Health Journal Online

Tag: Shows

When Vaping Shows Up in a Doctor’s Office

Vaping usually sits in the same conversations about habits and health risks as traditional tobacco products, not medical prescriptions. That makes it easy to miss how the same technology is used under medical supervision. In regulated care, vaping can function as a delivery method shaped by clinical rules and evidence standards rather than a personal choice.

Vaping has taken the world by storm, and in healthcare circles, it is now spoken about with the same caution as cigarette smoking. This makes it confusing when vaping is mentioned positively in a medical setting. However, in healthcare, delivery methods are chosen for control and predictability. Medical cannabis follows that logic, where the form of treatment matters because it affects how care is managed and reviewed by clinicians.

When Vaping Becomes a Prescribed Delivery Method

In clinical care, vaping is used as a practical way to deliver prescribed cannabis. It is considered alongside other formats based on how clearly dose and timing can be controlled. The decision sits with specialist clinicians and forms part of a wider treatment plan, rather than something selected casually.

A THC vape in this setting is prescribed under medical supervision and supplied through regulated channels. Its role is tied to consistency and monitoring, with treatment reviewed and adjusted over time. The method is treated as a medical tool, judged by how it fits into supervised care rather than how it is viewed outside healthcare.

Clinical Oversight Changes How Products Are Evaluated

In prescribed medical care, products are assessed in a different way than consumer health items. Clinicians look at how a product is used, how reliably it performs, and how easily it can be reviewed. That applies to medical cannabis in the same way it applies to other prescribed treatments, from injectable medications like insulin to normal tablets and capsules. The focus stays on safety, consistency, and whether the format supports ongoing clinical decision-making.

Guidance on medical cannabis in the UK places clear limits around who can prescribe, how treatment is monitored, and when changes are made. This framework shapes how products are judged, including vaping formats. Decisions are not based on preference or popularity, but on whether a delivery method fits within specialist oversight and can be adjusted responsibly as treatment progresses.

Why Public Reviews and Medical Context Often Collide

Public review platforms play a role in how people assess information about cannabis oils, especially outside clinical settings. Reviews tend to focus on availability, presentation, and reported experience, which can be useful for orientation. At the same time, prescribed products operate within a different framework that includes assessment, regulation, and ongoing review.

This difference matters when reading cannabis oil reviews UK that place medical clinics alongside consumer products. A listing can signal visibility and trust, but it does not explain how prescribing decisions are made or how treatment is monitored. Reviews reflect public perspective, while clinical care follows specialist oversight and regulated standards that sit beyond what a review format can capture.

Regulation and Safeguards Define Medical Use

Medical cannabis in the UK operates inside a legal framework that sets clear limits on prescribing and supply. Only specialist clinicians can initiate treatment, and products must meet defined regulatory standards. These rules exist to ensure that decisions are based on clinical judgement rather than availability or demand.

Government guidance outlines how medical cannabis is controlled, prescribed, and reviewed within the healthcare system. This includes oversight of product quality, prescribing responsibility, and ongoing patient review. Vaping formats are treated no differently from other prescribed options. Their use is shaped by regulation and safeguards, not by trends or consumer interest.

Evidence Standards Differ between Medical Treatment and Supplements

Multivitamins are sold as everyday health products and are used without clinical assessment or follow-up. They are taken at the reader’s discretion, with evidence discussed in general terms and responsibility resting with the individual. Oversight is limited, and products remain available regardless of how strong or weak the supporting data may be.

Questions around whether daily multivitamins are backed by solid evidence illustrate how widely used health products can exist outside prescription standards. Prescribed medical cannabis is handled differently. Products are issued through specialist care, reviewed over time, and adjusted when necessary. Delivery methods, including vaping, are assessed within regulated treatment rather than general health discussion.

Drawing a Clear Line between Treatment and Trend

Vaping looks the same at a glance, but context changes what it means. In healthcare, delivery methods are judged by control, oversight, and how they fit into ongoing care. Medical cannabis is prescribed within that structure, where format is part of clinical decision-making rather than personal expression. Confusion tends to arise when medical treatment is viewed through a consumer lens. Keeping the distinction clear matters. Prescribed care is shaped by regulation, review, and responsibility, while lifestyle choices are not. The difference is not subtle, even if the tools appear similar.

Source link

January 22, 2026
Fewer Children are Having Peanut Allergies in Recent Years Following a Change in Guidelines, Study Shows

Fewer children are being found with peanut allergies in the last few years, a study shows, which is believed to be due to a change in policy regarding early exposure.

This began when experts recommended that parents should avoid having their infants exposed to common allergens as a means to curb rising food allergy rates. However, a 2015 landmark trial found that feeding peanuts to babies could actually decrease their chances of developing an allergy by more than 80 percent.

Peanut Allergies in Children

In 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases formally recommended that parents use the early-introduction approach and issued national guidelines. A new study that was published on Monday found that food allergy rates in kids under three have fallen following those changes.

The data showed that the numbers dropped to 0.93 percent between 2017 and 2020, from 1.46 percent between 2012 and 2015. Comparing these statistics shows a 36 percent reduction in all food allergies, which is largely driven by a 43 percent drop in peanut allergies, according to the New York Times.

Additionally, the study found that eggs overtook peanuts as the No. 1 food allergen in young children. However, the researchers did not examine what infants ate, which means the study does not show that the guidelines directly caused the decline.

A pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, said that the data is still promising as it relates to the prevention of a potentially deadly and life-changing diagnosis.

One of the researchers of the latest study, co-author Sanislaw Gabryszewski, MD, PhD, said that their observations provide real-world evidence that public health efforts that promote early allergen introduction in infancy are making an impact, AJMC reported.

A Change in National Guidelines

The finding comes as roughly four percent of kids are affected by a food allergy that is mediated by IgE, which includes food like eggs, nuts, milk, wheat, and peanuts. These can then cause immediate reactions that can threaten the children’s lives, including difficulty breathing and swelling.

Another researcher involved in the new study, Dr. David Hill, said that their findings were “remarkable.” He and his colleagues analyzed electronic health records from dozens of pediatric practices so they could track diagnoses of food allergies in young kids before, during, and after the guidelines were issued.

Despite this, the effort has not yet resulted in a reduction in the overall increase in food allergies in the United States in the past few years, as per LMT Online.

Originally published on parentherald.com

© {{Year}} ParentHerald.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Source link

October 22, 2025
Dolly Parton Scraps Vegas Shows Over Health Issues

Dolly Parton, 79, has postponed her upcoming Las Vegas concerts due to “health challenges,” the American country music legend announced, although she stressed she is not yet ending her glittering career.

“As many of you know, I have been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures,” the singer-songwriter posted on social media late Sunday, without disclosing specifics.

The “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” hitmaker kept her trademark humor intact, quipping that “it must be time for my 100,000-mile check-up, although it’s not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!”

“In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that you want to see.”

Parton was set to perform six nights of sold-out shows in December at Caesars Palace. She revealed that the new dates are set for September of 2026.

She told her millions of followers that she would continue her projects in Nashville but would need “a little time to get show ready, as they say.

“And don’t worry about me quittin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet.”

Parton became a major star in the 1970s, with singles including “Coat of Many Colors,” and followed up with smash hits like “I Will Always Love You,” famously covered by Whitney Houston, and “9 to 5.”

Source link

October 5, 2025
CDC Report Shows More Children Are Either Dying or Becoming Severely Ill With Flu Amid Declining Vaccination Rates

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report showing that more and more children are either dying or becoming severely ill with the flu amid declining vaccination rates in the United States.

Now, cases of pediatric acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) are on the rise, with 109 children being diagnosed during the 2024-25 flu season. This is a rare inflammatory brain disease caused by the illness.

Rise in Flu-Related Deaths Among Kids

A new report also showed that 84% of kids who have influenza-associated encephalopathy whose vaccination status was known were not vaccinated. This comes as the country recorded 280 pediatric flu deaths last year, which is the deadliest since the 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic.

A pediatric infectious disease physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Dr. Buddy Creech, said that they do not always know how to predict which children are going to get the most severe forms of flu. This is why they recommend the vaccine for everyone, according to NBC News.

ANE is considered a rare disease, as there are only a handful of cases recorded every year, and it has never been formally tracked. However, this year, doctors noted an increase in kids affected by the brain inflammation after suffering from the flu.

A pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Molly Wilson-Murphy, said that they are not yet sure if there really is an increase in real numbers. However, being on the ground as a physician, she was struck that it certainly is.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases also underscored the crucial role that annual flu vaccinations play in preventing serious illness, particularly among children. The CDC recommends the shots for everyone aged six months and older yearly, KSTE reported.

A Decline in Vaccination Rates

Despite the decline in vaccination rates, the CDC continues to advocate for flu shots, saying these are the most effective way to protect kids from severe flu-related complications, as well as death.

The situation comes after the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently voted to change recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine. These recommendations must still be approved by the CDC director in order to become official guidance.

Advice on the COVID-19 vaccine differs from the flu shots, as the CDC said parents of healthy children aged six months to 17 years should talk about the benefits with a health care provider. The CDC broadly recommends the vaccine for moderately or severely immunocompromised kids, as per CBS News.

Originally published on parentherald.com

© {{Year}} ParentHerald.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Source link

September 27, 2025
New drug shows promise in clearing HIV from brain

An experimental drug originally developed to treat cancer may help clear HIV from infected cells in the brain, according to a new Tulane University study.

For the first time, researchers at Tulane National Primate Research Center found that a cancer drug significantly reduced levels of SIV, the nonhuman primate equivalent of HIV, in the brain by targeting and depleting certain immune cells that harbor the virus.

Published in the journal Brain, this discovery marks a significant step toward eliminating HIV from hard-to-reach reservoirs where the virus evades otherwise effective treatment.

“This research is an important step in tackling brain-related issues caused by HIV, which still affect people even when they are on effective HIV medication,” said lead study author Woong-Ki Kim, PhD, associate director for research at Tulane National Primate Research Center. “By specifically targeting the infected cells in the brain, we may be able to clear the virus from these hidden areas, which has been a major challenge in HIV treatment.”

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is an essential component of successful HIV treatment, maintaining the virus at undetectable levels in the blood and transforming HIV from a terminal illness into a manageable condition. However, ART does not completely eradicate HIV, necessitating lifelong treatment. The virus persists in “viral reservoirs” in the brain, liver, and lymph nodes, where it remains out of reach of ART.

The brain has been a particularly challenging area for treatment due to the blood-brain barrier — a protective membrane that shields it from harmful substances but also blocks treatments, allowing the virus to persist. In addition, cells in the brain known as macrophages are extremely long-lived, making them difficult to eradicate once they become infected.

Infection of macrophages is thought to contribute to neurocognitive dysfunction, experienced by nearly half of those living with HIV. Eradicating the virus from the brain is critical for comprehensive HIV treatment and could significantly improve the quality of life for those with HIV-related neurocognitive problems.

Researchers focused on macrophages, a type of white blood cell that harbors HIV in the brain. By using a small molecule inhibitor to block a receptor that increases in HIV-infected macrophages, the team successfully reduced the viral load in the brain. This approach essentially cleared the virus from brain tissue, providing a potential new treatment avenue for HIV.

The small molecule inhibitor used, BLZ945, has previously been studied for therapeutic use in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and brain cancer, but never before in the context of clearing HIV from the brain.

The study, which took place at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, utilized three groups to model human HIV infection and treatment: an untreated control group, and two groups treated with either a low or high dose of the small molecule inhibitor for 30 days. The high-dose treatment lead to a notable reduction in cells expressing HIV receptor sites, as well as a 95-99% decrease in viral DNA loads in the brain .

In addition to reducing viral loads, the treatment did not significantly impact microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, which are essential for maintaining a healthy neuroimmune environment. It also did not show signs of liver toxicity at the doses tested.

The next step for the research team is to test this therapy in conjunction with ART to assess its efficacy in a combined treatment approach. This could pave the way for more comprehensive strategies to eradicate HIV from the body entirely.

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, including grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and was supported with resources from the Tulane National Primate Research Center base grant of the National Institutes of Health, P51 OD011104.

Source link

July 26, 2024
New gene therapy approach shows promise for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have made a significant breakthrough in developing a new gene therapy approach that restores full-length dystrophin protein, which could lead to new treatments for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

The study, recently published in Nature Communications, demonstrates the effectiveness of their novel gene therapy technology in improving muscle tissue and overall strength in mice models with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the DMD gene, resulting in a lack of the protein dystrophin. This deficiency leads to progressive muscle weakness and loss of muscle tissue over time. Patients with the disease experience impaired mobility, heart and lung problems, and ultimately a shortened life expectancy.

“Current gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy utilizes a truncated version of dystrophin,” said Renzhi Han, PhD, senior author of the study and professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. “Unfortunately, this option doesn’t fully protect the muscles because it lacks many important functional domains of full-length dystrophin.”

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a micro-dystrophin gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Han said the therapeutic outcomes have been less satisfactory than expected.

Building on their experience using adeno-associated virus methods to deliver extra-large therapeutic genes into cells, Han and his team at the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research developed a triple-adeno-associated virus vector system to deliver a complete version of the dystrophin protein into the muscles.

“We optimized and tested our new three-vector system to make sure it produced and assembled the full-length dystrophin protein effectively,” Han said. “Our data confirmed we successfully restored full-length dystrophin in both the skeletal and heart muscles of mice with DMD, leading to significant improvements in their muscle health, strength and function.”

Han has filed a provisional patent application for his triple-adeno-associated virus vector system and is collaborating with the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office to advance the treatment toward market availability. He is also seeking additional funding so patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy have access to promising new treatment options.

“I believe this new gene therapy approach offers significant advantages to patients compared to what they currently have available, and I’m eager to get it into further clinical development,” he said.

Other IU School of Medicine study authors include Yuan Zhou, Chen Zhang, Weidong Xiao and Roland W. Herzog.

Source link

July 25, 2024
Warehousing industry increases health-harming pollutants, research shows
America’s demand for products delivered to the doorstep has led to a dramatic increase in e-commerce and the warehousing industry.
A first-of-a-kind study now shows that people living in communities located next to these large warehouses are exposed to 20% more of a traffic-related air pollutant that can lead to asthma and other life-threatening health conditions.

“Increased truck traffic to and from these recently built large warehouses means people living downwind are inhaling an increased amount of harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution,” said Gaige Kerr, lead author of the study and an assistant research professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. “Communities of color are disproportionately affected because they often live in close proximity to warehouses, especially dense clusters of warehouses.”

Kerr and his colleagues measured a traffic-related pollutant called nitrogen dioxide by using a satellite instrument from the European Space Agency to zero in from space on the nearly 150,000 large warehouses located across the United States. Trucks and other vehicles traveling to and from these large warehouses spew out nitrogen dioxide, particulates, and other harmful pollutants.

The researchers also looked at traffic information from the Federal Highway Administration and demographic data from the US Census Bureau.

Additional key findings of the study:
- Although the average spike of nitrogen dioxide associated with warehouses was 20%, nitrogen dioxide levels near warehouses were even larger when there was greater heavy duty vehicle activity near these facilities.
- Warehouses with more loading docks and parking spaces attract the most traffic and are associated with the highest nitrogen dioxide levels.
- Communities with large racial and ethnic minority populations are often located near warehouses and thus are inhaling more nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants. For example, this study found that the proportion of Hispanic and Asian people living close to the largest clusters of warehouses is about 250% higher than the average nationwide.
- Although warehouses are located all over the US, 20% are concentrated in just 10 counties: Los Angeles, California; Harris, Texas; Cook, Illinois; Miami-Dade, Florida; Maricopa, Arizona; San Bernardino, California; Orange, California; Dallas, Texas; Alameda, California; and Cuyahoga, Ohio.
The pandemic fueled the explosion of the e-commerce industry and warehouses that receive and sort consumer goods. The transportation infrastructure needed to ship goods to warehouses and then onto consumers is enormous, according to the researchers. For example, Amazon, an industry leader in e-commerce operated 175,000 delivery vans and more than 37,000 semi trailers in 2021 alone.

Earlier studies have looked at warehouses and pollution in specific neighborhoods around the country, but this is the first nationwide study to show that people living near these warehouses are exposed to higher than average levels of damaging pollutants. And while other research has shown that communities of color are exposed to more nitrogen dioxide pollution than predominantly non-Hispanic white communities, this is the first study linking the warehousing industry to the exposure inequities faced by these overburdened populations, Kerr says.

Previous research by the GW team found that communities of color in the US face a growing burden from polluted air. That study showed that such communities endure nearly 8 times higher rates of pediatric asthma from exposure to nitrogen dioxide and 30% higher rates of dying prematurely from exposure to fine particulate matter, both of which are emitted by cars, trucks and other vehicles.

The authors say the new study underscores the need for regulations that drive zero-emission vehicle use in logistics, particularly to protect vulnerable communities located near industrial hubs. They also say that industry leaders and utilities have crucial roles in planning and implementing this transition.

“Such measures would mean people living near warehouses could breathe cleaner air,” said Kerr. “In addition to a reduced risk of pollutant-related diseases, such measures would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change.”

The study, “Air pollution impacts from warehousing in the United States uncovered with satellite data,” was published July 24, 2024 in Nature Communications. In addition to Kerr, Susan Anenberg, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at GW, and Daniel Goldberg, assistant research professor in the same department, contributed to this paper alongside researchers from the International Council on Clean Transportation.

The research was funded by NASA.
Source link
July 24, 2024