It may be a battle worth getting front row seats for: California citizens against the United States federal government. About what? Legalizing marijuana.
If all goes well for those who are working for legalized pot, there will be at least one but as many as three measures on the California ballot in 2010, with the goal of legalizing it in the state. The federal government would not be happy, but could they do anything about it?
Legalized medicinal marijuana is already a reality in California, although the federal government hasn’t been too cooperative with even that. But, if it’s legalized overall, then …read more

Check this out.
Queensland Health’s new doctor fatigue policy, soon to take affect in public hospitals around Queensland, Australia, suggests the antidote for sleep-deprived doctors is …. six cups of coffee.
This will, apparently, prevent them from harming their patients while in state of exhaustion.
Honestly. I’m not making this up. The policy document claims that the standard solution of ‘more staff’ really isn’t feasible. Therefore, the doctors need to find a way to work effectively on little sleep.
And that way is caffeine. The document suggests recommends a dose of 400 mg of caffeine (about 5 to 6 cups of coffee) as the …read more

Is the Economy Keeping You Awake at Night?
If so, you might be happy to know that you are not alone. A recent National Sleep Foundation poll has found that 1 in 4 Americans say that concerns and worries over personal finances, fear of job loss, and the economy is keeping them up at night. 
Instead of sleeping, we are spending more time tossing and turning and watching late night television shows.
We are also taking more drugs. 
Prescriptions for sleep medications has also grown, topping 56 million in 2008. Good news, I guess, for the pharmaceutical companies selling GABA-enhancing  ‘Z drugs’  (Ambien, Lunesta, Rozerem) …read more

Medications are often sugar coated to prevent the medicine from causing, in particular, gastric upsets in those swallowing the pills. Now a new study is reporting that the very ‘sugar coating’ that is protecting the body might itself be bad for the body.
According to this study, sponsored by the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority and published in Toxicology Letters,  just one ‘sugar coated’ tablet of an easy to obtain over-the-counter medication ‘can raise the levels of phthalates in the body by 100 fold before being quickly eliminated.’  Apparently, it’s quickly eliminated, but the fact that it even gets into …read more

Antidepressants might ease the blues but a recent study indicates that they might also cause more wrinkles.
Apparently a study on identical twins, conducted by researchers at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center, found that the use of antidepressants can contribute to faster aging.
Of course, the reasons that people are on the antidepressants in the first place are also probably contributing to the faster aging as well.
But because antidepressants function as muscle relaxants, their continued use might well lead to decreased facial muscle tone, resulting in a face that sags.
Read the full study here…
(image from sxc.hu)

September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recover Month and in recognition of this, the bloggers at b5Media’s Health and Wellness Channel have put together their interpretation of the 12 Steps, looking at each step not just from it’s orginal intent but also in relation to their own blog topic. The result is an interesting and informative group of posting that provides ‘food for thought’ in own lives.
We’ve all heard of the 12 Step Program, but most of us won’t be able to recite what each step was. That’s because we are lucky enough not to need to. But for thousands …read more

Ready for yet another possible medicinal use for marijuana? How about fighting MRSA, the staph infection resistant to most antibiotics.
Indeed, researchers in Italy and the UK tested five of marijuana’s major chemicals (called cannabinoids) on different strains of MRSA, and all five proved to be germ destroyers in lab tests. In addition, some synthetic cannabinoids showed that same capability. Interesting.
So why does marijuana work when traditional antibiotics don’t? Because the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way, and they are possibly able to bypass that bacterial resistance.
And what about marijuana’s trademark “high”? So far it’s been found that at least …read more

Looks like that little blue pill is moving out the bedroom and into the sports arena.
Many athletes believe that taking Viagra will help improve their performance in the field. And preliminary studies, showing a 40% performance improvement for cyclists taking Viagra, support this believe.
But experts aren’t convinced. They argue that even though Viagra works on the nitric oxide in the body and causes blood vessels to expand resulting in increased heart function and more oxygen in the lungs, it’s not a guarantee that it will improve an athlete’s performance.
In fact some doctors suggest that it’s actually Viagra’s more well-known effects …read more

Image details: Frog served by picapp.com
Okay, this is one of those stories that sounds funny at first, but when you dig into the meat of it, it is soooo not funny. At all.
If you’re in the New York City area and you’re feeling a little frisky, please do not try your hand at ingesting toad venom – a supposed aphrodisiac. This kind of sexual adventure actually killed a 35-year-old man recently, and as I see it, death is not at all worth a few moments in the sack. Agreed?
This toad venom, sold illegally under the names Piedra, Love Stone, Jamaican …read more

If you think drugs are scary now, take a look at what was on offer in the 1800’s and 1900’s…

Source: Dr. Bonkers presents
The Nearly Genuine and Truly Marvelous
Psychoneuropharmacological Mental Medicine Show