Alternative Medicine News

In pregnant women with significant depression, practicing yoga may be a useful approach to decrease prenatal depression symptoms, according to a recent study conducted at Brown University.

The general use of complementary health approaches has not increased among children since 2007, although use of fish oil, melatonin and yoga have increased significantly, according to data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus had lower levels of vitamin D in the summer than healthy participants, but supplementation in winter was negatively associated with flare of disease activity, according to data from a study in northern Italy.

Meditation may be linked to improved quality of sleep and a decline in daytime sleep-related impairments in adults aged 55 years and older, according to a recently published study.

Long-term meditation may protect the brain by reducing age-related brain tissue degeneration, according to a recently published study in Frontiers of Psychology.

Study findings published in the Journal of Adolescent Health indicate the majority of tweets about marijuana were sent and received by Twitter users aged younger than 25 years.

Classic psychedelic use may be associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality, according to data recently published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The combination of glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulfate was shown to be comparable in efficacy to treatment with Celebrex after 6 months, according to results from the MOVES trial.

In a sample of Australian patients with chronic non-cancer pain, researchers found the use of marijuana for pain relief was very common, with patients reporting greater pain relief when using cannabis plus opioids compared with opioids alone.

Medical marijuana appears to hold promise as a potential treatment for gastrointestinal symptoms and digestive disorders, according to a recently published review. In response to the growing trend of medical marijuana use in the US, Mark E. Gerich, MD, division of gastroenterology and hepatology, University of Colorado, and colleagues have summarized current data that support the use of marijuana for digestive disorders, as well as the medicolegal considerations for physicians who consider recommending it to patients.