Marijuana Bus For Retirees │Aspirin Disappoints │Ecstatic Octopuses

For Healthy Older People A Daily Low-Dose Aspirin Is A Dud

Stephanie O'Neill for NPR   Retirees Hop On The Canna-Bus Legal cannabis sales are booming, as more states OK marijuana for medical or recreational use. And the fastest growing group of users is people over 50, with especially steep increases among those 65 and older. Now Stephanie O’Neill reports from California that some dispensaries are tailoring their pitches to seniors seeking alternative treatments for their aches, pains and other medical conditions. At the Laguna Woods Village retirement community in Orange County, Calif., a free shuttle takes interested residents to a nearby marijuana dispensary. "Not everybody is coming to be a customer," says Kandice Hawes, director of community outreach for the dispensary, called Bud and Bloom. "A lot are just coming to be educated." Shirley Avedon, 90,­­ recently tried a topical cannabidiol cream for pain relief. "It helped a little," she says. "Now I'm going back for the second time hoping they have something better." For more about the rise in marijuana use by people in their golden years, you can also read Mara Gordon's story about recent trends.   Bruno Ehrs/Getty Images   A Daily Baby Aspirin Has No Benefit For Healthy Older People Many healthy Americans take a daily low-dose aspirin to reduce their risk of having a heart attack, getting cancer and even possibly developing dementia. But is it a good idea? No, according to a study of more than 19,000 people in the U.S. and Australia. The researchers concluded low-dose aspirin wasn’t helpful for older, otherwise healthy people. "We found there was no discernible benefit of aspirin on prolonging independent, healthy life for the elderly," says Anne Murray, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, who helped lead the study. There is still strong evidence that a daily low-dose aspirin can reduce the risk that people who have already had a heart attack or stroke will suffer a repeat, NPR’s Rob Stein reports.   Tom Kleindinst/Marine Biological Laboratory   Ecstasy Turns Antisocial Octopuses Into Cuddlebugs The club drug ecstasy can make people feel pretty clingy. Same goes for octopuses, it turns out. Scientists gave octopuses, known for being almost entirely antisocial except when they're mating, the drug known more formally as MDMA. The researchers observed that the eight-legged creatures wanted to spend more time close to one another -- even hugging, reports NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce.   "I was absolutely shocked that it had this effect," says Judit Pungor, a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon who studies octopuses but wasn't part of the ecstasy team. "Is it really affection? How would we know?" asks Zachary Mainen, a neuroscientist at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal. "It's totally fascinating and super-suggestive, but I am not a hundred percent convinced that this is doing the same thing in octopus and in human."   We hope you enjoy these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us for updates on Twitter at @NPRHealth.  Your Shots editor, Scott Hensley   You received this message because you're subscribed to our Health emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002