Daily Archives: June 5, 2017

Emergency medicine in space: Normal rules don’t apply – Medical Xpress

Posted: June 5, 2017 at 7:39 am

June 5, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Experts at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress in Geneva (3-5 June) will discuss the unusual and challenging problem of how to perform emergency medical procedures during space missions.

"Space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars are planned in the coming years. During these long duration flights, the estimated risk of severe medical and surgical events, as well as the risk of loss of crew life are significant." according to Dr Matthieu Komorowski, Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK. "The exposure to the space environment itself disturbs most physiological systems and can precipitate the onset of space-specific illnesses, such as cardiovascular deconditioning, acute radiation syndrome, hypobaric decompression sickness and osteoporotic fractures."

In the event of a crew member suffering from an illness or injury, they may have to be treated and cared for by personnel with little formal medical training at their disposal and without the equipment and consumables that would be available in a comparable situation on Earth. Dr Komorowski notes that: "In the worst-case scenario, non-medical personnel may have to care for an injured or ill crewmember. Far from low earth orbit, real-time telemedicine will not be available and the crew will need to be self-reliant." He adds that: "Duplication of skills will be critical to enhance crew safety, especially if the doctor on board himself becomes ill, injured, incapacitated or dies. As such, extending basic medical training to most crewmembers will be extremely important."

Despite these measures, Dr Komorowski cautions that: "In remote environments, medical and surgical conditions with a low probability of success that also require using vast quantities of consumables are often not attempted. Similarly, during future space exploration missions, the crew must prepare for non-survivable illnesses or injuries that will exceed their limited treatment capability."

He will discuss various solutions and countermeasures that could be applied and discuss how they have been inspired by the needs of medical care in austere environments such as Antarctic polar bases, expeditions to remote areas, and during military operations here on Earth. These include ideas such as matching crew members for blood type to enable transfusions in an environment where blood products will not be available, or making use of on-demand 3D printing of medical equipment rather than carrying items that would most likely not be needed during the mission.

In the event of a serious problem such as a cardiac arrest, it may be necessary to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); an especially difficult procedure to perform in microgravity. This will be covered by Professor Jochen Hinkelbein, Executive Senior Physician, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. He is also President of the German Society for Aerospace Medicine (DGLRM).

Prof Hinkelbein points out that "Since astronauts are selected carefully, are usually young, and are intensively observed before and during their training, relevant medical problems are, fortunately, rare in space. However, in the context of future long-term missions, for example to Mars, with durations of several years, the risk for severe medical problems is significantly higher. Therefore, there is also a substantial risk for a cardiac arrest in space requiring CPR." The space environment presents a number of unique problems that must be overcome in order to deliver emergency medical care. In microgravity it is not possible to use one's body weight to perform actions such as CPR as would be done on Earth, and there are strict limits on the amount of medical equipment and consumables that can be taken on a mission.

Prof Hinkelbein will outline the different methods of CPR that have been tested in microgravity experiments onboard aircraft and in specialised underwater space simulators. The research conducted by his team found that using a 'hand-stand' technique was the most effective way to treat a cardiac arrest and most closely matched the guidelines used here on Earth. In situations where that method couldn't be used such as small confined spaces, the alternative is the Evetts-Russomano method of wrapping the legs around the patient to prevent them floating away while performing compressions was judged to be the best alternative.

He concludes that: "In the context of future space exploration, the longer duration of missions, and the consecutively higher risk of an incident requiring resuscitation increase the importance of microgravity-appropriate medical techniques."

Explore further: McMaster engineer working with NASA to improve deep space medicine

Preliminary results of a new study show that social jet lag has emerged as an important circadian marker for health outcomes.

Breastfeeding after a caesarean section (C-section) may help manage pain, with mothers who breastfed their babies for at least 2 months after the operation three times less likely to experience persistent pain compared to ...

Folic acid supplements taken by mothers before and during pregnancy appear to be beneficial in protecting against the risk of childhood leukaemia in offspring, a new review of existing evidence concludes.

Vitamin K, with its multiple forms, is among the lesser known nutrients. Now, new research from scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University sheds new light on ...

Researchers at the University of York have shown that tobacco use is more common among HIV positive individuals than HIV negative individuals.

Immunizing children and the elderly, after the high-risk individuals, will have the greatest overall benefit when there are limited vaccine resources, saving both lives and money, according to a study published in PLOS Computational ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

North Korea WW3: Japan prepares for EVACUATION after missile tests – Daily Star

Posted: at 7:38 am

NORTH KOREAS latest missile tests have forced Japan to undergo evacuation drills with over fears of an impending attack.

Kim Jong-uns tyrannical state fired an unidentified warhead last week which fell close to the neighbouring country.

Days after on Sunday (June 4) hundreds of residents from a small Japanese coastal town took part to simulate a ballistic missile strike.

The town of Abu which faces the Sea of Japan is surrounded by the Yamaguchi prefecture range, which host a major US Marine Corps air station.

GETTY

I was able to stay calm and evacuated in a few minutes, 67-year-old Yuriko Suewaka, who was among the 280 people involved in the exercise, told Jiji Press.

As WW3 tensions escalate further, there are plans to conduct more drills later this month in Yamagata and Niigata which both also face the Sea of Japan.

The government has requested local communities to prepare for the holding of an evacuation drill, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

GETTY

North Korean news agency KCNA has released images which show another successful missile test inside the secretive state. This is sure to heighten tensions in the already fraught Korean Peninsula

1 / 11

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks on during a ballistic rocket test-fire

North Koreas long-running tension with the West hit new levels on Friday after a US official claimed the country does not have the capability to stop Kims deadly missiles.

John F. Tierny executive director of the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation said the system aimed to intercept nuclear bombs has failed to destroy its target three out of the last five attempts.

Kim is also providing a new threat with claims he has an army of 6,000 hackers ready to gain access into Western computer systems.

Here is the original post:

North Korea WW3: Japan prepares for EVACUATION after missile tests - Daily Star

Posted in Ww3 | Comments Off

Entheogens | Drug War Facts

Posted: at 7:37 am

1.Entheogens

"'Entheogen' is a word coined by scholars proposing to replace the term 'psychedelic' (Ruck, Bigwood, Staples, Ott & Wasson, 1979), which was perceived to be too socioculturally loaded from its 1960s roots to appropriately denote the revered plants and substances used for traditional sacred rituals.What kinds of plants or chemicals fall into the category of entheogen is a matter of debate, as a large number of inebriants - from tobacco and marijuana to alcohol and opium - have been venerated as gifts from the gods (or God) in different cultures at different times (Fuller, 2000). For the purposes of this paper, however, I will focus on the class of drugs that Lewin (1924/1997) terms 'phantastica,' a name deriving from the Greek word for the faculty of the imagination (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1973). Later these substances became known as hallucinogens or psychedelics, a class whose members include lysergic acid derivatives, psilocybin, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine; these all shared physical, chemical, and, when ingested, phenomenological properties and, more importantly, have a history of ritual use as cultural tools to cure illness and/or to mediate cosmological insight (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1998; Rudgley, 1994, Schultes & Hofmann, 1992;)."

Tupper, Ken, "Entheogens & Education: Exploring the Potential of Psychoactives as Educational Tools," Journal of Drug Education and Awareness, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 146. http://www.kentupper.com...

"Another peculiar effect of these drugs is a dramatic change in perception: it appears to the person as if the eyes (the 'doors of perception') have been cleansed and the person could see the world as new in all respects 'as Adam may have seen it on the day of creation' as Aldous Huxley (1954, p. 17) pointed out in his popular and influential book. This new reality is perceived and interpreted by some individuals as manifestation of the true nature of their mind; hence, the term 'psychedelic' was suggested by Osmond (1957). This interpretation has been embraced not only by professional therapists but also by some segments of the public, and gave rise to the 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco in 1967 with free distribution of LSD. This perception resulted in the formation of numerous cults, communes, and drug-oriented religious groups (Freedman 1968), permeated the lyrics and style of popular music (acid rock), and was viewed by some as one of the contributing sources of the occasional resurgence of popularity of illegal drug use (Cohen 1966, Szra 1968)."

Szra, Stephen, "Are Hallucinogens Psychoheuristic," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1994) NIDA Research Monograph 146, p. 36. http://archives.drugabuse.gov/...

"The term 'hallucinogen' is widely used and understood in both professional and lay circles, in spite of the fact that hallucinations in the strict psychiatric sense of the word are a relatively rare effect of these drugs (Hollister 1962). What is probably the first reference to hallucinations as produced by peyote appears in Louis Lewins book published in 1924 in German and later translated into English with the nearly identical title Phantastica (Lewin 1924, 1964). In this book by the noted German toxicologist, the term 'hallucinatoria' appears as a synonym for phantastica to designate the class of drugs that can produce transitory visionary states 'without any physical inconvenience for a certain time in persons of perfectly normal mentality who are partly or fully conscious of the action of the drug' (Lewin 1964, p. 92). Lewin lists peyotl (also spelled 'peyote') (Anhalonium lewinii), Indian hemp (Cannabis indica), fly agaric (Agaricus muscarius), thornapple (Datura stramonium), and the South American yahe (also spelled 'yage') (Banisteria caapi) as representatives of this class."

"Ayahuasca is a psychedelic decoction made from plants native to the Amazon Basinmost often Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridisand which contains harmala alkaloids and N,Ndimethyltryptamine (DMT), the latter being a controlled substance scheduled under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances."

Anderson, B. T.; Labate, B. C.; Meyer, M.; Tupper, K. W.; Barbosa, P. C. R.; Grob, C. S.; Dawson, A. & McKenna, D., "Statement on ayahuasca,". International Journal of Drug Policy (London, United Kingdom: International Harm Reduction Association, March 2012) Vol. 23, No. 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

"Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic tea originally from the Amazon Basin that is supposedly able to induce strikingly similar visions in people independent of their cultural background. Ayahuasca users commonly claim that this regularity across peoples visions is evidence that their visions are not simply the products of their own brains, but rather are representations of spiritual information learned from plant-spirits that one gains access to by drinking the tea."

Anderson, Brian, ""Entheogenic Visions: The Sacred Union of Word & Image," Undergraduate Humanities Forum, Mellon Research Fellows 2005-2006, Word & Image (Philadelphia, PA: May 5, 2006), pp. 2 and 30. http://repository.upenn.edu/cg...

"Cross-cultural vegetalismo refers to ayahuasca ceremonies based, to varying degrees, on vegetalismo or equivalent traditions from other regions of the Amazon, but conducted primarily for (and increasingly by) non-Amazonians. Urban centres in the region are presently witnessing a boom in what has been pejoratively characterized as 'ayahuasca tourism' (Dobkin de Rios, 1994; see also Davidov, 2010; Holman, 2011; Razam, 2009), but cross-cultural vegetalismo ceremonies are also increasingly common outside the Amazon (Labate, 2004). Canadians and other foreigners regularly invite indigenous or mestizo Amazonian ayahuasqueros to their home countries to conduct ceremonies for people in the circles and networks of the sponsors friends and acquaintances (Tupper, 2009asee Appendix). Some individuals are undertaking apprenticeships in the vegetalismo tradition to become neo-shamanic practitioners of ayahuasca healing, in a manner similar to how yoga, Buddhist monastic, ayurvedic, or Chinese medicine practices have been taken up by modern Western disciples exogenous to the respective cultures and traditions of origin."

Tupper, Kenneth William, "Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy," University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC: April 2011), pp. 14-15. http://www.kentupper.com...

"Vegetalismo is a Peruvian Spanish term denoting the folk healing traditions of mestizo curanderos, or healers of mixed indigenous and non-indigenous ancestry who use ayahuasca and other 'master' plants for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses (Beyer, 2009; Dobkin de Rios, 1972; Luna, 1986). Known as ayahuasqueros, such folk healers undergo a rigorous process of initiation and training, requiring adherence to strict dietary and sexual abstinence protocols, and sometimes prolonged isolation in the jungle."

Tupper, Kenneth William, "Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy," PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies (Educational Studies) (Vancouver, BC: April 2011), pp. 14-15. http://www.kentupper.com...

"On February 21 of this year, 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Centro Esprita Beneficente Unio do Vegetal (the UDV) in the case Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. Petitioners v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Unio do Vegetal et al. The UDV is now legally allowed to drink ayahuasca (which contains the controlled substance DMT) in their ceremonies here in the US."

"Aside from indicating a general lack of harm from the religious use of ayahuasca, biomedical and ethnographic studies have also generated preliminary evidence in support of the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca or its constituents for alleviating substance dependence (Grob et al., 1996; Labate, Santos, Anderson, Mercante, & Barbosa, 2010) and mood and anxiety disorders (Fortunato et al., 2010; Santos, Landeira-Fernandez, Strassman, Motta, & Cruz, 2007). The study of ayahuasca could thus contribute to advances in ethnopharmacology and the cognitive sciences (Shanon, 2002), yet such studies are severely compromised when these traditions face the threat of legal sanction."

"LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is one of the most potent mood-changing chemicals. It was discovered in 1938 and is manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)also known as acid, blotter, doses, hits, microdots, sugar cubes, trips, tabs, or window panes is one of the most potent moodand perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. It is a clear or white, odorless, water-soluble material synthesized from lysergic acid, a compound derived from a rye fungus. LSD is initially produced in crystalline form, which can then be used to produce tablets known as 'microdots' or thin squares of gelatin called 'window panes.' It can also be diluted with water or alcohol and sold in liquid form. The most common form, however, is LSD-soaked paper punched into small individual squares, known as 'blotters.'"

"Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs, including LSD, PCP, Ketamine, Dextromethorphan," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 2001), p. 3. http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs in people under the influence of LSD. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in large enough doses, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The users sense of time and self is altered. Experiences may seem to cross over different senses, giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic. Some LSD users experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings of despair, fear of losing control, or fear of insanity and death while using LSD. "LSD users can also experience flashbacks, or recurrences of certain aspects of the drug experience. Flashbacks occur suddenly, often without warning, and may do so within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. In some individuals, the flashbacks can persist and cause significant distress or impairment in social or occupational functioning, a condition known as hallucinogen-induced persisting perceptual disorder (HPPD). "Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior. However, LSD does produce tolerance, so some users who take the drug repeatedly must take progressively higher doses to achieve the state of intoxication that they had previously achieved. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug. In addition, cross-tolerance between LSD and other hallucinogens has been reported.

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). https://d14rmgtrwzf5a.cloudfro...

"Past-year use of LSD, one of the major drugs in the hallucinogen class, has been hovering for about a decade at its lowest levels recorded by the study (Figure 5-4e). In 2015 the levels of use for students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were 0.9%, 2.0%, and 2.9%, respectively. Consistent with most other drugs, use increased during the 1990s relapse and peaked in the mid-1990s. It then subsequently declined to its lowest levels ever in the early 2000s, where it has since plateaued. "LSD was one of the first drugs to decline at the start of the 1980s, almost surely due to increased information about its potential dangers. The subsequent increase in its use during the mid-1980s may reflect the effects of generational forgettingthat is, replacement cohorts know less than their predecessors about the potential dangers of LSD because they have had less exposure to the negative consequences of using the drug.3 "We believe that the decline prior to 2002 might have resulted in part from a displacement of LSD by sharply rising ecstasy use. After 2001, when ecstasy use itself began to decline, the sharp further decline in LSD use likely resulted from a sudden drop in the availability of LSD, because attitudes generally have not moved in a way that could explain the fall in use, while perceived availability has."

Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., OMalley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 19752015: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 161. Available at http://monitoringthefuture.org... http://monitoringthefuture.org...

"Our results indicate that this population of sexually active female adolescents and young adults have similar rates of lifetime use of LSD (13%) as reported in other surveys,1,30 and half of these young women report using LSD one or more times in the last year. Prior data suggests that the use of hallucinogens by African Americans is virtually nonexistent across all ages of adolescents and young adults.2,9 In fact, we found that none of our African American young women reported using LSD. However, the proportion of African Americans who reported using marijuana was much greater than either caucasian or Mexican American women."

Rickert, Vaughn I.; Siqueira, Lorena M.; Dale, Travis; and Wiemann, Constance M., "Prevalence and Risk Factors for LSD Use among Young Women," Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (Washington, DC: North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, April 2003) Volume 16, Issue 2, p. 72. http://www.beckleyfoundation.o...

"The physiological effects of this powerful drug have been well documented. These effects can be grouped into five general areas of action: LSD works on the sympathetic nervous system (which is involved in regulation of heart muscle, smooth muscle and glandular organs in a response to stressful situations); the motor system (which is involved in carrying out limb movements); the affective states; thought processes; and it has profound effects upon the sensory and perceptual experience.

"LSD is a semisynthetic preparation originally derived from ergot, an extract of the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which grows as a parasite on rye wheat. The dosage that is required to produce a moderate effect in most subjects is 1 to 3mcg per kilogram of body mass, and the effects can last from seven to 10 hours (Bowman & Rand 1980).

"Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system following LSD ingestion can lead to effects such as hypothermia with piloerection (hairs standing on end, such as can be found in reports of religious ecstasy), sweating, increased heart rate with palpitations, and elevation of blood pressure and blood glucose levels. These reactions of the autonomic nervous system are not as significant as other effects upon the body: action on the motor system can lead to increased activity of monosynaptic reflexes (such as the knee-jerk response), an increase in muscle tension, tremors, and muscular incoordination. This latter effect of muscular incoordination is also a symptom of religious ecstasy in many cultures, where the worshipper has such a profound feeling of love of God that he is said to be 'intoxicated by God.'"

Goodman, Neil, "The Serotonergic System and Mysticism: Could LSD and the Nondrug-Induced Mystical Experience Share Common Neural Mechanisms?" Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (San Francisco, CA: Haight Ashbury Publications, July-September 2002), Vol. 34, No. 3, p. 266. http://www.cnsproductions.com/...

"Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior. However, LSD does produce tolerance, so some users who take the drug repeatedly must take progressively higher doses to achieve the state of intoxication that they had previously achieved. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug. In addition, cross-tolerance between LSD and other hallucinogens has been reported."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"The effects of LSD depend largely on the amount taken. LSD causes dilated pupils; can raise body temperature and increase heart rate and blood pressure; and can cause profuse sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). https://d14rmgtrwzf5a.cloudfro...

"Chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz Corporation pharmaceutical laboratory in Switzerland, first synthesized LSD in 1938. He was conducting research on possible medical applications of various lysergic acid compounds derived from ergot, a fungus that develops on rye grass. Searching for compounds with therapeutic value, Hofmann created more than two dozen ergot-derived synthetic molecules. The 25th was called, in German, Lyserg-Sure-Dithylamid 25, or LSD-25."

"Peyote is a small, spineless cactus in which the principal active ingredient is mescaline. This plant has been used by natives in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a part of religious ceremonies. Mescaline can also be produced through chemical synthesis."