Antidepressant fatigue

There are a lot of competing explanations for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and a good chance it’s got several possible causes. The latest one, though, is interesting: SSRIs.

Korean researchers think CFS might be caused by excessive levels of serotonin in the brain. Thus SSRIs, by their very action, keeps those levels higher. To test this, they gave some mice high dozes of Prozac and others plain ol’ saline. Not surprisingly, after a month the brains of the Prozac group had higher levels of serotonin. But the interesting bit:

They also developed behaviors that resembled the main symptoms of ME/CFS seen in humans, including unrefreshing sleep, PEM and orthostatic intolerance, but not cognitive impairment. These behaviors disappeared six weeks after the drug was stopped.

Next up: Figuring out the molecular mechanism at work.

The new worst conditions

Move over, cardiovascular disease. The latest research (out of US and Australian universities and the WHO Brain Health Unit) finds that neurological conditions have taken the top spot — that’s “stroke, brain injury, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and nerve damage.”

What’s going on? We’re getting older. Oh, and there’s “increased exposure to environmental, metabolic and lifestyle risk factors,” which is why diabetic neuropathy is skyrocketing.

The good news? Despite the rising levels of neurological disease, both deaths and years “lost” to disability are down, thanks to better treatments … in the developed world, at least.

Short Takes

Glucose monitors go mainstream

Thanks to health infomercials influencers and corporate marketing, diabetics aren’t the only ones looking to buy continuous monitors. They’re turning into TKTK

The cranberry boost

Athletes who want every little edge possible might want to look at everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving side dish: cranberries. Yep, apparently taking cranberry extract means “better oxygen extraction by the muscle, improved lactate clearance, and slower muscle deoxygenation,” according to Quebecois researchers. (They might be a bit over-enthusiastic, though, calling cranberries “A runner’s best friend.”)

There is no news here

A group of Welsh, Canadian, Chinese, and American researchers have reached the conclusion that if you have a mild case of Covid-19, it’s fine to take over-the-counter drugs to relieve the symptoms.

But…

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University say ‘not so fast’ — talk to a professional before doing something rash like taking Tylenol.

They suggest that selecting an OTC medication to alleviate mild symptoms of Covid-19 should be based on the entire benefit-to-risk profile of the patient. Moreover, they say clinical decisions should be made by the health care provider for each of his or her patients.

Suppress the acid, get the allergies

Acid-suppression meds and infants don’t mix, and it’s especially true for proton-pump inhibitors. Apparently those kinds of meds can increase the risk of a kid developing a food allergy.

Based on data from…

• more than 56,000 patients under 1 year old who were given PPIs
• 169,000 who got histamine-2 receptor antagonists
• 887,000 who received one or more antimicrobials

… Cleveland Clinic researchers found that “early exposure to acid-suppressive medications was associated with five to six times higher risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis, with similar trends observed for antimicrobials.”

Yeah, five to six times the risk. That’s not small potatoes. And PPIs had the highest risk — 640% higher than average. Why? Dunno — someone else will have to figure that part out. For now, though, it’s a risk worth telling patients about.

We’re losing the ability to digest plants

Humans can’t digest plants directly, but we’ve got gut microbes that do it for us. Here’s the problem (according to a study by Israeli researchers): Western diets are so low in the fiber that cellulose-eating bacteria need, we’re reaching the point that we can’t process plants at all.

They looked at gut bacteria today and from humans more than 1,000 years ago, as well as in non-human primates. Back then (and in today’s wild primates), about 30-40 percent of gut bacteria was the stuff that could digest cellulose.

Today, it’s down to 20 percent at best— and that’s in hunter-gatherer cultures (and people living a rural lifestyle with high-fiber diets). For people living modern lifestyles, only 5 percent of their gut bacteria can process plants.

What does that mean? It means that we’re not getting as many of the nutrients in plants as we used to, and it’s getting worse. How will that affect health? You know the mantra: More research is needed. But for sure we need more fiber either in our diets or, well, maybe via supplements you have down this aisle right here….