Health « Anti Depression Guide

Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Heart repair pump

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Growing numbers of people are waiting for heart transplants. And engineers are developing miniature pumps known as ventricular assist devices to help.

Small enough to fit inside the patient's body, these pumps act like a second heart, boosting blood circulation and taking some of the load off the ailing organ.
But David Bull, a surgeon at the University of Utah's school of medicine says the pumps could help repair hearts too.

Cardiac stem cells capable of regenerating heart tissue are naturally found in the blood stream in small numbers. Bull and colleagues have designed a pump able to capture and culture those cells, and inject them into the heart to stimulate repairs.
The hope is that this would regenerate the heart sufficiently for the pump to eventually be removed.

Read the full heart-repair pump patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in biology, Health, stem cells | Comments Off

Pre-diabetes test

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Over 170 million people suffer from diabetes – just under 3% of the world's population – and experts say that number will double by 2030.

Most cases are type II diabetes, linked to obesity and lifestyle factors. But that condition can be prevented if it is caught in the early stage, called "pre-diabetes". That phase seems to last over a period of months or years before the full-blown condition develops.

Now Gerald Hart, a chemist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues say they know how to reliably spot pre-diabetes.

They claim these early stages of the disease are characterised by increased reaction rates between sugars called hexosamines and proteins in the body.

The results can be seen in the blood as raised levels of a particular sugar, known as O-linked ?-N-acetylglucosamine. Hart and colleagues have developed a test to measure levels of that compound and say this can be used to diagnose pre-diabetes.

In this way, they hope that people with pre-diabetes can be made aware of their condition and advised to take steps such as changes of diet to prevent the development of full-blown diabetes.

Read the full pre-diabetes test patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in biology, biotechnology, Health | Comments Off

Bed with built in treadmill

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Adjustable beds are commonly used in hospitals to help patients change position and get up with minimal help. Now Charles Filipi, a surgeon at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, wants to take them a step further, literally.

He says that many obese patients are required to exercise as part of their treatment. But getting them into a standing position can involve numerous staff and finding a treadmill for them to work out on can be even more time consuming.

So, Filipi suggests building the treadmill into the hospital bed. When not in use the treadmill sits in a vertical position at the end of the bed (see image, above).

When the patient needs to exercise, the bed slowly tips into the vertical position, planting the treadmill onto the ground ready to be used. That means a person can always access the treadmill easily, with minimal assistance from anyone else.

Read the full hospital bed treadmill patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in Health, sports | Comments Off

Botox face cream

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Botulinum toxin or botox is injected by cosmetic surgeons to paralyse muscles and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. But the procedure can be painful and even cause tissue damage leading to problems such as drooping eyelids.

Now Robert Nicolosi and Jonathon Edelson at the University of Massachussetts Lowell Nanomanufacturing Center have developed a skin cream that can do the same trick.
It had been thought that botox could not pass through the skin. But the researchers have discovered that the toxin passes through with ease if it is attached to a nanoparticle in an emulsion.

The nanoemulsion also keeps the toxin stable, they claim, giving the cream a possible shelf life of up to two years.

Read the full botox face cream patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in chemistry, Health | Comments Off

Exoskeleton for grannies

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Finding ways to assist and care for the growing elderly population in many developed countries is a growing problem. One challenge is to work out how to improve the strength and utility of ageing limbs.

Yoshiyuki Sankai at the University of Tsukuba near Tokyo, has developed an exoskeleton for a single arm that can do just that.

The device consists of a tabard worn over the shoulders with a motorised exoskeleton for one arm attached. The exoskeleton senses the angle, torque and nerve impulses in the arm and then assists the user to move his or her shoulder and elbow joints accordingly.

Read the full arm exoskeleton patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in Health, robots | Comments Off

Hair-follicle fertiliser

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Humans are born with a full set of hair follicles, but these can be lost as genetic baldness sets in, or through damage to the skin and in conditions such as alopecia.

The market for treating such conditions is worth some $10 billion a year, with even robots being utilised to transplant hair. However, no truly effective solution exists.

Now, George Cotsarelis at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues say they can stimulate the formation of new hair follicles.

They use an abrasive wheel to rub away skin from the scalp, causing a new layer of young cells to grow as replacements.

Treating these young cells with drugs that inhibit epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) on their surface causes some of the nascent cells to form into hair follicles.

The team says it has tested the idea successfully in mice and on human skin grafted onto mice and have set up a company called Follica to commercialise the idea.

Read the full hair-follicle fertiliser patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in Health | Comments Off

Depression During a Heat Wave: His and Hers

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

by Susan

Depression can become almost as overwhelming as the soaring temperatures when a heat wave lasts more than a few days in your part of the world. Here in Missouri we are having temperatures in the mid to upper 90's with very high humidity which causes the heat index to be over 100 degrees.

When heat keeps us indoors we can begin to suffer from cabin fever which is usually associated with being snowed in during the winter months. We can get just as bored and feel just as cut off from friends and neighbors in August as we can in February. Senior citizens are especially affected by long hot summer days.

If you find yourself feeling down from staying indoors during a heat wave, try doing something new such as trying a new hobby or rent some new movies. One of my favorite things t do is to learn something new on the computer. Learning new things can hold our interest for long periods of time.

If you feel you must get out of the house be sure to use good sense and stay hydrated. I found an excellent source of information on dealing with the heat during extended periods of hot weather. http://www.disastercenter.com/guide/heat.html This site has a lot of tips on coping with the physical problems related to heat waves. If you have mental health problems as well, try something new to keep your mind off your troubles and the heat. Maybe there is a new book you've been dying to read.

Please visit:
Ozzie's Place

Posted in depression, Health, heat wave, ozzieblackcat, senior citizens | Comments Off

Brain signal decoder

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

Interfacing with the brain to control devices such as wheelchairs, robots and prosthetic devices has great potential. Monkeys have shown impressive ability to control robot limbs using brain implants, but must "rewire" their brains through training to do it.

It would make things easier to use the signals naturally used for hand-eye coordination. But nobody has been able to figure out how the part of the brain responsible for hand-eye coordination, the primary motor cortex, does its job. Even recording the activity of this brain region has proved difficult.

Now, John Donoghue and colleagues at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, have designed a new implant to make the task easier. They have also created software that turns these brain signals into code that controls an external device.

The team tested the device on the brains of monkeys as they watched objects move in front of them. In this way, the researchers built up a database of signals that could be used to work out a decoding strategy.

The result is a brain implant that can translate the hand trajectory signals produced by the brain and use them to control an external device.

Read the full brain signal decoder patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in brain, Health | Comments Off

Knee-protecting shoes

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common condition that can be relieved by reducing the force experienced by the knee when a person walks.

Since these forces are transmitted through the foot, they can be influenced by footwear. Walking barefoot significantly decreases one of the key force-related effects on the knee by 12% compared to walking with common walking shoes, say Roy Lidtke and Najia Shakoor at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Funded by the US National Institutes of Health, these researchers have designed a shoe with a number of separate zones that flex as it bends, allowing weight to be transferred just as in bare feet and reducing the peak load experienced by the knee.

The result is a shoe design that should help to reduce wear and tear on the knees and also to help reduce the pain of osteoarthritis in the knees.

Read the full knee-protecting shoes patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in clothing, Health | Comments Off

Inhaler can target left or right lung

Friday, July 25th, 2008

An increasingly common way of treating cancers, AIDs and diabetes, not to mention asthma, is by inhaling a drug in aerosol form.

But inhalers are notoriously inefficient. At best they deliver 20% of their load into the lungs. At worst, they deliver less than 5%. The rest gets left in the mouth and throat, or gets blown back out into the air, particularly if the user's intake of breath is not well synchronised with the aerosol jet.

With some drugs costing more than their weight in gold, that is an expensive waste.

So Clement Kleinstreuer, a mechanical engineer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has developed a computer-controlled inhaler that measures air flow around its nozzle to determine the best moment to release a powdered drug to achieve maximum penetration into the lungs.

Kleinstreuer even claims to be able to target specific areas of the lungs with a drug. This is done by injecting powder into different parts of the airflow, aiming the drug towards the right or left lung or even areas within each lung. That could make inhalers far more efficient at targeting the conditions they are designed to treat.

Read the full smart inhaler patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant