The Health News USA November 16 2017
- The FDA said that kratom, a plant product used by some as a home remedy for opioid addiction and by others just for fun, can kill you and doesn’t belong on the market. The FDA says it will seize shipments of kratom and issued a public health warning telling people not to use it. Supporters of kratom use have been fighting to keep it legal for years. The DEA temporarily listed kratom as a Schedule one controlled substance last August, but withdrew the decision after an outcry and a targeted petition effort.
- A new study shows that fewer Americans are drinking sugary beverages each day compared with a decade ago, but the decline is not evenly spread among the population. The Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health study found that over ten years, some minority groups were as likely to be drinking one sugary beverage per day at the end of the study as they had been at the outset. The WHO last year urged all countries to consider adopting these taxes to curb obesity, but campaigners face strong opposition from food and beverage companies.
- The task of destigmatizing postpartum depression has been taken up by an unexpected group in recent years: the celebrity mom. Long purveyors of the perfect mom image, these women are now presenting a more tarnished, which is to say accurate, version of motherhood by discussing their mental health struggles following the birth of their children.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 16th of November 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/kratom-products-can-kill-you-fda-says-n820801
The Food and Drug Administration said that kratom, a plant product used by some as a home remedy for opioid addiction and by others just for fun, can kill you and doesn’t belong on the market. The FDA says it will seize shipments of kratom and issued a public health warning telling people not to use it. The FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement: “The FDA is aware of reports of thirty six deaths associated with the use of kratom-containing products.”There have been reports of kratom being laced with other opioids like hydrocodone. The use of kratom is also associated with serious side effects like seizures, liver damage and withdrawal symptoms.”
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Until it is tested like any other drug and shown to be safe and effective, Gottlieb said the FDA would work to keep marketers from selling it. Some people think kratom is safe because it comes from a plant — it’s a relative of coffee — but many poisons come from plants, including opioids, cyanide and ricin.
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Supporters of kratom use have been fighting to keep it legal for years. The Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily listed kratom as a Schedule one controlled substance last August, but withdrew the decision after an outcry and a targeted petition effort. Dozens of websites sell kratom, but the FDA said it would exercise its jurisdiction over the product as an unapproved drug. Supporters say they use kratom to treat aches and pains, anxiety and to boost focus. But websites also say it can treat diabetes, addiction and acts as a sexual stimulant. Users can be very passionate about kratom.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/13/soda-drinking-us-sugary-beverages-minorities
A new study shows that fewer Americans are drinking sugary beverages each day compared with a decade ago, but the decline is not evenly spread among the population. The Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health study found that over ten years, some minority groups were as likely to be drinking one sugary beverage per day at the end of the study as they had been at the outset. Study author Sara Bleich, professor of public health policy at Harvard said: “Sugary beverages are the single largest source of calories for many people in the US and they are also highly linked to obesity.”
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The sugary beverages, including soda, punch and sports drinks, have become a target for public health campaigns worldwide in the last decade. The findings of the study, published in the journal Obesity, are significant because they are likely to guide public health experts’ future efforts to enact soda taxes.
The World Health Organization last year urged all countries to consider adopting these taxes to curb obesity, but campaigners face strong opposition from food and beverage companies.
Despite how hard it is to enact the taxes, those in place in cities including Philadelphia appear to be working based on preliminary data, Bleich said. Chain retailers in Philadelphia saw a fifty seven percent decline in the total sales of sugary beverages six months into the tax, Bleich said, compared with Baltimore, Maryland, which was used as a control city. From two thousand four to two thousand fourteen, the proportion of children and of adults who drank sugar-sweetened beverages dropped, according to the study. In that period, the percentage of children drinking the beverages sank from nearly eighty percent to sixty percent, and the percentage of adults fell from sixty one percent to fifty percent.
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However, not all groups saw a decline. Researchers did not find any significant decline in the proportion of Mexican Americans, non-Mexican American Latinos and black Americans between twenty and thirty nine or older than sixty who drank the beverages.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/14/health/celebrity-postpartum-strauss/index.html
The task of destigmatizing postpartum depression has been taken up by an unexpected group in recent years: the celebrity mom. Long purveyors of the perfect mom image, these women are now presenting a more tarnished, which is to say accurate, version of motherhood by discussing their mental health struggles following the birth of their children. In the pages of glossy magazines and on network television shows, Chrissy Teigen, Gwyneth Paltrow and Adele among others, have spoken about their struggles with the condition. They’re following the lead of Brooke Shields and Marie Osmond, both of whom published books about their experiences.
Shara Brofman, a psychologist focusing on reproductive mental health at the Seleni Institute, told CNN that she is glad to see women sharing their postpartum depression stories and understands why most women would feel comfortable sharing them only after they’ve gotten better. Many women feel depressed during pregnancy, and anxiety after childbirth is more common than depression. Also, it’s not just a woman thing; men suffer from PMADs, too.
Celebrities who reveal their postpartum depression also might consider addressing the reality that stigma is not the only thing standing in the way of seeking treatment for many.
Screening for PMADs is not routine during all pediatrician or OB-GYN appointments in the United States. This is despite the fact that PMADs are one of most common complications during pregnancy and childbirth (affecting as many as twenty percent of women), are more likely to affect poor women who often can’t afford additional medical treatment and can have long-term negative effects on children. As celebrity moms continue to make their postpartum depression reveals, more of them should consider shining their star power on the millions of other women who experience the same symptoms but lack the means and the luck to receive treatment.
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