Collagen, wrinkles, and ageing skin
Collagen is a protein that plays a crucial role in maintaining the structure, firmness, and elasticity of the skin. As we age, several changes occur in the collagen of our skin, contributing to the visible signs of ageing, such as the appearance of wrinkles.
Here are some key aspects of how collagen changes with age:
Decreased Production: The synthesis of collagen decreases with age, leading to a reduction in the overall amount of collagen in the skin. This reduced production is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, such as sun exposure and lifestyle choices, like smoking and alcohol consumption. a balanced...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 12, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Health and Medicine Source Type: blogs
The arrogance of expertise
Here is a thoughtful essay by NYT reporter Ed Yong. (Free Gift link! [as opposed to a not free gift]) It ' s long, but worth it. Yong was assigned the Long Covid beat and he found -- as I already knew -- that people who tell their doctors about long-term fatigue, pain, and cognitive difficulties, for which the physicians could find no specific biophysical explanation, commonly found their complaints dismissed or even ridiculed:Covering long Covid
solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force it
is often misconstrued as. It is instead a human endeavor, relentlessly
buffeted by our culture, values an...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 11, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
What are nitazenes? Benzimidazole opioids
Benzimidazole opioids, also commonly known as nitazenes, were first synthesised by CIBA Pharmaceuticals in the 1950s as putative alternatives to morphine and heroin for use as strong painkillers. They have never made it into use in clinical medicine because the risk of addiction, respiratory depression, and death in use is too high.
Etonitazene has hundreds of times the potency of morphine
The compounds are classified as opioid New Psychoactive Substances (opioid NPS). Their mode of action is to bind to the brain’s mu-opioid receptors, but their unique structure means that some examples are several hundred times more...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 11, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Chemistry Health and Medicine Pharma Source Type: blogs
Self-management skills that are not top of the pops
When I carried out my informal survey of the pain self-management skills people had used in the past week, there were no real surprises. Movement, activity management (pacing – and I will have more to say about this in a couple of weeks!), sleep, attention management and doing something fun were all at the top of the list. Others were lower down and while they don’t get to shine as much, I’m not so sure they are as seldom used as this wee survey suggests.
At the bottom of the list is having hands-on treatment for relaxation or to feel good. OK, perhaps understandable because the whole ongoing debat...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - December 10, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Coping strategies Occupational therapy Psychology Research Resilience/Health Science in practice assertiveness Clinical reasoning pain management Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 11th 2023
In this study, a single treatment at the peak of disease resulted in the ablation of senescent cells in the lung and attenuation of key fibrotic and inflammatory markers, which ultimately resolved fibrosis. Deciduous Therapeutics has used computational assisted design to synthesise a suite of proprietary therapies that could be used in the clinic to re-activate tissue-resident iNKT cells. To date, the company's lead program has shown single-dose efficacy in resolving both metabolic and fibrotic diseases along with a favorable safety profile at doses significantly higher than the efficacious dose.
« Back to ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 10, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Measles and immunity
The antivax brigade has a lot to answer for, not least the rise and rise of measles, which can be lethal, but is so easily staved off with vaccination. Even if it is not lethal for many, it can be a very problematic disease not least because in some ways it makes your immune system lose its memory of how to protect you from other diseases. While this effect may only be temporary in most cases, temporary can be long enough for another potentially lethal pathogen to take hold while you are vulnerable.
I’ve seen mention on social media of the notion that measles can delete your immune system’s memory of other dise...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 10, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Health and Medicine Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Tips for success as a plastic surgeon [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join Mossi Salibian, a plastic surgeon, as he shares his journey from a background in biochemistry to becoming a successful practitioner in the field. Mossi delves into the intersection of art and science in plastic surgery, the importance of patient empathy, creative approaches to
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Tips for success as a plastic surgeon [PODCAST] originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 10, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: The Podcast by KevinMD Tags: Podcast Surgery Source Type: blogs
Where is the best place to see Waxwings?
Where is the best place to catch sight of one of the most beautiful of winter visitors, when it comes to birds? The Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus.
Waxwing feeding on berries in a tree next to a bus stop near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
You might imagine it would be some delightful hill or vale, a nature reserve, or perhaps a remote woodland. Well, that’s not the case. This distinctive species heads south to the UK when it gets too cold for it in northern parts and when the supply of berries on which it feeds dries up. As of December 2023, it seems like we are in the middle of an irruption of these birds with relatively large ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 9, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs
5 Foods Science Says Will Help You Live Longer
The foods that help you live longer and protect you from cancer and heart disease. (Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog)
Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog - December 8, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Mina Dean Tags: Nutrition Source Type: blogs
Why Decorating Early for the Holidays is a Good Thing
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Adelphi University (@adelphiu)
Did you decorate early for the holidays? Deborah Serani, Psy. D, senior adjunct professor of psychology shares the science behind how decorating for the holidays can help our mood. #ExtraordinaryAdelphi #ExtraordinaryMinds (Source: Dr. Deborah Serani)
Source: Dr. Deborah Serani - December 7, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: brain fun mental health positive well-being. Source Type: blogs
The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers
The sciences and even medicine have long been used to justify atrocities. In the early 1800s, the United States of America was a slave nation. Citizens were allowed to purchase and imprison other races and hold them in bondage as property. This is different from indentured servitude, where someone is held in bondage until they
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The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 7, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: L. Joseph Parker, MD Tags: Physician Emergency Medicine Source Type: blogs
A bird ’ s eye view
Birds have incredible visual systems. This is especially true of the birds of prey, the raptors, which includes the hawks, falcons, eagles, buzzards, harriers, owls, and others.
Red Kite staring at me from its perch atop a conifer
Unlike many other types of birds, the raptors have binocular vision, their eyes face forward, like ours, which means they have a 3D view of the world ahead of them. This allows them to pinpoint prey incredibly well even from great distances as is the case with the Peregrine Falcon. That species, and others, also have two fovea, the most sensitive regions of the light-sensitive retinas at the back...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Biology Birds Source Type: blogs
Study doesn ’t find evidence to link internet access with poorer psychological well-being and mental health
Is the internet bad for mental health? What the latest study really means. (Mashable):
… Enter a study published Tuesday by researchers in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, which tried but did not succeed in finding a compelling link between internet access and poor mental health and well-being.
Business Insider, for example, declared that the study found no link between social media use and “mental health harm.” Except that’s not what the researchers evaluated.
Instead, they contrasted internet access in the form of yearly per capita internet and mobile-broadband subscriptions and various measures of wel...
Source: SharpBrains - December 7, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation Internet internet age Internet-technology neuroscience psychological psychological well-being Source Type: blogs
Lead Pipe Cinch
By KIM BELLARD
The term “lead pipe cinch” means something that is very easy or certain. Here’s two things that are lead pipe cinches: first, that ingesting lead, such as from the water or the air, is bad for us. It’s especially bad for children, whose cognitive abilities can be impaired. Second, that the Biden Administration’s latest proposal to reduce the lead in our drinking water is not going to accomplish that.
The new proposed rules would require that lead service lines be replaced within ten years; there are estimated to still be some 9.2 million such lines in the U.S. The trouble is, no one really kn...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 7, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Kim Bellard Lead public health Source Type: blogs
A manifesto for the next revolution in nocebo and placebo studies
An excerpt from The Power of Placebos: How the Science of Placebos and Nocebos Can Improve Health Care by Jeremy Howick. Copyright 2023. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press. “When he had asked me if I knew the cure for headache, I somehow contrived to answer that I knew. Then what is it? he asked.
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A manifesto for the next revolution in nocebo and placebo studies originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 6, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Jeremy Howick, PhD Tags: Meds Medications Source Type: blogs
