Category: SCIENCE/MEDICAL NEWS

STUDY: Kratom May Have Therapeutic Effects And Relatively Low Potential For Abuse Or Harm

(

John Hopkins Medicine)

(February 2020)–Using results of a survey of more than 2,700 self-reported users of the herbal supplement kratom, sold online and in smoke shops around the U.S., Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that the psychoactive compound somewhat similar to opioids likely has a lower rate of harm than prescription opioids for treating pain, anxiety, depression and addiction.

Kratom Leaves (left)  Young kratom trees in Indonesia (right) Credit: American Kratom Association

In a report on the findings, published in the Feb. 3 issue of

Drug and Alcohol Dependence,

the researchers caution that while self-reporting surveys aren’t always entirely reliable, they confirmed that kratom is not regulated or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that scientific studies have not been done to formally establish safety and benefits. They say that U.S. drug agencies should seek to study and regulate rather than ban kratom sales outright because of its seemingly safe therapeutic potential, and as a possible alternative to opioid use.

The American Kratom Association (AKA), a consumer advocacy group, estimates that 10-16 million people in the U.S. regularly use kratom by either eating its ground leaves in food or brewing them in tea. Kratom is a tropical plant related to coffee trees, and grown mainly in Southeast Asia. It contains a chemical called mitragynine, an alkaloid that acts on the brain opiate receptors and alters mood. In Asia, where use has long been widespread, people use it in small doses as an energy and mood booster, similar to coffee use in the West. They use larger amounts for pain, or recreationally like beer and wine.

Kratom products are unregulated and nonstandardized, and reports — although sparse — have linked its use to hallucinations, seizures and liver damage, when combined with alcohol or other drugs. In 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) proposed banning commercial sale and use, and the FDA has advised categorizing it as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no proven medical application and has a high risk of abuse. These agencies were met with public and supplement industry pushback, and no action was taken. A salmonella contamination outbreak in 2018 among users increased concerns.

However, says

Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph.D.

, instructor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the new survey findings “suggest that kratom doesn’t belong in the category of a Schedule I drug, because there seems to be relatively low rate of abuse potential, and there may be medical applications to explore, including as a possible treatment for pain and opioid use disorder.”

“There has been a bit of fearmongering,” he adds, “because kratom is opioidlike, and because of the toll of our current opioid epidemic.”

A 2015 study in Thailand that reported that people in Asia have been using kratom successfully to treat opioid addiction for decades renewed interest among researchers in the U.S.

For the current survey, Garcia-Romeu says, he and his team enrolled 2,798 people to complete an online survey on their use of kratom. They recruited participants online and through social media, as well as through the AKA. Overall, users were mostly white, educated and middle-aged. Some 61% of users were women, and 90% were white. About 6% reported being multiracial, 1.5% reported being Native American or Hawaiian, 0.5% reported being Asian and 0.4% said they were African American. Participants were an average age of 40. About 84% of participants reported having at least some college education.

Of these participants, 91% reported taking kratom to alleviate pain on average a couple times a day for back, shoulder and knee pain, 67% for anxiety and 65% for depression. About 41% of survey responders said they took kratom to treat opioid withdrawal, and of those people who took it for opioid withdrawal, 35% reported going more than a year without taking prescription opioids or heroin.

As part of the survey, participants completed a Substance Use Disorder Symptom checklist to assess whether their use qualified as a substance use disorder according to the American Psychiatric Association

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

guidelines. Fewer than 3% of responses met the criteria for moderate or severe substance use disorder for abusing kratom, but about 13% met some criteria for kratom-related substance use disorder. This is comparable to about 8%–12% of people prescribed opioid medications who became dependent, according to statistics from the U.S. National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA).

“Both prescription and illicit opioids carry the risk of lethal overdose as evidenced by the more than 47,000 opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2017,” says Garcia-Romeu. “Notably there’s been fewer than 100 kratom-related deaths reported in a comparable period, and most of these involved mixing with other drugs or in combination with preexisting health conditions.”

A third of the survey participants reported having mild unpleasant side effects from kratom, such as constipation, upset stomach or lethargy, which mostly resolved within a day. Only 1.9% reported that side effects were severe enough for them to seek medical treatment, such as feeling withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, depression or insomnia when the kratom wore off. Fewer than 10% of participants reported notable kratom-related withdrawal symptoms.

“Although our findings show kratom to be relatively safe according to these self-reports, unregulated medicinal supplements raise concerns with respect to contamination or higher doses of the active chemicals, which could increase negative side effects and harmful responses,” says Garcia-Romeu. “This is why we advocate for the FDA to regulate kratom, which would require testing for impurities and maintaining safe levels of the active chemicals. Otherwise, unregulated products run the risk of unsafe additives and dosing problems, which could be like getting a shot of grain alcohol when you were trying to order a beer.”

Garcia-Romeu adds that data is scant on whether one can overdose on kratom alone, or how it interacts with alcohol or other drugs. The researchers also say rigorous clinical research needs to be done to test kratom for its potential therapeutic benefits, for behavioral intoxication effects and adverse side effects to further help inform government policy and regulation. They also suggest that people err on the side of caution and not mix kratom with any other drugs or medications, and to always talk with their health care provider before taking any supplement.

Aside from Garcia-Romeu, authors on the study include David Cox, Kelly Dunn and Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins and Kirsten Smith of NIDA.

Support for this study was provided in part by grants from NIDA (R01DA003889 and R01DA035246).

Dunn has consulted for Grünenthal.

CNB Business: How to Choose Quality Cannabis

CBD OILS

or marijuana

(CNBNewsnet)(February 17, 2018)–On January 23, 2018, New Jersey

Governor Murphy issued Executive Order #6

, which calls on the Department of Health to “undertake a review of all aspects of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, with a focus on ways to expand access to marijuana for medical purposes” and to reduce barriers that patients face when they are seeking access to medical

marijuana

. It will also include a review of regulations.

Additionally,

the recommendations issued by the Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel

concerning the addition of debilitating medical conditions that qualify for the medical marijuana program are also under review. The State of New Jersey\’s medical marijuana law was passed in 2010. Presently there are 15,000 residents enrolled in the program, over 5,000 of those individuals signed on in the past year.

Nearby Pennsylvania began its medical marijuana program on February 15, 2018.  According to the Pennsylvania Health Department when fully implemented, the Medical Marijuana Program will provide access to medical marijuana for patients with a serious medical condition through a safe and effective method of delivery that balances the patient need for access to the latest treatments with patient care and safety.

Many of those enrolled in these programs have no idea about the different marijuana strains. In the hope of clearing up this problem

cannaporium.ca/

released the following information.

So, perhaps you have learned the visual differences between marijuana strains and how to properly store your weed, but you still fail to tell the visual differences between poor and top-notch marijuana? At our website, we constantly receive many questions from our puffing community on choosing quality cannabis-based only on photos or the strain’s appearance alone. And while there is not and cannot be an exact study for selecting potent cannabis (most of the deal seems to come down to personal opinion), there is still quite a number of visual cues you can and MUST search for when scanning the proposed buds at the dispensary and figuring out if the stuff is good quality cannabis or just Nah.

How to choose the best marijuana: Low-Quality Buds

Low-quality weed is usually transported in the form of compact bricks, which in its turn results in a whole mass of shaken, heapy, and compressed herbs. Typically, such products can only be found on the black market or from unscrupulous suppliers. Concerning the color, such trashy stuff appears to be less colorful than the medium-quality marijuana, often having more brown than green color (thus it was given a nickname Bobby Brown). Its aroma is quite dry and earthy with a taste that can be both harsh and spicy as opposed to the sweeter and more like floral notes of the high-grade pot.

When the product is not compacted into the brick crap, those low-quality buds turn out to be light, leafy, and really thin. Logically, the concentration of cannabinoids in such stuff is likely to be extremely low due to poor environmental conditions, like, for instance, high temperatures and some other variables.

Finally, the effects from low-quality weed when consumed tend to be quite mellow, relaxing even lazy, and intensively sleep-inducing (because of the CBN). It is not so uncommon for a user to experience strong headaches and a range of other side effects from poorly cultivated and cared-for marijuana.

How to choose the best cannabis: Medium-Quality Buds

Now medium-quality kush is exactly where the bigger deal of domestically-grown cannabis strains lie. Mediocre cannabis might be identified by its spectrum of green hues and the obvious presence of bright pistils. Such product showcases purple tone, moderate flavor qualities and sugary aftertaste. Experiencing a smoking session with medium-quality cannabis may definitely vary, but oftentimes if the genetics are pretty strong, the effects turn out to be potent enough and enjoyable.

How to choose quality cannabis: High-Quality Buds

Well, we’ve finally got to some good quality weed! Every provider claims to possess only high-grade products in stock, yet how can you confirm it yourself? First of all, the most essential thing you certainly need to know is that top-shelf marijuana will stand out in its sea of green. Apart from the diverse range of colors that premier genetics tend to show, truly awesome quality and sophisticated flavors of really dank weed will be screaming “choose me!” Moreover, you need to understand that truly outstanding weed has no price cap – you can probably come across some luxury items like old French wine and, thus, prices may reach extreme levels. The high-quality herb should be quite sticky still without being moisturized or anyhow wet. When grounded, the buds must break apart without turning into a pile of dust and if burnt, those should leave white ash behind.

Source:

https://cannaporium.ca/

RELATED:

Is Recreational Cannabis Coming to New Jersey?

Related:

CNB Business News

Research Scientists Wish They Had More Brains

Mysteries of the Mind Part 1, Wanted: Your Brain

By

Jeff Stoffer

DEC 17, 2019

American Legion Magazine

Research scientists in Boston wish they had more brains.

One they can expect is that of a former Harvard University football player who wants to know,

preferably before he dies, exactly what happened inside his skull after he was kicked in the head during a professional wrestling match in 2003.

A brain the researchers have already examined came from a Navy Special Warfare veteran who lost his battle with head injuries in September 2018, to suicide.

The scientists, the former athlete and the surviving wife of the 25-year retired Navy chief are making the same uneasy ask. They want anyone who is willing to donate that most complex and mysterious of organs, regardless of its condition or how it functioned during life, so more can be learned to prevent and treat brain injury and disease. While their primary targets are former football players and military veterans, they

will take –

and need

– all the brains they can get because the more they have, the more can be learned to improve chances to save lives in the future.

“It’s not like a normal organ donation, which doesn’t include the brain,” says Nicole Condrey of Middletown, Ohio, who endured her husband’s downward churn through a three-year storm of traumatic brain injury issues – depression, anger, impulsiveness, withdrawal, suicidality – until he shot himself in the chest while holding her hand, in their RV, their service dog nearby, a week before they were supposed to close on their first home together.

Hours after his death, Nicole got a call from former Navy SEAL and author Jason Redman, who asked, on behalf of the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), if she would donate her husband’s brain. “I said, ‘Absolutely. We need to get his brain in.’

“The (CLF) is working to raise awareness that you can pledge to donate your brain separately through

projectenlist.org

. They don’t just need veterans’ brains. They don’t just need athletes’ brains, because in science you need a baseline. They need anybody’s brain. I have pledged to donate my brain to science when I die. You have to tell your family and your loved ones. Ultimately, the next of kin are the ones who have to make that decision … I do know that they do not collect early.”

The CLF was co-founded in 2007 by Chris Nowinski, who played football in high school and four years at Harvard as a defensive tackle before he entered the WWE arena as “Chris Harvard,” a chiseled 270-pound, 6-foot-5 competitor who typically wore an H letter jacket as part of his shtick. Three years of training, heavy travel and regular blows to the head ended his career on the circuit a few weeks after a kick from “Bubba Ray Dudley” put him on his back in Hartford, Conn. “Something was wrong with my vision,” he later wrote of that moment. “I didn’t know where I was, what was happening around me, or why I was staring up at fuzzy-looking lights on the distant ceiling of a gigantic arena – I only knew that something was terribly wrong.”

He wrestled a few more times following that, battling painfully through whatever was suddenly wrong with his head, until it was obvious he could not continue. At that point, he set his rewired mind to a better understanding of concussions and their effects. His 2006 book “Head Games” is now in its third edition and was the subject of a documentary that explored the effects of concussions among football players, which made headlines in

The New York Times

, led to congressional hearings and influenced changes in the game.

“I was fearless,” says Nowinski, who now has a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience. “When I give lectures on neuroscience, I show how crazy I was with my own brain. I let people hit me in the head with chairs and objects. The head butt was my move in football. I have two bad shoulders, so I hit you with my head. I did things that I regret.”

He regrets them now but had no idea at the time that multiple blows to the head had probably damaged his tau – a protein that holds certain brain cells together so they can deliver messages that affect executive functions, mood, vision, sleep and other operations among a mind-boggling list of tau-assisted responsibilities. He had no idea then, nor is he sure now, that he was confronting the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which cannot yet be detected among the living. Its presence can only be confirmed through laboratory examination of a sufferer’s brain tissue.

Identification of CTE before death is one goal of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and pioneering neuropathologist Ann McKee of VA and Boston University, who runs the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank at the Jamaica Plain campus of the VA Boston Healthcare System. The bank opened 25 years ago as a two-person lab at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital – the Bedford, Mass., VA medical center – and studied donated brains to seek answers about such conditions as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Over the past decade, largely due to Nowinski’s persistence, the brain bank has evolved, grown and captured national attention. The brains of former National Football League (NFL) players who suffered severe and often deadly effects of post-concussive syndrome following their careers have been examined, one after another, by McKee and her team. The program has grown to four neuropathologists, four technicians and 20 other staff members, supported by VA. They now have more than 1,100 donated brains in the bank, which are studied for multiple conditions.

In most cases, especially early, the growing number of football player brains came after Nowinski cold-called families to make the uneasy ask. As NFL families agreed to have their loved ones’ brains studied, evidence mounted. Four of the first four had CTE. Now, out of 111 former NFL players’ brains studied by McKee, CTE has been identified in 110. Among them was the high-profile case of former New England Patriots star tight end Aaron Hernandez, who in 2017 died by suicide in a jail cell at 27 following a highly publicized murder conviction and a string of irrational acts. “I was stunned that Aaron Hernandez had so much disease,” McKee said. “For some reason, you think it’s not going to happen. And then it does.”

Traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder have been called the “signature wounds” among post-9/11 veterans. Blasts from improvised explosive devices, crashes, falls and other blows to the head have come with the territory of training and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ron Condrey did not have any one major head injury, his wife explains, but he sustained multiple concussive events over the years, perhaps 20 in all.

“He had a motorcycle accident during his Navy training,” Nicole says. “I think that was the start to a lot of things. After that, he fell down a mountain in Afghanistan on some mission. He had a Humvee roll over. He had a helicopter crash. As an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) tech, you’re around explosives. Repeatedly, over and over throughout his career. Big ones. Small ones. You have one (concussion) and then the next one compounds itself, and then the next one and the next one. Individually, he might have been OK had he only had one.”

A Notre Dame-educated electrical engineer, Nicole had been a civilian IED countermeasures analyst for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Ron, who had been committed to the Navy since 17, was a beloved combat leader and highly trained paratrooper. Their paths never crossed in theater, but they found each other in 2013 when she was trying to get her initial skydiving license in Suffolk, Va. He was an experienced trainer, and they soon discovered they had more than jumping out of airplanes as a common interest. “We both kind of dealt with IEDs in different ways, but we never met each other until later. When we did, we had a lot of similar connections.”

Ron had been jumping for more than 15 years, and pushed Nicole to keep training and working to become a master skydiver. “I was his apprentice, you might say,” she says.

They loved extreme outdoor recreation, and each other. By the time they married July 30, 2015, however, Ron had already shown signs of brain injury, including a suicide attempt earlier that year. “It was a pretty bad one. His buddies came and said, ‘Hey, we need to get him help.’ I’d been trying to get them to understand for a while that there was something going on with his brain. It took a suicide attempt. He was still in the Navy at the time. They said, ‘Yeah, we should intervene.’”

He enrolled in DoD treatment programs in Portsmouth, Va., and Bethesda, Md. Nicole accompanied him to appointments in the early months of their marriage. Soon, it was clear he needed to get out of the Navy, perhaps with a medical discharge, but he had enough years to retire in May 2017.

By that time, she explained, his condition was plummeting. “It was like a roller coaster. I’m sure anyone who has been a caregiver, or a spouse or a loved one – someone going through this – could tell you the same story. One day, he could be doing really great and the next day just in the dumps. Or one hour doing great and the next hour not.”

That’s when they were given Via, a trained service dog. “Ron really liked a lot of the Latin words that are used in the military,” Nicole says of her name. “Via directly translates to ‘road’ or ‘street.’ But it can also have the meaning of journey or path. So we picked that name because she was an important part of Ron’s journey.”

Initially diagnosed with major depressive disorder, “which stems directly from the traumatic brain injuries and the post-traumatic stress,” she explains, Ron’s condition was later characterized by VA as PTSD with some TBI, and he was given a 100 percent disability rating. “Lots of different meds,” she recalls. “And the meds make you gain weight. For a warrior to gain weight, it’s a sign of weakness. He felt even worse, and his view of himself went down the tube even more.”

She says he tried prolonged exposure treatment, but that wasn’t effective because Ron had no single triggering event. “The idea is that there is an event that is really haunting you or bothering you on a regular basis. For Ron, he was a warrior. He expected to see everything he saw. There wasn’t one event. But they really wanted to help him with his post-traumatic stress. Prolonged exposure was the key, or so they said. He got worse. There wasn’t

an

event for Ron. There were events, but they happened to his brain, concussively, not his psychological state.”

By that time, Nowinski, McKee and the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank were advancing scientific understanding of the links between concussions and psychological behavior. More and more brains were coming in, particularly from former athletes, and a growing number from veterans who had been diagnosed with TBI and PTSD, which are studied together and separately for the presence, or not, of CTE.

“Traumatic brain injury can be an acute injury – a blow to the head, a subdural or epidural (bleed) – and it can be a major injury with loss of consciousness, amnesia, neurological deficits,” McKee says. “Or it can be a mild injury. There are all types of severities – mild, moderate and severe. Mild TBI is what I am primarily concerned with. You don’t see a bruise. There is no blood on their scalp or anything. It’s a subtle injury, but it can have long-term consequences. What we know from our research now is that if you sustain these mild TBIs – enough of them over a long period of time – it dramatically increases your risk for … CTE. It’s like the brain gradually breaks down, bit by bit.

“A TBI is like a car accident. A car accident can be a big accident. It can be a small accident. A mild TBI, or a concussion, is more like you’ve got a car on a really bumpy road, and you just keep driving on it, and your car slowly breaks down. It’s a long-term consequence – subtle damage that occurs over years.

“PTSD is a complex set of symptoms. They can be sleep difficulties, anxiety, all sorts of things. And it is usually related to trauma. The trauma doesn’t have to be physical. It doesn’t have to be a TBI. It can be psychological trauma. It can be sexual trauma. What we have found is that individuals exposed to trauma – psychological or even physical trauma – develop PTSD, which is this well-defined but complex set of symptoms. So, how does this fit in with TBI and CTE? How can you compartmentalize those? It’s not easy, and we are still working on it. There are people with PTSD and no trauma, PTSD and no CTE, and we also know – because we have a big brain bank here for PTSD – that some of those cases have CTE.”

“For them to stamp PTSD on his medical record, it was all they knew how to diagnose,” Nicole says of her husband’s situation. “The problem is, how do you really diagnose it? The symptoms are so similar.”

One therapy that seemed to work was skydiving. “It was something physical he could repeatedly do,” Nicole says. “In theory, it was supposed to help his brain recover and heal.”

Moreover, she adds, “He was really good at skydiving. He loved it, and he loved giving back.” He had more than 5,000 recorded jumps over his career. He’d also been booked to do demonstration jumps at various venues, including Soldier Field in Chicago – 10 of which he did with Via. “She doesn’t like the plane much,” Nicole says of their skydiving service dog. “But the second she gets out of the plane, it’s like any dog putting its head out the car window.”

The stars were thus aligned for the Condreys to pack up and move to Middletown, home of Team Fastrax, which teaches skydiving, performs demonstration jumps at big events – typically involving huge U.S. flags – and competes against other skydiving teams around the world. It was something they could do together, especially after they saw the team’s annual Warrior Weekend to Remember event where Gold Star Families and disabled veterans gather for a weekend of skydiving and camaraderie.

“If you’re a combat-disabled veteran, you jump for free,” Nicole says. “We were in it to inspire people and be a part of the community, and get people to get outside their comfort zones and do great things.”

Ron’s condition, however, worsened as his neurons continued to misfire. “Ron was in a really bad state the last six months. He actually got to the point where he stopped jumping. He didn’t enjoy anything about it anymore. And this is something you see in people who can be depressed. They don’t enjoy the things they loved to do before. He was a recluse. He didn’t go out at all. He would push everyone away, including me and his service dog … and we were keeping him alive at the time.”

In late August 2018, he checked into a private-sector retreat for veterans. He came home with a sudden appreciation for everything around him. “He was a totally different man. I was euphoric, but I had this feeling in my gut that I couldn’t pinpoint.”

A few days later, the euphoria was gone. The roller coaster descended, fast. As for the retreat, “I think Ron got there too late. He had gotten so far into that hole without getting back up, it just took one more bad place, one more bad moment, for him to not see his way out of it. His brain wasn’t thinking logically at that time.”

It was about 4 in the afternoon when he pulled the trigger. “I can’t tell you why that day,” she says. She called 911 and then the Team Fastrax hangar. “They were here for me. I have an extended family that has been through a lot with me.”

The decision to donate his brain to the bank came without hesitation. “Ron wanted to give back to veterans in every way he could, so it was just a clear fit, something that could last.”

“It’s terrible to lose these guys,” Nowinski says. “If we can do anything to stem the tide … so many people are committed to suicide-prevention campaigns, but it still happens. We need to understand how we can do more to help.

“We have learned more about our brains in the last decade than we have in all of human history,” he adds. “The brain is the last great frontier. It’s so complex. We are only beginning to understand its complexity. So sometimes the only way to really appreciate it, since it’s hidden inside of our skull, is to actually look at it under a microscope after somebody has passed away. What’s been amazing, doing this work for a decade now with the most amazing researchers in the world at VA and Boston University, is that we make breakthroughs every year, because this work hasn’t been done before.”

New rules about helmet-to-helmet hits, player suspensions for multiple such penalties, warning posters in locker rooms, research and development of safer helmets, and regulations about returning players to the field after concussions are among the steps football has taken since the CLF was established. “Football is dramatically safer today than when I played it,” Nowinski says. “We are not doing all the stupid things we did back then. (But) the reality is, we are still creating CTE in people’s brains.” He says raising the age limit for tackle football can help by reducing the number of years a player is exposed to repeated blows to the head.

“Football is not the problem,” he says. “It’s too much football. I think the future of football is non-tackle versions until high school.” Adult athletes – as with firefighters, police officers and military personnel who risk head injury but understand the risks, Nowinski says – are different from children who often start cracking heads with one another on the gridiron as young as 5.

The route between head injuries and CTE is different for military personnel, McKee says, but they commonly lead to the same destination. “What I can say about military veterans who have been exposed to either blast or concussive trauma is that it’s not as predictable as football. Football tends to be a relatively stereotyped exposure. They tend to do relatively the same things every time they go out and play. But a military person, a veteran – it’s pretty random. Are they in combat? Are they not? Where are they in combat? What are their exposures? Were they driving down the road where there was a blast? Where were they standing or where were they sitting in relationship to the exposure? There are so many variables. It’s much more complex.”

Scanning and imaging technology can only go so far to detect and understand brain disease, McKee says. More is learned by cutting into brains and carefully studying their conditions after death.

“I could never have seen (CTE) using an imaging technique. You can only find, in imaging, what you are looking for. You have to know what you are looking for, target it and find it. There is exploration and discovery in neuropathology that is not possible with neuroimaging.”

The research, Nicole says, can provide guidance for the military before assignments that may include exposure to head trauma. “Right now, the military is not doing neuro-psych evals on entry for EOD techs,” she says. “We have to have a baseline … when they first get into the military, into sports, whatever it might be. All of our brains are different. Then, throughout someone’s career, if they have had an injury to the brain, they need to be tested again. Regularly. If we were able to do it regularly, we could stop it earlier. Ultimately, the goal is keeping people from getting long-lasting TBI symptoms. The research and the data are extremely important, the end goal being that we don’t get people in that state.”

Nowinski adds, “If we change how we play sports and how we conduct military training, we can create better outcomes.”

Treatment of CTE’s effects depends on seeing it in the first place, McKee says. “The basic cornerstone of treatment is detection … during life. If we can do that – if we have a biomarker, something in the blood or saliva or spinal fluid, or if we have an imaging technique that can pick up CTE – then we can treat it. We would have lots of ideas how to treat it. We have anti-tau therapeutics. There are anti-inflammatory therapeutics. There’s a gamut of possibilities.”

To get there, it’s going to take donated brains, she says. “It’s very important to have the brains. That informs us how to do the detection.”

“I think (the brain) is more powerful than we have any idea about,” Nicole explains. “It’s also susceptible. It’s fragile. We can do great things with our brains, but if we don’t protect it, if we have a concussive incident, we need to be sure to take a timeout and step away from that activity before we go back into it again.

“If we do something else again right away and get another concussion, our brain is going to have a much harder time healing. Learning more about our brains and what can happen to them is extremely important, so we can be those fully functioning warriors.”

“We are now honestly addressing the issue,” Nowinski says. “We have a tremendous opportunity to prevent this problem going forward by changing what we’re doing. But also, there are generations of people dealing with this disease, whether they are athletes or veterans, and we don’t have an answer for them. We need to invest in research so we can create better answers.”

To that end, Nicole says she is driven to help CLF make the uneasy ask. “I am taking Ron’s spirit with me in all of this,” she says. “I would call it a passion because I loved him so much.”

Adding military, veteran and control brains to the bank will “help us solve this problem,” Nowinski says. “Go to

projectenlist.org

and sign up to pledge your brain. Follow the instructions. Hopefully, we won’t get your brain for a very long time, but you will be part of an important mission going forward to cure this.”

There is no cost, he adds, and every family gets a full report of the findings. “We treat every family like our own.

“I now look back and realize I was very lucky to get kicked in the head by Bubba Ray Dudley in that wrestling match in 2003. It has allowed me to do work that I am passionate about. And this work is helping people.”

Jeff Stoffer is editor of

The American Legion Magazine

.

What Makes A School Great

(NAPSI)—Great learning environments elude easy definitions. They come in all different shapes—traditional public schools, public magnet schools, public charter schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling programs. Perhaps the best definition is this: A great school is one in which students are academically challenged, equipped to be a good citizens and persons, and inspired to greatness.

Because children are different, you can best find a great school for your child when you have diverse options to consider. That could mean open enrollment in a public school outside of your “zone” so your child stays connected with an important peer group. It could mean a charter school focusing on classical education or a magnet school that lets students shadow medical professionals. Maybe it’s learning at an accelerated pace at home or through online coursework, or in a private school that shares your values.

It’s parents who really decide whether a school is good or even great, based on their children’s needs and interests. What might be an excellent learning environment for one child might not be a good fit for another.

That’s one reason National School Choice Week, Jan. 26 through Feb 1, 2020, is important. It raises awareness among parents of their K-12 education options. It’s celebrated by teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and community leaders at 50,000 events and activities.

This National School Choice Week, I encourage all families to explore their education options. You can start, and discover the choices available to you, at

www.schoolchoiceweek.com/mystate/

.

•

Mr. Campanella is president of National School Choice Week and the author of “The School Choice Roadmap: 7 Steps to Finding the Right School for Your Child.”

Middle-Aged Adults Worried About Health Insurance Costs Now, Uncertain for Future

Newswise — Health insurance costs weigh heavily on the minds of many middle-aged adults, and many are worried for what they’ll face in retirement or if federal health policies change, according to a new study just published in JAMA Network Open.

More than a quarter of people in their 50s and early 60s lack confidence that they’ll be able to afford health insurance in the next year, and the number goes up to nearly half when they look ahead to retirement. Two-thirds are concerned about how potential changes in health insurance policies at the national level could affect them.

Nearly one in five of survey respondents who are working say they’ve kept a job in the past year in order to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance. And 15% of those who are working say they’ve delayed retirement, or thought about it, because of their insurance.

The study uses data from

the National Poll on Healthy Aging

, conducted in late 2018, during the open enrollment period for many employers’ insurance plans, and near the start of open enrollment for Medicare and plans available to individuals on federal and state marketplace sites.

“Seeking regular medical care is critically important for adults in their 50s and 60s, to prevent and treat health conditions,“ says lead author Renuka Tipirneni, M.D., M.Sc. “We found that many adults in this age group are unfortunately worried about affording health insurance and avoiding care because of costs.” Tipirneni is an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and a member of the

U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation

, which runs the poll. She sees patients in the General Medicine clinics at Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

The poll was conducted at a time when the Affordable Care Act had survived challenges in Congress but was facing possible changes or invalidation in a federal court case. That case is now pending before the Supreme Court.

“It is clear from our poll that health care remains a top issue for middle-aged adults and that many of them find the recent uncertainty surrounding federal healthcare policies troubling,“ says senior author Aaron Scherer, Ph.D., an associate in internal medicine at the University of Iowa and former postdoctoral fellow at U-M. “Policymakers should work to ensure the stability and affordability of health insurance for vulnerable adults on the verge of retirement.”

The worries about cost already affect how people in this pre-Medicare age group use health care, the study finds. More than 18 percent had avoided seeking care, or had not filled a prescription, because of cost in the past year.

Those who were in fair or poor health were four times more likely to have avoided care. Those with an insurance plan purchased on the individual level, such as the federal Marketplace, were three times more likely to have avoided seeking care or filling a prescription.

The poll of 1,024 adults in their pre-Medicare years was conducted sponsored by AARP and Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

The poll focuses on those approaching the “magic” age of 65, when most Americans qualify for Medicare health insurance. The researchers say their findings hold implications for policy proposals that would offer Medicare availability at younger ages, or offer a publicly-funded plan on the federal Marketplace.

A Nevada COTA Family is Celebrating American Heart Month

Thanks to Their Toddler’s Heart Transplant

COTA Kid Emerson Buskirk Heart Transplant Recipient

February 3, 2020

—

February is the month to celebrate love and hearts. Since 1964 February has been known as American Heart Month throughout the United States. For the Buskirk family of Las Vegas, Nevada, February truly is a month to celebrate selfless gifts from the heart. Their toddler, Emerson, is alive and able to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year because of the new heart she received just over a year ago.

Emerson Lee Buskirk was born in June 2018 to ecstatic first-time parents, Andrea and Brandon. They were thrilled and thankful to welcome this precious infant to their now family of three. Their first few months at home in Las Vegas with Baby Emerson were like those of other first-time, adoring parents. According to Andrea and Brandon, Emerson was the world’s easiest baby and they knew how fortunate they were. She was a champion sleeper and eater. She was very calm yet very curious. But early in the morning of September 24

th

, they embarked on a new and unexpected journey with Emerson.

Andrea and Brandon both blogged and posted on social media regularly about Emerson’s transplant journey and what follows are excerpts from their narratives:

Brandon and I are both teachers, so when the school year started for Brandon, we knew it was inevitable he would bring home germs. In early September he had a cold that was eventually passed to Emerson. We did not know it at the time, but that virus was the tipping point for her body. In mid-September 2018 we noticed something was ‘off’ with Emerson. She was not sleeping as well as normal, and was a little more cranky than usual. We decided Brandon would stay home with her on September 24

th

because that was to be my first day back from maternity leave for my teaching job. However, I was not able to return to my classroom as planned.

That night Emerson’s whole demeanor changed and she was lethargic. We assumed she just was not feeling well because of her cold. At 3:30 a.m. we were awake with Emerson. She was refusing to eat and her wet diaper was very dark, signaling dehydration. We grabbed her diaper bag and left quickly for the local hospital’s emergency room. Upon intake, an IV was started and she was immediately put on oxygen. She was very pale and was having trouble breathing. A chest x-ray was performed and then a doctor came in with news we had not expected to hear — Emerson was in congestive heart failure. Our world stopped.

We were immediately transferred to Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas to meet with pediatric cardiologists. The cardiologist who performed Emerson’s first echocardiogram left the room saying, ‘I need to expedite this’ and then returned very quickly to tell us what he had seen. He knew Emerson would need a heart transplant to survive. We were briefly admitted to the PICU and plans were being made to transfer us to a pediatric heart center. Loma Linda University’s Children’s Hospital had an opening on the cardiac floor, and less than 12 hours later we were being life-flighted there … about 250 miles from our home.

The first week of Emerson’s Dilated Cardiomyopathy diagnosis was grim. By the time she had another echocardiogram performed on September 25

th

, her heart function had gone from 30% to 9%. Her body was failing. Loma Linda’s team of pediatric cardiac specialists thought she would need to be placed on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), which is highly specialized life support. She was sedated, intubated and placed in isolation. The only way we could see her was to put on a gown, mask and gloves. We could not hold or comfort her. We felt lost and far away from our support network. Emerson was officially listed as transplant status 1A on September 26

th

. Our pastors travelled from Las Vegas to California and we baptized Emerson in the hospital, which was not at all what we had planned. We were preparing for the worst.

The next step was to get Emerson off the ventilator, which could only be done if her heart function got better. On October 8

th

her first open heart surgery, the Pulmonary Artery Band, was performed. This procedure is so new in the world of Dilated Cardiomyopathy treatment that less than 100 had been performed worldwide. Emerson was the fourth Loma Linda patient to have this procedure. This banding allowed her to come off the breathing tube and start eating again. Her heart function improved to about 20%. With these successes, Emerson was moved from 1A status to 1B since she was no longer quite as critical. Then the waiting began.

A close friend of the family reached out to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to learn more about the organization and about fundraising for transplant-related expenses. Andrea and Brandon then spoke to their Loma Linda transplant social worker to learn more. On October 15, 2018, the Buskirks officially became part of the COTA Family.

COTA is a 501(c)3 charity so all contributions to COTA in honor of Emerson are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, and COTA funds are available for a lifetime of transplant-related expenses. COTA uniquely understands that parents who care for a child or young adult before, during and after a transplant have enough to deal with, so COTA’s model shifts the responsibility for fundraising to a community team of trained volunteers. A COTA fundraising specialist travelled to Loma Linda on November 3

rd

to train the family’s volunteers and walk them through the entire process. This group of family members and friends returned to Las Vegas and quickly got to work organizing fundraisers to help with mounting transplant-related expenses.

The months following the Pulmonary Artery Band surgery allowed Emerson’s body to regain strength, allowed her to grow, allowed her to gain weight and allowed her to completely breathe on room air. From what our nurses told us, Emerson was a rare case. When babies need heart transplants, they usually do not look like her. From her appearance alone you never would have known she was so sick. She would light up the hospital room with her gigantic smile and truly loved all the attention she received. She was known as the ‘mood booster’ of the pediatric cardiology floor at Loma Linda. In January our cardiologist wrote to UNOS (the United Network of Organ Sharing) to petition Emerson to go back to 1A status since a heart transplant was her only chance at long-term survival.

We received our life-changing call that a heart was available on January 17, 2019, at 5:46 pm. Emerson was taken to surgery at midnight, and was brought back up at 6:30 am on January 18

th

. She was extubated right after the transplant. With her now healthy heart, she almost instantly ‘pinked up’ like other babies. Her numbers stabilized. Miraculously she was discharged nine days after her heart transplant.

On February 14, Valentine’s Day, 2019, Andrea posted the following update:

Valentine’s Day has a whole new meaning for us this year, because February 14

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is also National Donor Day. Today we are especially thankful for our donor family who gave Emerson a second chance at life. Without families like theirs, our little girl would not be here. They truly gave us a priceless gift. Today I want to bring awareness to the thousands of children and adults who are waiting for a life-saving transplant. I urge you to prayerfully consider becoming an organ donor. Did you know one person alone can save eight people with his/her organs? Emerson required blood transfusions many times throughout her hospital stay. Donating blood is another great way to honor our little girl. Lastly, if you feel so inclined, Emerson was transplanted at six months old. If everyone gave just $6 to COTA for Team Emerson, medications can be provided for Emerson for many, many years to come. The outpouring of love and support we have witnessed over the past months is incredible — it has allowed us to focus on Emerson’s needs and care … and not on the financial stresses of life. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Emerson and Andrea remained in Loma Linda until early April and regularly went to nearby clinic appointments to make sure she was doing well. (Brandon had been teaching during the week in Las Vegas and travelling to California on the weekends for several months, which is a transplant-related expense for which COTA funds can be utilized.) They were all able to return home to Las Vegas on April 1, 2019, to resume life as a family of three.

Today Emerson is thriving and is as curious as ever. Andrea and Brandon are elated to have her home and to watch her grow and develop. She continues to love life. Her personality is blossoming with every beat of her amazing new heart. Emerson loves to smile and make funny faces. She loves her kitties, any and all toys that make music and her large collection of stuffed animals.

The COTA fundraising effort in Emerson’s honor has been very successful, which has continued to alleviate many of this young family’s stressors.

According to Brandon, “When we first learned about COTA, it was a relief to see other families who were also in our situation. Through COTA we discovered there is an entire community of transplant families who know exactly what we face each and every day. The

COTA.org

home page provided us tremendous hope because we could read success stories about other COTA heart kids. COTA has allowed us to focus on our family first and not on worrying about how to pay for the resources Emerson needs today … and into the future.”

On Emerson’s first birthday in June, Andrea wrote her this note

:

My Dearest Emerson,

Today you turn one year old. A birthday we did not know we would ever be able to celebrate with you. The challenges and odds you have had to overcome in your first year of life are greater than most people experience in a lifetime. You have overcome Intubation … Being paralyzed … Two open heart surgeries … A heart transplant … Surgery to drain fluid on your heart … Numerous IVs … Countless blood draws … Numerous blood transfusions … Countless heart tests, CTs and MRIs … Withdrawal from narcotics … A collapsed lung … Doctors saying you might not survive … and so much more. Being your mom and watching you overcome such adversity has been a challenge. They always say having kids teaches you so much. That is an understatement with you. You have taught me how to fight … how to be brave … and how to overcome. Your ‘fighter’ spirit is something I pray lives inside of you forever.

“Emerson becoming a Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) kid continues to be a huge blessing for us. Our world turned upside down after her birth, and we had to move to another state for her care and eventual transplant. COTA provided us comfort regarding the mounting medical bills for our lengthy stay. Now that we are back home, we know Emerson will get the best care possible and continue her recovery without the two of us worrying about the medical bills. It is so reassuring to know that when Emerson inevitably needs another heart transplant, COTA will be there at that point and …

for a lifetime

,” said Andrea and Brandon.

Emerson has not slowed down in any way since her heart transplant. She has shown her Warrior Spirit and has proven she can weather any storm. People comment to Brandon and Andrea frequently that had they not followed her journey or known anything about her health challenges, you would never know what she has been through.

According to Andrea, Emerson is running through life (literally) and shows no signs of slowing down. She is a bundle of energy from the moment her eyes open in the morning. She loves taking her new puppy, Weston, on walks and playing fetch with him. She loves reading books, being chased around the house while letting out full squeals of excitement and dancing to any music she hears (especially if it is Moana!). Emerson is living her life with no abandon.

“While Brandon returned to work in the fall, I stayed home to make sure all of her appointments were always taken care of. We are seeing a delay in eating due to her time in the hospital and are currently working to find the right feeding therapist to help us address these needs,” Andrea said. “We find total comfort knowing COTA funds can be used towards this. That knowledge takes away the financial stress of paying for her necessary therapy and the medications she needs.”

This Valentine’s Day, Emerson will likely be eating her favorite foods and doing her favorite things, which will undoubtedly include dancing, laughing, reading making funny faces and simply being adorable. Andrea and Brandon will be remembering Emerson’s heart donor angel with love.

Happy Valentine’s Day Buskirk Family from your COTA Family!

For more information about the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA),

or to find a COTA family in your area, please email

kim@cota.org

.

Society’s Most Feared Disease

(NAPS)—Even more than cancer, there’s one disease most people fear. The thought of falling prey to Alzheimer’s disease and to the inevitable desecration of the mind is something that can make even the

bravest shudder.

After all, if you’re robbed of your sense of who you really are, you’re doomed to live your last days without the dignity that defines you and that you hold dear. Perhaps the ultimate horror of Alzheimer’s disease is that it is as indiscriminate, merciless, and devastating as a wind-swept wildfire.

As a result, a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has become a Holy Grail of sorts in the biotech industry. The disease is so ubiquitous, it casts a shadow over just about everyone’s family. At the same time, it exacts a devastating financial toll on society—perhaps even greater than cancer—with Alzheimer’s disease patients needing 24-hour care for an average of eight years and sometimes as many as 20 years.

The estimated cost for caring for Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is well in excess of a quarter of a trillion dollars per annum. This doesn’t even include unpaid caregiving. Also, Alzheimer’s disease is ranked as the third leading cause of death of seniors in the United States, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer. Approximately 6 million Americans have become its victims, and this number rises each year as lifespans increase due to advancements in medical science.

Progress From Pharmaceuticals

Fortunately, a few pharmaceuti­cal companies, including Biogen, AC Immune SA and NervGen Pharma, have come up with ways to potentially treat the condition and perhaps slow it down. NervGen’s medical researchers are working on what may become an important breakthrough for Alzheimer’s and other afflictions that are defined by nerve damage.

Could This Be Modern Medicine’s Holy Grail?

Until recently, NervGen’s focus has mostly been on developing nerve regeneration for the treatment of spinal cord injuries. In fact, some remarkable results have been achieved in preclinical trials, including one where the treated rodents regained substantial functionality in their legs after sustaining severe spinal cord damage.

Assuming it also works in humans, the medical science world will be paying very close attention because there are no known therapies that can stimulate human nerve regeneration now.

In addition, NervGen intends to commence a Phase 2 clinical trial for treating multiple sclerosis. The company’s drug candidate is expected to treat many of such debilitating symptoms as numbness, loss of sensation, chronic and debilitating pain, partial loss of movement, paralysis, and even incontinence due to additional mechanisms of action called “remyelination” and “plasticity.”

The research team also believes that the same nerve-rejuvenating biotechnology can be adapted to treat Alzheimer’s disease, not just mitigate its symptoms due to its truly novel and innovate approach.

The essence of this technology is that it unlocks a damaged nervous system’s natural ability to repair itself. Proprietary molecules “unstick” nerves and prevent new ones from getting stuck by interfering with synaptic-like connections so the nerves can regrow in places that are normally highly inhibited by scar tissue.

The co-inventor of NervGen’s technology, Dr. Jerry Silver, is one of the world’s most foremost neuroscience researchers of spinal cord injury. Dr. Silver, who is also Professor of Neurosciences at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine, has been working this unique approach to nerve rejuvenation biotechnology since the early ’90s by focusing on a protein called CSPG that inhibits the body’s natural ability to grow and regenerate.

Heretofore, no drugs have been approved anywhere in the world for nerve regeneration and remyelination, as well as improved plasticity in damaged nerves. Additionally, existing treatments are not considered very effective. So, the stakes are especially high for NervGen to create a blockbuster drug candidate that promises to even outshine any other Alzheimer’s disease drug. This is a wonderful opportunity to pioneer nerve repairing drug therapies that target some of the most devastating and pervasive diseases known to humankind.

Learn More

For further facts and figures about NervGen Pharma, go to

www.nervgen.com

.

How Do Chiropractors Relieve Pain From Injuries Or Accidents?

Gloucestercitynews.net (February 5, 2020)–Many people seek chiropractic care to relieve pain and aid recovery from falls, sports-related injuries, and injuries from car accidents. It’s popular as a component of a larger medical treatment plan to help people reduce their dependence on pain

image unsplash.com

medication and get back on their feet faster.

Chiropractic treatment isn’t a substitute for any other medical treatment, although it can be very effective for pain management with acute injuries and for regaining flexibility. Spinal manipulation

self-improvement tools

may also be an effective treatment for managing chronic pain and helping patients avoid more invasive surgical options.

How It Works

Trained chiropractors work to help you physically align your body and give your body the ability to heal quicker and more effectively on its own. They usually work with their hands to manipulate your neck and spine to alleviate nerve issues and vertebral problems. A

chiropractic adjustment

is called so because the chiropractor physically adjusts your spine by applying force with their hands.

Some chiropractors may also use massage or electrical stimulation as well. All of these methods of treatment are meant to aid your body in its natural healing process. You can discuss with your doctor and your chiropractor some of the different methods and how each may or may not serve your needs.

Benefits

Many patients appreciate chiropractic treatment because it helps them recover quickly without depending on habit-forming pain drugs and it doesn’t involve any kind of invasive operation. Manipulation by a chiropractor can help you align your body for better recovery, reduce pain and get your full range of mobility back after an accident.

Chiropractic adjustment has shown some benefits for treating sciatica, neck pain, back pain, shoulder issues, and migraines. Spinal manipulation may also be an effective treatment for

managing

chronic pain

and helping patients

avoid more invasive surgical options.

Risks

While chiropractic adjustment is not invasive and can be very beneficial, that doesn’t imply there are no risks. When you make your first appointment with a practitioner, they should go through your health history with you so they can consider whether or not doing an adjustment would be helpful and safe.

If you have low bone density because of osteoporosis, chiropractors will need to be extra gentle in your treatment. If you’re at risk for a stroke, you might also want to take some precautions with your treatment. In very rare cases, manipulation of the neck can damage an artery.

As with any health procedure, chiropractic treatment is not for everyone. You should talk to your primary physician about your condition first and ask them if they think it would be beneficial for you to work with a licensed

chiropractor

.

Making an Educated Decision

If you’re interested in giving chiropractic care a try, you should talk to your doctor about it and ask for a referral. You and your doctor will be able to make an informed decision together about what might work for you and your body.

Cooler Weather is Good for You; Get Your Family Outside

Parents and guardians may be tempted to dial back outdoor activities when cold temperatures arrive, but getting outside is good for children and their families, even in the wintertime. The

TurfMutt environmental education and stewardship program

encourages families to appreciate and use the outdoors and offers the following tips:

Do outdoor activities that are fun.

Weather that adults consider to be “messy” can be a huge canvas for children and their imaginations. Fall leaf piles, snowball fights, and snow forts offer a wealth of opportunities for parents to play with their children and to explore and experiment in our living landscapes.

Encourage exploration.

Ask your child to look at how the landscape changes with the seasons. Talk about what happens after leaves fall, when snow arrives, when it’s windy, and more, linking these seasonable changes with basic science about clouds, rainfall, temperature changes and the earth.

Try something new

. Try your hands at cross-country skiing, igloo-building, fall or winter hiking, ice fishing, ice skating, snow sculpting, snowshoeing, or something else that your children want to try to give them an appreciation of the outdoors in all seasons.

Do yardwork as a family.

Involve everyone in seasonal yard chores to make the work go faster. Children can help put outdoor toys into storage and help tidy the yard. Just remember that if using outdoor power equipment like a lawn mower or leaf blower for your cleanup, children should be indoors and supervised, and they should not be near equipment when it’s operating.

Mention how getting outside helps our happiness.

Even winter sunshine can make kids happy—literally. Sunlight boosts Vitamin D, which helps regulate emotional and mental moods by increasing serotonin in the brain. Even exposure to weaker sunlight in the winter can cause this joy boost.

Tolerate some mess

. It’s a given that kids going outside in all sorts of weather will often return wet, muddy and messy. Be prepared for wet and cold kids and get them warmed up when they return from playing outside.

Process what they did. Ask kids to share about what they did outdoors or ask them to write or draw out their activities and observations. Did they see something new? Did something surprise them? What was fun?

Learn more about the TurfMutt program at

www.TurfMutt.com

and more about our living landscapes in all seasons at

www.SaveLivingLandscapes.com

.

Different Instagram Apps To Grow Your Followers:

Gloucestercitynews.net (February 4, 2020)–Instagram has become one of the best-known platforms in history, so it is also said, which is one of the most extraordinary applications today.

Taking into account that the numbers never fail, this social network has reached more than 700 million active users. A study conducted by Social Media Marketing says that Instagram is the second most used network.

image unsplash.com

Also, it is called as a network where you get more customers since Instagram works with interactions and with the audience.

This does not mean that you can upload anything, if you want to stand out in the middle of the entire audience, you must generate quality content. Now We have created a list of the best apps to get more followers on Instagram.

Real Followers:

This application is not found in the Play Store since it is an APK (a package for the Android operating system). It is beneficial to gain followers on Instagram, extremely important.

Real Followers offers the option of “follow me and I follow you”, it also gives you input to see the posts that other people publish and that they can also see yours and finally, likerforlike you can like the publications of users and that they like you back.

Do not think that followers are bots, this is an app to get more followers on Instagram, and they are totally real.

In order to get real followers you need to post content consistently. You can post viral videos, photos and stories of other instagram influencers and give them credits. In this way you can give benefit to your account as well as the other influencers. You can easily

download videos

and photos of any instagram profile by simple using

instadownloaderpro

for absolutely free.

Instafollowfor Instagram:

i

This is also one of the apps to get followers on Instagram, it is one of the most used applications, since she shows you who are the people who have stopped following you or the followers you have obtained.

In order for you to have followers, you must hire the paid version (Premium) and know who has blocked you on this network.

It is very effective at the time of interacting and to show multimedia content, making these videos more viewed and win more likes.

GetFollowersBoost:

It is very simple and you can find it in the Play Store, it is very effective for creating hashtags and you can publish videos and photos on Instagram very easily and quickly.

Its only function is to position labels to generate likes and followers.

Later:

It is one of the many ways to generate followers and makes you known on Instagram through the original content publications, while the publications are constant, the more attraction you generate to users.

This application was called Latergramme, but today it is known as Later, the best completely free tool that allows you to always be connected with followers and also gain new ones.

With Later you can plan when you want to publish your posts, photos and videos, you can also manage several accounts, this application will also present you with a report with all the most outstanding searches.

Royal Likes for Instagram:

Royal is also one of the apps to get more followers on Instagram, what happens is that, if they fulfill what they promise but in one way, this means that they help to gain followers but those followers are not real.

Although not all people want followers to be bots or followers with fake names, or would you like it to be so? If your answer is Yes, then you are not clear what social networks are used for.

The idea of all this is that people are influences and can gain Followers, that they are people who really want to be part of what you publish.

But, if you don\’t mind if your followers are bots we present this application that is free. This application also shows you which are the fake accounts or followers.

The application is available in Play Store especially for Android versions from 4.1 onwards, you can start earning followers from now on.