Here we are, over half way through the year. Hard to believe!
Newsworthy: California is now requiring student ID's to have a 988 # on the back which is a suicide hotline. Sad that it is necessary, but really glad to see it.
Do tattoos cause cancer? The facts are still up in the air. It makes sense that a lot of the chemical, cadmium etc are foreign to the body, but do they actually create cancer? Studies are still not conclusive, but before you get a tattoo or another tattoo, do your diligence and know what you are doing.
Brain Implant Milestone- For the first time, a brain implant has allowed a man to speak instantaneously and expressively, and even sing, a new study has revealed. The finding marks a significant advancement in brain-to-text systems. The patient has ALS, Lou Gehrigs' Disease, a neurodegenerative disease impacting his speech. This occurred at UC Davis Med Center. The name of the system is BrainGate2. This advancement may pave the way for natural conversation. Great job UC Davis!!
Are Your Spices Messing With Your Meds? Of course. Life is never so simple.
Here are two spices that can interact with your daily meds.
Curcumin, turmeric, interacts with the liver enzymes and may affect antidepressants, antihypertensives, chemotherapeutic agents, and certain antibiotics. It's blood thinning, blood sugar loweering , and blood pressure reducing properties can affect the dosage of meds. At therapeutic concentrations, curcumin is contraindicated in gallstones, cholestasis, bleeding disorders or anticoagulants, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Ginger- its' active constituents, such as gingerol, have blood-thinning effects when consumed regularly, chronically, or in concentrated form and can increase bleeding risk when taken with anticoagulants. Higher doses can cause gastrointestinal side effects such as mucosal irritation, bloating, and heartburn.
Beware Of Chatboxes-Reuters) Well-known AI chatbots can be configured to routinely answer health queries with false information that appears authoritative, complete with fake citations from real medical journals, Australian researchers have found. Without better internal safeguards, widely used AI tools can be easily deployed to churn out dangerous health misinformation at high volumes, they warned in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “If a technology is vulnerable to misuse, malicious actors will inevitably attempt to exploit it - whether for financial gain or to cause harm,” said senior study author Ashley Hopkins of Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health in Adelaide.