A Drug to cure fear? Could this really work...and where does fear come from?

·      Phobias, panic attacks and PTSD extremely common

o   29% of American adults suffer anxiety at some point in their lives

·      What is fear?

o   Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus

§  Causes the release of chemicals that cause:

·      racing heart

·      fast breathing

·      energized muscles

·      also known as the fight-or-flight response

o   Stimulus could be a spider, a knife at your throat, an auditorium full of people waiting for you to speak or the sudden, load noise

o   The process of creating fear begins with a scary stimulus and ends with the fight-or-flight response.

·      Fear and anxiety stems from emotional memory

o   Emotional memory: associations you have between various stimuli and experiences and your emotional response to them.

o   Because of emotional memory fear is learned

o   Previously harmless situation can predict danger

·      Current treatment for phobias

o   Exposure therapy: repeated exposure to feared object or frightening memory in a safe setting

§  Done to create new safe memory in the brain alongside the bad memory

§  Fear is suppressed

§  If patient is re-traumatized or re-exposed to original experience, his old fear will return worse than before

§  Can be difficult to relive scarring memories

§  Limitations of exposure therapy

§  Only works for ~50% of PTSD cases

·      New Research in Curing Fear

o   New research from University of Amsterdam suggests that it may be possible to change and perhaps ERASE certain types of emotional memories

o   Past research

§  Memories are uniquely vulnerable to alteration at two points

·      when we first lay them down

·      when we retrieve them

o   Study published last month suggests emotional fear response in healthy people with arachnophobia, erased

o    published in the journal Biological Psychiatry

§  compared three groups made up of 45 subjects in total

·      One group was exposed to a tarantula in a glass jar for two minutes then given a beta-blocker (propranolol)

·      One was exposed to the tarantula and given a placebo

·      One was just given propranolol without being shown the spider, to rule out the possibility that propranolol by itself could decrease spider fear

§  subjects’ anxiety when they were shown the spider the first time, then again three months later, and finally after a year

o   Results:

§  Those given propranolol alone and those who got the placebo had no improvement in their anxiety

§  Those exposed to the spider and given the drug were able to touch the tarantula within days and, by three months, many felt comfortable holding the spider with their bare hands

§  Their fear did not return even at the end of one year

o   Mechanism:

§  Propranolol blocks the effects of norepinephrine in the brain

§  Chemical similar to adrenaline, enhances learning

·      Blocking it disrupts the way a memory is put back in storage after it is retrieved — a process called reconsolidation

·      By reactivating the fear, the fear memory was made susceptible to the influence of propranolol

Is a Prescription to Weight Loss Right for You?

Weight loss is a struggle for many people, and although we know that consistent diet and exercise works, it can be a long hard road to a healthy weight.   For those who are obese or morbidly obese, that is a BMI of 27 or higher, your physician may prescribe a weight loss pill to help you reach a healthy weight.  At first glance, this might seem like a godsend, but may not be promoting the right attitude towards proper diet and exercise.

The reality is, a pill will never be able to replace the biological and psychological effect the right diet and exercise has on us. Many people don’t pay close attention to their diet and focus very little energy on real physical activity. Keeping nutrition aside, exercise has a profound effect on the body, even in just 20 minutes. Exercise has many benefits far beyond weight control. Being active can improve your sleep cycle, strengthen your bones, improve sex life, boost immune system, elevate cognitive function and focus as well as actually fight chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.  A pill cannot do this for you.

Some underlying conditions may affect your journey to weight loss, or may make it harder for you to be active enough to have an impact.  For these special cases, or to boost the weight loss effects of diet and exercise, doctors may prescribe weight loss drugs.  The most common prescription weight loss drugs are orlistat, Belviq, Contrave, Saxenda, phentermine, and Qsymia.  There are a lot of factors that go into the prescription of these drugs like medical history, allergies, and other drug interactions.  People need to understand that it is not a “quick fix” to a new and healthy them.  Pills may be a positive solution for those who are physically unable to exercise. But that is a small group overall.  In short, a diet pill will never be able to substitute for the effects of physical exercise and clean eating.

Exercise recommendations state that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity each week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that only 1 in 5 people meet these guidelines.  Clearly prevention is a major problem in America. The hope is that physicians, whether they are prescribing weight loss drugs or not, are also emphasizing the need for a good diet and exercise plan.  This will help those struggling to manage their weight form positive daily patterns that they can follow long term.  The good news is that running, jogging or even walking outside for 20 minutes improves your health in a ton of ways, helping keep you healthy and stave off chronic diseases.  Diet pills under the supervision of a doctor might offer a quick fix to jumpstart your weight loss journey, but they should not be looked at as the overall solution in changing your life.

Pot becoming widely accepted in U.S.

In the last ten years, marijuana use among American adults has doubled. According to surveys, it has risen to almost 10 percent, or more than 22 million mostly recreational users. Researchers say this trend reflects increasingly tolerant views about the drug. Other studies have shown more adults think marijuana should be legalized. There are now four states which permit recreational use of marijuana: Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

The study was from a comparison of health surveys from 2001-02 and 2012-13 sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The study involved almost 80,000 adults 18 and older who were interviewed about various health-related behaviors. The results showed that almost one in three people who were reportedly using marijuana showed signs of marijuana dependence or abuse. This is a slight reduction compared to ten years ago. The results were published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

The study participants were asked whether they had used marijuana in the past year, and about signs of abuse. Those include trying but unable to reduce heavy use, and continued use despite knowing it may be damaging health or causing depression or anxiety. This is a problem affecting about 6.8 million adults. Use increased among all ages but was most common in adults 18 to 29.

Marijuana use was higher among teenagers. About 23 percent of high school students had used the drug in the past month in 2013. However, research shows that teen use has been somewhat stagnant during the past decade.  

The results likely reflect mostly recreational use because most states didn’t have medical-marijuana laws during the years the surveys took place. The results show that people can use marijuana without harms, but there are risks. More research is needed to determine the causes of problematic use.