Category Archives: Health

Heathcare Podcasts: An Inside Look At Benefits & Costs Of Hospice (NPR)

NPR logoAccording to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, seven in 10 Americans say they would prefer to die at home. And that’s the direction the health care system is moving, too, hoping to avoid unnecessary and expensive treatment at the end of life.

Hospice allows a patient deemed to have fewer than six months to live to change the focus of their medical care — from the goal of curing disease to a new goal of using treatments and medicines to maintain comfort and quality of life. It is a form of palliative care, which also focuses on pain management, but can be provided while a patient continues to seek a cure or receive treatments to prolong life.

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Research: Scientists Find Protein To Regulate Immune Attacks, Reduce Rheumatoid Arthritis

From a New Atlas online article:

1200px-Karolinska_Institutet_seal.svgScientists have just discovered a new mechanism that can be key in regulating these immune attacks, raising new hopes of drugs that can protect against joint inflammation and the ailments it can bring.

Through the use of the CRISPR gene-editing tool, the Karolinska Institutet scientists have now shed further light on the role they play in inflammation. The technology enabled the team to make adjustments to a set of hand-picked immune cell genes as a way of learning how those tweaks can impact the behavior of the cells.

“The results we obtained using CRISPR were key to quickly understanding how the system under study is regulated,” says Dr Wermeling. “I have high hopes that the experimental use of CRISPR will be hugely important to our understanding of how immune-cell behavior is regulated, and that this can guide us in the development of new efficacious drugs.”

https://newatlas.com/medical/newly-understood-protein-raises-hopes-of-advanced-arthritis-treatments/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=68b0bd3225-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_21_02_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-68b0bd3225-93002753

Health Studies: Marijuana Use Associated With Rise In Cardiovascular Disease

From a Journal of the American College of Cardiology:

Observational data suggest associations between marijuana and a broad range of adverse cardiovascular risks. Marijuana is becoming increasingly potent, and smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco. Synthetic cannabinoids have been linked to more sustained and deleterious pharmacodynamic effects.

Marijuana Use and Cardiovascular Disease Infographic

Marijuana use is increasing as more states are legalizing cannabis for both medicinal and recreational purposes. National survey data estimate that >2 million Americans with established cardiovascular diseases currently use or have used marijuana in its variety of forms, including inhalation and vaping. Cannabinoid receptors are distributed in multiple tissue beds and cells, including platelets, adipose tissue, and myocytes.

Highlights

  • • We estimate that >2 million U.S. adults who have reported ever using marijuana have cardiovascular disease.

  • • Observational studies have suggested an association between marijuana use and a range of cardiovascular risks.

  • • Marijuana is becoming increasingly potent, and smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco.

  • • Few randomized clinical trials have been conducted or are planned to explore the effects of marijuana on cardiovascular risk.

  • • Screening and testing for use of marijuana are encouraged in clinical settings, especially in the care of young patients presenting with cardiovascular disease.

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World Economic Forum: “Building Resilient Health Systems” (Davos 2020)

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Studies: Openly Given “Placebos” Are Effective For Chronic Pain Relief

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Researchers in Germany published a study in the journal Pain in December showing that open-label placebos can help relieve chronic lower-back pain, Placebo Expectation of Benefitsreplicating a 2016 study. A similar study by University of Colorado, Boulder researchers found that placebo saline injections reduce chronic lower-back pain.

Two other recent studies showed placebos openly given to cancer patients helped relieve cancer-related fatigue. And a forthcoming study by German researchers found openly giving placebo to elderly patients helped improve knee pain.

More researchers are looking at the idea of placebos—substances that have no actual pharmaceutical effect—as an alternative to traditional pain medications, which can be ineffective and carry significant side effects. Placebos might have particular potential for difficult-to-treat conditions like chronic back pain, cancer-related fatigue and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, researchers hope.

As many as 30% to 50% of chronic pain patients will respond to placebos, research suggests. And new studies are helping to identify genetic and brain differences that make certain people more likely to respond.

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Medical Procedures: Inside Look At “Total Hip Replacement” Surgery

Head “Inside the OR” with Michael D. Stover, MD, and see what it takes to tackle a total hip replacement. Sound on for this one!

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Mayo Clinic Health Video: Dangers Of “Sepsis” Now Require Response Teams In Intensive Care Units

Our bodies are very good at fighting infection. The immune system reacts and attacks bacteria and viruses that make us sick. But sometimes the immune reaction is so strong that it damages the body. This is called a septic reaction or sepsis, and the mortality rate associated with it can be high.

In fact, a new study suggests that sepsis is responsible for 20 percent of all deaths worldwide. That’s more deaths than are estimated to be attributable to cancer. At Mayo Clinic, doctors like Kannan Ramar, M.B.B.S., M.D., are trying to change that with a sepsis response team in intensive care units. Their goal: to stop sepsis and save lives.

More health and medical news on the Mayo Clinic News Network. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/

Medical Procedures: How “Gamma Knife” Surgery Treats Brain Tumors

It’s called gamma knife surgery, but there’s no cutting involved. It’s been used at Mayo Clinic for 30 years as an alternative to open brain surgery.

The patient’s head is held still during the procedure with a headframe, which also serves as a map for the radiation. Using 3D imaging — typically an MRI — as a guide, the gamma knife is targeted directly at the tumor. And with no hospital stay and minimal side effects, it’s a procedure that is efficient and can be lifesaving.

Digital Medicine: Apps For Smartphones, Machine Learning To Treat Kidney Disease (The Lancet)

From a The Lancet online article (January 18, 2020):

The Lancet logoSmartphone app-based platforms for urine testing could improve adherence to albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) testing. One study showed screening of at-risk patients almost doubled with a home urine test kit that uses a smartphone camera to easily and accurately quantify ACR from a user-performed urine dipstick. If independently validated in a large, diverse population, this low-cost strategy could change the often dim trajectory for individuals with declining kidney function. Chronic Kidney Disease A Global Crisis Siemens Healthineers

In the outpatient setting, a Japanese team used machine learning and natural language processing to predict disease progression and need for dialysis over 6 months in patients with diabetic nephropathy. And while the increased risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury has been long appreciated, a machine learning algorithm trained and tested on 3 million adults effectively quantified the degree of kidney injury on the basis of the volume of contrast used and individual patient-level characteristics.

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