Medicinal Cannabis For Kids With ADHD!

…and other items from this week’s health science news:

The other “chill pill”?

Cannabis is now being investigated for its potential to benefit children with autism, ADHD, and Tourette’s!

It’s a natural direction for research—after all, many children with these conditions have symptoms such as anxiety and agitation, and while standard medications (like stimulants or antidepressants) can help, they don’t work for everyone and can cause side effects too.

Of course, cannabis is famously not without its side effects too, for example:

• THC isn’t recommended for children at all, due to risks like paranoia or psychosis
• CBD is considered much safer, but can still cause side effects such as sleepiness, irritability, reduced appetite, and stomach upset. Additionally, CBD can interact with other medications (including sedatives and anti-seizure drugs), potentially increasing side effects of those medications by raising drug levels in the body.

In places like Australia, medicinal cannabis is already being prescribed for autism, ADHD, and anxiety, although unsurprisingly a lot of use is unprescribed, and often without doctors being informed.

For this reason, high-quality research is limited, and the best studies (including in young autistic people) show mixed results, with some improvements but no consistent benefit over placebo.

In short, it’s rising in popularity and many doctors are taking up the practice, but the science is still very young, and it seems wise to be cautious.

Read in full: Can medicinal cannabis help kids’ autism, ADHD or Tourette’s? Here’s what we know so far

Related: Cannabis & Mental Health: Good Or Bad?

How spicy are your bones?

“Turmeric and ginger are good for you” is an idea that will be well-known to regular 10almonds readers, but today it’s something new:

Researchers (Dr. Susmita Bose et al.) tested extracts from turmeric and ginger as coatings for titanium bone implants to improve surgery outcomes. The idea is that the extracts slowly release beneficial compounds around the implant site after surgery.

What they found: the treatment roughly doubled bone–implant bonding within six weeks in early tests, suggesting stronger and more stable implants, as well as killing 92% of bacteria on implant surfaces, addressing one of the major causes of implant failure. As an extra bonus, the extract even reduced (by 11x) osteosarcoma-related cancer cells around the implant site:

Read in full: WSU researchers use spice extracts to enhance medical bone implants

Related: How Much Spice Is Right?

HIV for everyone!

When we’ve written about US Federal funding cuts lately, it’s most often about the FDA and the increasing lack of regulation with regard to what manufacturers are allowed to put into your food, and the increasing lack of testing for food contaminants, hence all the recalls.

Today it’s about cutting funding for HIV testing, which cut is not only projected to increase HIV infections by 10%, but also, doesn’t even work to save money:

❝The United States has made tremendous progress over the years, with fewer people getting infected and better treatments for those who are infected. To enter a world where that suddenly reverses would be a big deal. Treating someone with HIV over a lifetime is expensive, so any HIV infection you can prevent saves a lot of money.❞

~ Dr. Todd Fojo

Read in full: HIV funding cuts could increase infections by 10% in the U.S.

Related: What Most People Don’t Know About HIV

Take care!