the Pill changes women's brains

From MSNLifestyle via Instapundit:

In men, the androgens released at puberty are known to remodel the brain. This is also true in women, where relatively small quantities of testosterone can cause certain areas to shrink and others to grow.

so did anyone bother to check it out?

...One of the first such studies was conducted only eight years ago - after the pill had already been in use for 50 years. Dr Pletzer recruited a mixture of men and women on and off hormonal contraception, then scanned their brains. What she found was striking. The scans revealed that several brain areas were larger in the women on the pill, compared to those of women who weren't.

These areas just so happened to be larger in men than women, too. The study involved a relatively small sample and didn't separate androgenic and anti-androgenic contraception, so Dr Pletzer cautions against reading too much into the results. But other research has hinted that both types of hormones actually may be changing our behaviour.

It turns out that women taking pills with androgenic progestins have lower verbal fluency. They were also better at rotating objects. This makes sense, since men are thought to be slightly less articulate than women in certain situations and have better spatial awareness. Other studies have found that women on oral contraception remember emotional stories more like men - recalling the gist more than the details. They're also not as good at recognising emotions in others, such as anger, sadness, or disgust - just like men. It looks suspiciously like certain types of pill are "masculinising" women's brains....

As Dr Pletzer wrote in 2014, when athletes take steroids we call it 'doping' - it's considered abuse and strongly condemned by society. But we are happy for millions of women to take these hormones every day, sometimes from puberty to menopause. Scientists do not yet know if any of the pill's effects on the brain have much of an impact on our behaviour. But perhaps it is time we put it to the test. - 

on the other hand, the alternative might be ten kids, or ten abortions, so maybe it's okay.

STD increase: Blame anti HIV medicines?

A lot of headlines are touting the increase in STD diagnoses in the USA. AFP via Manila Bulletin:

In US, sexuallly transmitted infections hit new highs

But, like the Catholic "abuse" crisis, the elephant in the room is "MSM" or homosexual sex in men.

Between 2013 and 2017, syphilis diagnoses spiked 76 percent, going from 17,375 to 30,644 cases. Men who have sex with men made up almost 70 percent of syphilis cases.' 

Over those four years, gonorrhea cases increased 67 percent — from 333,004 to 555,608 cases. Gonorrhea diagnoses nearly doubled among gay men — going from 169,130 cases in 2013 to 322,169 last year.

translation: about 60 percent are in gay men.

Increases in gonorrhea among women “are also concerning,” said the CDC report, with cases going from 197,499 to 232,587 in a single year from 2016-2017.

they go on to discuss Chlamydia, but you know, with the newfangled idea you don't need yearly pap smears (where we docs routinely did Chlamydia testing) I wonder if some cases are missed.

they go on to lament that gonorrhea now is getting resistant to antibiotics like Zithromax (which also can treat Chlamydia, which often is missed or false negative test).

But not in the article:

It may not be an increase in gay MSM sex, but because of a decrease in the use of protection.

You see, if you take anti HIV retroviral medications, your viral load goes down and the rate of transmission of HIV goes way down too. So the fear of catching HIV is lower, meaning that there is probably less "safe sex" protection being done.

But I can't find the original report at the CDC so this is only an assumption.

two medicines in one pill for blood pressure? Back to the 1980s

guess what? A single pill with two drugs treats blood pressure better than two pills.

SciDaily report:

The guidelines recommend starting most patients on two blood pressure lowering drugs, not one. The previous recommendation was for step-wise treatment, which meant starting with one drug then adding a second and third if needed. This suffered from "physician inertia," in which doctors were reluctant to change the initial strategy despite its lack of success. At least 80% of patients should have been upgraded to two drugs, yet most remained on one drug. 

well, it's not "lack of success" but that there is partial success, and we figure that was good enough.

so now they think putting two pills together might work better... and this is related to why docs figure one pill was good enough: Because patients object to taking a lot of pills, or forget to take them correctly:

 It is now recognised that a major reason for poor rates of blood pressure control is that patients do not take their pills. Non-adherence increases with the number of pills, so administering the two drugs (or three if needed) in a single tablet "could transform blood pressure control rates," state the guidelines.

the problem? We used to have these combinations back in the 1980s, but some "expert" at the FDA outlawed them, saying that it was more scientific to give separate pills so we could individualize the doses. But we docs knew about the patients not taking pills, but never mind: The experts had spoken.

Ebola in Africa

the latest ebola epidemic isn't making a lot of headlines.

LINK

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) North Kivu district continues to grow, amid new healthcare worker infections and concerns that regional violence is making surveillance and detection challenging for international aid workers. According to an update released late yesterday by the DRC's healthy ministry, Ebola cases now total 96 (5 new cases), with 69 confirmed. In addition, 55 people have died. The 5 new cases and 5 newly recorded deaths are all in Mabalako health zone.

Electric catfish therapy

Improbable research discusses electric fish therapy.

Aristotle, Pliny, and Plutarch recognized the numbing effect of electricity when referring to the application of the torpedo fish to the body. Scribonius Largus advocated the use of piscine electrotherapy for the relief of pain associated with gout, headache, arthritis, and hemorrhoids. Various means of providing electrical current were developed, including the use of the electric ray or great Nile catfish.“

more here about the great Nile catfish here. 

The Egyptians reputedly used the electric shock from them when treating arthritis pain.[9] They would use only smaller fish, as a large fish may generate an electric shock from 300 to 400 volts. The Egyptians have depicted the fish in their mural paintings and elsewhere;[8] the first known depiction of an electric catfish is on a slate palette of the predynastic Egyptian ruler, Narmer, about 3100 BC.[7] It was suitably called "angry catfish" in ancient Egyptian. An account of its electric properties was given by an Arab physician of the 12th century; then as now, the fish was known by the suggestive name of raad, abo el raash, el raad or raash, which means "thunder"[8] (literally "trembler" or "shaker").

but beware the electric eels, whose shocks are more dangerous.


giving electric stimulation for pain is used in rehabilitation: And arthritis responds to this (probably in the same way that linaments and other irritants help wih the pain).

WAPO article on athlete who uses electric patches for his arthritis.

 The Arthritis foundation discusses here.

medical analysis of electrical stimulation for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The results showed that ES had significant benefit when compared to a control no treatment group in terms of muscle strength and fatigue resistance of the first dorsal interosseous. Most favourable results were obtained by using a patterned stimulation derived from a fatigued motor unit of the first dorsal interosseous in a normal hand rather than a fixed 10 Hz stimulation frequency. Side effects of the ES application were not reported.

Homones and trans

I had to take hormones for endometriosis.

the pill made me depressed.

The stronger medicine with androgenic properties made me "fat hairy and horny"... luckily I couldn't afford the full dosage or I would have gone manic and started to attack men.

The final medicine I took turned off my hormones and made me severely depressed. I cried all the time.

(So when I had men with prostate cancer who were put on this hormone, I warned them. I wonder how many of them ended up committing suicide? Or drinking for depression etc)

The emotional side effects of birth control pills are rarely discussed, but then as a woman with ovarian problems, I can tell you my own hormones did the same thing. PMS anyone?

I could tell my period was due when I would cry over nothing.

In the good old days, men with prostate cancer often were placed on estrogen: Cheap and efficient. Why did we stop using this? Because a double blind study showed the death rate on estrogen was higher for men: Not from cancer, where the death rate was lower, but from cardiovascular disease.

So this article (Via Virtueonline, an Episcopal webpage) notes the dirty little secret that no one wants to discuss, lest they enrage the twittermob or lose their job:

Hormones for transsexuals have side effects.

The US study compared medical records of over 5,000 transgender people against more than 97,000 others. It also suggested that men who took hormones for more than six years were ten times more likely to have a stroke caused by a blood clot than the general population. 'Risks' The study concluded: "These results may indicate the need for increasing vigilance in identifying long-term vascular side effects of oestrogen therapy". Senior author Michael Goodman of Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health said the findings could be "taken into consideration when planning follow-up and evaluation of patients". "The confirmation of this risk is good to have so patients can be warned", added fellow author Dr Joshua Safer.

this, presumably, was in adults.

The problem of giving various hormones and puberty blocking hormones to young teens with "gender dysphoria" is a bigger problem, because not only do many if not most of these kids have merely a transient wish to change sexes, and change their mind later, but the long term health problems are not clear.

and not in the article:

the lowering sperm count is back in the news.

NYTimes article.

it discusses the drop in sperm count over the last 40 years, but actually it has been decreasing since the 1930's.

Estrogen in the water supply? Including phyto estrogens from plastics and herbicides and plants?

Chinese generic medicines and fake/counterfeit drug dangers

this is a big problem here: generics are cheaper but you don't know if they work.

Usually, if it is a major infection or something important, I buy brand names or brand name generics at Mercury drug store, which checks on their generics.

The cheaper generics? I use when not so important.

Once Lolo had an infection that didn't get better with generic cephalexin, and our niece said to get the brand name, and the infection promptly resolved. Since he had CLL and a poor immune system, this could have mean a life threatening infection: but the generic was not completely fake, so it merely kept the infection under control with a suboptimal dosage.