“This Week In Health” offers some highlights from the world of health news and wellness tips that you may have missed this week:
- Medical marijuana that comes in edible form may be less potent and effective than believed, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. It is difficult to control the dosage of active cannabinoid chemicals present in the edible products that make up one-fifth of nationwide sales of legal marijuana. These marijuana-infused edibles include baked goods, beverages, and candy, and while it can be an annoyance for recreational users to have inaccurate counts on the cannabis content — in medicinal use, the lack of accurate information about the dosage is problematic.
- Curing the planet could be the surest route to curing ourselves. Climate change is set to spell the doom of our species within the century, according to a new study, but even right now, we are witnessing a public health crisis as a direct result of extreme temperatures and severe weather caused by global warming. A new study published in Lancet is encouraging policymakers to seek solutions to address climate change in order to protect the health and wellness of its citizens, saying that “tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.”
- First it was smoking, now it’s skinny jeans. Bottom line: If it looks cool, it’s probably bad for you. Skinny jeans may cause all kinds of health problems, like leg swelling and nerve and muscle damage. This is according to a new study published in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, which documents a woman who was hospitalized after losing all feeling in her legs, the result of squatting in skinny jeans for too long. It was four days before she could walk again. That’s the high cost of being fashionable.
- Survivors, as well as family members of victims, are urging for widespread immunization against meningitis B, a bacterial infection that affects mostly teens and young adults. Last year, two new vaccines were approved to combat the disease, and advocates for its broad adoption and mandated use in young people addressed the Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday. About 10 percent of people infected with the bacteria die, and an additional 20 percent are left disfigured, disabled or deaf, the CDC notes.
Photo: LennyLemon via Flickr
