Pulse Beat

BM Hegde 02 March 2016

Whole Herbs as Drugs

A recent study, led by Dr Mark Moss, head of psychology at Northumbria University, found that the smell of rosemary boosts our ability to recall past events and remember what to do in the future, thanks to a compound that gives the herb its distinctive scent. Rosemary boosts long-term memory and the ability to do simple sums. It is still not known if this could help treat dementia.

Psychosis and Inflammation

Inflammation seems to be everywhere now—as a cause of atherosclerosis and what have you. The latest addition to this long list is psychosis. Stressful life events and emergence of psychosis is now the in thing in psychiatry circles. What science requires is a mechanism connecting psychological stressors with functional changes that drive behaviour. Recent studies connect psychosis with inflammation in the brain. These studies provide a mechanism for how trauma can increase the emergence of psychosis. My personal observation is that this premise of the causal connection is still in its infancy. More needs to be known in this field before we connect the two as cause and effect, lest we repeat the same mistake that we have been making in the past.

Zika Virus

It is Zika everywhere. Already new tests for rapid diagnosis have come out and vaccines are pouring out. See the timing. How quickly things move, if there is money in the field. Poor Zika, which was sleeping since 1947, has got a shot in the arm. The editorial of British Medical Journal (BMJ) dated 12 February 2016 talks about the tests already. Fiona Godleee, the editor-in-chief writes: “And The BMJ has joined other organisations such as the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in an initiative to share data on Zika.” These names are there wherever there is an opportunity to make good money. The story of over-treating every fever as malaria, which at one stage was thought to be a necessary evil, is coming up to haunt us. Let us not repeat that with Zika. Writes Ms Fiona: “But with this success come other challenges, notably the harms caused by presumptive over-treatment of fever as malaria.”

Turmeric Can Improve Your Mood

We all know how powerful a drug turmeric can be against cancer with its plentiful supply of tyrosine kinase receptor-blockers. New research now tells us that it might even be a mood elevator. There is hope that regular use of turmeric might even go as far as preventing depression, a very common malady in society today.

Largest Meta-analysis of Anti-depressants

The largest-ever meta-analysis of anti-depressant trials was published in the British Medical Journal on 28 January 2016. Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 70 trials (involving 18,526 subjects) to find—counter to the initially-reported findings—that anti-depressants doubled the risk of suicide and aggression in subjects under 18 years of age. The authors feel that this risk has been deliberately under-reported. The same finding should hold good for adults on anti-depressants. A study published in the January issue of the journal Stroke found that anti-depressants may increase the risk of micro-bleeds in the brain. Both SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and SNRI (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) anti-depressants can disrupt natural clotting mechanisms and lead to increased adverse bleeding incidents and prolonged bleeding.

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