See you in September?

Let’s say one of your New Year’s resolutions is to produce an offspring. Here’s a tip, courtesy of some Aussie science: Avoid fats (even healthier ones like olive oil) and go for the egg whites — it “may be the perfect formula for men’s fertility” according to researchers at the University of South Australia.

The study is the first to identify that a diet high in any type of fat – including healthy mono-saturated fats such as olive oil – negatively impacts testosterone production over as little as five hours, yet one supplemented with egg whites, and to a lesser extent whey protein, can positively affect serum testosterone.

Benzo news

Just because alcohol and benozdiazepines are a bad combination doesn’t mean a lot of heavy drinkers aren’t being prescribed Valium and Xanax. Quite the opposite, in fact.

And…

Over the past decade or so, teens have been overdosing on benzos … quite a bit. In fact, it was up 54 percent just from 2000 to 2015.

Epi errors, lots of them

Here’s a scary stat: An international study found that, when delivering epinephrine to kids going into anaphylactic shock, even in hospitals most people made a mistake in delivery.

At least one error was made in 25 (68%) of 37 simulations. The most common errors were failure to specify the administration site (the vastus lateralis muscle), preparing an incorrect dose, ordering an incorrect dose, ordering an incorrect epinephrine concentration, preparing an incorrect concentration and ordering IV administration.

Unexpected weapon against Alzheimer’s

Israeli researchers have found that the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine — used for TB and bladder cancer — might be able to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

They looked at the records of 1,371 bladder cancer patients; 65 of them had developed Alzheimer’s, but…

Those who had not received BCG as part of their treatment had a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s than did BCG-treated patients: 8.9% (44 patients) as opposed to 2.4% (21).

The downside: “The exact way the BCG vaccine affects cancer has not been deciphered but it is known to have an impact on the immune system.”

Vaccine shocker

When you remove non-medical vaccine exemptions, what d’ya know — vaccination rates go up. (And so do medical exemptions, but only slightly.) The important note is that, when California eliminated voluntary exemptions, it brought the vaccination rate up to 95 percent across most of the state — enough for herd immunity to take effect.

Yes, it’s clickbait

… but it’s also hard to resist: Check out LiveScience’s “10 Strangest Medical Cases of 2019“.

Time to break out Magical Mystery Tour

“Transcendental Meditation prevents abnormal enlargement of the heart, reduces chronic heart failure” according to a study out of Maharishi International University and UCLA.

Elsewhere: Marijuana update

Italy’s high court* says it can be grown at home.

On January 1, Illinois will become the 10th state to legalize it recreationally.