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How Not To Die From Sitting In Front Of Your Laptop All Day

Amy Hansen
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How Not To Die From Sitting In Front Of Your Laptop All Day

Not only is “sitting the new smoking,” but those who stay put for more than 12.5 hours a day have the highest death rate, according to a new study.

This sobering update comes courtesy of the Annals of Internal Medicine, and they don’t mess around. They measured the sedentary time of nearly eight-thousand adults, ages 45 and older. And what they found was not good. Over a follow-up of four years, 340 participants died.

Both the total volume of sedentary time and its accrual in prolonged, uninterrupted bouts are associated with all-cause mortality, suggestive that physical activity guidelines should target reducing and interrupting sedentary time to reduce risk for death.

Translation: move once every 30 minutes for at less a minute.

That’s according to Keith Diaz, an associate research scientist at Columbia University Medical Center. He tells Today:

“You need to still be mindful about moving throughout your day and not just think that ‘Because I exercised today, I’m done.’ Sitting in these long bouts, regardless of whether you exercised or not, still increases your risk of death.”

And that to the already proven fact that sitting for prolonged amounts of time raises the risk of cancer in women. According to the American Cancer Society, women who spend at least 6 hours a day sitting have a 10% greater risk of getting cancer than those who do not. Specifically: multiple myeloma, ovarian cancer, and invasive breast cancer. Oddly enough, researchers found that sitting for extended periods of time did not increase cancer risk for most men in the study, which evaluated 77,462 women and 69,260 men.

And even though your co-worker might be sold on one of those trendy “standing desks,” Diaz notes that while popular, there’s not enough evidence to suggest standing is any better for your health than sitting.

Takeaway: Go for short walks throughout your day.

Snoop Dogg Hotboxed Demi Lovato’s House And Inspired Her New Single

Brendan Bures
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Snoop Dogg Hotboxed Demi Lovato’s House And Inspired Her New Single

Demi Lovato stopped by Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show” to perform her smash single “Sorry Not Sorry” and do whatever talent show carnival game Fallon felt like doing that night.

Anyways, before any of that Lovato sat down for an interview with Fallon to speak of the visual inspiration for her music video treatment of “Sorry Not Sorry.” Preceding the action, the video begins with texts that state what you’re about to see was inspired by a house party Lovato had on June 29.

Apparently that party include Uncle Snoop Dogg hotboxing Lovato’s house with the likes of Wiz Khalifa, French Montana, and Ty Dolla $ign. It all started because Lovato, newly single, asked her pal Dave-O to invite some friends over to casually party. She didn’t expect rappers like Snoop and French would show up.

“All these people were there and I was like, ‘I just wanted a couple people over to hang out!’ And all of a sudden, my house was filled with pot smoke everywhere,” she said. “I was like, ‘No smoking inside, get out, get out!’ But I wasn’t going to tell Snoop not to smoke in my house. I was like, ‘OK Snoop, do what you want.’”

 

That sounds about the right response to the situation. Lovato continued that the smell didn’t disappear overnight.

“My chef came in the next morning and said, ‘It smells like Snoop Dogg was here,’” she said. “I was like, ‘No, he literally was!’”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT0rpxVFoOq/

And in case you’re doubting Lovato’s account of parting with these guys, check out the Instagram post from none other than French Montana above.

Bill Maher Offers Unique Defense Of Marijuana Legalization

Brendan Bures
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Bill Maher Offers Unique Defense Of Marijuana Legalization

Bill Maher is invoking a strategy long propagated by conservative politicians to defend marijuana legalization. But on a recent episode of his HBO show “Real Time,” Maher used states’ rights as a means to defending cannabis policy at the local level.

With a White House that includes Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, left-leaning states like California and Colorado are focusing on state legislation to see through political action. Maher mentioned environmental regulations and immigration, as well as marijuana legalization as examples of this.

“We don’t much cotton to when the federal government thinks it knows better how to do things that we do here in our own state,” Maher said, speaking in a faux Southern, perhaps to satirize staunch anti-cannabis crusader Jeff Sessions.

“We’re just following in a long and hallowed conservative tradition. It’s just that now we’re the state that wants to be left alone.”

Gossip: Mick Jagger Caught Chasing Taylor Swift; Meghan Markle Moving In With Prince Harry?

Naughty Gossip
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Gossip: Mick Jagger Caught Chasing Taylor Swift; Meghan Markle Moving In With Prince Harry?

For the last year, Meghan Markle has been dating Prince Harry while based in Toronto, where she films her show “Suits.” But her commitment to the show is ending this Christmas, Daily Mail reports, and Markle has just signaled she may be moving to London to be with her prince (and maybe fiancé) sooner rather than later.

“Well-placed U.S. sources” tell the outlet that Markle has canceled her VIP Audi North America rental car contract several months early because “it is believed that she will be spending more time in the UK” starting in November, one source told the outlet.

“There has been a security element to her decision,” the source said. Markle hasn’t been driving in Toronto recently because of several recent incidents, source added.

While Markle isn’t wearing an engagement ring publicly yet, she did just return from a vacation in Africa with Prince Harry last month where multiple sources said Prince Harry intended to propose. She is also said to have met Queen Elizabeth II last week. Markle and Harry are set to reunite later this week in Toronto, where the prince will be in the city for the Invictus Games. Markle is said to be making appearance—though likely just in the stands, not in an official capacity, People notes.

Mick Jagger Caught Chasing Taylor Swift

Diana Vreeland once called Jane Holzer, Andy Warhol’s first and biggest superstar, “the most contemporary girl I know.” Now at 76, Holzer is talking with Kevin Sessums for the debut of his new online magazine.

JH: I saw Mick Jagger at a party Jimmy Iovine was giving and he was a bit standoffish. Keith Richards is always like “Oh, Baby Jane!” But Mick is like that now. In the early days, Mick was so polite. He’d call up after a dinner party and thank me for inviting him. He’s changed a bit. And yet when he was married to Jerry Hall, they took my son when he was a kid to a rock concert and held his hand and were so sweet and took good care of him. Mick seemed to be on a mission at the Iovine party. I think he was chasing Taylor Swift – and not for what you think. Mick is a businessman. He probably was after Taylor Swift to do some deal with him.

 

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

 

He Never Planned On Being A Medical Marijuana Patient

Trey Reckling
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He Never Planned On Being A Medical Marijuana Patient

Joshua Tarbuck is a medical marijuana patient, but he never planned to be. He grew up in Seattle participating in sports and enjoying life like so many other teenagers. He played hockey and was 1st team all state in baseball.

His world changed dramatically in 2011, when he was in a severe car accident. He wasn’t  wearing a seatbelt and the crash broke his neck in several places. Joshua remembers waking up in the hospital as medical staff prepared him for one of several emergency and follow-up surgeries. He was in the hospital nearly a month. Surgeons installed and had to later re-install surgical steel plates into his neck to secure and fuse three of his vertebrae.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Tarbuck

It was a trying situation and he had to deal with pain like he had never known before. He was prescribed morphine, Oxycodone, Methadone and other drugs to deal with the chronic pain he was in. “It made me feel gross.”

Joshua met someone who suggested he try a “dab,” a high-temperature vaporization of cannabis concentrate. The first time, he didn’t have a good reaction. He felt like it knocked the wind out of him. His lungs were not prepared for the intensity of the experience. Over a period of time, his ability to use concentrate improved. He realized this was an option his healthcare team would not have provided. It changed his life.

Joshua feels like it enlightened him and helped him develop a new outlook at the lowest part of his life. It was a welcome change and gave him hope. Daily dabs helped him deal with the pain. “I had more energy. It subsided the pain so I could tolerate it. It cleared my mind.” He had not expected such a welcome change. “I felt more negative thinking when I was on pain pills than when I used cannabis.”

Convincing his healthcare team would be another matter. “My doctors didn’t believe anything I said” regarding cannabis. He is not the only patient to encounter resistance. Many people who use marijuana as medicine have a hard time getting support from their doctors. Cannabis as a therapy was simply not part of the curricula in med school. Undeterred, Joshua began working out, medicating with cannabis concentrates before and after. It helps him reduce his pain and reduce inflammation while maintaining his strength.

“Cannabis has changed my life and who I am today,” Joshua stated without hesitation. He is actively educating himself on existing cannabis science research so that he can continue to advocate, not just for himself, but for the tens of thousands of people who may also be able to live healthier, happier lives thanks to this natural remedy.

Most Doctors Unprepared To Prescribe Medicinal Marijuana

Mary Schumacher
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Most Doctors Unprepared To Prescribe Medicinal Marijuana

A new study shows that, while cannabis is becoming more mainstream, it’s not in the case of the halls of our medical schools. In fact, it’s hardly talked about at all.

Senior author, Dr. Laura Jean Beirut, who is a professor of psychiatry stated, “Medical education needs to catch up to marijuana legislation.”

Cannabis is now legalized in some form, either medical or recreational, in 29 states and Washington D.C. That’s an enormous amount of the population that seemingly can’t talk to their doctor about how best to utilize cannabis. For many citizens, especially those new to the world of medical marijuana, that can be quite daunting.

One-hundred and one medical schools had curriculum deans fill out surveys regarding marijuana education. A little over two-thirds said that their students would not be prepared to prescribe cannabis in a clinical setting. A quarter of them said their students wouldn’t even be able to answer questions regarding the plant.

Two-hundred and fifty-eight medical residents and fellows were also surveyed by the researchers. Nine out of 10 replied that they were untrained and not prepared to prescribe medical cannabis. Most of those surveyed also said that they’d received no formal education regarding marijuana.

The Association of Medical College’s database showed that only 9% of medical schools teach their students about medical marijuana.

“As a future physician, it worries me,” said the study’s first author Anastasia Evanoff, who is a third-year medical student. She continued, “We need to know how to answer questions about medical marijuana’s risks and benefits, but there is a fundamental mismatch between state laws involving marijuana and the education physicians-in-training receive at medical schools throughout the country.”

Evanoff did also add that doctors were getting better training toward opioid use and abuse.

“We talk about how those drugs [opioids] can affect every organ system in the body, and we learn how to discuss the risks and benefits with patients, but if a patient were to ask about medical marijuana, most medical students wouldn’t know what to say,” Evanoff concluded.

This research was published originally in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

More Reefer Madness: What Sessions’ Deputy Thinks About Marijuana

Terry Hacienda
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More Reefer Madness: What Sessions’ Deputy Thinks About Marijuana

It’s no secret what Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks about marijuana legalization. The longtime drug warrior actually believes that “good people don’t smoke marijuana” — which means he is not fond of 44 percent of Americans who say they use the relatively benign herb. But what does his deputy, Rod Rosenstein think?

Tom Angell, one of the best cannabis reporters now working for Forbes, unearthed a speech Rosenstein gave last week at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Here is what the deputy attorney general had to say:

“We are reviewing that policy. We haven’t changed it, but we are reviewing it. We’re looking at the states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana, trying to evaluate what the impact is. And I think there is some pretty significant evidence that marijuana turns out to be more harmful than a lot of people anticipated, and it’s more difficult to regulate than I think was contemplated ideally by some of those states.”

This is not the first time Rosenstein spoke out against cannabis — and the will of the American people. Back in June, Rosenstein made waves when he hinted that federal marijuana regulations may get stricter. Before a Senate committee, he said:

“We follow the law and the science. From a legal and scientific perspective, marijuana it is an unlawful drug.”

In that same testimony, Rosenstein made the audacious claim that cannabis lacks therapeutic utility. “Scientists have found no accepted medical use for it,” he said.

“We do have a conflict between federal law and the law in some states. It’s a difficult issue for parents like me, who have to provide guidance to our kids, … I’ve talked to Chuck Rosenberg, the administrator of the DEA and we follow the law and the science,” said Rosenstein.

Of course, if Rosenstein follows the law, he must concede that eight states have made recreational marijuana legal and 29 states have medical marijuana programs. And the science could not be more clear: Marijuana is a medicine for millions of Americans.

Here’s How To Help Your Friend With Chronic Pain

Maria Loreto
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Here’s How To Help Your Friend With Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a complicated set of symptoms that affects around 100 million Americans and is characterized as a physical pain that lasts longer than six months. Pain is extremely difficult to deal with and limits the lives of more people than diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined.

Patients can experience different degrees of pain, ranging from mild and not that limiting, to excruciating and life impairing. The pain can also be expressed in different forms: through headaches, joint pain, backaches or diffuse pain throughout the body. 

While the syndrome is presented as a physical one, chronic pain can have mental and emotional repercussions, and fallout can cause anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue, which ultimately lowers the defenses of the patient further and deepens the spiral. 

You may know someone who suffers from chronic pain and be intimately acquainted with their struggles, so here are five articles that explain how to help someone who is living in pain. Hopefully these articles can provide much-needed information onto a very misunderstood topic:

Will Medical Marijuana Ever Be Accepted as Medicine?

Richard Faulk
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Will Medical Marijuana Ever Be Accepted as Medicine?

Addiction, overdose, constipation, The Fear. We all know the dangers of opioids, and yet for two centuries opium-derived drugs have been an indispensable part of the pharmacopoeia. But smoked cannabis has not.

One reason for this disparity: You can’t inject pot.

The cannabinoids are not water soluble, which means they’d clump up in a hypo or an intravenous drip. In fact, the chemistry of THC, marijuana’s major active ingredient, is so vexing that scientists didn’t even realize what it was until the mid-1960s.

Victorian doctors did have a variety of cannabis extracts and tinctures to avail themselves of, but, since the manufacturers didn’t know what they were supposedly extracting, the potency of these medications was wildly unpredictable. It was partially frustration over this that made them give up on the drug.

Today there is no shortage of delivery methods for cannabis: you can swallow it, spray it on your tonsils, rub it into you skin, or put it up your butt. (Only the first two are medically approved anywhere.) But the normative technique still is to smoke it. Smoking weed is actually an effective means of medicating: Its effect is almost instantaneous, and experienced smokers can monitor themselves (i.e. gauge their high) with uncanny accuracy. Already 15 percent of chronic pain patients smoke their cannabis medicine.

Doctors as a whole, however, do not like the idea of smoked medication—and this has nothing to do with their being in the pocket of Big Pharma, so put aside your conspiracy theories. Smoking per se—whether it’s marijuana, tobacco, or anything else—is simply not good for you. So there’s the whole “First do no harm,” ethical dimension to consider. Furthermore, the amount of THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids in cultivated marijuana can vary enormously, so, from the doctor’s perspective, dosing accurately is almost as hopeless as it was for their Victorian predecessors. One researcher has likened visiting a cannabis dispensary to “going to a flea market for an antibiotic.” And that’s from someone who supports medical marijuana.

Nevertheless, researches have recently been bowing to the weight of custom. A comprehensive review of cannabis studies released by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015 found four studies that included smoked marijuana that met their standards for inclusion—although the paper did not specifically address the efficacy of smoking. All were done within the last 8 years. Nevertheless the amount of research on the medical benefits of smoking are dwarfed by decades of work focused on the harm.

At least one study in the JAMA review included vaping, which supporters claim is a safer alternative to smoking. Detractors point out, however, that vaping still produces unacceptable side effects, not the least of which is chronic fedora manifestation around the brow and cranial region.

Survey Says: Most New Jersey Voters Support Recreational Marijuana

Amy Hansen
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Survey Says: Most New Jersey Voters Support Recreational Marijuana

A new poll out of the Garden State shows quite the dichotomy when it comes to legalizing marijuana. The Quinnipiac University Poll, which surveyed 1,121 registered voters during the stretch of September 7-12, found that while the majority (59-30) was in favor of allowing adults posses small amounts of marijuana for personal use…

55 percent of voters say they would “definitely not try” marijuana if it were legal. Nine percent say they would “definitely try” it and 12 percent say they would “probably try it.”

According to the poll:

Every listed group supports legalized marijuana, except Republicans, who are opposed 53 – 43 percent, and voters over 65 years old, who are divided, with 47 percent in favor and 50 percent opposed.

Twelve-percent of voters say marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, while 38-percent say it’s less dangerous and 46-percent say marijuana and alcohol are equally as dangerous.

Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, says voters also made their voices heard on President Trump, saying “President Donald Trump’s home away from home is his New Jersey golf course. But neighborhood doesn’t insure political support. Far from it.”

Voters also support gun control, with an astounding 96-percent voting in favor of  background checks for all gun buyers. However, 63 percent think New Jersey wouldn’t be as safe if more people possessed guns.

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