Stem Cell Derived Nerve Cells Improve Breathing in Rats with Spinal Cord Injuries
Researchers at Drexel University College of Medicine and the University of Texas at Austin were able to treat rats that have spinal cord injury with neurons grown in a petri dish. The animals, whose breathing abilities were severely stifled by the injury, showed improvement in their breathing following the therapy. This is an impressive result and foreshadows repair of spinal nerve injuries in humans that leave so many people severely disabled.
The lab-grown cells, called V2a interneurons, can be grown from the patient’s own stem cells and injected into the site of injury. These types of cells seem to be responsible ...
Source: Medgadget - June 8, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs
The best time to practice compassionate, attentive care is today
The ICU nurse positioned the mirror in front of my face.
“You look more like yourself now, Dr. Berk,” she said.
She was right! The nurse, whose name was Meghan, had just shampooed, dried and brushed my hair. Clean and coiffed for the first time in over a week, I appeared normal — except, that is, for the tubes sticking out of my left nostril and my mouth.
It was 2009, and my eighth day in the intensive care unit. I’d had a serious bicycle accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury at C3-4, initially paralyzing me from the neck down. (Before I was transferred to a step-down unit, I would spend ten days in that I...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 16, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/bradford-c-berk" rel="tag" > Bradford C. Berk, MD, PhD < /a > Tags: Physician Critical Care Hospital-Based Medicine Neurology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 14th 2018
This study found that professional chess players had shorter lifespans than those players who had careers outside of chess and argued that this might be due to the mental strain of international chess competition.
In the present study, we focused on survival of International Chess Grandmasters (GMs) which represent players, of whom most are professional, at the highest level. In 2010, the overall life expectancy of GMs at the age of 30 years was 53.6 years, which is significantly greater than the overall weighted mean life expectancy of 45.9 years for the general population. In all three regions examined, mean life...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 13, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy Aids Spinal Cord Regeneration in Rats
Arguably the most reliable of first generation stem cell therapies is the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells. The cells don't last long in the recipient, which is a problem characteristic of all such cell therapies, but the signals they secrete while still alive act to change native cell behavior and suppress inflammation for an extended period of time. Since chronic inflammation degrades tissue maintenance and regeneration, this respite can allow some degree of healing that wouldn't have otherwise occurred - though that benefit is much less reliable than the initial suppression of inflammation.
In the study ...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 9, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Tiny Wireless Optical Implant for Neural Control
Researchers in Japan have developed a tiny optical implant, no bigger than the width of a coin, that could be used to change neural behavior. The researchers can implant the device several centimeters into the body, and then activate it externally using infrared light. The device could make it easier for researchers to identify the role of specific neuro circuits in neurological diseases, helping them to develop new treatments.
The field of optogenetics involves activating neurons using light, and this method has helped scientists to learn more about complicated neural circuitry, and its role in disease. Typically, this ap...
Source: Medgadget - April 26, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Neurology Neurosurgery Rehab Source Type: blogs
Glial Cell Behavior Critical to Proficient Central Nervous System Regeneration
Why can species such as salamanders regrow organs and limbs while mammals cannot? This proficiency even extends to portions of the central nervous system, such as the spinal cord. In recent years, researchers have made good progress in understanding exceptional regeneration, finding that, for example, differences in the behavior of immune cells called macrophages are essential to regrowth. In the central nervous system, glial cells are somewhat analogous to macrophages in other tissues, and in the research noted here, scientists report on evidence for an equivalent importance in mammalian versus salamander regenerative cap...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 24, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The fall of the digital rectal exam
For almost 20 years, the value of the digital rectal exam (DRE), a long time staple of the complete examination of the trauma patient, has been questioned. Performing a rectal examination on all trauma patients is no longer advocated except for a few specific indications.
As recently as two months ago, trauma surgeon Michael McGonigal blogging at the Trauma Pro reinforced the message. Because a rectal examination is so uncomfortable for patients already traumatized and its yield is so minimal, he advocates doing it in only patients with spinal cord injury, pelvic fracture, and penetrating abdominal trauma. For a more ext...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 16, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/skeptical-scalpel" rel="tag" > Skeptical Scalpel, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions Emergency Medicine Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
Occupational therapists ’ knowledge of pain
I am mightily bothered by health professionals’ lack of knowledge about pain. Perhaps it’s my “teacher” orientation, but it seems to me that if we work in an area, we should grab as much information about that area as possible – and pain and pain management is such an important part of practice for every health professional that I wonder why it’s so often neglected. So, to begin exploring this, I completed a search looking at occupational therapists’ knowledge of pain – and struck gold, kinda.
Angelica Reyes and Cary Brown conducted a survey of Canadian occupational therapi...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - April 15, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Education Education/CME Occupational therapy Pain conditions Professional topics Research biopsychosocial Chronic pain Health pain management Source Type: blogs
The Future of Sports Medicine
Not only the experience of sporting activities and events, but also rehabilitation after sports injuries are changing due to cutting-edge technologies. In sports medicine, the future holds a shift towards prevention through genomics, nutrigenomics, countless trackers, and wearables, while there are many great technologies which aim to alleviate the pain and shorten the time of recovery – if, against all odds, a sports injury still happens.
Technology will change the experience of sports injuries and rehabilitation
When was the last time you went out for a run without Endomondo or had a bike tour without Strava? Have you ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - April 12, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine AR exoskeleton genomics health sensors Healthcare nutrigenomics prevention rehabilitation sports sports medicine trackers virtual reality VR wearables Source Type: blogs
Tropical Travel Trouble 003 Stiff in the Mouth
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 003
A 65 yr old woman from Ethiopia is visiting her grandchild for the first time in Europe. She is normally fit and well, physically active with a small-holding in Ethiopia. She does not take any medication and cannot remember the last time she saw a doctor. She presents to you with difficulty chewing 3 days after arriving in the UK. She describes it as being “stiff in the mouth”
Questions:
Q1. What is the differential diagnosis an...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 5, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine tetanus Source Type: blogs
Four Genes, Combined, Can Unlock Replication in Heart Muscle Cells, Spurring Regeneration and Regrowth
The heart is not a very regenerative organ in mammals, its cells comparatively reluctant to multiply to make up losses or repair injuries - and mammals are a good deal less regenerative than many other species. Zebrafish can regenerate entire missing sections of the heart to completely restore normal function without scarring, for example. Is it possible for the biochemistry of mammals to be adjusted so as to approach this feat? If so, this could make a sizable difference to the trajectory of heart disease and heart failure in later life, even though it doesn't address the root causes of age-related cardiovascular disease....
Source: Fight Aging! - March 2, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Digital Health Best Practices For Policy Makers: A Free Report
Where should the line be drawn when deciding whether or not to adopt disruptive technologies? As digital health brings up plenty of ethical questions, legal issues, and safety concerns, The Medical Futurist Institute decided to collect the best examples of how governments worldwide tried to adopt digital health. We hope it inspires other policy-makers to take the first steps in shaping their healthcare regulations.
Our common goal is to arrive at a better future of healthcare
Disruptive technologies spread around like wildfire, but healthcare systems are crumbling under the pressure of problems and changes. So, The Medical...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 1, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Digital Health Research Healthcare Policy digital health strategy digital innovation future health policy Medicine technology Source Type: blogs
What Zombie Ants Are Teaching Us About Fungal Infections: Q & A with Entomologists David Hughes and Maridel Fredericksen
I can still remember that giddy feeling I had seven years ago, when I first read about the “zombie ant.” The story was gruesome and fascinating, and it was everywhere. Even friends and family who aren’t so interested in science knew the basics: in a tropical forest somewhere there’s a fungus that infects an ant and somehow takes control of the ant’s brain, forcing it to leave its colony, crawl up a big leaf, bite down and wait for the sweet relief of death. A grotesque stalk then sprouts from the poor creature’s head, from which fungal spores rain down to infect a new batch of ants.
A fungal fruiting b...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 21, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Chris Palmer Tags: Computers in Biology Cell Biology Cellular Processes Electron Microscopy Infection Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 19th 2018
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 18, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Development of Exosome Delivery as a Regenerative Therapy Continues Apace
If many stem cell therapies produce their benefits largely through the signaling generated by the transplanted cells, in a brief window of time before these cells die, unable to integrate into the local tissue, then why not skip the cells entirely and just deliver the signals? This is made an easier prospect by the fact that a great deal of cell to cell signaling takes the form of extracellular vesicles such as exosomes, tiny membrane-bound packages of various molecules. Thus researchers don't need to completely map and understand the entire set of signals used in order to recreate most of the signaling effects of stem cel...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 16, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
