With up to 10 new designer drugs flooding streets every year, more education is needed to convey risks

In the span of a decade, Canada has gone from ecstasy importer to global supplier of the illegal party drug. At the same time, even newer designer highs - sometimes just a mouse-click away - are flooding the drug market faster than legislation can keep pace.It's a worrying problem that University of Alberta researchers say requires more education to help Canadians understand the very real, deadly risks of designer drug use.

Cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia

Whole body cooling in comatose patients who have suffered a heart attack can limit the damage to brain tissue caused by the restoration of blood flow and oxygen. But new data indicate that in certain patients therapeutic hypothermia is less effective and may even worsen neurological outcomes, as described in an article in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management website.

Light-sensitive switches turn pain off and sight on

Photoreactive compounds developed by LMU scientists directly modulate nerve-cell function, and open new routes to the treatment of neurological diseases, including chronic pain and certain types of visual impairment.All modes of sensory perception are based on communication between nerve cells. Both the response to the primary stimulus and the transmission of the resulting signal depend on the function of specialized receptor proteins that are associated with the surface membranes of neurons.

Can you really die of a broken heart?

Losing a loved one can be heartbreaking. But a new study shows that this can be more than just symbolic, as the chances of experiencing a stroke or heart attack after a partner's death doubles within the first 30 days.

The researchers, from St. George's University of London in the UK, have published the results of their study in JAMA.

They note that, sometimes, grief can lead to extra physical stress and can also make people lose interest or forget to take their medication.

To investigate bereavement as a risk factor for cardiovascular problems, the team assessed the rate of stroke or heart attack in patients over the age of 60 whose partner died. They then compared that with individuals whose partners were still alive.

In total, there were 3,0447 individuals in the study whose partner died and 83,588 controls whose partners did not.

The researchers found that 16 per 10,000 people whose partners died experienced heart attacks or strokes within 30 days of their partner dying, compared with only 8 per 10,000 from the control population.

After 30 days, however, this increased risk began to fall in individuals who lost a loved one.

Many women seeking medical care have experienced reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence

Enough women experience reproductive coercion - male behavior to control contraception and pregnancy outcomes - that a research team now recommends health care providers address the subjects with their patients and tailor family planning discussions and recommendations accordingly.Researchers from Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island were part of a team that published "Reproductive coercion and co-occurring intimate partner violence in obstetrics and gynecology patients" in a recent issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Patients with painful facial nerve disorder benefit from nonsurgical Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery

Research by Beaumont Health System radiation oncologists and neurosurgeons found that symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia, or TN, a nerve disorder causing severe facial pain, were reduced in those treated with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery. The results were published recently in the journal Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.TN is a disorder of the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for feeling in the face. In most cases, the facial pain is caused by a blood vessel pressing on the nerve.

Dark chocolate 'good for the heart,' study suggests

Nutritionists have long said that eating dark chocolate in moderation can be good for our health. Now, researchers have discovered why. It may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis - thickening and hardening of the arteries - by restoring flexibility of the arteries and preventing white blood cells from sticking to the blood vessel walls.

The research team, including Prof. Diederik Esser of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University, both in the Netherlands, published the study in The FASEB Journal.

To reach their findings, the investigators analyzed 44 overweight men aged between 45 and 70 years.

Over two periods of 4 weeks, the men were required to eat either 70 g of regular dark chocolate each day or 70 g of specially produced dark chocolate with high levels of flavanol - a naturally occurring antioxidant found in some plants, including the cocoa plant. Both chocolates were similar in their cocoa content.

Subjects were asked not to eat other foods high in calories during the study period, in order to prevent them from gaining weight.

The researchers assessed how both the chocolate high in flavanols and the regular chocolate stimulated the participants' senses over the study duration. In other words, they looked at whether flavanol content motivated the subjects to eat the chocolate.

The vascular health of the participants was assessed both at the baseline and end of the study period.

Improved heart health 'not down to flavanols'