It’s buyer beware for online CBD shoppers
A new study of 300 online cannabidiol merchants by compliance firm LegitScript found that 98% were non-compliant with regulations.
“We thought we would see some problems, but the notion that 49 out of 50 of these online sellers are not compliant is really troubling,” LegitScript founder John Horton said.
CBD is a non-intoxicating compound found in the cannabis plant, and certain forms were legalized in the U.S. last year. It’s soared in popularity as proponents say it can help alleviate everything from chronic pain to insomnia, but little scientific research has been done.
There are between 10,000 and 13,000 merchants selling CBD on the internet, according to LegitScript. But many of those are selling illegal products, selling into jurisdictions that don’t allow it, making unproven claims, or some combination of the three. Of the 300 websites studied, 45% included impermissible claims that their products can treat serious diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s and clinical depression.
LegitScript also tested 30 products. Two-thirds of those contained significantly more or less CBD than they advertised, with nine containing less than half. One tested product had only 1% of what it claimed.
— Kristine Owram, Bloomberg
Burnout epidemic among doctors and nurses
Imagine a health care system where doctors and nurses are so exhausted and beaten down that many of them work like zombies — error-prone, apathetic toward patients and at times trying to blunt their own pain with alcohol or even suicide attempts.
That is what America’s broken health care system is doing to its health workers, according to a 333-page report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
The report found that as many as half of the country’s doctors and nurses experience substantial symptoms of burnout, resulting in increased risks to patients, malpractice claims, worker absenteeism and turnover.
“It’s a moral issue, a patient-care issue and a financial issue,” said Christine Cassel, professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, who co-chaired the committee of experts that wrote the report.
They found that between 35% and 54% of nurses and doctors experience burnout. Among medical students and residents, the percentage is as high as 60%. Symptoms, they said, include emotional exhaustion, cynicism, loss of joy in their work, and increasing detachment from their patients.
— William Wan, The Washington Post
A tweak in diet linked to healthier sperm
Can eating tomatoes improve sperm quality?
In a randomized placebo-controlled trial, British researchers tested the effect on sperm of lycopene, a red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelons, pink grapefruits and other red-tinted fruits and vegetables.
The scientists divided 56 men ages 19 to 30 into two groups. For 12 weeks, one group took a daily pill containing 14 milligrams of lactolycopene, a combination of whey protein and lycopene that makes the lycopene easier to absorb. The other group took a look-alike placebo.
There was no difference between the groups in the percentage of moving sperm in the semen. But in the men who took lycopene, there was a significant increase in the concentration of fast progressive sperm — sperm that make forward progress — as well as in the proportion of sperm with proper size and shape. The study is in The European Journal of Nutrition.
“We’ve conducted a small study that has identified a compound found in vegetables and fruits that improves sperm quality,” said lead author Elizabeth A. Williams, of the University of Sheffield. “But I would advise men to have a healthy diet in general.”
— Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times
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