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Tag: medicine

  • Doctors Decide They Need to Be the Ones Editing Medical Wikipedia Articles

    Unless you’re some sort of know-it-all who thinks that you can scour the internet and self-diagnose any ailment that might befall you, I bet that you prefer to get your medical advice from people who spent years developing medical knowledge. You know, med students and doctors.

    But the reality is that no matter how much you’d prefer the knowledge of a doctor, there will be times that you’ll have to consult the internet when you find yourself in a medical quandary. And it’s likely that you’ll consult either WebMD or WIkipedia. The problem with the former is that all paths eventually lead to some sort of terminal cancer. We’ve all experienced the WebMD sweats – the general panic that comes from just knowing that you have a brain tumor. No, seriously, it’s a brain tumor. I have all the symptoms…

    Wikipedia is great, if not a bit flawed. You see, it’s carefully edited and revisions are listed and up for scrutiny, but it’s not a perfect process. In the end you’re left with medical articles mostly written by average joes, not medical professionals. Now, one of the nations’s top medical school is looking to change that.

    The University of California, San Francisco is about the be the first medical school in the U.S. to give medical students credit for taking classes on how to edit Wikipedia.

    “Wikipedia generates more than 53 million page views just for articles about medications each month, and is second to Google as the most frequently used source by junior physicians,” said Amin Azzam, MD, MA, an instructor for the new course. “We’re recognizing the impact Wikipedia can have to educate patients and health care providers across the globe, and want users to receive the most accurate publicly available, sound medical information possible.”

    Basically, everyone uses Wikipedia for medical information (even doctors) – and it would probably be better for everyone if the articles were more accurate.

    The Wiki-editing classes will be available to fourth-year med students. The class will focus on the 80 medicine-related articles that are most accessed on the internet’s encyclopedia, but more some reason have been cited as having a low quality rating – i.e. not giving you correct or the most complete information.

    The project was spurred on by the Wiki Project Med Foundation, a nonprofit whose stated mission is to “make clear, reliable, comprehensive, up-to-date educational resources and information in the biomedical and related social sciences freely available to all people in the language of their choice.” One of, if not their main, focus is on Wikipedia entries.

    A knowledge database is only as strong as the knowledge of those who contribute. And when it comes to your health and well-being, the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher.

  • Flu Vaccinations Are Up, But Not Enough

    Flu Vaccinations Are Up, But Not Enough

    While the days are getting a little shorter and cooler, there’s something lurking around the corner that takes away from the fall bliss–flu season. Flu shots are now available at many medical offices and pharmacies, and during a news conference today, an official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that while flu vaccinations are up, it’s not enough.

    “Our message today is simple. Everyone 6 months of age and older should receive a flu vaccination,” said Dr. Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Koh said that the past flu season was one of the worst ever, with 164 pediatric deaths recorded.

    Every year an estimated 5 to 20 percent of Americans come down with the flu, which leads to 200,000 hospitalizations, including 20,000 hospitalizations in children under 5 years of age. Getting the flu vaccine doesn’t guarantee absolute protection from getting the virus, as it is only around 56 percent effective overall, but it is said that the vaccine can decrease the severity and duration of the flu if you do get it. For example, a study from the 2010-2011 flu season showed that getting the flu vaccine decreased the chances of being hospitalized for older adults.

    If you’re planning to hold off on getting your flu shot until the lines die down a little, the doctors at the news conference this morning strongly advise against doing so. “Last year it came early and it came hard and we’d like to get as many people vaccinated as possible before that,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general for the CDC. “You don’t want to have to have a member of your family die or lose a patient from this disease to get the message that it can be serious.”

    Some people are against getting flu shots because of the ingredients that are in the vaccine and the possible side effects. Mercury and formaldehyde are among the ingredients listed in the 2013-2014 flu vaccine, according to the FDA. Are you getting a flu shot? Respond below.

    Image via YouTube

  • Whooping Cough Cases on the Rise

    Whooping Cough Cases on the Rise

    Cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, are rising in some areas of the United States. Nevada is one area that has seen a rise in whooping cough cases in 2013, with Clark County having 103 reported cases of the illness so far this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the best way to avoid whooping cough is by getting a vaccine.

    For those who aren’t too familiar with whooping cough, the CDC describes it as “a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. Although it initially resembles an ordinary cold, whooping cough may eventually turn more serious, particularly in infants.” While many people receive a whooping cough vaccine as a child (doses of the DTaP vaccine start at 2 months), the CDC also recommends that all adults have their vaccine updated, since it can wear off over time.

    While cases of pertussis in the U.S. have generally declined over the years, some parts of the country are seeing higher rates of whooping cough over previous years. According to Las Vegas Review Journal, around 16,000 whooping cough cases have been reported to the CDC as of September 15, with 13 states, including Nevada, reporting an increase compared to 2012. No deaths resulting from whooping cough have been reported in Nevada.

    Nancy A. Wood, an infection-prevention specialist at Canton-Potsdam Hospital in New York, says that the reason whooping cough cases are rising is because some people aren’t getting vaccinated. “Older people who haven’t gotten whooping cough vaccination are getting whooping cough and then giving it to the children,” Wood said. Wood also says that some people choose not to vaccinate their kids, which leaves them “vulnerable.” Wood didn’t specifically mention if the areas in Nevada with higher whooping cough cases have a lower rate of people with the vaccination.

    Most new parents do get their children vaccinated for whooping cough, but the numbers of parents who hare having their children opt out of the vaccination are increasing. One reason listed for opting out is the potential side effects. According to the CDC, while rare, possible side effects include “seizure, high fever, serious allergic reaction, long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness and permanent brain damage.” Choosing not to vaccinate is fairly controversial, as seen below. Do you think everyone should be vaccinated? Respond below.

    Symptoms of Whooping Cough

    While whooping cough is relatively rare, it’s helpful to know the signs of symptoms of the illness, which the Mayo Clinic provides.

    Once you become infected with whooping cough, it can take one to three weeks for signs and symptoms to appear. They’re usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold:

    Runny nose
    Nasal congestion
    Sneezing
    Red, watery eyes
    A mild fever
    Dry cough

    After a week or two, signs and symptoms worsen. Thick mucus accumulates inside your airways, causing uncontrollable coughing. Severe and prolonged coughing attacks may:

    Provoke vomiting
    Result in a red or blue face
    Cause extreme fatigue
    End with a high-pitched “whoop” sound during the next breath of air

    Image via YouTube

  • FDA Sounds-Off On Mobile Medical Apps

    FDA Sounds-Off On Mobile Medical Apps

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week issued guidance on mobile medical apps, a group of increasingly popular mobile applications that take the place of more traditional medical devices. The agency will “exercise enforcement discretion” in its regulation, ignoring the vast majority of medical apps that pose little risk.

    The FDA will, however, heavily regulate a small number of medical apps that it sees as being high-risk for patients. These apps, if they fail to work, could pose health risks to consumers. In particular, the FDA will provide oversight of apps that function as “an accessory to a regulated medical device” or apps that perform the functions of regulated medical devices.

    “Some mobile apps carry minimal risks to consumer or patients, but others can carry significant risks if they do not operate correctly,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the FDA. “The FDA’s tailored policy protects patients while encouraging innovation.”

    As smartphone technology progresses, the capabilities of the devices have enabled hundreds of uses for medical practice. For example, the FDA states that apps now exist to detect abnormal heartbeats, use mobile devices as ultrasound machines, track glucose levels for diabetics, and operate mobile devices as electrocardiography (ECG) machines. The FDA will regulate such apps using the same standards it applies to stand-alone medical devices. The agency stated it has already approved around 100 mobile medical apps for use in the U.S.

    “We have worked hard to strike the right balance, reviewing only the mobile apps that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly,” said Shuren. “Our mobile medical app policy provides app developers with the clarity needed to support the continued development of these important products.”

  • Researchers Use 3D Printers To Make Cartilage

    Cartilage is an incredibly vital component of our bodies. Unfortunately, it can be easily damaged by a variety of diseases and injuries. To replace it, researchers have turned to 3D printers.

    The Herald Sun reports that researchers at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne have created cartilage with the use of 3D printers. Like other 3D printed body components, the 3D printer is used to create a scaffold on which stem cells are placed. Those cells are then grown into cartilage cells which can then hopefully be used to replace cartilage in patients.

    For now, we’re not quite at the point where we can replace cartilage with its lab grown equivalent just yet. The researchers were only able to grow pea-sized spheres of cartilage after 28 days. With further research, however, they should be able to create full replacements.

    Current technology allows doctors to replace lost cartilage, but the replacements only last a few years. With this technology, doctors should be able to create cartilage that will last just as long as the stuff you’re born with.

    What’s more exciting about this breakthrough is that it’s just the beginning. The researchers’ ultimate aim is to facilitate the recreation of limbs. With stem cells and 3D printed scaffolds, the goal is to recreate muscles, bones, fat and other components needed to repair or recreate a patient’s limbs. Some of the researchers even think that we’re only a decade away from the kinds of treatment that we’ve only seen in science fiction up until now.

    Like all good things, this kind of research requires money to move forward. The researchers are hoping to receive $180 million in government funding so they can continue to use 3D printers to create the limbs of the future. It’s a worthy goal and one that Australia should be proud to support.

    [Image: Emmanuelm/Wikimedia Commons]

  • Interspecies Transplants Could Help Diabetes Patients, Shows Study

    Researchers at Northwestern University this week revealed that they have successfully transplanted insulin-producing cells called islets from one species to another. They believe that this successful interspecies transplant could be the first step toward animal-to-human transplants as a treatment for diabetes. The research was published today in the journal Diabetes.

    “This is the first time that an interspecies transplant of islet cells has been achieved for an indefinite period of time without the use of immunosuppressive drugs,” said Stephen Miller, study co-author and a professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern. “It’s a big step forward.”

    Miller and his colleagues successfully transplanted rat islets into mice. The transplant was performed using no long-term drugs to suppress the mice immune system. The islets were not rejected by the mice, and produced insulin for the duration of the study. To accomplish this, researchers took rat white blood cells, called splenocytes, and killed the cells, which were then injected into mice. The immune systems of the mice then learned to accept the cells ahead of the islet transplants. The mice were also given B-cell depleting antibodies at the time of the transplant, allowing the B-cells that returned later to accept the rat islets.

    “Our ultimate goal is to be able to transplant pig islets into humans, but we have to take baby steps,” said Dr. Xunrong Luo, co-author of the study and an associate professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Pig islets produce insulin that controls blood sugar in humans.”

  • Mom Checks WebMD to Treat Son’s Gunshot Wound

    A Houston woman has been charged with one count of injury to a child with intent to commit bodily injury, a felony, after waiting seven hours to take her son (aged 14) to the hospital after he suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

    What was Deborah Tagle, aged 55, doing during that time? Apparently she was attempting to find treatment options using WebMD. And the whole thing was caught on in-house surveillance video. From KHOU in Houston:

    The video shows Pete Jesse Rodriguez, 24, who is also a resident of the home, pointed a pistol directly at the teen, police said. Rodriguez is accused of tracking the teen’s movement with the pistol and eventually pulling the trigger. The victim was shot once in the upper left thigh with a high-caliber bullet, police said. The teen lay on the floor for several minutes before getting up. Police said the teen and his mother initially looked up gunshots on WebMD.com. Then, seven hours later, the teen’s mother drove him to Mainland Center hospital, police said.

    The shooter is charged with injury to a child with intent to commit serious bodily harm and is being held on bond.

    The kid is reportedly recovering and in stable condition.

    Police did not say whether or not the mom’s WebMD searching produced any viable treatment options. A quick search of WebMD leaves much to be desired in terms of gunshot treatment advice – although after spending a few minutes on the site I’m 100% convinced I have a brain tumor.

    [KHOU via UPROXX]

  • Nose Leaking Brain Fluid, Not Snot, Finds Arizona Man

    Allergies can be crippling, but usually some choice drugs and patience can get even the worst allergy sufferers through allergy season. Suffering a runny nose for over a year and a half, however, is another matter entirely. An Arizona man recently found that what he thought was allergies was actually brain fluid leaking from his nose.

    According to a Fox 10 report, after suffering a leaking nose for 18 months, Joe Nagy was told by a doctor that the fluid coming from his nose was actually brain fluid. It turned out that Nagy had a hole in the membrane protecting his brain.

    Doctors told Fox 10 that such a condition can be easy to miss, since many people simply assume they have a constantly running nose. Many patients find out about the problem when the fluid becomes infected. Nagy himself developed a serious case of meningitis just before undergoing brain surgery to repair his leaking membrane.

    The surgery used cartilage from Nagy’s nose to repair the membrane. It was successful and Nagy stated he was surprised by how quickly the issue was repaired.

    “I was waiting for the dribble, you know?” said Nagy. “I was so used to it every day, I got a hanky, a cloth ready, a tissue. Nothing. And all of a sudden, it’s never come back.”

  • 3D Printers One Step Closer To Creating Human Tissue

    3D printing has performed some miraculous feats in the field of medicine. Researchers are already playing around with the idea of growing organs with 3D printers, and now one university has proven that you can make human-like tissue with the technology.

    Oxford University revealed this week that its researchers have built a custom 3D printer that prints out a new material that’s composed of thousands of connected water droplets inside lipid films. This new material can perform some of the functions of the cells within our bodies, and may one day be used to either deliver medicine to targeted areas, or repair damaged tissue.

    “We aren’t trying to make materials that faithfully resemble tissues but rather structures that can carry out the functions of tissues,” said Professor Hagan Bayley of Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry, who led the research. “We’ve shown that it is possible to create networks of tens of thousands connected droplets. The droplets can be printed with protein pores to form pathways through the network that mimic nerves and are able to transmit electrical signals from one side of a network to the other.”

    The custom 3D printer, built by Gabriel Villar, is unlike anything we’ve ever see in the field. The printer is able to create networks of up to 35,000 droplets with each droplet only being 50 microns in diameter. These droplets, when combined into networks, can fold into unique shapes after being printed.

    The folding of these droplets is similar to another form of 3D printing called 4D printing. The highly experimental technology allows objects, after being printed on a 3D printer, to self assemble into new shapes.

    [h/t: 3ders]

  • Swiss Nurse Posts Corpse Photos on Facebook

    Every week, it seems like somebody is making the news for forgetting that Facebook is a public forum and that people can actually see the things they post. A lot of the time, this lesson is learned in the form of a questionable photo that either gets the poster fired, arrested, or otherwise seriously embarrassed.

    This story takes that formula and adds “totally unnerving” to the mix.

    A Swiss nurse has run afoul of investigators after posting photos on Facebook showing her posing next to dead people – presumably people formerly under her care.

    In captions posted alongside the photos, the nurse refers to herself as the “soul thief”:

    “Guess she is asleep or is she dead? Hint: I’m the soul thief,” read one caption.

    “Yeah, your time is over. Send them to hell, where some of them belong. The rest goes into the hole for compost fertilizer, hehehe,” read another. Both are Google Translated from German, but you get the picture.

    According to reports, the nurse’s Facebook page was also full of “Satanic” imagery – “devilish images” and such.

    Officials in the town of St. Gallen, Switzerland said that they are looking into possible criminal charges. The Swiss nurses federation said that they were “shocked and saddened” by the nurse’s actions.

    Facebookers have been known to post photos of their deceased relatives at funerals and such (RIP GRANNY LOVE YOU #YOLO). But posting photos of dead people in your nursing care, well, that’s a whole other animal. Yikes.

    [20min via France 24 via Jezebel]

  • Zuckerberg, Brin Announce Annual $3 Million Prize for Medical Research

    Zuckerberg, Brin Announce Annual $3 Million Prize for Medical Research

    Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Biologist and businesswoman Anne Wojcicki (Brin’s wife), and investor Yuri Milner have announced a brand new yearly prize that rewards “excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life.”

    It’s called the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Apple Chairman Art Levinson with chair the new foundation.

    “Our society needs more heroes who are scientists, researchers and engineers. We need to celebrate and reward the people who cure diseases, expand our understanding of humanity and work to improve people’s lives. That’s why Priscilla and I are honored to partner with Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Art Levinson and Yuri Milner to create the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. At $3 million per prize, it’s the largest prize for this work in the world. I’m hopeful this serves as a blueprint for prizes and philanthropy in other fields as well,” said Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.

    “Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown,” added Sergey Brin.

    The inaugural winners have been announced as well, and here’s the full list:

    Cornelia I. Bargmann

    Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior at the Rockefeller University. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
    For the genetics of neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic guidepost molecules

    David Botstein

    Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and the Anthony B. Evnin Professor of Genomics at Princeton University.
    For linkage mapping of Mendelian disease in humans using DNA polymorphisms.

    Lewis C. Cantley

    Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor and Director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
    For the discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism.

    Hans Clevers

    Professor of Molecular Genetics at Hubrecht Institute.
    For describing the role of Wnt signaling in tissue stem cells and cancer.

    Titia de Lange

    Leon Hess Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics, and Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research at the Rockefeller University.
    For research on telomeres, illuminating how they protect chromosome ends and their role in genome instability in cancer.

    Napoleone Ferrara

    Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Senior Deputy Director for Basic Sciences at Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego.
    For discoveries in the mechanisms of angiogenesis that led to therapies for cancer and eye diseases.

    Eric S. Lander

    President and Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Professor of Biology at MIT. Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.
    For the discovery of general principles for identifying human disease genes, and enabling their application to medicine through the creation and analysis of genetic, physical and sequence maps of the human genome.

    Charles L. Sawyers

    Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
    For cancer genes and targeted therapy.

    Bert Vogelstein

    Director of the Ludwig Center and Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
    For cancer genomics and tumor suppressor genes.

    Robert A. Weinberg

    Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT and Director of the MIT/Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology. Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
    For characterization of human cancer genes.

    Shinya Yamanaka

    Director of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University. Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco.
    For induced pluripotent stem cells.

    Although the inaugural winners total 11, there will only be 5 winners per year moving forward. Each winner receives a $3 million (U.S.) prize. Winners will be selected with the help of previous year’s winners. It will also be a transparent process, allowing for online nominations. There are no age restrictions when it comes to who can be nominated and ultimately win the prize.

  • You Can Watch a Live-Tweeted C-Section on Wednesday

    Tomorrow, you can watch the miracle of life unfold on Twitter.

    Women’s Memorial Hermann Hospital at Memorial City Medical Center in Houston Texas will be the first hospital to live-tweet a surgical birth.

    “This is a medically indicated c-section. 39-year-old mom had an urgent c-section before & chose not to VBAC. Our goal is to educate,” says Memorial Hermann. “Patient privacy is of utmost importance. Patient & family have consented & we’ll only disclose age & condition.”

    You’ll be able to follow multiple stages of the process: admission testing, anesthesia and delivery of the baby. It won’t be for the faint of heart, as Memorial Hermann promises live, close-up photography and video alongside the play-by-play-tweets.

    This is the same hospital that live-tweeted a brain surgery last May.

    You can follow all of the action on the @houstonhospital account and the special #MHbaby as well. Everything kicks off Wednesday morning at 7am CST.

  • Guys, Your Sedentary Lifestyle Is Killing Your Swimmers

    Guys: get off reddit. Seriously. And stop watching House of Cards. I know it’s all there at once – all 13 episodes! But go take the dog for a walk. For the love of your sperm.

    We all know by now that research has linked sedentary lifestyles to not living very long. Seriously, the more you sit on your ass, the likelier you are to develop a host of illnesses and eventually die. Naturally, that’s bad news for millions of people whose jobs involve sitting in front of a computer all day.

    Now, according to new research, it looks like your internet-browsing, tv-watching overindulgence may also be hurting your chances of reproducing.

    The study, recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, involved 189 men, various level of inactivity, and sperm samples. What the researchers found was that sedentary lifestyles were associated with lower sperm counts.

    “The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships between semen quality and both physical activity and TV watching among young, healthy men. We hypothesised that increased physical activity was associated with higher sperm count, concentration and motility, and a lower proportion of morphologically abnormal sperm. Furthermore, we hypothesised that increased TV watching time was associated with decreased semen quality parameters,” said the study’s authors.

    And they were right. Young me who spent over 20 hours a week watching television had a 44% lower sperm count that those men who watched the least amount of TV (4 hours). Although the researchers say that lower sperm count doesn’t necessarily affect reproductive chances – the fact is that sitting on the couch is reducing your swimmers.

    There is some hope, if you’re willing to turn off Netflix and stay off reddit for a little bit. The study also concluded that exercise helped overall sperm count. In fact, men who logged at least 15 hours of moderate exercise a week had 73% higher sperm counts as compared to men who didn’t log any physical activity.

    Light physical activity, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have an impact on sperm count.

    [Medical News Today via Geekosystem]

  • New Research Aims To Make Cancer Drugs With 3D Printers

    Over the last year, 3D printers have inspired a lot of futuristic ideas. One of the more lofty ideas was the creation of medicine via 3D printing. At the time, it was only a theory, but a group of researchers think they have exactly what it takes to begin crafting drugs with a 3D printer.

    Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at Parabon NanoLabs and Janssen Research & Development are now creating and testing cancer drugs made with a 3D printer. The technology is called the Parabon Essemblix Drug Development Platform, and it can potentially bring rapid prototyping to drug creation. If successful, it could drastically reduce the time it takes to bring new drugs to market.

    Steven Armentrout, co-developer of the technology, explains the new method of drug creation:

    “We can now ‘print,’ molecule by molecule, exactly the compound that we want. What differentiates our nanotechnology from others is our ability to rapidly, and precisely, specify the placement of every atom in a compound that we design.”

    Senior research scientist, Hong Zhong, describes the new technology as “a deliberate and methodical engineering process.” He also says that “it’s quite different from most other drug development approaches in use today.”

    cancer drugs 3D printers

    So what makes the 3D printing of drugs so advantageous? Much like regular 3D printing, the researchers can rapid prototype new drugs in a matter of weeks. The current process of bringing a new drug to market can take years. The new process won’t cut down on the time it takes to test these new drugs, which could still take years, but it makes the actual process of creating drugs much faster than before.

    For now, the team at Parabon is creating a new prostate cancer drug with their technology. In its current form, the new drug “combines a toxin with a chemical that makes cancer cells susceptible to that toxin.” It also contains components that prevent the drug from targeting healthy tissue, and markers that allow the researchers to track the drug as it moves to tumors. The design work and synthesis of the drug will amazingly only take a few weeks.

    [h/t: ExtremeTech]

  • Beer (Lots of It) May Help You Stave Off Colds

    Good news, everyone: next time you drink a case of beer and awaken in your front yard, smelling of strip clubs and Taco Bell, you can just tell everyone that you did it for your health.

    Researchers at Sapporo Medical University in Japan (yes, that Sapporo) have determined that a chemical found in beer may help protect against a common virus that could give you one of those crappy winter colds.

    It’s called human respiratory syncytial virus and is one of the major causes of lower respiratory infection in babies and younger kids. Most kids will have been infected at some point before they turn four years old. But it’s not only small children that are affected by RSV, as adults can develop cold-like symptoms from the virus. If you live in a temperate (non-tropical climate), you’re most likely to contract the virus during the winter.

    The scientists says that humulone, aka the thing in hops that makes your beer deliciously bitter, can help stave off RSV.

    In summarion, your babies need to get blitzed.

    Ok, not really. But who am I to tell you have to raise your kid? The researchers know most parents don’t want to start their babies on the sauce that early, and they tell the AFP:

    “We are now studying the feasibility of applying humulone to food or non-alcoholic products. The challenge really is that the bitter taste is going to be difficult for children.

    In reality, it’s you that could benefit from drinking more beer. The only problem is that they say you’ll need to drink about 30 beers in order to benefit from the humulone (no word on whether or not hoppier beers would cut that number).

    Wait, did I say “problem?” I meant challenge accepted. No more colds for this guy.

  • Google Is Now Giving You Medical Info In The Knowledge Graph

    Google announced today that it will start showing information for medications with the Knowledge Graph. Specifically, results may include “key facts — side effects, related medications, links to in-depth resources, and more”. Obviously, this will be info presented right on the search results page.

    It would be interesting to see what kind of effect this has on users clicking through to other sites like WebMD.

    Knowledge Graph For Medications

    “This data comes from the U.S. FDA, the National Library of Medicine, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, among others,” says Google Search Senior Product Manager Aaron Brown. “It’s part of the Knowledge Graph — our project to map out billions of real-world things, from famous artists to roller coasters to planets (and now medications). We hope you find this useful, but remember that these results do not act as medical advice.”

    When you’re talking about something like medicine, the nature of the info users are pointed to is of higher importance than something like that of celebrities. Now, you’re talking about information that can directly influence decisions related to people’s heath and well-being.

    Google did not specify the roll-out timeframe. We’re not seeing the results yet, but presumably, users in the U.S. will start seeing them soon.

    Do you think Google’s Knowledge Graph and these particular sources have what it takes to provide the best results for queries about medications?

  • There May Finally Be A Cure For The Flu In Sight

    I think we can all agree that getting the flu is about the worst possible thing that can happen during winter. That’s why we take vaccines, but it only lasts for a season. Even then, the vaccine may not work and we end up getting the flu anyway. That’s a problem, and one that scientists may have finally solved.

    New Scientist reports that researchers have possibly created a vaccine that targets the very building blocks of flu viruses. If effective, it could mean an end to influenza as we know it, and prevent any future outbreaks of the virus. The best part is that the new vaccine can be quickly made and distributed among those that need it most before an epidemic can break out.

    To understand how this new vaccine works, you have to understand how a traditional flu vaccine works. The traditional flu vaccine introduces our body’s immune system to a dead flu virus, and the immune system builds up protection against key proteins found on the surface of the virus. Those key proteins are constantly shifting, however, as flu viruses evolve every year. That’s why you have to get a new vaccine every year.

    Now, the new vaccine being tested at the moment is very different. It’s made up of messenger RNA, or mRNA, that controls the production of proteins in influenza. The vaccine would be comprised of this mRNA, and your body would view it as outside proteins that must be destroyed. Any future intruders containing these proteins, which pretty much means all flu viruses, would be targeted by your immune system and subsequently destroyed.

    Life long vaccines against influenza have been developed for a while now, but all have been caught up in clinical trials or questions of safety. One such vaccine is the DNA vaccine, but some fear that a DNA vaccine could cause irreparable harm to the human genome. An RNA vaccine carries no such risk, but past trials have ended up in failure as the body’s immune system destroys the vaccine before it has a chance to work.

    The current mRNA vaccine being tested in animals has proven far more effective as it uses a protein called protamine that binds to mRNA and protects it from the immune system. This allows the vaccine to move through the body, and curate the creation of antibodies.

    Amazingly enough, early tests of this new vaccine on mice and pigs have proven very effective. Not only does the vaccine prevent the seasonal flu, but it also protects against the far more deadly bird flu. There’s no word yet on if it protects against swine flu, but it definitely seems possible.

    The vaccine is still being tested on animals, but it could move to human clinical trials soon. After that, we may soon enter an era where children are given a flu vaccine at a young age to protect them from the virus throughout their entire lives. The mRNA vaccine method could also be used to build up immunities to certain types of cancer and other diseases like meningitis and E. Coli.

  • SSRIs Linked to Slightly Higher Risk of Stroke

    New research shows that popular antidepressants are linked to an increased risk of some rare types of stroke that are caused by bleeding in the brain.

    The study, published this week in the journal Neurology, looked at 16 studies with more than 500,000 patients and found that people taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were 50%more likely to have an intracranial hemorrhage and 40% more likely to have an intracerebral hemorrhage than those not taking antidepressants. SSRIs are the most commonly used type of antidepressants.

    However, the study’s author stated that the rarity of these types of stroke mean the findings are not cause for alarm or a change in medication. These types of stroke are only estimated to occur in 24.6 per 100,000 people per year, meaning SSRIs would increase the risk by one stroke per 10,000 people per year.

    “Because these types of strokes are very rare, the actual increased risk for the average person is very low,” said Dr. Daniel Hackam, author of the study and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada at Western University. “Overall, these results should not deter anyone from taking an SSRI when it is needed.

    “In general these drugs are safe, and obviously there are risks to having depression go untreated. But doctors might consider other types of antidepressants for people who already have risk factors for these types of strokes, such as those taking blood thinners, people who have had similar strokes already, or those with severe alcohol abuse.”

  • Hospital Set to Live-Tweet a Cochlear Implant

    In an effort to raise awareness and to provide the public more information on cochlear implant surgery as a viable treatment for hearing loss, the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is set to combine surgery with social media.

    On Tuesday, October 2nd, the hospital will become the first in history to live-tweet a cochlear implant surgery. Not only that, but the live-tweeting will also include live-instagramming of photos from inside the operating room. If you ever wanted to get behind the scenes on one of these groundbreaking surgeries, this is going to be your only chance (short of getting your medical license, of course).

    The doctor behind this medical first is Douglas D. Backous, director of the Center for Hearing and Skull Base Surgery at the hospital. This live-tweeted surgery is actually the culmination of a broader campaign to raise awareness of the procedure. Since early September, Backous has been posting episodes of a video series on YouTube and the Center’s website.

    “This series was developed to increase awareness of cochlear implant surgery as a treatment option for hearing loss, to raise awareness of this life-changing surgery and to demonstrate that people who are deaf can have the ability to hear,” says the Swedish Medical Center.

    If you want to follow along, updates will be streaming via the @Swedish Twitter account, and also collected with the #SwedishHear hashtag. Instagram account instadroo will be the one manning the photo stream.

    You can catch the action at 7:30 am PT.

    After the live-tweeted surgery, Swedish will hold a live chat about the procedure on October 10th. According to Forbes, Dr. Backous has performed about 700 cochlear implants since 1993, so he’s definitely not new at this. Broadcasting it via social media – that is most definitely a first.

  • These Mice May Lead To Humans Unlocking Regenerative Powers

    Humans can’t regenerate wounded areas of the body. Sure, we can grow scar tissue to cover up broken skin, but there’s no real tissue regeneration present. What if humans were able to become like Wolverine from the X-Men and regenerate skin without any sign of trauma?

    Researchers may have found the answer in two species of African spiny mice. These particular mice have been found to grow back lost skin and flesh. It isn’t a case of wounds healing with scar tissue either. The mice literally grow back everything that was lost including hair follicles, skin, sweat glands, fur and cartilage.

    The mice evolved their regenerative powers because they were already weak. Nature describes the species’ skin as being “brittle and easily torn.” It turns out the weakness works in their favor as they’re able to easily escape predators. Any skin that is torn off is grown back with everything in tact.

    It’s already impressive that these little guys can regrow skin, but what does it mean for humans? The head researcher, Ashley Seifert, believes that the African spiny mouse has been able to tap into a regeneration switch. What if humans could tap into the same genes that allow these mice to grow back skin? Could humans become far more resistant to damage?

    According to the researchers, it’s entirely possible. They point to work that’s already being done in regenerative medicine. One process even involves the growth of organs through 3D printers. It’s all really impressive stuff, but it hasn’t come close to what these mice can do. Here’s hoping for a future where humans can start growing back lost limbs and skin without having to deal with rehab or invasive surgical procedures.

    You can read a preview of the research right here.

  • SpiroSmart App Turns Your iPhone into an Accurate Spirometer

    Want to see another example of how mobile technology could make bigger, more expensive devices obsolete? Look no further than SpiroSmart, the app the turns your iPhone into a personal spirometer.

    Anyone familiar with chromic lung ailments like asthma or cystic fibrosis are surely aware of what a spirometer does. For everyone else, a spirometer is a device that measures the volume of air inspired and expired by your lungs. Basically, it tells you how much and how fast you’re breathing out over the course of a few seconds. Traditional spirometers have users blow into a tube with a turbine, which helps to measure the flow speed.

    Of course, the trick in turning a person’s smartphone into a spirometer is utilizing just the built-in microphone. Researchers at the University of Washington, UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s hospital say they’ve found a solution, and it’s quite impressive.

    “The UW researchers found they could model a person’s trachea and vocal tract as a system of tubes to replace the spirometer, and use a phone to analyze the sound wave frequencies to detect when the breath is resonating in those natural pipes,” writes Hannah Hickey at the University of Washington.

    “There are resonances that occur in the signal that tells you about how much flow is going through the trachea and the vocal tract, and that’s precisely the quantity that a clinician needs to know,” says lead researcher Shwetak Patel.

    This is the first and only app of its kind, say the researchers. Other spirometer apps on the market aren’t accurate, as they rely on loudness of breath sounds to get a reading. Of course, this can be manipulated by how far away the user is holding their phone.

    “There’s a big need in the pulmonary community to make testing cheaper and more convenient,” says Patel. “Other people have been working on attachments for the mobile phone that you can blow into. We said, ‘Let’s just try to figure out how to do it with the microphone that’s already there.’”

    The team debuted their work at the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, and the results were good. Readings from SpiroSmart came within 5.1% of commercial portable spirometers already on the market, and many of those can cost thousands of dollars.

    Preventative care via smart apps. That’s something patients and doctors can likely get behind.

    [University of Washington via GeekWire]