When marijuana-using teens stop partaking, their verbal learning and memory get better. An improvement is seen after just a week’s time, a new study finds.
"The adolescent brain is undergoing significant neurodevelopment well into the 20s, and the regions that are last to develop are those regions that are most populated by cannabis receptors and are also very critical to cognitive functioning," says Randi Schuster, director of neuropsychology at Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Addiction Medicine and the study’s lead author.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, add to growing evidence that marijuana use in adolescents is associated with reduced neurocognitive functioning, NPR Science Desk intern Rachel D. Cohen reports.
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Alexandra Hootnick/Kaiser Health News
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When Janet Winston developed a rash that wouldn't go away, she turned to Stanford Health Care for help.
An English professor from Eureka, Calif., Winston had long been sensitive to ingredients in skin creams and cosmetics. She thought a prescription antifungal cream for a persistent rash was making things worse, reports Kaiser Health News’ Barbara Feder Ostrov.
For three days, Winston underwent allergy testing at Stanford Health, where 119 tiny plastic containers of allergens were taped to her back.
Winston leaned she was allergic to quite a few things, including the suspicious antifungal cream, the antibiotic neomycin, a clothing dye and the metals gold, nickel and cobalt.
The biggest surprise, though, was the bill for $48,329.
This is the latest story in our monthly series with Kaiser Health News that looks at medical bills. If you have one that you’d like us to consider, please submit it here.
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After a cesarean section, does swabbing a baby with Mom's microbes reduce the risk of obesity and other health problems later in life?
An ambitious study to help answer the question is now underway, NPR’s Rob Stein reports.
He tags along with Danielle Vukadinovich, who’s taking part in the research at the Inova Women's Hospital in Falls Church, Va. Her daughter, delivered by C-section, got wiped down either with fluid from Danielle's birth canal or a sterile solution that serves as a placebo.
The theory is that the rise in many diseases, including asthma, might be related to C-sections. "We think that one of the reasons that babies born by C-section are at increased risk for these diseases is because they don't receive that first beneficial exposure to their mother's vaginal microbiome," says Suchitra Hourigan, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Inova.
The study of more than 800 women and their babies could shed light on the potential risks and benefits.
You can find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us for up-to-the-minute news at @NPRHealth.
Your Shots editor, Scott Hensley |
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