DEL-1 Upregulation Promotes Bone Regeneration in Aged Mice
Bone is constantly remodeled throughout life. The extracellular matrix making up bone tissue is continually broken down by osteoclast cells and built up by osteoblast cells. In youth, these activities are balanced. With aging, however, the activity of osteoclast cells progressively outweighs the activity of osteoblast cells. The consequence is an ever greater loss of bone mineral density leading to osteoporosis. This process is also found in the bone loss characteristic of advanced periodontitis. There are many contributing factors leading to the imbalance in bone remodeling, and it isn't all that clear as to which of them...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 1, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

What your skin should expect when you ’re expecting
Are you pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant? You’re probably prepared for morning sickness, weight gain, and an expanding belly. But did you know your skin can also undergo a variety of changes when you’re expecting? These changes are due to normal alterations in hormones that occur during pregnancy. Rest assured, most skin conditions that develop or worsen during pregnancy are benign, and tend to improve following delivery. Darkening of the skin A large majority of women experience darkening of their skin due to hormone shifts that occur during pregnancy. You may notice that the areas around your thighs, genital...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 27, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kristina Liu, MD, MHS Tags: Pregnancy Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs

Coronavirus, Chloroquine, and “Off‐​label” Use
Jeffrey A. SingerAt a Coronavirus Task Force briefing last week, President Trumpincorrectly told the press that the antimalarial drug chloroquine had already gone through the Food and Drug Administration ’s approval process for the treatment of COVID-19 infection:“They’ve gone through the approval process, it’s been approved and they did it, they took it down from many, many months to immediate.” He was later corrected by the FDA Commissioner, who said the approval process had not and will not be completed until controlled clinical trials have convin ced the agency.Many people might therefore conclude that d...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 23, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

Plain and Simple Ocular Punctal Plug Removal: Part II
​Ocular punctal plug removal is a straightforward procedure easily completed in the emergency department. Serious complications from punctal plug insertions are rare but sometimes seen.Left: A punctal plug in the upper lacrimal duct of the right eye, allowing for moisture balance from tear production. Right: The tiny punctal plug after it was removed. Photos by M. Roberts.Punctal plugs are placed in some or all of the lacrimal ducts by an ophthalmologist to treat chronic dry eye, and can be permanent or dissolvable. Plugs typically stay in place for three months or longer. (Am J Ophthalmol. 2007;144[3]:441.) ...
Source: The Procedural Pause - July 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs

A poor sense of smell might matter more than you thought
As one of the five major senses, you could argue that our sense of smell is the least important. Sight, hearing, touch, and taste may poll better than smell, but try telling that to someone who has lost their sense of smell entirely. The truth is that loss of the ability to smell comes with a significant cost, because olfaction serves several purposes that affect quality of life and even safety, including stimulation of appetite enhancement of the sense of taste alerting you to which foods should not be eaten (if they’re rotting, for example) warning you of danger (as with smoke warning of fire). Loss of smell can also...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 18, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Alzheimer's Disease Brain and cognitive health Ear, nose, and throat Source Type: blogs

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
​A 32-year-old man presented to the emergency department complaining of eye pain and decreased vision. He worked for the city and was removing rust and graffiti from a wall with a power washer when the spray ricocheted off the surface and into his eye. He presented with a bottle of the chemical he used, which contained hydrofluoric acid (HF) and other chemicals. He rinsed his eyes with tap water, but experienced persistent decreased vision and pain in both eyes. His exam was remarkable for bilateral injected conjunctiva and excessive tearing.More than 7,000 ocular exposures were reported to U.S. poison control centers pe...
Source: The Tox Cave - January 2, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs

Initial Evidence for the Antibiotics Azithromycin and Roxithromycin to be Senolytic
Researchers here report on two new senolytic compounds identified in the existing library of approved drugs, based on screening work in cell cultures. It is worth bearing in mind that drug candidates that demonstrate good results in cell culture quite often fail to show promise when tested in animals, so it is wise to be patient as new senolytics work their way through the research and development pipeline. There will be a lot more of this sort of thing in the years ahead, as ever greater amounts of funding pour into finding new ways to selectively destroy senescent cells. Any senolytic approach that removes a significant ...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 16, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

Tropical Travel Trouble 011 Tonsillitis and the Bull
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog aka Tropical Travel Trouble 011 Peer Reviewers: Dr Jennifer Ho, ID physician QLD, Australia and Dr Mark Little, ED physician QLD, Australia. You are working in far North Queensland and encounter a 20 year old Indigenous man with tonsillitis on your ED short stay ward round. He has been receiving IV penicillin and metronidazole overnight but is deteriorating and now cannot open his mouth beyond 1.5cm, and has a swollen neck (some might say ‘Bull neck’). In add...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 25, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Amanda McConnell Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine antitoxin bull neck c. diphtheriae c.ulcerans DAT pseudomembrane vaccine Source Type: blogs

Tropical Travel Trouble 011 Tonsillitis and the Bull
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog aka Tropical Travel Trouble 011 Peer Reviewers: Dr Jennifer Ho, ID physician QLD, Australia and Dr Mark Little, ED physician QLD, Australia. You are working in far North Queensland and encounter a 20 year old Indigenous man with tonsillitis on your ED short stay ward round. He has been receiving IV penicillin and metronidazole overnight but is deteriorating and now cannot open his mouth beyond 1.5cm, and has a swollen neck (some might say ‘Bull neck’). In add...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 25, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Amanda McConnell Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine antitoxin bull neck c. diphtheriae c.ulcerans DAT pseudomembrane vaccine Source Type: blogs

Tropical Travel Trouble 006 Watery Diarrhoea
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog aka Tropical Travel Trouble 006 Our medical student who caught shigella on a Nepalese elective has a thirst for adventure. They plan to help at a Bangladesh refugee camp but the latest CDC report states there have been some cases of cholera. They’ve done a little bit of reading and want your help to teach them all about cholera and how they may prepare and best serve their new community. Questions: Q1. What is cholera and how is it transmitted? Answer and interpreta...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 27, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine cholera diarrhoea john snow ORS rice water diarrhoea watery diarrhoea Source Type: blogs

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 231
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 231. Readers can subscribe to FFFF RSS or subscribe to the FFFF weekly EMAIL Question 1: You find yourself on holiday in Africa helping out with a dermatology clinic (yes, your forte as an emergency physician). In the queue is a young boy who describes a papular ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 22, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five anthrax cholera Dilip Mahalanabis Dr Bayford dysentery dysphagia lusoria ORS saber shins Thomas Hodgkin wool-sorters disease yaws Source Type: blogs

The flu is here — and so is a new advisory from the CDC
In conclusion… Maybe this year’s flu season will be milder than expected. But I wouldn’t count on it. I’ve had the flu and it’s not pleasant. Do what you can to lessen your risk. It’s worth the effort. The post The flu is here — and so is a new advisory from the CDC appeared first on Harvard Health Blog. (Source: Harvard Health Blog)
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Cold and Flu Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs

Glowing Molecular Sensor Helps Spot New Useful Antibiotics
Microorganisms are natural factories for all sorts of biomolecules, and some of them produce antibiotics that can be very useful in medical practice. This is not a newly discovered fact, but because each microorganism produces its own set of molecules and the rate of production is not very high, it’s been difficult to use this knowledge to manufacture large quantities of needed antibiotics. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a molecular-scale sensor that can detect the production of antibiotics, which would allow the identification of the microorganisms that make them. Once identified, ...
Source: Medgadget - October 5, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Genetics Medicine Nanomedicine Source Type: blogs

The Proof is the Bottle
​An 18-year-old woman presented for altered mental status. EMS reported that she was at a beach party when she became unresponsive. Friends said she may have been drinking alcohol, but denied other illicit drug use. Initial vital signs included a blood pressure of 117/69 mm Hg, heart rate of 110 bpm, respiratory rate of 11 bpm, SPO2 99% on room air, and a temperature of 98.9°F. ​The patient was somnolent and reacted intermittently to physical stimuli on exam. She intermittently moved all four extremities. Her gag reflex was intact. Pupils were 4 mm bilaterally reactive without nystagmus. She had tachycardia, her lungs...
Source: The Tox Cave - October 2, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs