Recent comments in /f/science

DamonSing t1_jadytcn wrote

Reply to An anti-seizure medication shows promise in reducing the likelihood of heavy drinking, desire to drink, and positive alcohol expectancies, according to new research by chrisdh79

I was topiramate for about 5 years for seizures. I lost so much weight that I was around 90lbs. Most of my hair fell out. I could barely function and spent days laying around drugged out of my mind. It took me 8 months of slowly cutting back to get off of it. It was an absolute nightmare. As a recovering alcoholic, I can assure everyone here that there are much much better and safer ways to get sober. You do not want to take this medication.

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reliableshot t1_jadyg5t wrote

Reply to comment by Cyber-Cafe in Researchers have developed a new device that can detect and analyse cancer cells from blood samples, enabling doctors to avoid invasive biopsy surgeries, and to monitor treatment progress by giuliomagnifico

Devices like these are there for decades. However, our ability to identify molecules that could be targeted and would be able to give us definitive answers- aren't. Sometimes when it is known patient has cancer, but biopsy is not preferable or possible, blood tests for circulating cells, circulating tumor DNA are performed. This does not work well with specific tumors that don't normally leak into blood.

Sorry for long one. Basically, there's still long way to go when it comes to using something like this for detection.

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[deleted] t1_jady8mw wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Researchers have developed a new device that can detect and analyse cancer cells from blood samples, enabling doctors to avoid invasive biopsy surgeries, and to monitor treatment progress by giuliomagnifico

No it literally is not.

Microfluidics is a huge, important field of research that is bringing the cost of care down by an order of magnitude and elevating the quality of care in developing nations by another order of magnitude.

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Flock_with_me t1_jadxeim wrote

Reply to comment by RamboGoesMeow in An anti-seizure medication shows promise in reducing the likelihood of heavy drinking, desire to drink, and positive alcohol expectancies, according to new research by chrisdh79

Naltrexone might be an option to ask your doctor about. It definitely helped a lot with the drinking, but unfortunately for me it caused sudden bouts of depression whenever I took it. I was struggling with depression anyway and really couldn't deal with added mood drops, but I've read that this very rare and that it works well for other people. The few times I used naltrexone it completely curbed my desire to drink, and if I had a drink in a social setting, the drink had no effect on me and - most importantly - didn't lead to a horrific bender.

Ultimately I needed therapeutic psychedelics to treat both my alcoholism and depression. I hope you find a path that works for you.

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SomethingClever42068 t1_jadwyd3 wrote

Reply to comment by RamboGoesMeow in An anti-seizure medication shows promise in reducing the likelihood of heavy drinking, desire to drink, and positive alcohol expectancies, according to new research by chrisdh79

Check out S.A.F.E. instead.

If it were AA or nothing for me I'd still be drinking a liter + of vodka a day.

I guess I'm not a complete success, since I drink one night a week (and never until I'm black out drunk)

But it's been over 1600 days since I've drank daily so it's a win in my book.

Edit: S.M.A.R.T. not safe.

My bad guys.

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Mercury2Phoenix t1_jadwi39 wrote

Reply to comment by RamboGoesMeow in An anti-seizure medication shows promise in reducing the likelihood of heavy drinking, desire to drink, and positive alcohol expectancies, according to new research by chrisdh79

I see a lot of people complaining about the drug, but know that for some people, it works, and there aren't many side effects. I was on it for years to help with migraines. The "side effect" I noticed was that I would no longer get a buzz or any reward from drinking alcohol. (I liked to drink in social settings to easy social anxiety.) I've seen other studies in the past on it being used for alcohol dependence but the results were inconsistent. One guy in the documentary I watched went from drinking a 24 pack of beer a day, to total abstinence.

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Reply to A genetic mutation can be one of the causes of repeated pregnancy loss among Arabic women, a study revealed: by bo_hossuin_14

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[deleted] t1_jadvwcg wrote

Reply to comment by HapticSloughton in Researchers have developed a new device that can detect and analyse cancer cells from blood samples, enabling doctors to avoid invasive biopsy surgeries, and to monitor treatment progress by giuliomagnifico

The cool thing about microfluidic devices such as this is that they are super easy and inexpensive to make. Like anyone could make this in their garage with about $1000 worth of equipment, or a $50 membership to a makerspace.

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