Tag: Medicine

Your Colon Is Calling

Back when I was growing up if I got sick my grandmother made sure that the colon was working…..she believed that a healthy colon was the key to good health….

After reading this report on some medical research may bear her belief out…..

It seems that there is a pill, an electronic pill, that can be swallowed and the research can be sent to your mobile phone….interesting….I can get all kinds of things on my mobile phone weather, stocks, news…..but info on my colon…now there is a new twist….excuse me I need to take this, my colon is calling.

An electronic gas-detecting pill could help in diagnosing gastrointestinal ailments, including irritable bowel syndrome.

Scientists from Melbourne’s RMIT University first unveiled their swallowable capsule early in 2015 in the hope it would it would help doctors work out what foods were problematic for their patients by detecting and measuring intestinal gases produced by gut bacteria.

Now they have released results from the first human trials of the capsule, which collects information about the gases and transmits it to a hand-held device and mobile phone for doctors to read.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/09/gas-sniffing-pill-that-transmits-from-the-gut-passes-first-human-trials

At least it can be swallowed and not shoved up your butt…that is something……

Sunday and a good day for some wine and cheese….have a safe day and I will return tomorrow with lots more stuff….chuq

A Look At Medicine

The weekend and a few days of mental clarity away from the drumming one dimensional toads and their writings…..

It is common knowledge that I adore history and all the stuff that goes with it.  When I was studying at university I had to take a Middle East history course and it included Egypt and their empires…..

It has come to light that there is a possibility that doctors should take a oath to Imhotep (the real architect not the mummy) instead of Hippocrates…..why you ask?

I seems that most of the procedures credited to Hippo we in use back in the days of Pharaoh D’joser….and that is few century before old Hippo showed up.

Medical practice in ancient Egypt was so advanced that many of their observations, policies, and commonplace procedures would not be surpassed in the west for centuries after the fall of Rome and their practices would inform both Greek and Roman medicine. They understood that disease could be treated by pharmaceuticals, recognized the healing potential in massage and aromas, had male and female doctors who specialized in certain specific areas, and understood the importance of cleanliness in treating patients.

In the modern day it is recognized that disease and infection can be caused by germs and one might think people have always believed so but this is a relatively late innovation in human understanding. It was not until the 19th century CE that the germ theory of disease was confirmed by Louis Pasteur and proven by the work of British surgeon Joseph Lister.

Source: Egyptian Medicine – Ancient History Encyclopedia

There you have your history lesson for the week.

Be well, Be safe

Class Dismissed.

What Is FMT?

The weekend has finally arrived….a couple of stress free days…..and as usual I try to find subjects that are not widely written about and this time I found a totally gross one……

This is Fecal Microbiota Transplant……yep they will transplant someone’s poop in your body….eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!

From the Foundation that supports this treatment…….

Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) is a procedure in which fecal matter, or stool, is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline or other solution, strained, and placed in a patient, by colonoscopy, endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or enema.

The purpose of fecal transplant is to replace good bacteria that has been killed or suppressed, usually by the use of antibiotics, causing bad bacteria, specifically Clostridium difficile, or C. diff., to over-populate the colon. This infection causes a condition called C. diff. colitis, resulting in often debilitating, sometimes fatal diarrhea

C. diff. is a very serious infection, and the incidence is on the rise throughout the world. The CDC reports that approximately 347,000 people in the U.S. alone were diagnosed with this infection in 2012. Of those, at least 14,000 died. Some estimates place that number in the 30,000 to 50,000 range, if the U.S. used the same cause of death reporting methods as most of the rest of the world.

Fecal transplant has also had promising results with many other digestive or auto-immune diseases, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, and Ulcerative Colitis. It has also been used around the world to treat other conditions, although more research in other areas is needed.

It may be a good treatment with results….but I think I would have a hard time with the procedure……I would have to give it a lot of thought before consenting…..

Are We Ever Safe?

Once again it is the weekend and a breath of fresh air from politics and the insects that report on it……

We all want to feel safe, right?  Safe at home……safe at work……safe on line……just always prefer that feeling of safety…..then there is a place that is sanitized and we should feel a lot of emotions when there, but a feeling of being unsafe is just not acceptable……so just how sterile is a hospital?

A family of deadly germs that can withstand even the strongest antibiotics is a growing threat in American hospitals, federal officials warn. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae—CRE—have been detected in 4% of short-stay hospitals and nearly a fifth of long-term ones and authorities warn there is only a “limited window of opportunity” to prevent their spread, the New York Times reports. Cases have been reported in 42 states. “What’s called CRE are nightmare bacteria,” CDC director Thomas Frieden tells NPR. He describes them as a “triple threat” because they are resistant to even last-ditch antibiotics, can cause fatality rates of nearly 50%, and can pass on drug resistance to other bacteria. “The mechanism of resistance to antibiotics not only works for one bacteria, but can be spread to others,” Frieden warns. The CDC is urging hospitals to do all they can to contain CRE before it spreads to the community at large.

Nothing like going to a place of wellness and finding that it is a den of bacteria……..have any horror stories you would like to share?

The Quadruple Helix

More sciencey stuff….and I wish I was more versed in this type of science but but fortunately I will stick to politics and economics….stuff I am comfortable with….for now……

(Newser) – Scientists have spotted four-stranded DNA in humans for the first time and say it could provide a key to fighting cancer, the BBC reports. A Cambridge University team revealed the find to Nature Chemistry last year, saying the “quadruple helix” may arise when a cell is unstable or in a dysfunctional state—like one that leads to cancer. “We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction,” said Cambridge chemist Shankar Balasubramanian.

They found that four-stranded DNA occurred most often when a cell is copying its DNA right before dividing. That could link the quadruple helix to cancers, which are often caused by genes that mutate to boost DNA replication. Perhaps synthetic molecules could curb the out-of-control cell proliferation that leads to tumors: “I’m hoping now that the pharmaceutical companies will bring this on to their radar,” said Balasubramanian. Some 60 years ago, two other Cambridge scientists burst into a pub and announced their discovery of the “secret to life”: the DNA double helix.

Hopefully this could be the key to solving the cancer cure problem……but then I ask…..who will control the cure?  My bet is on big Pharma…..and they will be allowed to make up for their R&D…….in other words….lots of cash in profits.

Are You A Donor?

I was recently in the hospital to have a couple of screws removed in my leg and the rest were to be snugged up….well I was talking with one of the nurses, to be honest she was a red head and really cute, so that was enough to strike up a conversation.  She asked me if I was a donor.  I answered honestly and said NO.  She went off on the usual con about the lives that the organs will save and that we all should do what we can to help others……yada…yada……she made a good case….but….I had to let her have it!

I waited until she had finished the snow job and then I replied.  The medical profession wants me to donate my organs to help others live, right?  Then do hospitals donate their time and space?  Do doctors donate their time and expertise?  Do people get bumped off the transplant list because they do not have the money?

I smiled and said when a person gets it all free and no one has to wait because they do not have the cash…then sweetheart you can have everything I have….but since that is not gonna happen the profession can kiss my butt!

I digress……seeing this story made me think about the donor thingy….this was in The Week magazine…..

In the United States last year, more than 4,700 people died waiting for a lifesaving kidney transplant. Yet in each of the past five years, more than 2,600 kidneys recovered from deceased donors wound up going to waste, highlighting an inefficient donor-matching system in drastic need of an overhaul. What can health regulators change to ensure the much-needed organs go to people in dire need? Here, a brief guide to the problem:

Why are the kidneys thrown away?
“Some kidneys are in pristine condition when they are donated,” says Art Caplan at NBC News, “some are not.” Many donor kidneys have health problems that are only discovered after donors have died. And yet, many experts agree that a “significant number of discarded kidneys — perhaps even half, some believe — could be transplanted” if the system for allocating them did a better job of matching faster, says Kevin Sack at The New York Times.

How does the current system work?
For the past 25 years, it’s largely been a case of “first come, first served,” says Sack. The government’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which tracks the more than 93,000 people in need of a transplant, divides the country into 58 donation districts. When a kidney becomes available, the rules stipulate that it be offered first to the candidate in the area who has waited the longest. Extra consideration is given to children, to candidates whose blood chemistry is hard to match, and to recipients who match up well with the donor. If no recipient is found, the electronic search expands to the region before going national.

What’s wrong with that?
The outdated system fails to take into account the projected life expectancy of the recipient or the urgency of the transplant, unlike current systems for heart and lung donors. (For example, sometimes younger, healthier kidneys go to recipients who only have a few years left to live.) Some argue that record-keeping is imprecise, and the relatively short window of organ procurement — surgeons can only keep a kidney “on ice” for 24 to 36 hours — gives busy hospitals an hour or so to respond. In 2011, for example, 2,644 of the 14,784 kidneys recovered from donors were thrown away (18 percent), according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Nearly 500 of those were not transplanted because a recipient could not be found in time.

I stand by my condemnation of the donor system….the idea is a good one but it is gamed and the cash gets the organ……..my donation will NOT make some goon more wealthy!

Silence Is Golden

I know I said I was going to leave the mindless BS to others and I meant it….but then someone had to open their mouth and show their ignorance

We all have heard how Mitt’s visit to London was a disaster……he managed to piss off a bunch of people….and then it was on to Israel and keeping with the GOP tradition of never criticizing Israel on any front he made yet another blunder….yes I said blunder…….

(Newser) – Mitt Romney simply cannot wait to repeal ObamaCare, but he is a fan of Israel’s health care system … which has been socialized since its founding in 1948, BuzzFeed points out. During his visit to the country, Romney today praised Israel for spending so little on health care: “Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? Eight percent,” Romney said at a fundraiser. “You spend 8% of GDP on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18% of our GDP on health care. Ten percentage points more. … Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways—not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to find and manage our health care costs.” Click for more on how Israel’s system works, or more on Romney’s adventuresin the Middle East.

Let me help everyone out on this issue….in Israel……

Rights of the Insured under the National Health Insurance Law

-—Every Israeli citizen is entitled to health care services under the National Health Insurance Law.

—Every resident has a right to register as a member of an HMO of his/her choice, free of any preconditions or limitations stemming from his/her age or the state of his/her health.

—Every resident has a right to receive, via the HMO of which he or she is a member, all of the services included in the medical services basket, subject to medical discretion, and at a reasonable quality level, within a reasonable period of time and at a reasonable distance from his/her home.

—Each member has a right to receive the health services while preserving the member’s dignity, privacy and medical confidentiality.

—Every Israeli resident has the right to transfer from one HMO to another.

—Each member has a right to select the service providers, such as doctors, caregivers, therapists, hospitals and institutes, from within a list of service providers who have entered into an agreement with the HMO to which the member belongs, and within the arrangements in place for the selection of the service providers, and which the HMO publishes from time to time.

—Each member has a right to know which hospitals and institutes, and other service providers, are included in the agreement with the HMO, and what are the selection processes at the HMO.

—Each member has a right to see and to receive a copy of the HMO regulations.

—Each resident has a right to receive from the HMO complete information concerning the payment arrangements in place in the HMO for health services as well as the HMO’s plans offered for additional health services (CIP).

—Each member has a right to complain with the Public Inquiries commissioner at the medical institute that treated the member, to the person in charge of investigating member complaints at the HMO of which s/he is a member, or to the complaints commissioner for the national health insurance law in the Ministry of Health.

—Each member has a right to file suit at the district labor court.

I know that you may think this is nothing….but it is….it is called SOCIALIZED MEDICINE…….did our man in the GOP know what he was saying or is he just that dense?

Once again….will someone in the GOP explain to me what the big attraction there is in Mitt Romney?  I await the answer.

Cyborg–2012

Can the brain be repaired?  For say a stroke victim that has lost use of an arm and a leg….is there a way to repair the damage?

There is lots of research going on and there is a possibility that the brain could be repaired…….according to the Daily Mail/BBC……..

Source:Daily Mail/BBC

Faulty parts of living brains have been replaced by electronic chips, in an astonishing and controversial scientific breakthrough.

It’s a move that has been anticipated many times in science fiction, with creatures such as The Terminator, a ‘cyborg’ hybrid of flesh and machinery.

But now, researchers at Tel Aviv University have successfully created circuits that can replace motor functions – such as blinking – and implanted them into brains.

They hope the technology could in the future help people suffering from brain malfunctions such as Parkinson’s disease – by replacing damaged or malfunctioning tissue with chips that perform the same function.

‘Imagine there’s a small area in the brain that is malfunctioning, and imagine that we understand the architecture of this damaged area,’ said Professor Matti Mintz, a psychobiologist, speaking to the BBC.

‘So we try to replicate this part of the brain with electronics.’

Mintz has already successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.

However, anti-vivisection campaigners have described the experiments as ‘grotesque’.

‘Imagine there’s a small area in the brain that is malfunctioning, and imagine that we understand how it works. We try to replicate this part of the brain with electronics,’ said Professor Mintz

The cerebellum is responsible for co-ordinating movement, says Mintz.

When wired to the brain, his ‘robo-cerebellum’ receives, interprets, and transmits sensory information from the brain stem, facilitating communication between the brain and the body.

To test this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers taught a brain-damaged rat to blink whenever they sounded a particular tone.

The rat could only perform the behavior when its robotic cerebellum was functional.

According to the researcher, the chip is designed to mimic natural neuronal activity.

‘It’s a proof of the concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then return it to the brain,’ says Prof. Mintz, who recently presented his research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK.

In the future, this robo-cerebellum could lead to electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain.

Yes, this is good news for people with brain damage…….but……..(wait for it)……..once again I ask what will be done to prevent the technology from being abused?  Who will decide who gets the implant?

If there is a way for it to be abused to turn a profit…..humans will find it……and USE IT!

Is It Defensive Or Preventive?

Both sides are screaming at each other over how to go about controlling the rising costs of health care……on the Repubs side…they throw tort reform in the mix…..it seems they think that if we limit medical lawsuits the cost of health care will decline….and then the Dems yell about a proper lifestyle with proper nutrition and doctor’s visits would go a long way at lowering the costs…..which is the most effective?

Repubs point to frivolous lawsuits as a cause of higher premiums for health care……they say tort reform will lower those premiums…..they say that doctors order many tests all to help cover their butts against lawsuits…..they say massive amounts of sometimes unnecessary tests.  What is defensive medicine:

Defensive medicine is the deviation from sound medical practice to avoid the threat of malpractice litigation.

According to a 2005 study in JAMA, over 90 percent of physicians surveyed admitted to practicing defensive medicine. This can range from “positive” defensive medicine, like ordering unnecessary tests, referring to consultants, or performing unneeded procedures; to “negative” defensive medicine, like avoiding high-risk patients or procedures.

Then there is the other side of the coin…Dems….they want all of us to practice preventive medicine…..such things like regular mammograms, tests that check blood chemistry, your colon, eat well, exercise…well you get the idea…..but what is preventive medicine?

Preventive medicine, is a medical discipline which focuses on preventing diseases and promoting a general state of health and well being. In both Europe and the United States, it is considered to be a board specialty, meaning that physicians can focus on preventive medicine while they get their medical degree, and use the skills they learn in school to reduce the outbreak of disease epidemics, improve public health, and increase the general quality of life for individuals all over the world. In the West, preventive medicine is practiced as an arm of public health, and is applied to the whole population, while in Eastern medicine, many doctors practice individual preventive medicine. Individual Western doctors are sometimes criticized for not practicing preventive medicine on a patient by patient basis, because insurance companies often feel that it is too expensive and time consuming, and will not compensate doctors for preventive measures.

Okay what is it?  Defensive or preventive?  It will depend on what your definition is…..basically they are pretty close to the same when it comes to testing….and there is where my problem lies……insurance companies bitch and sometimes refuse to pay for preventive tests…but they will pay for the massive tests when doctors are trying to cover their butts….why is this?

Confused?  Do not worry…we all are just as confused…..I appears to me that if you are an opponent of health reform then it is defensive and expensive and if you are all for health reform then in is preventive…that is best I can do with the little info that is available.

A word on tort reform…..the Repubs favorite issue for controlling health costs….it actually accounts for a bout 1% of the total health costs…..only thing that tort reform would help is insurance companies to keep them from paying off any lawsuits….and who would decide what was a frivolous lawsuit?  Just asking…….