Acoustic-Powered Microrobots for Bladder Disease Treatment
Engineers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have developed a medical microrobot that is powered by acoustic waves. The tiny devices, which are 20 micrometers wide and considerably smaller than the width of a human hair, can move incredibly fast for their size, achieving a speed of 3 millimeters per second. To put this in context, if a microrobot and a cheetah the same size had a race, the microrobot would win comfortably. The tiny structures are made using biocompatible polymers and include a series of three fins and a cavity that holds an air bubble. The bubble generates movement through vibration, which is stimula...
Source: Medgadget - June 8, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Urology CUBoulder interstitial cystitis painful bladder syndrome Source Type: blogs
An emerging link between the urinary microbiome and urinary incontinence
Most people know that microorganisms live on our skin, and in other places in the body such as the digestive tract. However, traditional thinking and medical teaching was that there was no such microbiome in the urinary tract. Many people may still believe that urine is sterile.
Advanced detection methods such as enhanced urine cultures and DNA sequencing have shown that this is not true. These newer technologies have enabled identification of low levels of microorganisms that were not previously detected using conventional methods. This has revolutionized how we think about the urinary tract when it is both healthy and un...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 12, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeannine Miranne, MD, MS Tags: Incontinence Kidney and urinary tract Women's Health Source Type: blogs
More water, fewer UTIs?
This study sought to provide direct evidence of the benefits of drinking extra fluids.
What did the study tell us?
The study participants were 140 premenopausal women who experienced three or more episodes of cystitis in one year and reported that they drank less than 1.5 liters of fluids daily, which is about 6 1/3 cups. The average amount participants drank daily was a bit over a liter (1.1 liters, or about 4 1/2 cups).
The women were randomized to one of two groups. Every day, one group drank their usual amount of fluids plus an additional 1.5 liters of water. The control group drank just their usual amount of fluids. T...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 15, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Huma Farid, MD Tags: Health Kidney and urinary tract Prevention Sex Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Precision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease (Book Index)
In January, 2018, Academic Press published my bookPrecision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease. This book has an excellent " look inside " at itsGoogle book site, which includes the Table of Contents. In addition, I thought it might be helpful to see the topics listed in the Book ' s index. Note that page numbers followed by f indicate figures, t indicate tables, and ge indicate glossary terms.AAbandonware, 270, 310geAb initio, 34, 48ge, 108geABL (abelson leukemia) gene, 28, 58ge, 95 –97Absidia corymbifera, 218Acanthameoba, 213Acanthosis nigricans, 144geAchondroplasia, 74, 143ge, 354geAcne, 54ge, 198, 220geAcq...
Source: Specified Life - January 23, 2018 Category: Information Technology Tags: index jules berman jules j berman precision medicine Source Type: blogs
Medical marijuana
There are few subjects that can stir up stronger emotions among doctors, scientists, researchers, policy makers, and the public than medical marijuana. Is it safe? Should it be legal? Decriminalized? Has its effectiveness been proven? What conditions is it useful for? Is it addictive? How do we keep it out of the hands of teenagers? Is it really the “wonder drug” that people claim it is? Is medical marijuana just a ploy to legalize marijuana in general?
These are just a few of the excellent questions around this subject, questions that I am going to studiously avoid so we can focus on two specific areas: why do patient...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 15, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Peter Grinspoon, MD Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Drugs and Supplements Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
She sees difficult patients, but is a difficult patient herself
The patient is a 27-year-old Caucasian woman: slender, well-groomed. She is sitting in the office of her urologist, and she is unconsciously twisting her hands as she interrupts the doctor, having finally worked up the nerve.
“I know you told me to expect some pain for a while after the lithotripsy. But I’ve been having pain in my bladder, even when I don’t think there are any stones. It started two years ago, before the stones. It feels like pressure, and it really stings when I urinate. It especially hurts when I’ve taken naproxen or loratadine, or if I have caffeine, or if I get dehydrated at all...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 8, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/kristin-puhl" rel="tag" > Kristin Puhl < /a > Tags: Education Primary Care Urology Source Type: blogs
Cutting down on opioids has made life miserable for chronic pain patients - Slate
On July 26, Todd Graham, 56, a well-respected rehabilitation specialist in Mishawaka, Indiana, lost his life. Earlier that day, a woman complaining of chronic pain had come to Graham's office in hope of receiving an opioid such as Percocet, Vicodin, or long-acting OxyContin. He reportedly told her that opioids were not an appropriate first-line treatment for long-term pain —a view now shared by professionals—and she, reportedly, accepted his opinion. Her husband, however, became irate. Later, he tracked down the doctor and shot him twice in the head.This horrific story has been showcased to confirm that physicians ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - August 30, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Data Mined Insurance Records Point to Interesting Disease Relationships
Data about who has what disease holds a lot of clues about the diseases themselves and their causes. Researchers at the University of Chicago undertook a data mining effort to figure out what genetic and environmental patterns that a few dozen common diseases share with each other. The team gathered data from insurance claims related to more than a third of the U.S. population, identified about 130,000 families within this data set, and found a bunch of well known as well as newly discovered disease matchings that may help to study their causes and identify treatment options from existing knowledge.
As a particularly inter...
Source: Medgadget - August 14, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Informatics Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
Don ’t Underestimate Patients
By GEORGE BERGER, PHD
I was diagnosed with aggressive but localized prostate cancer at a major Dutch academic hospital. My parameters were PSA 29 or 31, Gleason sum 4 + 4, and stage T2c. Fortunately, there were no detectable distant metastases. The specialist drew a simple image of my urinary tract and told me I was excluded from brachytherapy, which I had never heard of before, because of the size of my prostate. I had to choose between external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and radical prostatectomy (RP). How on Earth could I choose rationally while knowing so little about prostate cancer? However, I had studied maths and phy...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized ADT Dutch Health Care System Gleason Prostate Prostate Cancer Sweden Source Type: blogs
What became of these early Wheat Belly successes?
Back in September, 2013, I posted a request on the Wheat Belly Facebook page for anyone who lost 50 pounds or more living the Wheat Belly lifestyle to share their photos. Here are some of the responses I received, below.
If any of you pictured here see this, please speak up and provide an update! It would be fascinating to hear what has become of these impressive early successes.
Carol:
“52 pounds gone!”
Cindy:
“Lost over 50 lbs, no more migraines, thyroid disease gone, lowered my cholesterol, allergies gone! Wheat GONE!”
Nancy:
“63 pounds down in the picture, 70 pounds down as of today.&#...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - September 21, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories gluten grains Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
Research and Reviews in the Fastlane 098
This study compared appropriate doses for PCC (bebulin) vs. FFP (10ml/kg) vs. FFP+PCC. All patients received Vit K. There were no differences between PCC and FFP related to time to correct INR or vascular complications. Interestingly there was a significantly lower rate of death and re-bleed on the PCC group. The expected difference on speed of correction was not seen by the outcomes were significantly better with PCC, is it time to adopt it as standard of care?
Recommended by: Daniel Cabrera
Emergency Medicine
Beam DM et al. Immediate Discharge and Home Treatment With Rivaroxaban of Low-risk Venous Thromboembolism Diagno...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - September 2, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Nudrat Rashid Tags: Education Emergency Medicine Emergency Medicine Update Haematology Intensive Care Laboratory R&R in the FASTLANE Renal Toxicology and Toxinology Urology EBM literature research and reviews Source Type: blogs
My Favorite Neighbor I’ve Never Met
My spine shivered when I heard Drew puking. Unlike my once-a-day vomits that mimicked the Tambora volcanic eruption of 1815, Drew’s were fast, graceful and plentiful. I tracked my “Puke Count” on a whiteboard with tallies. Drew’s Puke Count would require an entire wall.Drew and I shared a wall because he was my next-door neighbor at the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Center at the University of Minnesota. That is where I received my umbilical cord stem cell transplant to treat myelodysplasia when I was 19 years old. I never formally met Drew, though I knew much about him by prying my nurses, instructing my d...
Source: I've Still Got Both My Nuts: A True Cancer Blog - June 8, 2014 Category: Cancer Tags: cancer treatment man of the year Source Type: blogs
Fuse Wide Angle Endoscope Detects Significantly More Polyps Than Standard Colonoscopy
Last May EndoChoice (Alpharetta, GA) received FDA clearance for its novel Fuse endoscopy system that provides a 330° field of view compared to traditional scopes that do up to 170°. A new study just published in The Lancet has confirmed a significant advantage to having such a wide field of view when detecting adenomas during colonoscopies.
The Fuse has multiple cameras and LED lights illuminate the scene, providing an integrated view on tablet-like touchscreen panel. In the study 88 patients had adenomas detected using traditional colonoscopy, but there was a 41% miss rate of further adenomas that were detected only us...
Source: Medgadget - March 19, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Editors Tags: GI Source Type: blogs
Gliadin: The Universal Human Poison
Autoimmunity is the process describing an immune response waged against our own organs. The complex collection of mechanisms consisting of T and B lymphocytes, antibodies, and others, meant to provide protection against viruses, bacteria, and other body invaders, is misdirected against proteins of the body’s organs, such as liver, pancreas, thyroid, or brain. Autoimmune conditions now affect 8% of the American population–it is increasingly looking like diseases of autoimmunity are out of control.
Dr Alessio Fasano was recently awarded the Linus Pauling Award, the highest award from the Institute for Functional...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 7, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Autoimmunity Gliadin Source Type: blogs
Watching Pain Become Chronic | Pain Research Forum
How do acute painful bouts of inflammation progress to chronic, intractable pain? Identifying the molecular basis of that transition—and how to stop the process—is critical to understanding, and treating, many chronic pain conditions.A new study from Erica Schwartz, Gerald Gebhart, and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, US, shows that in a mouse model of recurrent pancreatic inflammation, the transition from acute inflammation to chronic organ damage and pain involves a switch from transient neuroinflammation driven by TRPV1 and TRPA1 channels on sensory neurons to a later, las...
Source: Psychology of Pain - April 13, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
