Researchers call for US policies on drugs to be based on neuroscience
Eating ¿sh at least twice a week may signi¿cantly reduce the pain and swelling associated with rheumatoid arthritis, a new study found.
Prior studies have shown a bene¿cial effect of ¿sh oil supplements on rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, but less is known about the value of eating ¿sh containing omega-3, UPI wrote.
The study author, Dr. Sara Tedeschi, an associate physician of rheumatology, immunology and allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said, “We wanted to investigate whether eating ¿sh as a whole food would have a similar kind of effect as the omega-3 fatty acid supplements.
“Generally, the amount of cervix and melanoma.
At the time, Dr. Van Hemelrijck, who was then a research associated in the Cancer Epidemiology group at Kings College London, said: “Our study shows that blood pressure is a risk factor for cancer incidence rate in men and fatal cancer in men and women.
“Although the relative and absolute risk estimates were rather modest, these results are important from a public health perspective since a large proportion of the population in many Western countries suffers from hypertension.”
Experts said that the study could not prove high blood pressure caused cancer.
Hemelrijck added, “We can’t claim there is a casual link… however, healthy lifestyle, including suf- ¿cient physical activity and normal weight has been shown to reduce the risk of several chronic diseases.
“For instance high blood pressure is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and our new study now indicates high blood pressure may also be a risk factor for cancer.”
Research has discovered that men with the highest blood pressure were 62 percent more likely to die from the prostate cancer than those with the lowest.
Cancer Research UK said, “Some research studies have found a link between high blood pressure or high blood pressure medicines and kidney cancer.
“It is likely that high blood pressure is the link, rather than the medicines. High blood pressure is a known risk factor for kidney disease in general.” A team of Stanford University neuro-scientists and legal scholars argues that drug policies in the US are at times exactly the opposite from what science-based policies would look like.
In a paper published in the latest issue of journal Science, the researchers argue that basing policy on science rather than on a desire to punish addicts would improve lives, including victims of drug-related crime, according to xinhuanet.com.
Robert Malenka, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a coauthor on the paper said, “Drug policy has never been based on our scienti¿c understanding.”
Around 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, and the number has been steadily climbing for at least the last decade and a half, according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.
A central problem, the authors argue, is that drug use warps the brain’s decision-making mechanisms, so that what matters most to a person dealing with addiction is the here and now.
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and one of the leaders of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute’s Neurochoice Big Idea initiative, said, “We have an opioid epidemic that looks like it’s going to be deadlier than AIDS, but the criminal justice system handles drug addiction in almost exactly opposite of what neuroscience and other behavioral sciences would suggest.” On average, 78 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses. Robert Maccoun, a professor of law, was quoted as saying in a news release from Stanford, said, “We have relied heavily on the length of a prison term as our primary lever for trying to inàuence drug use and drug-related crime.
“But such sanction enhancements are psychologically remote and premised on an unrealistic model of rational planning with a long time horizon, which just isn’t consistent with how drug users behave.”
What might work better, Humphreys said, is smaller, more immediate incentives and punishments, perhaps a meal voucher in exchange for passing a drug test, along with daily monitoring. The environment in which individuals live matters, too, especially when that environment pushes cigarettes and prescription painkillers hard.
Cigarette advertising, for example, works to make smoking seem like a pleasant escape from the grind of daily life.
Meanwhile, Humphreys noted, drug companies’ advertising campaigns helped push American doctors to prescribe painkillers at much higher rates than in other countries — a fact that has likely contributed to the country’s growing epidemic of opioid addiction.
The coauthors hope the commentary and the Neurochoice Initiative, which is designed to bring together neuroscientists, psychologists, public policy scholars and others to tackle drug addiction and ¿nd better treatments for dealing with the problem, will make a difference in a critical area of public policy. The initiative has produced some intriguing results. For example, Professor of Psychology Brian Knutson and colleagues recently showed that brain scans could help predict which adolescents would initiate excessive drug use in the future.
the improvements.
And they theorized that those who regularly consumed ¿sh could have a healthier lifestyle overall, contributing to their lower disease activity score.
Tedeschi said, “While they were unable to get speci¿c data on information such as patients’ exercise, its bene¿ts are proven.”
She acknowledged that ¿sh tends to be an expensive food to purchase.
“For those unable to afford ¿sh several times a week, Danesh cited other options.
“In general, patients should eat whole, unprocessed foods,” he said. “If you can’t for whatever reason, an omega-3 pill is a second option.”