I have written before about the hope that stem cells offer to sufferers from Parkinson’s disease. Here’s yet another installment.
Continue reading Another step in the stem cell saga for Parkinson’s
Pain. Just the word makes us wince. So, just imagine if you were subject to chronic pain. It seems that the more we are subject to pain in a certain region, the lower the threshold for manifesting subsequent pain.
I was listening to Science Friday today (ok, this was written on 9 March) where my friend, Ira Flatow, was interviewing Barb Stuckey. She wrote a book, Taste What You’re Missing, where, among other things, she writes why food tastes so pitifully bad on an airplane.
Continue reading You call this food?
I am now of the age when hearing thst a friend or acquaintance succumbed to a heart attack is not that geeat a shock. That loss of oxygen flow to the heart- from a blood clot, an occlusion, or other trauma- is not always fatal, thank G0d. But, when the heart heals, there is scar tissue- and the heart is ‘never as good as new’. But, that may be about to change. Two different groups are trying similar techniques. A third is using a slight different concept.
Continue reading Heart Attack Hope?
There seems to be a new precedent. Instead of trying to have everyone use your new product, we have a company that is deciding who can use this already approved product. Is that because the product is harder to install that we think- or because the manufacturer is trying really hard to control any potential negative publicity?
Continue reading What? You won’t sell me one???
I hate injections. Ever since I was five years old and was “rewarded” with bi-weekly injections (oh, Dr. Isaacson- sorry for that black eye)- that continued for nearly a decade.
Continue reading No More Needle Sticks?
We know that we often acquire immunity against various diseases by getting “injections” of dead or weakened bacteria or viri. Our body learns to recognize these “invaders” and when confronted with the “real McCoy”, it can draw upon its resources and repel the invasion or incursion. The end result is that our body’s learned responses keep us healthy.
Continue reading Super Injection!
This is not going to be a happy blog. Because we have been let down- big time.
I had known, since I was a young man, that I was not allowed to donate my organs, should I reach an untimely (or timely) death. My religion forbids the defilement of a corpse. Until 1986, when the Chief Sfardi Rabbi (Ovadya Yosef) issued a proclamation…It would be permissible to donate one’s organs to save another’s life- actually, it was an honor for the dead. (The principles are called Pikuach Nefesh [the obligation to save someone in peril] and Kavod Hamet [honoring the dead].). You may not recognize how radical this was- it turned 5000+ years of tradition and rabbinic rulings on its head.
Serendipity strikes again? Maybe- because deep brain stimulation, a technique used to treat chronic pain and Parkinson’s disease, may work to amplify memory – including those suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Continue reading Deep Brain Stimulation
Are you sitting down? This is going to blow you away. Because it will mean that paralyzed folks now have REAL hope of walking again.
Continue reading No miracle. No hocus pocus.