Scientists Make Organs Transparent
Whole organs are difficult to study in minute detail, as they have to be sliced into extremely thin sections to map out their interior. CT and magnetic resonance imaging help to an extent, but researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, and Technical University of Munich in Germany have managed to make entire organs, including a human kidney, eye, thyroid, and pig pancreas, transparent and easy to study using a special microscope optimized for the task.
Details of the vasculature and glomeruli in the human kidney. ©Helmholtz Zentrum München / Ertürk lab
Described in journal...
Source: Medgadget - February 18, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Materials News Radiology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Patch Automatically Delivers Insulin as Blood Glucose Rises
New technology has been making an impact on how diabetics control their blood sugar levels. A combination of a wearable glucometer and insulin pump, connected via a smart control mechanism, can function as an artificial pancreas, but researchers at University of California Los Angeles, University of North Carolina, and MIT have created and now tested an electronics-free wearable patch that automatically releases insulin based on rising glucose levels.
The stick-on device is about the size of a U.S. quarter coin and features dozens of tiny needles loaded with insulin. They’re less than a millimeter in length and ma...
Source: Medgadget - February 5, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs
Using Ultrasound for Paracentesis
Paracentesis can be a quick and simple procedure with the right equipment and a well-rehearsed approach. It's important to practice this skill in the procedure lab and to familiarize yourself with the kit in your department a few times a year. This month, we focus on paracentesis set-up and basics, and next month we will review the nuts and bolts of completing the procedure.Important equipment for paracentesis: Five or six collection bottles, antiseptic prep, and a paracentesis kit. Consider longer needles for abdominal walls thicker than 2.5 cm.Grab the ultrasound and a pen. Position your patient at a 45-degree ang...
Source: The Procedural Pause - February 3, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Sunday Funnies: Motivating Your Pancreas?
Our weekly diabetes comics pokes fun at New Year ' s resolutions. (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - February 1, 2020 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Amy Tenderich Source Type: blogs
The truth about fatty liver
The majority of doctors will tell you that there is nothing you can do to reverse fatty liver and that health problems such as cirrhosis and liver failure may be in your future that they will address with the awful “solution” of liver transplant.
The truth is the opposite: fatty liver is easily and readily reversible in virtually everybody, provided you take action before irreversible changes take place and are given the right information and tools. In this video, I discuss the three basic phenomena that drive fat deposition, liver damage, and inflammation that lead to this condition:
Carbohydrate consumption ...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - January 23, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open bowel flora carbohydrates carbs Inflammation NAFLD nash triglycerides undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Long-Term Effect of Binge Drinking on the Body
Most people know about the damaging effects that binge drinking can bring to someone’s life. Loss of enjoyment of life, losing family relationships, financial and career struggles, homelessness, and legal consequences are just the tip of the iceberg. However, it can be more difficult to realize the long-term effect of binge drinking on the body, because you cannot always see it. Frequent binge drinking poses many dangerous health risks, and many of them can lead to death.
Facts on Long-Term Effect of Binge Drinking on the Body
For men, binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks within about two hours, a...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - January 17, 2020 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Alcohol Alcohol Rehab Information Alcoholism alcohol abuse alcohol dependence alcohol treatment alcohol treatment center binge binge drinking Source Type: blogs
Diabetes as the Trojan Horse of Digital Health
Originally, a Trojan horse referred to the wooden horse used to cunningly penetrate and conquer the city of Troy by the Greeks. In our era, the term has been adapted to describe disguised malwares that attack unsuspecting users’ computers and wreak havoc once inside. Judging by the title of this article, how then can a condition as serious as diabetes help move the digital health agenda forward?
Computer generated 3D illustration with the Trojan Horse at Troy, source: http://codingtidbit.com/
Once upon a time, empowered patients started a revolution…
It all begins with a crippling speed of bureaucra...
Source: The Medical Futurist - January 7, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: E-Patients Future of Medicine Healthcare Design diabetes digital health diabetes management patient design Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 6th 2020
Conclusion
A great deal of progress is being made in the matter of treating aging: in advocacy, in funding, in the research and development. It can never be enough, and it can never be fast enough, given the enormous cost in suffering and lost lives. The longevity industry is really only just getting started in the grand scheme of things: it looks vast to those of us who followed the slow, halting progress in aging research that was the state of things a decade or two ago. But it is still tiny compared to the rest of the medical industry, and it remains the case that there is a great deal of work yet to be done at all...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 5, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Psychology Around the Net: January 4, 2020
This week’s Psychology Around the Net discusses post-holiday exhaustion (and why you should relax awhile!), 5 powerful behaviors to improve your mental health this year, that moment when regular anxiety turns into crippling anxiety, Alex Trebek’s battle with cancer and depression, the link between inflammation and bipolar medication, and more.
When You’re Exhausted in the New Year: The holiday season is…well… it’s exhausting to say the least. After all the shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning and partying, we just want to veg out for awhile. But instead of resting, we’re supposed to be ...
Source: World of Psychology - January 4, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Traci Pedersen Tags: Antidepressant Anxiety and Panic Celebrities Depression Disorders General LifeHelper Medications Psychiatry Psychology Psychology Around the Net Cancer Exhaustion Inflammation Mental Health New Year Source Type: blogs
Better Characterizing the Clonal Expansion of Somatic Mutations in Aging Tissues
Mutational damage to nuclear DNA occurs constantly in all cells, and not all of it is successfully repaired. Setting aside recent evidence for cycles of damage and repair to cause epigenetic changes characteristic of aging, most unrepaired mutational damage has no meaningful consequence. It occurs in somatic cells that have few cell divisions left, so will not spread, and these cells will die or become senescent and be destroyed once they reach the Hayflick limit. It occurs in genes that are not active in the tissue in question, so even in long-lived somatic cells that do not replicate, such as those of the central nervous...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 2, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 30th 2019
This study presents the effects of berberine (BBR) on the aging process resulting in a promising extension of lifespan in model organisms. BBR extended the replicative lifespan, improved the morphology, and boosted rejuvenation markers of replicative senescence in human fetal lung diploid fibroblasts. BBR also rescued senescent cells with late population doubling (PD). Furthermore, the senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal)-positive cell rates of late PD cells grown in the BBR-containing medium were ~72% lower than those of control cells, and its morphology resembled that of young cells. Mechanistically, BBR im...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Type 2 Diabetes as a Simple Condition of Excess Fat
Research of recent years has shown that the triggering mechanism for type 2 diabetes is specifically excess fat in the pancreas. The only way to place that fat into the pancreas, in the normal course of affairs, is to become very overweight - to overload the body with fat to the point that it cannot find places to safely store it. Losing this excess fat through a low calorie diet, and then maintaining a lower weight going forward, is a cure for type 2 diabetes, as demonstrated in clinical trials.
For the first time, scientists have been able to observe people developing type 2 diabetes - and confirmed that fat ove...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 27, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 16th 2019
This study shows that CA are released from periventricular and subpial regions to the cerebrospinal fluid and are present in the cervical lymph nodes, into which cerebrospinal fluid drains through the meningeal lymphatic system. We also show that CA can be phagocytosed by macrophages. We conclude that CA can act as containers that remove waste products from the brain and may be involved in a mechanism that cleans the brain. Moreover, we postulate that CA may contribute in some autoimmune brain diseases, exporting brain substances that interact with the immune system, and hypothesize that CA may contain brain markers that m...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 15, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Surviving the Holidays After Loss: Our Second Christmas Without You
On May 23, 2018, my big brother and hero, Mark David, passed away from pancreatic cancer. We had two full years following his diagnosis. Two full years during which we knew we would lose him. Two full years during which we faced the anticipation of the grief that was to come.
Unfortunately, in the world of pancreatic cancer diagnosis, two full years is considered lucky. We were lucky. And then, on May 23rd, we were no longer lucky. We were thrust into a most painful grief that even in our most imaginative anticipation we could not have fathomed.
If navigating a daily course is difficult following the storm of a tra...
Source: World of Psychology - December 13, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Sara Daugherty Tags: Family Grief and Loss Holiday Coping Bereavement pancreatic cancer Source Type: blogs
Monk fruit –More than a healthy sweetener?
Because I wanted a benign and healthy way for followers of the Wheat Belly lifestyle to recreate dishes such as chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, and pies with none of the health problems of grains or sugars, I helped Wheat-Free Market develop its Virtue Sweetener product.
Yes, you could do without such sweeteners. But I learned long ago when I introduced Wheat Belly concepts to patients in my cardiology practice that having options while entertaining friends, during holidays, and pleasing kids was important for staying on course on this lifestyle. Before I understood how to use such natural sweeteners, patients would ...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - December 12, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open blood sugar diabetes Dr. Davis Inflammation insulin low-carb monk fruit natural sweeteners undoctored virtue sweetener Weight Loss wheat Wheat Belly Total Health Source Type: blogs
