YokoCo

Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by long duration, slow progression, and periods of remission and relapses. Despite the development of effective medical and surgical interventions and millions of people conducting tremendous personal efforts to manage their weight every year, recidivism remains a significant barrier to attaining long-term weight maintenance. This review aimed to explain the underlying physiology of the weight-reduced state including changes in energy balance, adipose tissue, genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors that may predispose individuals to weight regain following weight loss.

Chronic pain is undertreated in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of chronic pain in this neurodegenerative disease is essential. Neuropathic pain and AD share a significant involvement of the peripheral immune system. Therefore, we examined the development of nerve injury-induced allodynia in TASTPM (APPsweXPS1.M146V) mice and assessed monocytes/macrophages at injury site. TASTPM developed partial allodynia compared to WT at days 7, 14 and 21 days after injury, and showed complete allodynia only after treatment with naloxone methiodide, a peripheralized opioid receptor antagonist. Since macrophages are one of the sources of endogenous opioids in the periphery, we examined macrophage infiltration at injury site and observed that CD206/MHCII cells were more numerous in TASTPM than WT. Accordingly, circulating TASTPM Ly6C (classical) monocytes, which are pro-inflammatory and infiltrate at the site of injury, were less abundant than in WT. In experiments, TASTPM bone marrow-derived macrophages showed efficient phagocytosis of myelin extracts containing amyloid precursor protein, acquired CD206/MHCII phenotype, upregulated mRNA expression of proenkephalin () and accumulated enkephalins in culture media. These data suggest that in TASTPM nerve-injured mice, infiltrating macrophages which derive from circulating monocytes and may contain amyloid fragments, acquire M2-like phenotype after myelin engulfment, and release enkephalins which are likely to inhibit nociceptive neuron activity via activation of opioid receptors.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by repetitive episodes of complete or partial upper airway obstruction during sleep, with a worldwide estimate of 936 million sufferers. Treatments of OSA include continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), weight loss, positional therapy, oral appliances, positive upper airway pressure, oro-maxillofacial surgery, hypoglossal nerve stimulation, and bariatric surgery, and others, with CPAP being the most commonly prescribed treatment. In this review, the neurologic conditions of stroke, cognitive decline, epilepsy, and migraines will be discussed as they relate to OSA. Additionally, the literature regarding improvement in these conditions following treatment with CPAP will be explored.

Low-back pain (LBP) is a major public health problem globally and its direct and indirect healthcare costs are growing rapidly. Virtual reality involving the use of video games or non-game applications are alternatives to conventional face-to-face physical therapy for LBP. The purpose of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of Back Extension-Virtual Reality Game (BE-VRG) compared to Clinic-based McKenzie therapy (CBMT) for chronic non-specific LBP in Nigeria.

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and is associated with an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea. Pregnant patients with obesity experience a higher risk of maternal and fetal complications. Anesthesia also poses higher risks for obese parturients and may be more technically challenging due to body habitus. Safe anesthesia practice for these patients must take into consideration the unique challenges associated with the combination of pregnancy and obesity.

Pain education initiatives are typically targeted at health professionals, with less attention being placed on the education of other target audiences. Recent curriculum changes across undergraduate liberal studies degree programs at The University of Sydney presented an opportunity to develop an online course entitled Health Challenges: Pain and Society, which was aimed at a non-traditional target audience. To promote student engagement about the problem of pain for society, the course was designed using the Community of Inquiry framework. This paper reports on an Educational Design Research study, investigating the effectiveness of the course in engaging students across two cohorts, in 2019 and 2020. Learning analytics were collected from the Learning Management System each year. The level of student engagement in non-assessable tasks was measured using multiple linear regression. Students' degree type and majors were recorded. In 2020, the quality of student workbook responses was recorded. In both cohorts, engagement with the workbooks was a predictor of academic achievement. In 2020, a significant interaction effect between quantity and quality of engagement was observed. Our findings highlight the importance of designing online learning to facilitate successful engagement for non-traditional target audiences about the issue of chronic pain for society.

Appropriate perioperative pain control is essential to aid in patients' recovery after surgery; however, acute postsurgical pain remains poorly treated and there continues to be an overreliance on opiates. Perioperative pain control starts in the operating room, and opiate-free anesthesia (OFA), where no opiates are used intraoperatively, has been proposed as a feasible strategy to further minimize opiates in the perioperative period. In this article, we address the potential benefits and shortcomings of OFA, while exploring tools available to accomplish multimodal anesthesia and ideally OFA, and the evidence behind the techniques proposed.

Although several studies and reports have shown the potential analgesic use of serotonergic psychedelics in cancer pain, phantom limb pain and cluster headache, evidence supporting their use for chronic pain is still limited. The past years have seen a considerable renewal of interest toward the therapeutic use of these compounds for mood disorders, resulting in a marked increase in the number of people turning to psychedelics in an attempt to self-medicate a health condition or improve their wellbeing. In western countries particularly, this population of users overlaps substantially with chronic pain sufferers, representing a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects these compounds have on pain and wellbeing. Here, we report results from an online survey conducted between August 2020 and July 2021 in a population of 250 chronic pain sufferers who had experience with psychedelics, either in microdoses (small sub-hallucinogenic doses), macrodoses (hallucinogenic doses), or both. Macrodoses, while less often used for analgesic purposes than microdoses, were reported to induce a higher level of pain relief than both microdoses and conventional pain medications (including opioids and cannabis). Although the effects were weaker and potentially more prone to expectation bias than with macrodoses, our results also suggested some benefits of psychedelics in microdoses for pain management. The reported analgesic effect appeared unrelated to mood improvements associated with psychedelic use, or the advocacy of psychedelic use. Taken together, our findings indicate interesting potential analgesic applications for psychedelics that warrant further clinical research.

Although clinical improvement after stenting for symptomatic iliofemoral venous obstruction has been demonstrated in multiple large studies, a small proportion of patients will experience persistent quality of life-impairing symptoms. Swelling in such a setting represents the concomitant presence of lymphedema and will respond to treatment directed at the lymphedema. In contrast, persistent pain likely arises from venous hypertension in the lower leg, leading to the development of chronic compartment syndrome. Evaluation of intracompartmental pressures in such patients can help confirm the diagnosis, and fasciectomy combined with fasciotomy will treat the issue. In the present series, we evaluated six patients (six limbs) who had undergone fasciectomy combined with fasciotomy and their outcomes.

Although nickel allergy is a common cause of contact dermatitis, systemic reactions to nitinol stents are rare. A 61-year-old woman had presented with a nonhealing toe wound. Angiography revealed an external iliac artery stenosis, which was treated with a nitinol stent graft. However, she developed severe truncal pruritus, and within 3 months, her external iliac stent graft had thrombosed. Allergy testing revealed nickel sensitivity. After medical therapy had failed, stent graft removal was performed, resulting in complete resolution of her symptoms. The present case demonstrates a rare allergic reaction to the nitinol in commercially available stent grafts. Pruritus and rash are rare reactions to stenting; however, a nitinol allergy should be considered for patients with no other identifiable primary source.