Merry Xmas

From my family to you and yours, may this day be filled with love and grace, family and friends.

December is a very interesting month, many multicultural events and celebrations happen in Dec.  I missed wishing those of the Jewish faith Happy Hanukkah, and my Japanese friends Happy Omisoka, my Swedish friends Happy St. Lucia Day and my African American friends Happy Kwanzaa and finally to my pagan friends Happy Saturnalia.

Below is a list of some of the celebrations held in December.

Saint Nicholas Day (Christian)
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexican)
St. Lucia Day (Swedish)
Hanukkah (Jewish)
Christmas Day (Christian)
Three Kings Day/Epiphany (Christian)
Boxing Day (Australian, Canadian, English, Irish)
Kwanzaa (African American)
Omisoka (Japanese)
Yule (Pagan)
Saturnalia (Pagan)

Your fan club

Life can be difficult, we each wage battles to survive and to prosper,  would it make any difference if you knew that there are people who understand deeply, the battles you've waged? 

They know and have approved of the choices you've made. Each of us has our own fan club, the members of your fan club will be gathering with you tomorrow if they can. They will be celebrating the passage of another year in your life. The will be celebrating what you have taught them and the difference you have made in their life. 

They celebrate you just as you celebrate them. At one point, people got together tomorrow to celebrate a birth, but not as many of us are religious anymore. However, we still get together to celebrate, and we celebrate each other and the difference we make in each other's life. Well, believe it or not, you make a difference and have meaning for many people, celebrate the day with them and enjoy their company. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Marijuana and Parkinson Disease

Marijuana is legal in Canada and some of you may be giving or getting some for the holidays. The following is from a story by Marie Ellis, published in Medical News Today in 2016.

Interestingly  Marijuana helps people who are suffering from Parkinsons Disease. In a review published in the journal Parkinson's Disease led by Prof. Zvi Loewy, from the Touro College of Pharmacy in New York, NY, his findings suggest symptoms of the condition could be improved with marijuana.  

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurological illness in the United States, causing tremors, slowness of movement, postural instability, and impaired balance and coordination.  in the U.S., Parkinson's disease (PD) affects about 1 million people. It is progressive, which means it gets worse over time, and it occurs when a person's brain stops producing dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in our movements as well as in cognitive and psychological functions.

There is currently no cure for the disease; treatments carry with them several limitations and do not slow the progression of PD. Professor Loewy and his team conducted a thorough literature review on studies of marijuana. The most compelling finding was that chemical components of marijuana yield benefits in the wake of different PD symptoms.

For example, Prof. Loewy notes that marijuana has been found to relieve pain in other diseases, adding that it should be studied for pain relief in people with PD. Pain affects nearly 50 percent of people with the condition, the researchers note.

But why is marijuana specifically promising for PD? According to the team, the cannabinoid compounds in marijuana bind to dopamine receptors to reduce the effects of reduced dopamine in the brain.


Essentially, the compounds replace the normal compounds that are adversely affected by Parkinson's. The big finding from their review centers around the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of marijuana, which may prevent neuron damage.

Inflammation can damage neurons that produce dopamine - the lack of which contributes to movement problems in Parkinson's. So preventing neuron damage could slow PD progression.

There is a need for safer drugs to treat PD, adding that cannabis may provide a viable alternative or addition to the current treatment of Parkinson's disease.

There are risks to take into account, recent research has uncovered some downsides to marijuana use, including memory loss, increased osteoporosis risk, and impaired blood vessel function.

Furthermore, a study published in 2016 suggested marijuana use may reduce dopamine in the brain.


Given all of this, they concluded that further studies are needed to provide more data on efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and interactions of cannabinoids.

Do yourself a favour, help others

Older people who help and support others are also doing themselves a favour. In 2009 an international research team found that grandparents who care for their grandchildren on average live longer than grandparents who do not. 

The researchers conducted survival analyses of over 500 people aged between 70 and 103 years, drawing on data from the Berlin Aging Study collected between 1990 and 2009.

Most previous studies on the topic did not include grandparents who were primary or custodial caregivers. Instead, they compared grandparents who provided occasional childcare with grandparents who did not, as well as with older adults who did not have children or grandchildren but who provided care for others in their social network.

The results of their analyses show that this kind of caregiving can have a positive effect on the mortality of the carers. Half of the grandparents who took care of their grandchildren were still alive about ten years after the first interview in 1990. The same applied to participants who did not have grandchildren, but who supported their children - for example, by helping with housework. In contrast, about half of those who did not help others died within five years.


The researchers were also able to show that this positive effect of caregiving on mortality was not limited to help and caregiving within the family. The data analysis showed that childless older adults who provided others with emotional support, for example, also benefited. Half of these helpers lived for another seven years, whereas non-helpers on average lived for only another four years.