The video from the Wall Street Journal discusses the issue of hidden tramatic brain injuries. Many researchers believe that hidden traumatic brain injuries may be the cause of social or educational failure for many people. Mt. Sinai School of Medicine is behind some important research in this area.
A helmet that looks like it came from a sci-fi flick may offer real help to Alzheimer's sufferers. The Daily Mail reports that the helmet bathes the wearer with infra-red light. The helmet only needs to be worn for ten minutes each day.
Dr Dougal claims that only ten minutes under the hat a day is enough to have an effect."Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it," he said.
This is London reports that U.S. researchers have had surprisingly positive results using an arthritis drug called Enbrel on alzheimer's patients. The drug is injected into the patients spine. One patient showed improvements within in minutes. Some patients have been able to drive again after receiving the treatements.
The drug, called Enbrel, is injected into the spine where it blocks a chemical responsible for damaging the brain and other organs.A pilot study carried out by U.S. researchers found one patient had his symptoms reversed "in minutes".
The FDA says clones are ok to eat. The FDA's food safety chief Dr. Stephen Sundlof said that they "found nothing in the food that could potentially be hazardous. The food in every respect is indistinguishable from food from any other animal." The Associated Press reports that two companies have alread produced over 600 cloned animals for U.S. breeders.
The two main U.S. cloning companies, Viagen Inc. and Trans Ova Genetics, already have produced more than 600 cloned animals for U.S. breeders, including copies of prize-winning cows and rodeo bulls. They agreed to USDA's call for a continued moratorium Tuesday, but stressed that it applied only to clones themselves, not those animals' conventionally produced offspring, which can begin selling immediately.The FDA spent six years tracking the safety of cloning, and its decision was long expected, but it came after an emotional fight by opponents. Congress passed legislation last month urging further study of the issue, a call echoed by consumer advocates who also asked that foods from cloned animals be labeled as such.
Norovirus is raging through England. Times Online reports that 2.8 million people have been sick with the norovirus in England and another 200,000 are falling ill each week.
The rate of new cases being confirmed has reached the levels of reports during the massive outbreak five years ago, when officials announced an epidemic.Norovirus can prove deadly for vulnerable people, such as children and the elderly. The impact of the bug has been exacerbated by a new outbreak of flu with those most at risk now being given antiviral drugs by their doctors.
The BBC reports on a new flexible surgical robot cakked the i-Snake. The article says experts believe the i-Snake could revolutionize keyhole surgery.
Minimally invasive surgery has obvious advantages - it can mean smaller scars, reduced hospital stays and shorter recovery times.Surgeons are also looking at ways to avoid skin incisions altogether.
Wired reports that scientists have discovered a brain hormone called orexin A that people could snort to reverse the effects of sleep deprivation. It has worked in monkeys. Sleep-deprived monkeys became alert with no ill effects - as if they had received plenty of sleep - after receiving a nasal spray containing the hormone.
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."
A new 256-slice CT machine from Philips creates some stunning images that medical professionals can use to find abnormalities and disease. The BBC reports that the new machine produces "3D body images of unprecedented clarity" while also reducing X-ray exposure by as much as 80%.
The new 256-slice CT machine takes large numbers of X-ray pictures, and combines them using computer technology to produce the final detailed images.It also generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners: a full body scan takes less than a minute.
Mark Phillips from CBS News explains the surgery that 2-year-old Lakshmi Tatma will be undergoing. She was born with four arms, four legs as well as entangled organs. CBS says Lakshmi is set to have her "parasitic twin" removed in a complex and risky surgery performed by a huge team of 30 doctors. Some positive news here from CNN says Lakshmi's surgery was a succcess.
The BBC reports on an innovative laser treatment that Arizona researchers are developing. If perfected the treatment could kill hardy organisms like HIV and MRSA.
It produces lethal vibrations in the protein coat of micro-organisms, thereby destroying them. The effect of the vibrations is similar to that of high-pitched noise shattering glass.However, the line of attack can be perfected so that the proteins which coat human cells remain unaffected.