells remain in the primary breast site, but a subset of cells leaves the breast and enters the bloodstream. Those cells colonize in the lungs, brain and liver, where they proliferate. The study team wanted to understand the particular traits of the tumor cells circulating in the blood and in the sites where the cancer has spread.
The researchers discovered that the appearance of asparagine synthetase -- the enzyme cells used to make asparagine -- in a primary tumor was strongly associated with later cancer spread.
The researchers also found that metastasis was greatly limited by reducing asparagine synthetase, treatment with the chemotherapy drug L-asparaginase, or dietary restriction. When the lab mice were given food rich in asparagine, the cancer cells spread more rapidly.
"The study results are extremely suggestive that changes in diet might impact both how an individual responds to primary therapy and their chances of lethal disease spreading later in life," said the study's senior author, Gregory J. Hannon, PhD, professor of Cancer Molecular Biology and director, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge in England.
Investigators now are considering conducting an early-phase clinical trial in which healthy participants would consume a low-asparagine diet. If the diet results in decreased levels of asparagine, the next scientific step would involve a clinical trial with cancer patients. That trial likely would employ dietary restrictions as well as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, Knott said.
Studying the effects of asparagine also could alter treatments for other types of cancer, investigators say.
"This study may have implications not only for breast cancer, but for many metastatic cancers," said Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, vice dean, Research and Graduate Research Education, at Cedars-Sinai.
Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, under these awards numbers: P50-CA58223-09A1, R00 CA194077 and 5P30CA045508; by the National Institutes of Health grant number 5 P01 CA013106-44; and by the Susan G. Komen Foundation (SAC110006); the ICR and CRUK grand challenge award (C59824/A25044); and a grant from the DOD BCRP (W81XWH-1-0300).
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Materials provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Simon R. V. Knott, Elvin Wagenblast, Showkhin Khan, Sun Y. Kim, Mar Soto, Michel Wagner, Marc-Olivier Turgeon, Lisa Fish, Nicolas Erard, Annika L. Gable, Ashley R. Maceli, Steffen Dickopf, Evangelia K. Papachristou, Clive S. D’Santos, Lisa A. Carey, John E. Wilkinson, J. Chuck Harrell, Charles M. Perou, Hani Goodarzi, George Poulogiannis, Gregory J. Hannon. Asparagine bioavailability governs metastasis in a model of breast cancer. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/nature25465
Cite This Page:
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "Diet may influence the spread of a deadly type of breast cancer, study finds." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180207140401.htm>.
Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than Opioids
Date: February 13, 2018 Source: American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Summary: A new study found cannabis therapy is safe and efficacious for elderly patients who are seeking to address cancer symptoms, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and other medical issues. After six months, more than 18 percent of patients surveyed had stopped using opioid analgesics or had reduced their dosage.
Medical cannabis therapy can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients age 65 and older without adverse effects, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute at Soroka University Medical Center.
The new study, published in The European Journal of Internal Medicine, found cannabis therapy is safe and efficacious for elderly patients who are seeking to address cancer symptoms, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and other medical issues.
"While older patients represent a large and growing population of medical cannabis users, few studies have addressed how it affects this particular group, which also suffers from dementia, frequent falls, mobility problems, and hearing and visual impairments," says Prof. Victor Novack, M.D., a professor of medicine in the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS), and head of the Soroka Cannabis Clinical Research Institute. Novack is also the BGU Gussie Krupp Chair in Internal Medicine.
"After monitoring patients 65 and older for six months, we found medical cannabis treatment significantly relieves pain and improves quality of life for seniors with minimal side effects reported."
This older population represents a growing segment of medical cannabis users, ranging from approximately seven percent to more than 33 percent, depending on the country. Recent U.S. polls indicate Americans over 65 represent 14 percent of the total population and use more than 30 percent of all prescription drugs, including highly addictive painkillers.
BGU researchers surveyed 2,736 patients 65 years and older who received medical cannabis through "Tikun Olam," the largest Israeli medical cannabis supplier. More than 60 percent were prescribed medical cannabis due to the pain, particularly pain associated with cancer. After six months of treatment, more than 93 percent of 901 respondents reported their pain dropped from a median of eight to four on a 10-point scale. Close to 60 percent of patients who originally reported "bad" or "very bad" quality of life upgraded to "good" or "very good" after six months. More than 70 percent of patients surveyed reported moderate to significant improvement in their condition.
The most commonly reported adverse effects were dizziness (9.7 percent) and dry mouth (7.1 percent). After six months, more than 18 percent of patients surveyed had stopped using opioid analgesics or had reduced their dosage.
All patients received a prescription after consulting with a doctor who prescribed treatment. More than 33 percent of patients used cannabis-infused oil; approximately 24 percent inhaled therapy by smoking, and approximately six percent used vaporization.
While the researchers state their findings to date indicate cannabis may decrease dependence on prescription medicines, including opioids, more evidence-based data from this special, aging population is imperative.
Story Source:
Materials provided by American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Ran Abuhasira, Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, Raphael Mechoulam, Victor Novack. Epidemiological characteristics, safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in the elderly. The European Journal of Internal Medicine, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2018.01.019
Cite This Page:
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than Opioids." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 February 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180213111508.htm>.
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