No flavor, no vape

Speaking of vaping, it turns out that when you restrict the availability of flavored vaping products, teen use drops by 70 percent. (That link is to the paper. For the news story, click here.)

Dropping acid

In the wake of the Zantac/ranitidine recalls, the FDA says there are plenty of antacids it considers safe for sure: Nexium (esomeprazole), Pepcid (famotidine), Prevacid (lansoprazole), Prilosec (omeprazole), and Tagamet (cimetidine) are probably free of carcinogens.

Fantasy land

At least one in five young adults incorrectly believe that vaping is harmless and non-addictive. (The good news: “71% of adults agreed that e-cigarettes cause cancer.” So most of them are at least somewhat on the ball.)

Sleep on it

Yale researchers found a way to help people solve problems … while they sleep. The trick: Play a particular sound while someone tries (and fails) to solve a problem — they call it a “cued puzzle.” Then, while the person is asleep, play the same sound (not loud enough to wake ’em). Result:

The next morning, participants solved 31.7% of cued puzzles, compared with 20.5% of uncued puzzles (a 55% improvement).

Fear the disinfected gut

Not convinced of the power of the gut microbiome? Check this out: Depending on the bacteria in their guts, mice may or may not remember to be afraid. Holy moly.

  1. Shock mice, play tone. Mice become afraid of tone.
  2. Play tone without shock. Mice brains update themselves to not fear the tone.
  3. Try this with mice with fewer gut bacteria. Those mice continue to fear the tone. They “showed a marked reduction in the ability to learn that the threat was no longer present. In other words, their brains were not updating to the new conditions.”

The Long Read: Opioid cold turkey

“Opioids saved my life. Quitting them took five excruciating years”

Finally, after seven months of cutting back, the last of my last tiny dose of opiates metabolized out of my body on July 4, 2014. […] It was one of the most triumphant days of my life, yet the empty low was indescribable.

I did not know then — because no one had the guts to tell me, or maybe it would have been too cruel — that my withdrawal would only get worse.