Saving you a click

Can omega-3 fatty acid supplements prevent depression? No.

What if we’ve got it wrong?

…about Down Syndrome? Granted, this is a bit out there, but then again, ‘crazy idea turns out to be true’ isn’t unheard of in science. (Helicobacter pylori, anyone?) In this case, there’s this doctor in Florida, Leslie Norins, who is convinced that not only are both Alzheimer’s and Down Syndrome actually infectious diseases, but both are caused by the same bacteria.

Dr. Norins knows he will have to cope with the pediatricians and parents of Down syndrome children who assert that the “cause” of Down syndrome is already known; it’s an extra “X” chromosome found in all or most cells of the child’s body.

“Poppycock and not proven” replies Dr. Norins.

…about prescribing antidepressants? There’s little evidence that SSRIs and SNRIs work well in the long term, argue a pair of British psychiatric researchers after conducting a meta-analysis of papers, but there’s plenty of evidence that coming off antidepressants is No Fun At All. Prescribing them for the long term, they say, does more harm than good.

Not only do the positive studies show only a slight improvement, but…

Much of the evidence of their efficacy comes from short-term placebo-controlled trials which tend not to include outcomes that are of greatest relevance to patients, such as social functioning or quality of life, but rather restrict outcomes narrowly to symptom measures.

Previous link is to the news story; click here for the paper itself.

…about psilocybin and depression? We’ve written a few times how microdoses of psilocybin fight depression (most recently earlier this month). But now a new Dutch study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology says it ain’t so.

Our confirmatory analyses revealed that psilocybin microdosing did not affect emotion processing or symptoms of anxiety and depression compared with placebo.

You know what’s next: ‘More studies are needed.’

Covid quickies

One more pill: Hot on the heels of its approval of Pfizer’s Covid-treatment pill, the FDA has approved Merck’s molnupiravir (which does the same thing — treat someone who’s sick to keep ‘em out of the hospital).

Good news and bad: Three more studies confirm that Omicron is more virulent but less deadly than other variants.

Those other vaccines: AstraZeneca and Novavax each said that their vaccine is effective against Omicron. It’s unclear if anyone heard.

ACA coverage sets record

More Americans than ever have signed up for health coverage via the Obamacare marketplace, thanks in large part to “enhanced personal assistance and outreach” (not to mention more subsidies to keep patients’ costs down).

Georgia is one of the states with the biggest jumps, with 653,990 signups already for 2022 via healthcare.gov, compared to only about 514,000 for 2021.

Move over, Gatorade

Want to avoid heatstroke before a run? Drink some baking soda and water. Really. Japanese researchers had test subjects guzzle some an hour and a half before making them exercise. (As a control, they had half the participants drink salt water instead; then, to add to the ick factor, both solutions were grape flavored.)

Participants showed reduced measures of hyperventilation, improved ratios of carbon dioxide in the blood and greater blood flow in the brain. Perhaps most telling, the participants reported lower perceived exertion.

Want to try this at home? The solution was 300 mg sodium bicarbonate per kilogram of body weight, mixed with 4.5 mL of water per kilogram of body weight.