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Melatonin poisoning in kids sharply increased during coronavirus pandemic, study says

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Melatonin poisoning in kids sharply increased during coronavirus pandemic, study says

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Researchers are drawing consideration to an increase in poisonings in kids involving the sleep help melatonin – together with a giant bounce in the course of the pandemic.

Final yr, U.S. poison management facilities acquired greater than 52,000 calls about kids consuming worrisome quantities of the dietary complement – a six-fold enhance from a few decade earlier. Most such calls are about younger kids who by accident bought into bottles of melatonin, a few of which come within the type of gummies for teenagers.

Mother and father could consider melatonin because the equal of a vitamin and depart it on a nightstand, mentioned Dr. Karima Lelak, an emergency doctor at Kids’s Hospital of Michigan and the lead writer of the examine revealed Thursday by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. “However actually it’s a drugs that has the potential to trigger hurt, and must be put away within the medication cupboard,” Lelak mentioned.

The label for a bottle of melatonin tablets is seen in New York on Thursday, June 2.
(AP Photograph/Patrick Sison)

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WHAT IS MELATONIN?

Melatonin is a hormone that helps management the physique’s sleep cycle. It has turn out to be a well-liked over-the-counter sleeping help, with gross sales growing 150% between 2016 and 2020, the authors mentioned.

MORE US ADULTS TAKING MELATONIN TO FALL ASLEEP, STUDY SAYS

Within the U.S., melatonin is offered as a complement, not regulated as a drug. As a result of melatonin is unregulated, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration doesn’t have oversight over the purity of elements or the accuracy of dosage claims.

Different researchers have discovered that what’s on the label could not match what’s truly within the bottle, and a few international locations have banned the sale of over-the-counter melatonin.

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A study found that 83% of children with melatonin poisoning did not show any symptoms.

A examine discovered that 83% of kids with melatonin poisoning didn’t present any signs.
(Kenishirotie)

HOW ARE MELATONIN OVERDOSES TREATED?

Many individuals can tolerate even comparatively giant doses of melatonin with out important hurt, consultants say. However there is no such thing as a antidote for an overdose. In instances of a kid by accident ingesting melatonin, consultants usually ask a dependable grownup to watch them at residence.

However slowed respiratory or different worrisome indicators can imply a toddler must be taken to a hospital.

INSOMNIA IN THE TIME OF COVID: HERE’S HOW YOU CAN SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT

WHAT DID THE RESEARCHERS FIND?

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Lelak and her colleagues checked out experiences to poison management facilities from 2012 to 2021, counting greater than 260,000 calls about youngsters taking an excessive amount of melatonin. They represented 0.6% of all poison management calls in 2012 and about 5% in 2021.

In about 83% of these calls, the youngsters didn’t present any signs. However different kids endured vomiting, had altered respiratory or confirmed different signs. Over the ten years studied, greater than 4,000 youngsters have been hospitalized, 5 wanted to be placed on machines to assist them breathe, and two – each youthful than 2 – died.

Many of the hospitalized kids have been youngsters, and plenty of of these have been believed to be suicide makes an attempt.

Because melatonin is unregulated, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have oversight over the purity of ingredients or the accuracy of dosage claims. (Reuters/Jason Reed)

As a result of melatonin is unregulated, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration doesn’t have oversight over the purity of elements or the accuracy of dosage claims. (Reuters/Jason Reed)

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE PANDEMIC?

Reported melatonin poisonings have been growing for at the least a decade, however the largest will increase occurred after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US in 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, the rely shot up 38%.

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There could also be a number of causes, Lelak mentioned. Due to lockdowns and digital studying, extra kids have been at residence all day, that means there have been extra alternatives for teenagers to entry melatonin. Additionally, the pandemic induced sleep-disrupting stress and anxiousness which will have induced extra households to think about melatonin.

“Kids have been upset about being residence, youngsters have been closed off from buddies. And on high of all that everybody’s taking a look at screens for hours and hours a day,” Lelak mentioned.

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Words and game of Scrabble keep married couple in wedded bliss for decades

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Words and game of Scrabble keep married couple in wedded bliss for decades

A married couple who have long enjoyed the game of Scrabble both together and separately before they even met are never at a loss for words — and attribute their wedded bliss in part to their love of the nostalgic game.

They’re still playing in tournaments built around the game decades after they began doing so.

Graham Harding and his wife Helen Harding, both in their 60s, have been married for over 20 years.

WATCHING GAME SHOWS LIKE ‘JEOPARDY!’ AND ‘WHEEL OF FORTUNE’ CAN BOOST COGNITIVE HEALTH, SAY EXPERTS

They met in the 1990s at Scrabble tournaments, as news agency SWNS reported.

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But it was a “special match” in 2000 that brought the couple together — and has kept them together now.

Graham and Helen Harding on their wedding day. They’ve been playing in Scrabble tournaments for some 30 years.  (Courtesy Graham and Helen Harding via SWNS)

Graham Harding is from the East Berkshire Scrabble Club, while his wife Helen is from the Leicester Scrabble Club in the U.K.

They have been taking part in the UK Open Scrabble Championship in Reading this week.

“The more words you know, the more ammunition you’ve got.”

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“Scrabble is all about having a good vocabulary,” said Graham Harding, SWNS noted.

7 HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CHANGES THAT COULD HELP REDUCE RISK OF DEPRESSION, SAYS STUDY: ‘ENORMOUS BENEFITS’

“But it is a Scrabble vocabulary — not necessarily everyday English.”

Added Helen Harding, “The more words you know, the more ammunition you’ve got.”

Graham and Helen Harding at their wedding.

Graham and Helen Harding’s wedding cake. They bonded over their love of Scrabble – and are still playing in tournaments together.  (Courtesy Graham and Helen Harding via SWNS)

The couple said they were “vague acquaintances” for about five years after they first met.

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Then they got together after a special match in Swindon.

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They maintained a long-distance relationship before they got married in 2004.

The couple even brought their Scrabble board to their wedding. 

Graham and Helen Harding at their wedding.

The couple likely have played thousands of games between them.  (Courtesy Graham and Helen Harding via SWNS)

It featured a message with Scrabble pieces that said, “Congratulations on your wedding day” — while their wedding cake said, in Scrabble letters, “Helen and Graham.”

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They each took up the hobby early in life well before they met each other. 

The tournament that’s been taking place this week is the first since the COVID pandemic after a five-year break — and the couple has played some two dozen games in it as of Friday, SWNS reported. 

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Deep sleep can keep two big health problems at bay, new studies suggest

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Deep sleep can keep two big health problems at bay, new studies suggest

It might be worth working a little bit harder to get that much-desired, but often elusive, good night’s sleep.

Deep sleep clears the mind of waste just as a “dishwasher” cleans dirty plates and glasses, just-published research suggests — and there’s more.

The findings also offer insights into how sleeping pills may disrupt the “brainwashing” system — potentially affecting cognitive function for people over the long run.

ANOTHER REASON TO GET MORE SLEEP AND THIS ONE MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

Study senior author professor Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen said norepinephrine (a neurotransmitter and hormone) triggers blood vessels to contract — generating slow pulsations that create a rhythmic flow in the surrounding fluid to carry away waste, news agency SWNS noted.

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Said Nedergaard, “It’s like turning on the dishwasher before you go to bed and waking up with a clean brain. . . . We’re essentially asking what drives this process and trying to define restorative sleep based on” this “glymphatic clearance.”

“It’s like turning on the dishwasher before you go to bed and waking up with a clean brain.” (iStock)

The brain has a built-in waste removal process – the glymphatic system – that circulates fluid in the brain and spinal cord to clear out waste, according to the scientists. 

The process helps remove toxic proteins that form sticky plaques linked to neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

But the scientists indicated that what drives the system was unclear until now, according to the study.

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Is all sleep created equal? The researchers wanted to find out.

To find clues, Nedergaard and her team looked into what happens in mice when their brains sleep, as SWNS reported of the study. The team focused on the relationship between norepinephrine and blood flow during deep sleep.

TRUMP’S DAYLIGHT SAVING PLAN AND SLEEP: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW

They found that norepinephrine waves correlate to variations in brain blood volume — suggesting that norepinephrine triggers a rhythmic pulsation in the blood vessels. The researchers then compared the changes in blood volume to brain fluid flow.

The brain fluid flow fluctuates in correspondence to blood volume changes, suggesting the vessels act as pumps to propel the surrounding brain fluid to flush out waste.

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Senior couple sleeping

During deep sleep, toxic proteins that form sticky plaques linked to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease are removed, scientists say in a new study.  (iStock)

Natalie Hauglund of the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford, the study’s lead author, said, “You can view norepinephrine as [the] conductor of an orchestra.” 

She added, “There’s a harmony in the constriction and dilation of the arteries, which then drives the cerebrospinal fluid through the brain to remove the waste products.”  

‘I CAN’T SLEEP BECAUSE OF RACING THOUGHTS AT NIGHT — HOW CAN I STOP THEM?’: ASK A DOCTOR

Hauglund said she wanted to understand whether all sleep is created equal. 

To find out, the research team administered zolpidem, a common drug to aid sleep, to mice.

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“If people aren’t getting the full benefits of sleep, they should be aware of that, so they can make informed decisions.” 

They found that the norepinephrine waves during deep sleep were 50% lower in zolpidem-treated mice than in naturally sleeping mice. 

Although the zolpidem-treated mice fell asleep more quickly — fluid transport into the brain dropped more than 30%, as SWNS reported.

man sleeps in bed

Two new studies indicate the importance of getting a good night’s sleep — with one study saying a lack of sleep may be sabotaging the brain’s ability to keep intrusive thoughts at bay. (iStock)

The researchers say their findings, published in the journal Cell, suggest that the sleeping aid may disrupt the norepinephrine-driven waste clearance during sleep.

Hauglund said, “More and more people are using sleep medication, and it’s really important to know if that’s healthy sleep. If people aren’t getting the full benefits of sleep, they should be aware of that, so they can make informed decisions.” 

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The research team said the findings likely apply to humans, who also have a glymphatic system, although it requires further testing.

Nedergaard added, “Now we know norepinephrine is driving the cleaning of the brain, we may figure out how to get people a long and restorative sleep.”

For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health

Meanwhile, a lack of sleep may be doing more damage than just making people groggy.

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It could be sabotaging the brain’s ability to keep intrusive thoughts at bay.

young woman asleep

Anyone who suffers from sleep deprivation may find that the brain’s defense against unwanted memories is weakened, say experts. (iStock)

Another new study, this one published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sleep deprivation weakens the brain’s defense against unwanted memories, allowing them to flood the mind, according to the New York Post. 

“We show that sleep deprivation disrupts prefrontal inhibition of memory retrieval, and that the overnight restoration of this inhibitory mechanism is associated with time spent in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep,” the scientists said.

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How Kathy Bates Lost 100 Lbs—Plus Her Tips for Sustainable Weight Loss

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How Kathy Bates Lost 100 Lbs—Plus Her Tips for Sustainable Weight Loss


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Kathy Bates Weight Loss: Tips That Helped Her Lose 100 Lbs | Woman’s World




















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