Latest news with #Springer
New York Post
a day ago
- Health
- New York Post
Weed increases risk of major health issue — even without smoking: ‘Boy does it screw up the public health messaging'
Your best bud might be breaking your heart. Though many Americans believe daily marijuana use is safer than tobacco, a new study suggests it could increase your risk for some serious cardiovascular issues. Worse yet, gummies, teas and tinctures appear to offer no advantage over lighting up when it comes to one critical factor for your heart health. Advertisement 4 More Americans are using marijuana regularly than ever before. bukhta79 – High stakes for your heart The study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco involved 55 outwardly healthy Bay Area residents who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC edibles. None of the participants used nicotine, and all of them consumed cannabis at least three times a week for a year or more. Smokers averaged 10 years of chronic use; edible users, five. Advertisement Researchers found blood vessel function in regular cannabis users was about half that of non-users — putting them on par with tobacco smokers. 'We found that vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and by 56% in THC-edible users compared to nonusers,' Dr. Leila Mohammadi, lead author of the study, told CNN. That surprised co-author Dr. Matthew Springer. Groups like the American Heart Association had previously suggested edibles might be less harmful to the heart. 'When I first saw the THC result, I said to Leila, 'Scientifically, this THC result is really interesting but boy does it screw up the public health messaging,'' he told SFGATE. Advertisement 4 Studies suggest that smoked marijuana is the most commonly used form. Impact Photography – Notably, researchers found that only marijuana smokers had harmful changes in their blood serum that negatively affected their endothelial cells. These cells line the inside of blood and lymph vessels and help regulate blood flow. Advertisement Springer said this could mean smoking marijuana delivers a 'double whammy' of damage to heart health. The researchers emphasized that while their study indicates a strong association between chronic marijuana or THC use and vascular damage, it doesn't definitively prove the link. Still, it adds to mounting evidence that chronic cannabis use could be bad news for the heart. A 2024 study found daily marijuana use increase heart attack risk by 25% and stroke risk by 42%. 4 Chronic marijuana use may increase your risk of cardiovascular problems. LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – 'The public (and the medical field) should view cannabis and THC itself as products that are not without health risks,' Springer told Newsweek. 'THC seems to have some beneficial effects also, so there needs to be a balance between risk and benefit that is best decided with both eyes open,' he added. Research suggests that marijuana has the potential to ease chronic pain and reduce muscle spasms and stiffness linked to MS. Advertisement Cannabis products have also been shown to boost appetite in HIV/AIDS and cancer patients, and combat chemo-related nausea. Other potential benefits include easing stress, alleviating PTSD symptoms and aiding sleep in some people. 4 Research suggests that marijuana may help alleviate symptoms linked to several chronic health conditions. contentdealer – Springer and Mohammadi are calling for longer, larger studies to pun down exactly how marijuana and THC affect heart health — and to find out if there's a safe level of use. Advertisement The study comes as more Americans are using marijuana regularly than ever before. While alcohol is still more widely used overall, heavy marijuana use beat out heavy drinking for the first time in 2022, according to Carnegie Mellon researchers. That year, about 17.7 million Americans used cannabis daily or near-daily — compared to 14.7 million who drank that often. It marks a staggering 15-fold jump in chronic cannabis use since 1992. Advertisement Marijuana remains illegal federally, but 38 states and DC have legalized it for medical use. Of those, 24 states and DC have also cleared the way for adults 21 and over to use it recreationally. The recent legalization efforts have sparked a boom in cannabis use. In 2024, 47% of Americans said they'd tried marijuana at least once — up from 34% in 1999, according to Gallup polling.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Smoking weed and consuming THC-laced edibles linked to early heart disease, study finds
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Healthy people who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC-laced edibles showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers, a new small study found. 'To my knowledge, it's the first study looking at THC's impact on vascular function in humans,' said senior study author Matthew Springer, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. 'We're looking at a window in the future, showing the early changes that may explain why smoking marijuana has been linked to later heart disease,' Springer said. 'It appears the act of smoking and the THC itself both contribute to those changes in different ways.' Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the component of marijuana that provides a high. Prior research on mice found damage to blood vessels that supply oxygen to vital organs after exposure to marijuana smoke, Springer said. Whether marijuana smoke would impact the human vascular system, however, was unknown. 'We found that vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and by 56% in THC-edible users compared to nonusers,' lead study author Dr. Leila Mohammadi, an assistant researcher in cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco, said in an email. The research only shows an association, Springer said. 'We can only state that the cannabis users have poor vascular function, not that cannabis use causes poor vascular function,' he said via email. The findings on THC-laced edibles was surprising, said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. 'Could it be that other forms of marijuana — teas, tinctures, edibles — are perhaps not as benign as we once thought?' said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. 'We need larger studies to make a better conclusion about this finding.' A single layer of endothelial cells lines all of the body's blood vessels. When functioning properly, these specialized cells release chemicals such as nitric oxide that control the relaxing and contracting of the canal, thus regulating blood flow. Healthy endothelium cells also play a role in local cell growth and help prevent blood clotting. When endothelial cells are inflamed, plaque buildup can increase in arteries over time, potentially causing heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. Damage to small blood vessels can also cause kidney and lung disease, comas, delirium, and dementia. The study, however, did not measure plaque, so the findings do not mean that blood vessels were currently blocked, Springer said. 'The vessels just don't grow in diameter in real time when they need to pass more blood, indicating an unhealthy vessel wall that presages later cardiovascular disease,' he said. Prior studies have found strong links between marijuana use and later cardiovascular disease. A February 2024 study found smoking, vaping or eating marijuana led to a significantly higher risk of heart attack and stroke, even if a person had no existing heart conditions and did not smoke or vape tobacco. Stroke risk rose 42% and the risk of heart attack rose 25% if cannabis was used daily, and risk climbed as the number of days of use of marijuana rose, the study found. Using marijuana every day can raise a person's risk of coronary artery disease by one-third compared with those who never partake, a February 2023 study found. The American Heart Association advises people to refrain from smoking or vaping any substance, including cannabis products, because of the potential harm to the heart, lungs and blood vessels. Guidance released in 2020 pointed to studies that found heart rhythm abnormalities, such as tachycardia and atrial fibrillation, could occur within an hour after weed containing THC was smoked. The 55 participants in the study were divided into three groups: people who smoked (not vaped) marijuana three or more times a week for at least a year, people who consumed THC edibles at least three times a week for at least a year, and nonusers. None of the 18- to 50-year-old people in the study were tobacco smokers or vapers, and all had little exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Researchers performed an ultrasound on the major artery in the upper right arm in each person, then applied an extremely tight blood pressure cuff for five minutes. After the cuff was removed, the artery was rescanned to see how well it had dilated, or widened, to handle the increased flow of blood, a process that needs the release of nitric oxide to occur. Damage to the endothelial cells that regulate dilation was related to the dose, according to the study. Study participants who used more marijuana had a greater risk of damage to blood vessels that carry oxygen to the body's organs. 'Higher cannabis use — whether smoked or ingested — is associated with poorer vascular function, highlighting the cardiovascular risks that increase with higher potency and frequency of use,' Mohammadi said. Additional tests of the neck and thigh checked the stiffness of each person's blood pressure walls. Compared with people who never used marijuana, cannabis users didn't appear to have additional stiffness of the walls of blood vessels, the study found. A separate analysis added blood serum from cannabis smokers and edible users to commercially purchased cultures of endothelial cell in the laboratory. Blood from people who used edibles laced with THC didn't appear to harm the cells — they continued to produce adequate nitric oxide. However, the endothelial cells incubated in serum from marijuana smokers released 27% less nitric oxide than those treated with blood from nonsmokers. That evidence is similar to what is found in tobacco, Springer said, pointing to a prior study by his team showing endothelial cells incubated in serum from tobacco smokers released 39% less nitric oxide than nonsmokers. 'The observations that marijuana smokers and THC users each have poor vascular function might make people conclude that the THC is responsible for all of this and the smoke is irrelevant,' Springer said. That would be an ill-advised conclusion, according to Springer, as there are reasons to believe that marijuana smoke itself is as responsible as THC for the damage to blood vessels. 'Rats exposed to marijuana smoke with no cannabinoids at all also had vascular and cardiac impairment, plus tobacco smoke is known to cause heart disease and it has no THC,' Springer said. 'So you do yourself no favors by switching from smoking tobacco to marijuana. Smoking marijuana just gives you a double hit — the smoke and the THC,' he said. As for marijuana edibles, teas, tinctures and the like? 'In people, there's like a Goldilocks zone for everything — too much doesn't do right, too little doesn't do right, but just right does fine,' Freeman said. 'We need further investigations to see if there is a Goldilocks zone to be found.'
Japan Forward
19-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Forward
History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan, by Takeo Kikkawa
Takeo Kikkawa's History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan (Springer, 2023) combines the things I am passionate about: biography, Japan, innovation, and history. Having them all in one makes the book essential reading for me and hopefully for those reading this review. Kikkawa is a professor of business history at the International University of Japan in Niigata Prefecture. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and Hitotsubashi University. In his book, he offers a comprehensive exploration of Japan's entrepreneurial evolution from the 17th century to the present. This open-access volume delves into the lives and innovations of over 20 Japanese entrepreneurs. Significantly, it provides insights into the nation's economic and business history. Remarkably, this 291-page treatise with 20 case studies is not a collection of essays by different authors. Rather, except for one essay, all are prepared by Kikkawa himself. I can only imagine the years of work and decades of knowledge that went into the timely book. I write "timely" in that while it is a historical study, Kikkawa seeks as well to understand the "post-bubble stagnation." He notes for his fellow scholars (and readers in general) that "uncovering the true causes of Japan's economic slowdown is an essential task for a business historian in order to explore ways to revive Japan's economy" (p 2). In other words, it is important to study the past to extrapolate possible lessons for the future. The book addresses three critical questions: Why did Japan industrialize earlier than other non-Western countries? What factors contributed to its remarkable economic growth between the 1910s and 1980s? Why has the economy stagnated since the 1990s? Kikkawa attributes early industrialization to a combination of proto-industrial activities and the adoption of Western technologies. The subsequent economic boom is linked to systematic innovations and effective management practices. Conversely, the stagnation period is analyzed through the lens of Japan's struggle to adapt to disruptive innovations emerging globally. Kikkawa organizes the book into three distinct periods. The first part, entitled "The Era of Breakthrough Innovations," covers two sub-periods — the Edo Period and the Meiji Period. (See the section titled "From Port Opening to Post Russo-Japanese War.") It examines early industrialization efforts, discussing in detail, many for the first time in any detail in English, the following figures: Zenemon Konoike, Takatoshi Mitsui, Genzaemon Nakai, Hikojiro Nakamigawa, Yataro and Yanosuke Iwasaki, Zenjiro Yasuda and Soichiro Asano, and Eiichi Shibusawa. Each laid, respectively, the groundwork for Japan's economic transformation. The new 10,000 yen bill features a hologram of Eiichi Shibusawa's face. (©Kyodo) As with the other parts, Part 1 includes "Overviews" at the beginning of the sub-periods and a "Discussion Point," which draws comparisons of the entrepreneurs covered and their interactions, at the end. In this particular part, Kikkawa includes Japan as a "latecomer nation" to industrialization (p 85). This reviewer has chosen not to include the name of the company these men are identified with because, in some cases, they have created multiple companies and/or are known for so many contributions to business and society as a whole. Instead, I encourage readers to pick up the Open Access book and read for themselves. Some of the family names, of course, will be instantly recognizable. Part II, "The Era of Incremental Innovation," covers the time from World War I to the 1980s. This is an unusual but interesting way to look at the 20th century. While it may be viewed as an example of "rise and fall" or "rise and fall" twice over, Kikkawa is more concerned with the technological progress made and the effects of incremental innovations on long-term growth (p 216) over the 80 decades covered. In this period, more well-known, yet still historic, names are introduced: Ichizo Kobayashi, Yasuzaemon Matsunaga, Saburosuke Suzuki II, Kiichiro Toyoda, Shitagau Noguchi and Yoshikawa Aikawa, Sazo Idemitsu, Yataro Nishiyama, Konosuke Matsushita, Masaru Ibuka, Akio Morita, Soichiro Honda, Takeo Fujisawa, and Toshio Doko. These men contributed to high economic growth, enormous technological innovation, and rapid and deep global expansion. Tadashi Yanai, Chairman and CEO of Fast Retailing, on August 1, 2024. Finally, the third part looks at the period since the 1990s. Entitled "The Era of Struggle: Japan Caught Between Two Types of Innovation," it looks at how Japanese-style management turned "dysfunctional" (p 222). In this shorter chapter, he looks at four modern entrepreneurs, most of whom are household names. They are the late Kazuo Inamori, Toshifumi Suzuki, Tadashi Yanai, and Masayoshi Son. Addressing the economic stagnation known as the "Lost Decades," Kikkawa analyzes the challenges faced by these modern entrepreneurs in adapting to global competition and bringing about disruptive innovations. The book ends with a concluding chapter providing a summary of its content. It includes a discussion on "Ways to Revive Innovation." In it, Kikkawa calls on Japanese companies to "confront breakthrough innovation from developed countries and disruptive innovation from less developed countries and regions" (p 263). Chairman and President Masayoshi Son nominates shareholders during a Q&A session at the SoftBank Group's shareholders' meeting in Tokyo. (Screenshot via video) No matter one's interest or industry, this book will provide key insights. Its main strengths include the depth of the author's knowledge, the comparative discussion, and the detailed case studies. The case studies provide concrete examples of entrepreneurial innovation across different eras. While the book provides extensive coverage of major entrepreneurs, it could benefit from a deeper examination of lesser-known figures and regional enterprises that also contributed to Japan's economic development. Additionally, more comparative analysis with entrepreneurs from other countries could offer a broader context. With this said, History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan is a must-read and hopefully will give birth to future innovators, too. (Book cover) Title: History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan Publisher: Springer Nature Author: Takeo Kikkawa Translators: Two translators brought this book to the English-reading world: MS Murphy and Kazuya Hirai ISBN: 978-981-19-9453-1 (hardcover), 978-981-19-9456-2 (softcover), and 978-981-19-9454-8 (E-book) Get the Book: This book is Open Access. Anyone can download it from the publisher for free. (Hardback and softback versions are also available for sale.) Reviewed by: Robert D Eldridge, PhD Dr Eldridge is a former political advisor to the US Marine Corps in Japan and author of numerous books on Japanese political and diplomatic history. He was a 2024 Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow at Tamkang University and is a consultant on a broad spectrum of Japan-related matters.
CBS News
15-05-2025
- CBS News
Woman found dead in her vehicle in Wayne city park
A woman was found dead Wednesday night inside the back seat of a Ford Explorer in Wayne, Michigan. The discovery was made about 9 p.m. by a baseball coach who was leaving the ball fields at Forest Park at the time, according to the report from Wayne Police Department. The vehicle was parked nearby. Upon the report, police and EMS arrived, confirmed the woman was dead and notified the Investigations Bureau. The woman was later identified as 35-year-old Allyssa Caulk, the registered owner of the vehicle. She was known to both live out of her car and frequently visit the park, police said. There were no apparent signs of trauma or foul play in her death, the police report said. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office will do an autopsy in an attempt to determine cause of death. Police ask that anyone with information about the case contact D/Lt. Springer at tspringer@ or 734-721-1414, ext. 1503.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Margot Friedländer, one of last Holocaust survivors, buried in Berlin
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, one of the last living Jewish survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, was buried at a Jewish cemetery in Berlin on Thursday, with close friends, family and German leaders all gathered to pay their respects. Friedländer died on Friday at the age of 103. Thanks to her tireless efforts to make sure the atrocities of the Holocaust are never forgotten, she became one of the best known survivors in her native Germany, dedicating the final decades of her life to campaigning for democracy and humanity. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and former leader Angela Merkel were among the high-profile guests in attendance at the funeral service in Berlin's Weissensee district. Former chancellor Olaf Scholz, who passed on the baton to Merz last week, also attended the funeral service, along with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, parliamentary president Julia Klöckner and Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner. Other prominent guests in attendance included Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Springer, a Berlin-based multinational media company that owns outlets including Germany's Bild tabloid and US political news site Politico. Fight for survival Friedländer, who was born in Berlin in 1921, went into hiding in the city and was eventually sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944, in what was then Czechoslovakia. Her father, mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz. She and her husband, whom she met at Theresienstadt, emigrated to the United States in 1946. After her husband died, she started to visit Berlin in the 2000s and moved back permanently in 2010 at age 88. She worked tirelessly to inform young people in Germany about the Nazi regime. A prize for school projects on the Holocaust and today's culture of remembrance bears her name. "Hate is alien to me," Friedländer once said. Her aim was to give a voice to the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In June 2018, at the age of 96, she was named an honorary citizen of Berlin. To mark her 100th birthday, a book and an illustrated biography were published. In 2011, she was awarded Germany's highest civilian honour - the Order of Merit - given for outstanding service to the nation. Buried in honorary grave Speakers paid tribute to Friedländer's extraordinary life story and achievements, with the rabbi of the Chabad Jewish community in Berlin, Yehuda Teichtal, describing her story as "one of strength and unbreakable humanity." Her legacy teaches us to always try to make the world a more humane and better place, Teichtal added. The chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin, Gideon Joffe, recalled that despite losing her family to the Nazis, she "emerged as someone who wasn't looking to hate, but to remember, who wasn't looking to accuse, but to tell." Leeor Engländer, a close friend of Friedländer's, said her famous call to "Be human!" had reached generations of Germans. In his eulogy, he also noted the immense effort it took his friend to fight against indifference and frustration. The trauma of her experiences during the Holocaust never left her, even though she always appeared positive on the outside, said Engländer, adding that Friedländer had been constantly plagued by thoughts of what had become of all the children who had been sent to the gas chambers. Following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, she was horrified about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany. "This is how it started with us back then," she told her friend. Following the service, Friedländer was buried in an honorary grave at Berlin's Weissensee cemetery, one of the largest Jewish graveyards in Europe.
