(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)
Jan 9 (Reuters) – Adding yoga to regular treatment can help speed recovery from opioid withdrawal, a small Indian study suggests.
Combining standard buprenorphine therapy with yoga helped people recover from opioid withdrawal almost twice as fast as the drug alone, researchers found.
During opioid withdrawal, the stress system of the body remains overactive while its calming system is underactive, said study leader Dr. Hemant Bhargav from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India.
Patients can experience diarrhea, insomnia, pain, anxiety, and depression, as well as pupil dilation, a runny nose, anorexia, and vomiting.
With mindfulness, slowed breathing, and relaxation techniques, “yoga helps the body shift out of constant stress mode and into a state that supports healing – something standard medications don’t fully address,” Bhargav said.
The 59 men in the study experiencing mild to moderate opioid withdrawal symptoms all received buprenorphine. Half of them also received 10 45-minute yoga sessions over 14 days, including breathing techniques, postures, and guided relaxation.
Participants in the yoga group had an average recovery time of about 5 days, compared with 9 days in the buprenorphine group, researchers reported in JAMA Psychiatry.
Yoga reduced anxiety levels, a key trigger for cravings and relapse during withdrawal. It also improved sleep quality, eased pain, and improved heart rate, the researchers found.
“The study’s all-male sample reflects the patient population at our treatment center during the study period,” Bhargav said.
“Including females could reveal important differences; women may experience withdrawal differently due to hormonal influences on autonomic function and pain perception, and they may respond differently to yoga practices,” he said, adding that similar studies that will include women are planned.
“We also want to examine whether the benefits of yoga persist beyond the withdrawal period, particularly in reducing relapse risk,” he said.
NEW BIOMARKERS HELP IDENTIFY DIABETES IN AFRICANS
Newly identified biomarkers might help doctors more accurately diagnose type 2 diabetes in people with African ancestry, according to a study in Uganda.
Most existing markers for diagnosing type 2 diabetes, such as HbA1c, which measures blood sugar levels over time, were identified in studies of European populations and can be less accurate in African populations due to genetic and biological differences, the researchers noted.
Studying 163 individuals in Uganda with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes and 362 healthy Ugandan volunteers, the researchers found 58 African-ancestry-specific gene variants that have not been previously identified.
Eighteen of the variants are linked with type 2 diabetes, including some that could be targeted by existing drugs, the researchers reported on Thursday in Nature Genetics.
“By focusing on African populations, we are uncovering biological insights that have been missing from global diabetes research,” study leader Opeyemi Soremekun of the University of Exeter said in a statement.
“This work shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to diagnosis and treatment is not enough. We need solutions that reflect the diversity of human biology.”
PILLS MAY BE ABLE TO REPORT IF YOU’RE TAKING THEM
An experimental pill can report when it has been swallowed, researchers say.
The reporting system, which can be incorporated into existing pill capsules, contains a biodegradable radiofrequency antenna. After it sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny radiofrequency chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract, the researchers reported in Nature Communications.
Tests in an animal model showed the RF signal was successfully transmitted from inside the stomach within 10 minutes after the pill was swallowed and could be read by an external receiver at a distance up to 2 feet (0.61 meters) away.
If developed for use in humans, the researchers envision designing a wearable device that could receive the signal and transmit it to the patient’s healthcare team.
Patients not taking their medicine as prescribed is a major challenge that contributes to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and billions of dollars in healthcare costs annually, the researchers said in a statement.
In particular, the pills could be useful for monitoring transplant patients who need to take immunosuppressive drugs to keep their new organ from failing, or people with highly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, who are presently monitored with regular clinic visits to make sure they’re taking their medicines, the researchers say.
“We want to prioritize medications that, when non-adherence is present, could have a really detrimental effect for the individual,” study leader Dr. Giovanni Traverso, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a statement.
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Shawana Alleyne-Morris; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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