Category: life

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The FDA Is Fast-Tracking a Second Psilocybin (Aka Shrooms) Drug to Treat Depression

If you’ve ever struggled with depression, then you know how difficult it is to find the right medication and the right dosage. People often spend months trying to find the right combination that works for them because no two people are the same, and doctors need to adjust.

Well, there might be some pretty good news on that front coming soon in the form of an unexpected source.

The FDA has given the hallucinogenic compound psilocybin a “Breakthrough Therapy” designation for the second time in just over a year. Psilocybin is the compound that gives “magic mushrooms” their hallucinogenic powers.

Magic mushrooms

The Breakthrough Therapy designation is meant to expedite drugs for development and review by the FDA. Furthermore, the designation is only given to drugs and therapies that have been shown to be effective in treating medical conditions in the preliminary phases.

Last year the FDA granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation to a company called Compass Pathways for using psilocybin to help with treatment-resistant depression. This type of depression has been shown to not improve with two or more traditional therapies. Also, earlier this year, the FDA approved a nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression that is intended to mimic the positive effects of the hallucinogenic drug ketamine. Remarkably, his was the first new antidepressant approved by the FDA in decades.

Depression

The difference with the new Breakthrough Therapy designated drug is that this time it is focused on major depressive disorder, which affects at least 17 million adults in America. The new research will go through the Usona Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, where trials will study how depressed patients do after being treated with one dose of psilocybin.

Most likely, it will be several years before any products related to this study would potentially hit the market.

Depressed

Still, this is good news for the millions of people out there struggling with depression.

Are hallucinogens the wave of the future? Seems like the 60s all over again…

What do you think about potentially using hallucinogenic drugs to treat cases of depression? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Plastic Straws Aren’t the Biggest Offenders When It Comes to Oceanic Plastic Pollution

Well, this is interesting…

Plastic straws have been in the news lately, and not for anything good. People want to get rid of them, and consumers have been encouraging businesses and consumers alike to get on board in order to start trying to mitigate single-use plastics’ devastating effect on the world’s marine ecosystems.

But plastic straws only make up about .02% of ocean waste – not that much, in the scheme of things.

It turns out, that there’s a much bigger enemy to ocean life: cigarette butts.

 

According to an NBC News report, cigarette butts are the number one human contaminant in the ocean, but they have not, thus far, been significantly regulated.

The filters on cigarettes are made of cellulose acetate, which takes more than a decade to decompose. 60 million cigarette butts have been collected on the world’s beaches since 1986.

Cigarette makers invented the filters to alleviate health concerns (lol), but they created a concurrent pollution problem because smokers “flick” their butts – a habit no anti-littering campaign has been able to curb.

The Cigarette Butt Pollution Project hopes they can finally change attitudes with their new campaign.

“Cigarette butt waste has polluted our beaches, parks, and communities long enough – it’s time to take action!”

The U.S. government has attempted to curb the problem here and there, but legislation proposing to ban filters or raise the costs of cigarettes to cover the clean-up have sputtered and died.

A theme park in France has trained ravens to pick up cigarette butts in exchange for treats, but, though awesome, that’s not exactly a global solution.

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For those who think cigarette smoking is cool please think again. It doesn't only pollute you but also the environment immensely. Trillions of cigarette butts are thrown into the environment every year, where they leach nicotine and heavy metals before turning into microplastic pollution. Smokers around the world buy roughly 6.5 trillion cigarettes each year. That’s 18 billion every day. While most of a cigarette’s innards and paper wrapping disintegrate when smoked, not everything gets burned. Trillions of cigarette filters—also known as butts or ends—are left over, only an estimated third of which make it into the trash. The rest are casually flung into the street or out a window. Cigarette filters are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate. When tossed into the environment, they dump not only that plastic, but also the nicotine, heavy metals, and many other chemicals they’ve absorbed into the surrounding environment. . . Follow @anonymous_earth_person Follow #anonymous_earth_person For more information ? . #cigarettebutts #cigarette #pollution #airpollution #savetheearth #saveenvironment #saveanimals #ecofriendly #ecosystem #biodiversity #smokingkills #smoking #dontsmoke #microplastics #plastic #plasticpollution #plasticfreeliving

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As with the campaigns against plastic straws, it’s going to take a concentrated, sustained, and – most important – publicly supported effort to reduce the number of cigarette filters that end up in the oceans.

Do your part, and also…maybe don’t smoke in the first place? Because cigarettes kill more than marine life.

Just sayin’.

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14 Tweets About That Awful Moment When You Run Into Someone From High School

As a hermit and also someone who spends most of her days and nights looking after two young boys (and one husband), I can state with one-hundred-percent certainty that I am never prepared to run into someone from high school when I leave the house.

I’m wearing the same clothes I’ve had on for at least two days, there’s some kind of bodily fluid or food smear on it that isn’t mine, and let’s face it, if I liked you that much in high school we’d still be friends.

So, it’s pretty much always awful when you run into someone with a face you know you’re supposed to recognized and a name that’s lodged in waaay the back of your sleep-deprived brain.

Here are 14 people who totally, 100% nail that terrible moment on the head.

14. Except scarier because the ghosts are real.

13. If only it were always that easy.

12. Small talk is the worst.

11. You don’t have to live this way.

10. Just say no.

9. One you lose as often as you win.

8. Did I get bigger or did this pole get smaller?

7. They never show those moments in Hallmark movies.

6. The most accurate depiction ever.

5. That was a close one.

4. And yet you’re still never fully prepared.

3. Can’t we just come to a mutual agreement?

2. I think it must take years to hone.

1. A million dollar idea.

 

I’m so not looking forward to the next time this happens to me.

How do you handle this? Do you hide in the bread aisle? Put on a fake smile and start coming up with an excuse to stop talking before you start? Share you tricks with us in the comments!

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A Muslim Woman Stepped in to Stop the Harassment of a Jewish Family on the Subway

If there’s one thing people love to see on social media, it’s human beings sticking their necks out for each other – perhaps especially when the people involved are perfect strangers.

The phrase “if you see something, say something” has become a little passé, but the truth is that sometimes it’s exactly the thing to do.

And one heroic woman took that to heart when she witnessed a man harassing a Jewish family minding their own business on a London subway.

Oh, last thing – she’s Muslim, and the harasser is Christian.

She wasn’t alone in speaking out, though. One witness – Chris Atkins – posted a video to Twitter.

The man reportedly rushed up to a man and his young son, both wearing yarmulkes, and began to read from a Bible, loudly screaming and cursing at the pair of them.

The woman, Asma Shuweikh, didn’t hesitate to speak up, fearing that he would become violent (as he threatened to) if no one stepped in between him and the family.

“I thought, if I reason with him and talk to him and pretend that I’m sympathetic with what he’s saying, maybe I can diffuse the problem because he was actually talking to a little boy.”

Others followed her lead, and they were able to distract the man for long enough for the Jewish family to quietly escape the train.

“If it had been me,” Shuweikh said, “I would have liked someone to stand up for me.”

It’s all anyone wants in a time of fear and need, I think. Just something to keep in mind the next time you find yourself faced with the choice to speak up or look the other way.

The British Transport Police arrested a suspect on charges of committing a racially aggravated public order and is still in jail.

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Millions of Americans Think Chocolate Milk Comes From Brown Cows

I’ve never thought about the fact that people over the age of 5 might think strawberry, chocolate, and regular milks come from different color cows, but, I mean, if no one ever told you differently…I suppose it could still make sense?

Aside from the fact that you’ve never actually seen a pink cow.

Then again, I live in the middle of the country, where cows appear regularly on the side of the road. So maybe I should give coastal city folk a break?

 

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NAH – this is ridiculous.

It turns out that A LOT of adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. How many, you ask?

Well, according to the Innovation Center for US Dairy’s website, around 16.4 million people across the country.

They know this because they commissioned a survey to see, which found that 7% of respondents think brown cows equal chocolate milk.

Yep, right out of the udder.

This despite the fact that their official statement (and common sense) says, “Chocolate milk – or any flavored milk for that matter – is white cow’s milk with added flavoring and sweeteners.”

And get this: 48% of respondents – which would mean over 154 million people nationally, if the survey statistics were extrapolated to the country as a whole – admitted they aren’t sure where chocolate milk comes from. As in, maybe it comes from a brown cow? Who knows??

A few more fun facts that emerged from the same survey:

37% of Americans admit to drinking milk straight out of the carton in the fridge (YIKES).

And 29% of Americans buy chocolate milk “for the kids,” but really they just want an excuse to drink it themselves.

As far as the latter, I hope by the time their kids move out they can own what they like and drink it all day like a m-fing adult (who may not know where it comes from). Because chocolate milk, brown cow or no, is delicious.

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Kenya Installed First Solar Power Plant That Transforms Ocean Water into Drinking Water

A lot of us, as Americans, take clean water for granted. It’s just something that’s part of our everyday routine, whether we need to grab a drink from the faucet, to wash the dishes, or to take a shower – water is always (mostly) there for us.

But that’s not the case in certain parts of the world.

Roughly 2.2 billion people around the globe don’t have access to clean drinking water, but an organization called GivePower is looking to change that. The nonprofit recently installed a solar-powered plant in Kenya that turns salty ocean water into fresh drinking water, benefiting 25,000 people per day.

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After being constructed in 1 week, the 6kW solar microgrid began serving power to 40 homes and businesses ? #GivePowerInNepal⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #GivePower⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #JoinTheCharge ⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ #actnow #takeaction #active #building #buildingthefuture #buildingabetterfuture #workforchange #agentsofchange #bethechange #bigsteps #solarpanel #solarmicrogrids #solarenergy #solaristheanswer #solaristhefuture #future #futuregenerations ⠀

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The plant was built in the small town Kiunga, Kenya because of the lack of clean drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa. Turning saltwater into drinking water is both expensive and energy-intensive, which is why GivePower decided to build the plant using solar panels that harvest energy. The two water pumps at the solar-powered plant provide clean drinking water to residents 24 hours a day.

Before the plant was built, people in Kiunga had to travel more than an hour to get clean drinking water. And bathing and washing clothing in saltwater is harsh on skin and fabrics, so access to clean water helps the people in that way, too.

Because of the success of the plant in Kenya, GivePower wants to use this technology to help out people around the world. The organization is already planning projects in Colombia and Haiti. If you want to help out this great cause and donate, you can do that HERE.

Great work!

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A Single Dad Adopted a Baby With Down Syndrome After She Was Rejected by 20 Families

This is an adorable story about the power of love and how important relationships are in our lives. An Italian man named Luca Trapanese adopted a beautiful little girl named Alba when she was only 13 months old.

Alba has Down Syndrome and was rejected by 20 potential families before Trapanese came along to give the girl a new life. Trapanese has been working for and volunteering with organizations that focus on children with special needs since he was a teenager. He’s wanted to be a father for many years, but seeing that he is still single, Trapanese decided to go the route of adoption.

In July 2017, Trapanese was given permission to adopt a child even though he was still single, under one condition: he had to adopt a special needs child who had previously been rejected by other families. It was then that he became aware of little Alba. When he first met her, the connection was instantaneous. He said, “When I first held her in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt she was my daughter straight away. It was the first time I held a newborn baby. Before that moment, I had always been scared. But, when I first held Alba, I knew I was ready to be her dad.”

Trapanese said, “Alba revolutionized my life and everything revolves around her. She brought me happiness and a sense of fulfillment. I am proud to be her dad. I wanted her to be my daughter.”

A beautiful story, don’t you think?

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Economists Say That Forgiving Student Debt Could Give the Economy a Major Boost

I don’t know if anyone in power will take these recommendations seriously, but a headline like this is probably music to the ears of the millions of people out there are struggling to pay off their student loans.

Although different politicians have different ideas and plans about how much student loan debt they would forgive (or not), economists say that forgiving student debt could boost the economy in huge ways while also fighting income inequality.

Economists argue that the debt forgiveness could boost the economy because so many Americans are limiting their life decisions based on their student loans.

A prime example is Laura Greenwood, 30, of Montpelier, Vermont. Greenwood works for the state education agency in Vermont, making $63,000 a year. She said, “I make probably a better salary than a lot of my peers.” But, she added about a major life decision, “Children, it’s not about if you want them. It’s about can you afford them?”

Greenwood said she owes $96,000 in student loans for college and graduate school. She admits that this is a major hindrance to the decision to have kids with her partner. She said, “We’re interested in having kids, but just cost of living and all our other bills and then the student loans, it’s just like the final straw.”

Greenwood added that her debt makes the possibility of having children seem impossible.

Stressed

Economists argue that if people like Greenwood and others saddled with debt had that anchor removed, more of them would buy houses, have kids, and start businesses.

Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors chief economist, said, “In the short term, it would be very positive for the housing market. Home sales could be, say, 300,000 higher annually if people were not saddled with large student debt.” According to Yun, this would be “a boost to the housing sector as well as the economy.”

William Foster, a vice president with Moody’s, said about total loan forgiveness, “There’ve been some estimates that U.S. real GDP could be boosted on average by $86 billion to $108 billion per year.” He also said, “Student loans are now contributing to what’s perceived as lower economic prospects for younger Americans.”

Stressed?

On the flip side of those seemingly encouraging statements is the fact that loan debt forgiveness would be expensive. Foster said the total for student loan debt is about $1.5 trillion – which is why it’s such a drain on the economy. He claims the federal government would have to give up $85 billion in annual revenue that it collects from these loans, which would result in a wider fiscal deficit (not that it seems to matter these days).

What do you think about this controversial and divisive topic? Should student debt loan be forgiven? Or partially forgiven? Or do you think that these former students need to pay in full?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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10 Tips for Dealing With Grief Around the Holidays

For many, the holidays are a really hard time. People who have lost loved ones or had other difficult experiences in their lives tend to get depressed around the holiday season, as they reflect on their past and relive old memories.

If you are one of the many people who deals with grief and depression around the holidays, here are 10 tips you should consider to try to alleviate your pain.

1. Time and space.

Loneliness

Give yourself time and space to deal with your emotions. It’s okay to feel pain and loneliness if you’ve experienced loss. Treat yourself well and give yourself a break. You’re only human.

2. Spend time alone.

The holiday season can be very overwhelming for many people, so you need to find time to spend alone so you can work on yourself and get away from it all. Do what you need to do to recharge your batteries: take a walk, sit in a park, and if you want to leave parties or events early, go ahead and do it.

3. Escape route.

Party

Have an escape plan if you attend parties or events that you know might trigger you and make you sad, emotional, or angry. It’s okay if you need to bolt, just be ready and make sure you have all your belongings so you don’t have to make a return appearance.

4. No thanks.

It’s okay to say no to parties, events, or any other kinds of invitations that you think might make you feel uncomfortable or might cause you to lose control. Remember, it’s up to you.

5. Honor their memory.

Thinking

Some people choose to celebrate the traditions that their lost loved ones did to honor their memory. This can help people to remember the good times and to be nostalgic.

6. Start new traditions.

Instead of trying to recreate the traditions that you enjoyed with your departed loved ones, try to create some new ones. This practice can help you deal with the grief.

7. Get out of town.

Road trip near Sykkylven

Go somewhere new or take a road trip. Get your mind off of the familiar and the places that are associated with your loved ones who are no longer with you. A new atmosphere may do you some good.

8. Fulfillment.

Focus on some activities that you know will fulfill you and make you feel good. Volunteer. Read. Exercise. Walk your dog. Try to make some new friends. Whatever makes you feel good, do it.

9. Totally random.

Smile

Practice random acts of kindness. Help out other people and try to better, not bitter. In other words, live your life to honor the people who are gone and do your best. Part of that can be helping out strangers.

10. Remember the good times.

It might sound easy, but it can be tough. Try to remember the positive memories and happy times you spent with your departed loved ones instead of suppressing all thoughts about them. In the long run, it will help.

And while you’re at it, listen to this short but sweet song by the great Willie Nelson.

Enjoy your holidays, everyone.

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A CEO Gives His Employees $2,000 to Go on Vacation and Says They’re More Productive Than Ever

This is pretty great.

Mark Douglas is the CEO of a marketing and advertising company called SteelHouse who has very specific rules when it comes to vacation time for his employees. No, he’s not cutting down on time off – he requires that his workers take vacation time, and he gives each employee a $2,000 bonus each year that they have to spend on their vacations.

How amazing is that?

Beautiful Beach

Douglas said, “It’s one thing to say ‘You have three weeks’ vacation,’ as most companies do. It’s another thing to say ‘You have cash, and if you don’t go on vacation and spend this money, the money literally goes to waste.’ It’s another level of saying this is real.”

Douglas also said that the bonus pays off. He says his workers are more productive than ever and that they “have virtually zero turnovers.” Douglas said that between 2013 and 2016, only 3 employees left out of a workforce of 250 people.

Speicher Durlaßboden - Austria

Douglas said there are five main reasons why he enacted the vacation policy:

1. It gives employees a chance to recharge.

2. It encourages team-building among staff members.

3. A give-and-take mindset gets the best out of people.

4. A good life-work balance attracts great employees.

5. Customers view the company’s dedication to its employees in a positive light.

Douglas added, “I think it’s important that everyone be able to essentially really, truly leave work.”

In addition to that nice perk, the entire SteelHouse company takes a 3-day weekend once a month.

Not too shabby, huh?

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