Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia whose leaves are used as the active ingredient in a host of compounds and supplements to self-treat conditions such as pain, coughing, diarrhea, anxiety and depression. In low doses, it acts as a stimulant; in higher doses, it produces sedative, opioid-like effects.

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved kratom for any medical use, but it is nonetheless popular among young adults as a "natural" remedy for what ails them. This is particularly notable given that roughly half of U.S. states ban or regulate kratom.

In the first known study to examine patterns of kratom use and its association with mental health and addiction, researchers found that most people who use kratom have a substance use disorder, report cannabis use or have serious psychological distress and major depression.

However, despite popular anecdotal evidence that kratom can ease opioid addiction withdrawal symptoms, there is empirical evidence that kratom itself can become addictive.

Body of Knowledge

The average person flexes their finger joints roughly 25 million times in a lifetime. If you live to be 80, that works out to more than 312,000 flexes per year.

Get Me That, Stat!

Roughly 60% of American adults have a preventable chronic disease, and 40% suffer from two or more, causing 75% of all health care dollars to be spent on these conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mark Your Calendar

June is health awareness month for Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, myasthenia gravis (a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder), aphasia (a communications disorder), congenital cytomegalovirus, migraines, scleroderma and scoliosis.

Doc Talk

Chartomegaly: A patient with a large and growing medical chart. Megaly is a medical suffix denoting an abnormal or irregular enlargement of an organ or body part. People who use words that include the term have megaly heads.

Phobia of the Week

Catagelophobia: Fear of being ridiculed, mocked or laughed at

Never Say 'Diet'

The Major League Eating speed-eating record for watermelon is 13.22 pounds in 15 minutes, held by Jim Reeves, who wasn't even top-seeded at the 2005 event.

Best Medicine

If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Observation

"Sometimes I think I'd be better off dead. No, wait. Not me, you." — Humorist Jack Handey (b. 1949)

Medical History

This week in 1906, pathologist Howard T. Ricketts discovered that Rocky Mountain spotted fever is caused by an unusual microbe spread by ticks. Its symptoms are similar to typhus, except the rash starts at extremities and moves to the trunk. The disease has high morbidity, with roughly 70% of cases requiring hospitalization. Untreated, the mortality rate is approximately 7%.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "Optimal Waist-to-Hip Ratios (WHR) in Women Activate Neural Reward Centers in Men."

Published in PLOS One in 2010, the researchers used fMRI to record activation of reward centers in the brains of men in response to looking at pictures of naked female bodies. They determined that the classic hourglass figure, i.e., optimal WHR generated the greatest neurological activity.

Self-Exam

Q: What is the origin of the word "muscle"?

A) It's Greek for "power.

B) It's Latin for "little mouse."

C) It's an Old English term for "sinewy meat."

A: B) Romans thought flexing bicep muscles looked like little mice.

Curtain Calls

As was custom, Attila the Hun (406-453 A.D.), conqueror of both the western and eastern Roman empire, married many women in his relatively short life. In 453 A.D., he held a feast to celebrate his marriage to a young girl named Ildico, who was renowned for her beauty.

At the feast, Attila consumed copious amounts of wine. He eventually passed out on his bed, where he suffered a heavy nosebleed. Unconscious due to his drunken stupor, the blood streamed down his throat, choking him to death.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Emma Simpson at Unsplash