Last nap with Mary Jane

People who smoke pot, especially a lot and especially recently, have screwy sleep schedules — “extremes of nightly sleep duration,” according to anesthesiology researchers in Canada and the U.S.

Well, “extremes” in this context means fewer than six hours or more than nine hours (which doesn’t seem so extreme, but I’m not an anesthesiologist).

Recent cannabis users, for example, “ were 34% more likely to report short sleep and 56% more likely to report long sleep” and “were also 31% more likely to report difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much.”

A day to stop DIR

Melt the phones! That’s what NCPA wants you to do today (assuming you’re reading this on Thursday, December 9). Today is the day you need to call your U.S. senators (that’s Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock) and demand encourage that they include ending DIR in the Build Back Better Act.

Seriously, DIR needs to be over, and they have the power to make it happen. Call (or email, fax, or tweet) and tell them “I’m a Georgian, I’m a pharmacist, and I need you to include language in the Build Back Better Act that will end PBM DIR fees.”

Senator Jon Ossoff
Phone: (202) 224-3521
Fax: (202) 224-2575
ossoff.senate.gov
Email: jon.ossoff@ossoff.senate.gov*
Twitter: @jonossoff

Senator Raphael Warnock
Phone: (202) 224-3643
Fax: (202) 228-3783*
warnock.senate.gov
Email: raphael.warnock@warnock.senate.gov*
Twitter: @senatorwarnock

Is that too much to ask? Fine. NCPA created a Web portal that’ll do most of the work for you. Click here and it’ll pretty much automate the process.

* Not confirmed; both senators offer email via their websites, though.

Making a worse cancer better

Women know there are bad types of breast cancer, and really bad types; basal-like breast cancer (aka triple-negative breast cancer) is among the worst. Treatment is limited and recurrence is common.

But scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology think they have a strategy. They say they’ve found a way to turn triple-neg tumors into luminal A tumors — the kind that is “low-grade, tend to grow slowly and have the best prognosis [per these folks]”.

Essentially, while the tumors aren’t receptive to anti-cancer drugs, they can be genetically engineered.

[T]he team found that turning off two key gene regulators, called BCL11A and HDAC1/2, switched a basal-like cancer signalling pathway into a different one used by luminal-A cancer cells. The switch reprograms the cancer cells and makes them more responsive to drugs.

STOP. Before you start sharing this as a medical miracle, keep in mind that this is in vitro so far: “[F]urther tests will be needed to confirm that this also works in animal models and eventually humans.

Stopping morning sickness

Did you know that scientists don’t know what causes morning sickness? But now some UC Davis researchers say they can at least treat the nausea and vomiting that often comes with pregnancy.

The treatment: probiotics, which, they say “significantly improve the symptoms of pregnancy-related nausea, vomiting and constipation.”

They gave 32 patients over-the-counter Nature’s Bounty Probiotics 10 capsules over the course of 16 days, and — based on questionnaires given 17 times a day (!) — found that taking those supplements reduced the number of hours feeling nauseated, the number of times they vomited, and “also significantly improved symptoms related to quality of life, such as fatigue, poor appetite and difficulty maintaining normal social activities.”

How does it work? They’re investigating: ‘A subset of the participants contributed fecal specimens for researcher to understand potential underlying mechanisms.’

No wonder people are confused

Vaccines work against Omicron: “WHO says vaccines should be effective against Omicron variant”

Well, maybe not every vaccine: “Omicron may evade Pfizer/BioNTech COVID jab, says study”

Definitely not the Pfizer vaccine: “A new variant, Omicron, very effectively evades the neutralizing antibodies of the Pfizer vaccine regimen, according to a recent study.”

Well, Pfizer works if you’re boosted: “Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 shot loses power against Omicron variant, but booster restores protection”

Believe it or not: “A recent press release by Pfizer claims three doses offer significant protection, though this claim is presented without data.”

What, you want more?

Oh no, here comes ‘Omicron Plus’: “Australian State Detects Omicron Variant Offshoot That Might Be Harder To Track”

Or maybe not: “… but experts say it is not a new variant”.

Want a mouse that lives longer?

Chinese scientists sure did, too, and they considered a whole bunch of chemicals that might destroy senescent cells — older cells that can’t replicate but can cause inflammation.

And they found one: procyanidin C1 (PCC1). It’s actually found in grape seeds, and at low concentrations it stopped the senescent cells from causing inflammation. And at high concentrations PCC1 killed the old, useless cells, while leaving the younger ones intact, Logan’s Run style.

So what does that actually translate to? How about that PCC1 “prolongs the lifespans of old mice by 9 percent,” makes the mice more fit, and “reduces the size of tumours when used alongside chemotherapy to treat cancer”?

Yep, more research needs doing. (The study was published in Nature Metabolism.)

Do you see what I see? (No)

The Replication Crisis has reared its ugly head — this time, among cancer researchers.

The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology wanted to replicate experiments from some of the highest-impact cancer papers published between 2010 and 2012. They started with 53 papers that contained 193 experiments, but various speedbumps (e.g., original authors refusing to share information).

They ended up replicating 50 experiments, claiming 112 effects, from 23 papers. And what did they find? In short:

• They could only confirm 46 percent of those 112 effects.
• “Effect sizes were, on average, 85 percent lower than those reported in the original experiments.”

This means drug makers are spending time and money trying to develop cancer treatments based on papers that often can’t be reproduced, and — when they can — have results that are much less impressive than the original researchers claim.

Be grateful. Be optimistic.

For 21 days, researchers from the University of Michigan and UC San Francisco fitted 4,825 research subjects around the world with sensors to track blood pressure and heart rate. Three times a day they checked to see how grateful and optimistic the people were feeling. Turns out, having those feelings is good for you.

People who were more grateful had lower blood pressure and heart rate, as well as greater feelings of appreciation toward others. […O]ptimism was also linked to health and mental benefits, such as better sleep quality and more positive expectations and reflections.