Brainstorm Health: J&J Hip Implant Payout, New Gene Editing Company, Exercise and Marijuana

Athletes, runners, and gym goers at large often refer to a post-workout “high”—the endorphins set off by physical activity that gets the heart racing and the blood pumping. In an era of increasing social (and legal) acceptance of marijuana, it appears some Americans are making that high really literal.

New research published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health found that more than 80% of survey respondents (all from states with legal recreational cannabis) used marijuana within an hour before their workout or four hours after the fact (the latter was more common).

“Among the 345 participants in the 2-question sample, 287 (83.3%) endorsed at least one of the two cannabis-exercise questions. Specifically, 237 (68.9%) endorsed using cannabis within 1 hour before exercise, while 282 (82.0%) endorsed using cannabis within 4 h after exercise, and 58 (16.8%) reported that they did not use cannabis within 1 h before nor within 4 h after engaging in exercise,” wrote the study authors. “Interestingly, 232 of the 345 2-question sample participants endorsed using cannabis both before and after exercise (67.2%), while 50 (14.5%) endorsed only using after exercise.”

The most common reason cited by these folks? Exercise is, well, boring—and weed helps make it less so. (There are still plenty of questions about how good this kind of a habit is for a person’s lungs.) For those inclined to use the drug in a post-workout setting, the explanation is a bit more obvious. Cannabis can help take the edge off after a grueling session (although here, again, there are questions about how cannabis affects cardiovascular functions).

A weed workout. Who would have thought?

Read on for the day’s news.

DIGITAL HEALTH

Broad Institute and heart health expert heads over to the gene editing entrepreneurship realm. GV (formerly Google Ventures) is backing an ambitious bid by a new gene editing company called Verve Therapeutics to develop groundbreaking new drugs for heart diseases. GV is giving the company, whose chief executive will be respected Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT cardiologist, a $58.5 million infusion to pursue genome editing treatments for coronary artery disease (CAD), a massive risk factor for heart attacks. (FierceBitoech)

INDICATIONS

Johnson & Johnson to shell out $1 billion over hip implant suits. Drug giant Johnson & Johnson is hoping that a $1 billion settlement will settle the majority of lawsuits lobbed against the company over faulty hip implants that thousands of patients allege left them in pain and eventually had to be extracted. The figure includes some $400 million already shelled out by the company and will reportedly cover more than 95% of outstanding cases. (Reuters)

THE BIG PICTURE

Another "heartbeat" abortion ban passes. Georgia has become the fourth U.S. state to to pass a "fetal heartbeat" abortion bill this year, adding to a slew of conservative locales spoiling for a Supreme Court fight to overturn the seminal Roe v. Wade decision. These kinds of laws outlaw abortion merely six weeks into pregnancy—a timeframe within which many women may not even know that they're pregnant (just two weeks after a missed period). So far, lower courts have struck down similar laws in Iowa and Kentucky. The Supremes will make the ultimate decision on the issue. (Reuters)

REQUIRED READING

A.I. Can Now Read Your Thoughts—And Turn Them Into Words and Images, by John Nosta

Zuckerberg Should Be Held Personally Liable for Facebook's Violations, by Adam Lashinsky

Why the New U.S.-EU Trade Talks May Be Doomed Before They Even Start, by David Meyer

How New York Could Become a Factor in the 2020 Presidential Race, by Melanie Eversley