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In Brief Japanese researchers have successfully grown kidneys from stem cells that worked as they were supposed to after being transplanted into rats and pigs. The Breakthrough With all the parts, grown, the kidney was placed inside a rat, then the pathway was added, followed by the bladder they’d grown—the new bladder was then connected to the rat’s native bladder. After sewing up the rat, they found the whole system worked. The team then repeated what they had done with a much larger animal, one much closer in size to humans—a pig—and found the same results. The paper was published...

The glaring unfairness of ObamaCare can be seen in the anonymous analysis done by a well salaried California engineer and his very low paid girlfriend, a part time mail clerk. The lady friend earns $18,000 per year to his yearly income of $60,000 to $ 125,000. “For me, making $60,000 a year, under ObamaCare, the cheapest, lowest grade policy I can buy, with a $5,000 deductible, costs $482 a month. His gal friend, holding the exact same policy with the same deductible, pays $1.00 a month! “That’s right, $1.00 per month. I’m not making this up,” he said. Can you...

As the vital relationship between 3D printing and medical science continues to flourish, potentially life-altering developments continue to be made. A national team of researchers has developed a first-of-its-kind, 3D-printed guide that helps regrow both the sensory and motor functions of complex nerves after injury. The groundbreaking research, undertaken in Minnesota, has the potential to help more than 200,000 people annually who experience nerve injuries or disease. Nerve regeneration is a complex process. Because of this complexity, regrowth of nerves after injury or disease is very rare, according to the Mayo Clinic. Nerve damage is often permanent. While the peripheral...

Blocking D1 receptors in brain blocks alcohol cravings: study. Scientists say a cure for alcoholism could be on the horizon thanks to the remarkable discovery of neurons in the brain that play a role in whether one glass of wine turns into a bottle. Texas A&M researchers explain the part of your brain known as the dorsomedial striatum contains neurons with spiny protrusions, each with two types of dopamine receptors. One type, called D1, encourages action but is structurally altered when large amounts of alcohol are consumed. The alteration causes the neurons to activate with less stimulation and the result...

Dr. Sudi Namir, who was fired from the Israel Medical Association Ethics Committee for controversial comments he made about homosexuals on an internet forum, has defended his comments in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva.

A domestic pig on an organic farm in Solothurn, Switzerland. Image: Wikimedia Commons --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stories of people waiting for organ transplants that could save their lives are well known. The numbers, though, are not encouraging. The US Department of Health and Human Services has some data: 122,407 people need a lifesaving organ transplant (total waiting list of candidates). The agency said that the gap between supply and demand continues to widen. The total number of donors from January through May this year was 5,975. On average, 22 people die each day while waiting for a transplant. Here is another statistic:...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has, for the first time, approved a drug that uses 3D printing technology, paving the way for potential customization of drugs to suit patients' needs. The drug, made by privately held Aprecia Pharmaceuticals Co, was approved for oral use as a prescription adjunctive therapy in the treatment of epilepsy, the company said on Monday. Spritam uses Aprecia's "ZipDose" technology, a delivery system that creates premeasured doses which disintegrate in the mouth with a sip of liquid. 3D printing could help companies make products "to the specifications of an individual patient rather than (take a)...

As the sun went down after the 1862 Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War, some soldiers noticed that their wounds were glowing a faint blue. Many men waited on the rainy, muddy Tennessee battlefield for two days that April, until medics could treat them. Once they were taken to field hospitals, the troops with glowing wounds were more likely to survive their injuries — and to get better faster. Thus the mysterious blue light was dubbed “Angel’s Glow.” In 2001, 17-year-old Civil War buff Bill Martin visited the Shiloh battlefield with his family and heard the legend of Angel’s...

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) recently called attention to an IRS ruling that would penalize small businesses up to $500,000 for daring to compensate their employees for health insurance premiums. The NFIB reports, “On July 1, 2015, employers will be penalized $100 per day per employee if they try to make health insurance more affordable by reimbursing their employees for individual market health insurance premiums. The penalty affects businesses that provide reimbursement for more than one employee. The healthcare reimbursement prohibition regulation decreases an employer’s ability to assist employees with health insurance costs.” The ruling would fine the...

Uber is completely revolutionizing the market for urban transportation. Could a similar revolution occur in other fields, including the market for medical care? That’s what University of Chicago economist John Cochrane wondered the other day. But we no longer have to speculate. Uber medicine has already arrived. There are a number of firms that will bring a doctor to your doorstep at the flick of a cell phone app, including Doctors Making House Calls (North Carolina), Pager (New York City), Heal (Los Angeles) and Medicast (Seattle). Insurance rarely pays for the service. Like so many other innovations in meeting the...

Drug maker says better poised to licence and position its novel molecule Itolizumab, which has a Cuban origin Mumbai - Bangalore-based Biocon http://www.dnaindia.com/topic/biocon hopes that the thaw in bilateral relations between the US and Cuba offers the company a "better opportunity" to licence and partner its novel molecule Itolizumab, used for the treatment of psoriasis. The molecule, which has a Cuban origin, is the world's first novel anti CD-6 monoclonal antibody to treat multiple autoimmune diseases. The drug was launched in India in 2013 under the brand name Alzumab. "Itolizumab is advancing well. With relations restored between Cuba and the...

Robert Folmer of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center gave people with chronic tinnitus transcranial magnetic stimulation as part of a study. Participants found their symptoms decreased by about a third. (Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center ) ================================================================================================= Imagine dealing with stresses of every day, juggling the demands of family life and deadlines at work, with a constant ringing in your ears? That's just what millions of Americans who suffer from tinnitus face. Hope could be on the way. New research by the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University found that a noninvasive technique involving...

Q: I wanted to share my experience with tinnitus. It's not incapacitating, but it is annoying. I found something that helps by serendipity. My wife has hair loss. She takes levothyroxine (Synthroid) and liothyronine (Cytomel) because her thyroid was removed via radiation. She also takes biotin to lessen her hair loss. I'm bald on top, but I thought I'd see if biotin would help grow new hair. It didn't. What DID happen with the very first dose was total elimination of my tinnitus! A few hours after I take the biotin, the tinnitus returns, but at a much lower intensity....

FULL TITLE: Quiet that ringing in the brain: New drug promises relief from epilepsy and tinnitus with fewer side effects =================================================================================================== A new drug may treat epilepsy and prevent tinnitus by selectively affecting potassium channels in the brain, UConn neurophysiologist Anastasios Tzingounis and colleagues report in the 10 June Journal of Neuroscience. Epilepsy and tinnitus are both caused by overly excitable nerve cells. Healthy nerves have a built-in system that slams on the brakes when they get too excited. But in some people this braking system doesn't work, and the nerves run amok, signaling so much that the brain gets...

Mysterious cases of paralysis in U.S. children over the last year have researchers searching for the cause of the illness. Now, a new study suggests that a new strain of a poliolike virus may be responsible for some of the cases. So far, more than 100 children in 34 states have suddenly developed muscle weakness or paralysis in their arms or legs, a condition known as acute flaccid myelitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, researchers linked a virus called enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), which can cause respiratory illness similar to the common cold, with some of...

Indian national was not charged for the treatmentAn elderly Indian national whose heart stopped for 17 minutes and was considered dead got second life when doctors at a Dubai hospital managed to revive him. Khalifa bin Darai, Executive Director for Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services, told Emarat Al Youm newspaper that his team received information that the man, 62, was in critical condition because he heart had failed and he was dead. Though it was necessary to transfer him to Rashid Hospital, but due to long distance the Dubai ambulance team contacted a nearby private hospital which agreed to receive...

With same-sex marriage and the transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner in the world headlines, it’s time to ask what LGBT bioethics would look like. Timothy Murphy, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, foreshadows some of the major themes in the journal Bioethics. Bioethics benefits. “Bioethics is better than it would otherwise have been, because people queer in their sexual interests and identities have challenged misconceived concepts of health and disease, challenged obstacles to access and equity in healthcare, and forced attention to professional standards in clinical care, among other things.” Defending LGBT parenting. To show that the battle...

... But as soon as he pressed play on his way home, he was shocked out of his anesthesia-induced stupor: He found that he had recorded the entire examination, and that the surgical team had mocked and insulted him as soon as he drifted off to sleep. And in addition to their vicious commentary, the doctors discussed avoiding the man after the colonoscopy, instructing an assistant to lie to him, and then placed a false diagnosis on his chart. “After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op,” the anesthesiologist told the sedated patient, “I wanted to punch you in...

Imagine this: you're gushing blood. Nothing seems to make it stop. Then you apply a gel to your wound, and within seconds, the bleeding stops. In minutes, you're healed. This is the premise of VetiGel, an algae-based polymer created by Joe Landolina — a 22 year-old who invented the product when he was just 17. Landolina is now the co-founder and CEO of Suneris, a biotech company that manufactures the gel. Last week, Suneris announced that it will begin shipping VetiGel to veterinarians later this summer. Humans won't be far behind. When injected into a wound site, the gel can...

North Korean officials said scientists had developed Kumdang-2 from ginseng and other ingredients - which they chose not to revealKim Jong-un claims to have succeeded where the greatest minds in science have failed... by producing a single drug which can prevent and cure Aids, Ebola, Sars and Mers. North Korea is currently suffering from one of the worst droughts in its history while still pursuing a nuclear programme. The official Korean Central News Agency said the portly despot's scientists developed miracle drug Kumdang-2 from ginseng and other ingredients - without saying which. North Korea claimed the same drug cured deadly...