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An hour's drive to the southeast, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marban has recently launched an experiment to help patients like Karpman. Marban led one of the earlier stem cell trials, using cells taken by biopsy from the patient's own heart. The cells were multiplied in a laboratory for two to three weeks and then reinfused through a catheter. At the time, says Marban, it was thought that the stem cells themselves turned into new heart muscle and blood vessels. "In fact, the more we learned, the more we realized that that's not what these cells...

Scientists at Oxford University and Kings College London develop blood test which can predict the onset of Alzheimer's so that drugs could target the disease before symptoms appear A blood test has been developed to predict if someone will develop Alzheimer’s within a year, raising hopes that the disease could become preventable. After a decade of research, scientists at Oxford University and King’s College London are confident they have found 10 proteins which show the disease is imminent. Clinical trials will start on people who have not yet developed Alzheimer’s to find out which drugs halt its onset. The blood...

Scientists led by Dr David Fairlie from the University of Queensland, Australia, have found abnormal amounts of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the fat tissues of overweight and obese rats and humans. PAR2 is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet. When obese rats on a diet high in sugar and fat were given a new oral drug that binds to PAR2, the inflammation-causing properties of this protein were blocked, as were other effects of the high-fat and high-sugar diet, including obesity itself. "This important new finding links obesity and...

Some harmful bacteria are increasingly resistant to treatment with antibiotics. A discovery might be able to help the antibiotics treat the disease. A soil sample from a national park in eastern Canada has produced a compound that appears to reverse antibiotic resistance in dangerous bacteria. Scientists at McMaster University in Ontario discovered that the compound almost instantly turned off a gene in several harmful bacteria that makes them highly resistant to treatment with a class of antibiotics used to fight so-called superbug infections. The compound, called aspergillomarasmine A, or AMA, was extracted from a common fungus found in soil and...

The future scares a lot of people. Climate change, a growing population, and fewer natural resources will certainly pose new challenges for the human race in the next few decades. But when you consider ongoing social and economic progress and all of the coming innovations in science and technology, there’s plenty of room for optimism. We’ve pulled out some of our favorite ideas about the future of our world. Child mortality rates will be vastly lower. During the 20th century, the sharpest declined in mortality involved deaths of children under 5 years old, according to the assessment on human health...

CNN reporter Drew Griffin has owned the revelations surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs and their scandalous treatment of military veterans. After a year of investigation, he broke the story involving the creation of secret waiting lists at a Phoenix VA hospital where 40 vets died awaiting care. Griffin’s reporting led to the uncovering of several more secret waiting lists – a revelation that forced President Barack Obama to accept the resignation of his VA secretary, Gen. Eric Shinseki. On Monday, Griffin discussed a new report from an independent government oversight agency which found that VA has been ignoring whistleblowers...

"Pee in a cup" is a phrase you should prepare to hear frequently this election season. A requirement that doctors be subject to random drug and alcohol testing is the curb-appeal provision in a measure that will be on the California ballot in November. The brains behind the initiative titled the Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act -- named after two Danville children killed by a substance-abusing driver in 2003 -- clearly figured out that voters are more likely warm to the part that promises drug tests for doctors than the measure's more important provision, which would lift the...

Benjamin LaMontagne, who died at his home in February four days after wisdom tooth extraction, was killed by a tissue infection of his gums, neck and jaw... after routine oral surgery, was killed by a rare, aggressive bacterial infection that caused swelling of his jaw and neck, according to the state Medical Examiner’s Office. The medical examiner’s report, released Thursday to the Portland Press Herald in response to a public records request, lists the cause of death as cervical necrotizing fasciitis, commonly called “flesh-eating bacteria.” The infection is caused by a powerful strain of streptococcus A, a group of pathogens...

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made a breakthrough in the race to solve antibiotic resistance. New research published today in the journal Nature reveals an Achilles’ heel in the defensive barrier which surrounds drug-resistant bacterial cells. The findings pave the way for a new wave of drugs that kill superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls rather than attacking the bacteria itself. It means that in future, bacteria may not develop drug-resistance at all. The discovery doesn’t come a moment too soon. The World Health Organization has warned that antibiotic-resistance in bacteria is spreading globally, causing severe...

Sarah Knapton, The TelegraphJune. 18, 2014 The global threat of antibiotic resistance could finally be tackled after British scientists discovered a chink in the armour of deadly bacteria. Health experts have warned that within 20 years even routine operations like hip replacements and organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection. But now scientists at the University of East Anglia have discovered how the bug responsible for E-coli and salmonella builds an impenetrable wall to keep out antibiotics. They believe that within a few years they could develop a drug which switches off the wall-building mechanism, making...

Flu experts have made a mutant version of the 1918 “Spanish flu” virus that killed tens of millions of people, sparking a new debate over whether such work is too dangerous. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin says the experiments are important for helping scientists understand how new pandemics start, and for designing better flu vaccines.

As the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation designed to fix problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the amount of new spending in the measure began to clarify. And the price tag could be a gut-check when it comes to understanding what it really costs to fulfill sacred obligations to America’s veterans. The cost of the measure could be astronomical. That’s according to preliminary numbers circulated by the Congressional Budget Office Wednesday afternoon. The bill would give veterans new opportunities to seek care outside of the health care system provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. CBO said in...

American developed hairy tongue 10 years ago and tried several treatments but could not be curedAn American who suffered for 10 years from a ‘hairy tongue’ has finally found a cure for his condition in Dubai. Clay Irwin visited several doctors in several countries, including his home country, to treat his embarrassing condition which impacted his social life as he suffered from constant bad breath due to food and saliva getting stuck in the hair on his tongue. “I developed a rare medical condition some time back. I went to several places in the US, but none could help. I...

Public sector unions are out of control. They are extracting wealth from the productive economy and playing taxpayers for chumps. Simple as that. Whether the it’s the teachers unions, the municipal unions, the SEIU, the workers at the myriad of of alphabet soup agencies, the assumption is that somehow taxpayers work for government employees, for the low level cronies. Our money is supposed to fund their pensions and above market salaries. We owe it to them. The average federal worker makes over $120,000 in total compensation. A comparable private sector worker? About $50,000. This should not be. To some degree...

Federal health officials recommended two weeks ago that hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for AIDS take a daily pill that has been shown to prevent infection with the virus that causes it. If broadly followed, the advice could transform AIDS prevention in the United States — from reliance on condoms, which are effective but unpopular with many men, to a regimen that relies on an antiretroviral drug. . . . . . The first is psychological. Doctors and policy makers need to admit that 30 years of the ABC mantra — abstain, be faithful, use condoms — has...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)RALEIGH, N.C. - The emerging process of 3D printing, which uses computer-created digital models to create real-world objects, has produced everything from toys to jewelry to food. Soon, however, 3D printers may be spitting out something far more complex, and controversial: human organs. Researchers are working diligently to create human organs and body parts through the use of a 3D printer. The 3D printer works in much the same way an inkjet printer does - with a needle that squirts material in a predetermined pattern. Instead of ink, the printer uses cells or human tissue. The cells would be purified...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Recently, my wife approached me with the unwelcome news that our health insurance plan — which we like — will likely be cancelled next year. Her employer, a healthcare provider, generously provides benefits even for those working part-time. Due to the devastation wrecked upon the industry by Obamacare, they anticipate the need to drop coverage for all employees working less than 60 hours per pay period. My wife works 56. Since my employer’s offering proves virtually worthless, far too expensive for far too little coverage, we will be left effectively uninsured. We may consider Samaritan Ministries as an alternative to...

Another Republican is now weighing in on Hillary Clinton’s health. Sarah Palin slammed the mainstream media for treating Clinton with a double standard after Republican strategist Karl Rove raised controversial concerns about the likely presidential candidate’s health. “Thank goodness liberals are consistent in refusing to apply double standards, thanks to their disdain for hypocrisy – so they’ll come through once again,” the former vice presidential candidate wrote sarcastically on her Facebook page Monday evening. ”Rest assured these self-designated protectors of what they obviously believe is the ‘weaker sex’ needing protection in the political arena will elevate political discourse.” Palin doubled...

Debate between plant based diet and Paleo diet.

A woman with an incurable cancer is now in remission, thanks, doctors say, to a highly concentrated dose of the measles virus. For 10 years, Stacy Erholtz, 49, battled multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the blood. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic say she had received every type of chemotherapy drug available.... Then researchers gave her and five other multiple myeloma patients a dose of a highly concentrated, lab-engineered measles virus similar to the measles vaccine. In fact, the dose Erholtz received contained enough of the virus to vaccinate approximately 10 million people.