CAN SLEEP LOSS AFFECT YOUR BRAIN SIZE

Sleep difficulties may be linked to faster rates of decline in brain volume, according to a study published in the September 3, 2014, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology

Sleep has been proposed to be "the brain's housekeeper," serving to repair and restore the brain.

The study included 147 adults 20 and 84 years old. Researchers examined the link between sleep difficulties, such as having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, and brain volume.

All participants underwent two MRI brain scans, an average of 3.5 years apart, before completing a questionnaire about their sleep habits.

A total of 35 percent of the participants met the criteria for poor sleep quality, scoring an average of 8.5 out of 21 points on the sleep assessment. The assessment looked at how long people slept, how long it took them to fall asleep at night, use of sleeping medications, and other factors.

The study found that sleep difficulties were linked with a more rapid decline in brain volume over the course of the study in widespread brain regions, including within frontal, temporal and parietal areas.

The results were more pronounced in people over 60 years old.

"It is not yet known whether poor sleep quality is a cause or consequence of changes in brain structure," said study author Claire E. Sexton, DPhil, with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. "There are effective treatments for sleep problems, so future research needs to test whether improving people's quality of sleep could slow the rate of brain volume loss. If that is the case, improving people's sleep habits could be an important way to improve brain health."

Anti Opioid Measures Affect Genuine Pain Sufferers

Today's post from the always excellent pain-topics.org (see link below) talks about the current political hysteria concerning opioids and opioid abuse across the world. True there are recreational users who abuse both the drugs and the system but there are also so many neuropathy and other non-cancer pain sufferers who depend on these drugs to get by each day. Authorities in many lands are introducing stringent measures to control opioid abuse but innocent people are being caught up in the backlash and being denied the drugs they need and deserve. You can almost understand the motives behind this when talking about drug abuse but if the reason also involves money, as is suggested here in Australia, then it is clearly unacceptable to chronic pain sufferers. A very interesting article.

Opiophobia Alive & Well in Oz
Posted by SB. Leavitt, MA, PhD Thursday, January 24, 2013

With all the recent ruckus over prescription opioids and sensational news headlines in the American press inciting fears of these medications, it is easy to believe that the United States is the only country facing such challenges. Apparently, the news is even worse from “down under” in Australia.

According to a brief news item — by Renee Viellaris and appearing in The Australian on January 19, 2013 [here] — physicians will “begin weaning some patients off pain medication as the nation's insatiable habit of pill popping has left health and law enforcement agencies buckling under pressure.” New pharmaceutical guidelines, to be presented this year to state and federal health ministers, will disallow prescribing some patients with “highly addictive and popular pain pills.”

The news report claims that the move has been prompted by the financial drain on the federally-funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from excessive analgesic prescribing, misuse of the medicines, and “research showing long-term use of opioids is counterproductive.” Based on 2010 figures from the Australian National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), in that single year demand for subsidized prescriptions for two types of popular analgesics — oxycodone and fentanyl — cost taxpayers an extra $18 million [$18.9 million USD].

Dr. Steve Hambleton, federal president of the Australian Medical Association, confirmed that “some patients with noncancer pain would have to be weaned off the drugs because they were too expensive and were no longer clinically appropriate. Patients with long-term back or hip pain and those with sporting injuries who take the popular drugs face being directed to alternative therapies, including yoga.”

Hambleton called for more money from government to set up chronic pain clinics in hospitals, but conceded that the new regulations will dramatically change how pain is treated, and at a time when policy makers are also coping with an ageing population. “Some patients will have to be weaned off (and will have to do) things like physical therapy and focus on what you can do and not what you can't — more of a positive attitude,” he said in the news article.

The news report concludes that, “Research provided by NCETA shows that the per capita amount of morphine-equivalent drugs Australians are taking has exploded in the past 30 years.” Furthermore, “the number of Queenslanders on opioid dependence programs is dramatically increasing.”

COMMENTARY: The news report, brief as it is, tells a grim story of what may lie ahead for patients with chronic pain in Oz. And, unfortunately, this is not unlike what is occurring or may happen in other parts of the world, including the U.S.

Our quick scan of the websites of Australian organizations — Chronic Pain Australia serving patients/advocates, and the Australian Pain Society serving healthcare professionals — found no mention of these dire developments. Among other concerns, it would be interesting to know of what research evidence authorities are examining that proves the long-term use of opioid analgesics is “counterproductive.”

The news article notes that the number of persons in Queensland entering opioid-dependence treatment programs has been “dramatically increasing.” However, an accompanying chart shows the rise was only 19% — from roughly 4,900 to 5,800 persons — during the 5-year span 2008 to 2012. It does not say what proportion was attributable to prescription opioid abuse/addiction, or whether this was actually a favorable trend suggesting that more persons with substance-use problems are seeking and getting much needed care. [The U.S. CDC had presented some time ago similarly puzzling data on treatment-program admissions, discussed in an UPDATE here.]

Saving money on federally-funded prescription plans may seem like a worthwhile goal, but we wonder if authorities have considered the unintended consequences — financial and otherwise — of leaving large populations adrift to suffer chronic pain. It seems rather cavalier to suggest that these patients should adopt more positive attitudes and participate in alternative therapies, like yoga, since such interventions only work if they can get out of bed and move nimbly about without adequate pain-relieving medication.

http://updates.pain-topics.org/2013/01/opiophobia-alive-well-in-oz.html

Microglia How Do They Affect Your Nerve Pain

Today's post from sciencedaily.com (see link below) is yet more evidence of how the nervous system is being closely studied and better understood. In this case, a class of nerve cells called microglia are the centre of attention. Previously these cells (about 10% of all cells in the brain and spinal cord) had only been thought to provide a supporting role to other cells but now it's emerged that they are vital components of the messaging system which forms the basis of a healthy nervous system. It's beginning to look as though we're at the beginning of exciting times in nerve cell research - so many new avenues to explore with so many potential benefits for neuropathy patients at the end of it. However, don't expect major breakthroughs just yet - these things take years and sometimes decades before research bears fruit. That said, neuropathy patients are a long-suffering and patient bunch!!

New findings about mechanisms underlying chronic pain reveal novel therapeutic strategies 
Date:May 26, 2015 Source:Canadian Association for Neuroscience

Chronic pain affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is a major cause of disability, causing more disability than cancer and heart disease. Canadian researchers, including Michael Salter at SickKids are shedding light on the molecular dynamics of chronic pain. They have uncovered a critical role for a class of cells present in the brain and spinal cord, called microglia, in pain. They have found microglia-to-neuron-signaling to be crucial in the development of pain hypersensitivity after injury, but also for one of the paradoxical effects morphine and other opioids sometimes produce, called hyperalgesia, which is an increase in pain sensitivity. The identification of these key players in the development of chronic pain helps identify important targets for the development of novel therapeutic avenues. Dr. Salter presented his latest results at the 9th Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, on May 26th 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"We're developing a new understanding of the control of microglia-neuron interactions that may be critical for individualizing pain therapies" said Salter.

Pain is a complex experience. The International Academy for the Study of Pain, IASP defines it as, "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." While acute pain can be useful, as a signal that protects us from injury or even death, and inflammatory pain can protect us during healing, chronic neuropathic pain, which is a disease of the nervous system, is pain that persists after an injury is healed, serves no useful function and is a major cause of disability.

Work done in Dr. Salter's laboratory has helped to gain understanding of the changes in the nervous system, and to uncover the key molecules that form the cascade of events that lead to chronic pain. A class of cells called microglia play a central role in this cascade. Microglia constitute about 10% of the cells of the adult brain and spinal cord (also known as the central nervous system). Initially thought to have simply a role in supporting neurons (the term glia derives from the same root as glue), microglia were later shown to have an important role in the spinal response that follows nerve injury.

"Exciting new discoveries indicate that microglia not only play a critical role in disease states but also in the normal development and functioning of the brain and spinal cord," Salter explained. "We are looking at these cells in an entirely new light."

More recently, microglia have been shown to have a much more active role in the healthy central nervous system, and to be highly active in surveillance and rapid response -- microglia monitor and control the activity of neurons in the healthy nervous system. Within the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, the area through which pain signals travel to the brain, microglia block the inhibition of pain transmitting neurons, making transmission of the pain signal more efficient. This can lead to allodynia, which is defined as pain due to a stimulus that does not normally provoke pain.

Nerve injury activates a receptor on microglia, called P2X4, which, in turn causes the release of a molecule called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, or BDNF. BDNF has been shown to have a role in learning in the motor cortex, where its release results in enhanced motor performance. Dr. Salter proposes that when microglia-derived BDNF facilitates the output of the dorsal horn pain-transmitting network, the result is enhanced pain. When BDNF facilitates this network, it is as if neurons had "learned" pain, and they become more efficient in the transmission of pain signals.

Morphine and other opioids are sometimes prescribed to treat chronic pain when other treatments do not work. While these drugs can be very efficient to relieve pain, some patients develop a paradoxical effect, called hyperalgesia. Paradoxical hyperalgesia is an increase in pain caused by drugs prescribed to alleviate pain. Dr. Salter's research shows that microglia-to-neuron-communication is crucial for the development of this effect.

Research done by Dr. Salter and his colleagues shows how the experience of pain can change the nervous system to make it more sensitive to further painful experiences, to feel pain in response to events that do not cause pain in most people, and how opioids can paradoxically cause more pain. Dr. Salter anticipates that by targeting the signaling pathways identified in these studies new therapeutic strategies for chronic pain will be developed

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Canadian Association for Neuroscience. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150526132353.htm

SMOKING DURING PREGNANCY CAN AFFECT FUTURE GRANDKIDS

British researchers have found that smoking during pregnancy has discernible effects on the growth of a woman’s future grandchildren.

With non-smoking mothers, if a paternal grandmother smoked during pregnancy, her granddaughters tended to be taller and both her granddaughters and grandsons tended to have greater bone mass and lean (muscle) mass, researchers noted.

If a maternal grandmother smoked during pregnancy, her grandsons became heavier than expected during adolescence, with increased lean mass, grip strength and cardiovascular fitness.

When both the maternal grandmother and the mother had smoked, girls had reduced height and weight compared with girls whose mothers, but not grandmothers, smoked.

“These likely transgenerational effects from the grandmothers’ smoking in pregnancy need to be taken into account in future studies of the effects of maternal smoking on child growth and development,” said senior study author professor Marcus Pembrey, a clinical geneticist who previously worked in the Institute of Child Health at University College London.

If replicated, such studies could be a useful model for the molecular analysis of human transgenerational responses, he added.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Human Biology.

Neuropathy Can Affect More Than Your Feet Vid

Today's short video from creativepharmacist.com is addressed towards diabetic neuropathy sufferers but in this case, the information applies to many other neuropathy sufferers and talks mainly about autonomic neuropathy (neuropathy that affects involuntary functions of the body: digestion, sexual performance, breathing etc). It's very short, doesn't tell you much but leads you towards more information on their site. It's very possible that you weren't aware that neuropathy can affect other areas of your body apart from your feet and legs. For more information on this blog, check out 'autonomic neuropathy' in the alphabetical list to the right of the blog, or use the search function to find more articles on the subject.




Sweet Spot January 2013 - Neuropathy