Dr. Dale Rorabaugh, of Sebastopol, passed away on Aug. 27, leaving behind a legacy of innovation, service and dedication to the advancement of eye care and medical technology. Born Dec. 5, 1943 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Dale pursued an early love of science beginning in junior high school, where he built Audie the automaton, also known as GSI-256 a remarkable project that foreshadowed his lifelong inventive spirit.
Audrey was in seventh grade when her bones started breaking: eight in total, over six months. Some of them broke dramatically, like her wrist, which fractured when she fell down a flight of stairs. Others less so: She broke her foot just stepping on it oddly. The broken bones became part of a strange collection of symptoms: Her tendons and ligaments started tearing. She would faint suddenly.
Western troops may face deadlier fights in future wars. If helicopters can't fly medevac flights, the US Army's fallback for treating the wounded is a World War I approach: using soldiers as "walking blood banks." During a recent exercise on a German hillside, the Army and its allies and partners simulated enemy artilleryfire that resulted in tremendous soldier casualties. Without air superiority for flying evacuations for the injured or bringing in needed supplies, life-saving treatment had to be done right near the fight.
Women with type 2 diabetes should consider switching their HRT tablets to patches to reduce their risk of potentially fatal blood clots, according to a new study. Researchers have found women with the condition who take an oral form of HRT have double the risk of a pulmonary embolism - when a blood clot blocks an artery in the lung - than those using skin patches. They also have a 21 per cent increased risk of heart disease, the study revealed.
Women who want to to get pregnant should refrain from using cannabis. This is the conclusion of a new study that examined the influence of the substance, and its active ingredient THC in particular, on female fertility and artificial insemination. Researchers found that cannabis can negatively affect both because it disrupts the development and stability of the egg cell. During in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg and sperm cells are brought together in a laboratory.
In a previous post, I described the life of Heinz Lehmann, a young German physician who fled the rise of Nazi power and settled in Canada, where he played a major role in the recognition of chlorpromazine as a treatment for psychoses. As it turns out, he was one of many talented physicians and scientists who settled in Britain, the U.S., and Canada, where they contributed to the growth of neuroscience and neuropharmacology.
Scientists in South Korea have modified a glue gun - the kind you'd use for an arts and crafts DIY project at home - to generate bone grafts and print them directly onto fractures in animals, to aid in the healing process. In experiments involving rabbits, the researchers created 3D-printed grafts on the fly, allowing fractured bones to heal and regrow naturally.
We've still got the best universities, we've got some of the best scientists in the world, but it's not a good place to do the development work for medicines. It's an expensive place to operate, and it's a terrible place to sell medicines.
If you bring your phone with you to the bathroom, you're very normal. You're also at risk of developing hemorrhoids-swollen veins in the anus and lower rectum that can cause pain and bleeding-according to a study that came out last week. Of the 125 adult participants in the study, two-thirds reported smartphone use during bathroom visits. Subsequent colonoscopies revealed that those bathroomgoers had a 46 percent higher risk of hemorrhoids than those who didn't use their phones. It's not the phone itself causing problems, of course, but the fact that it often prolongs a visit to the toilet.
She left us on (Thursday), surrounded by family, friends and lots of love. Tiana was a shining light who touched the lives of everyone she met with her kindness, strength, and warmth. She fought right till the very end, showing courage and grace beyond words.
(Image credit: Getty Images) Gran Fondos: you've possibly raced one, and almost certainly heard of them. Big events, essentially timed sportives, that take place most weekends across Europe, and increasingly more so across the rest of the world. The biggest ones bring thousands of riders together, and can generate significant revenues for organisers. It's little wonder that each year there are more of them, and that the UCI have jumped on the bandwagon - the sport's world governing body now has a successful Gran Fondo World Series of 25-35 qualifier events that culminate in the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships.
The 50-page study benchmarked the UK against international peers on 48 competitiveness indicators and found foreign investment in life sciences had slumped to ÂŁ795 million in 2023-58 per cent below 2017 levels-pushing Britain down to seventh place in global rankings from a high of second only two years earlier. Pharmaceutical R&D has also slowed markedly, growing at just 1.9 per cent annually since 2020, against a global average of 6.6 per cent.
A BMJ investigation reveals that the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2023 childhood obesity guidelines aggressively promote GLP-1 weight-loss drugs for children, despite undisclosed financial ties to the drugmakers. Over 20% of AAP leaders and more than a third of guideline committee members received payments from GLP-1 manufacturers, yet these conflicts of interest were not disclosed in the guidelines. The guidelines rely on limited, industry-funded evidence and overlook serious potential risks of GLP-1 drugs, while sidelining safer, lifestyle-based treatments for childhood obesity.
This recently acquired knowledge is due to the fact that Williams was announced as the new "celebrity patient ambassador" for direct-to-consumer telehealth company Ro on Aug. 21. The goal of this multiyear campaign is to "destigmatize weight loss medication," Saman Rahmanian, co-founder and chief product officer at Ro, told Healthcare Brew. Williams was a patient first and then wanted to share her story with others, he added.
Aging is inevitable, but how fast your cells age isn't set in stone. On a molecular level, biological age is measured using something called the epigenetic clock, which isn't tied to chronological age in calendar years. This clock measures chemical changes, such as DNA methylation patterns, and gauges a person's "youthfulness" or "agedness" based on their epigenome, the system that controls how our genes are expressed, irrespective of birth-certificate age.
Carbon monoxide is a quiet assassin. Odorless and colorless, it has a uniquely efficient ability to starve the body of oxygen: It acts quickly, building up in the bloodstream and attaching to hemoglobin in oxygen's place. When oxygen can't attach, red blood cells don't transport it around the body, effectively suffocating the organs. This gas, a common by-product of incomplete fuel combustion, causes 50,000 to 100,000 emergency room visits and 1,500 deaths in the U.S. each year.
Generally, when we need medical intervention, we look for the most effective option. If we need cancer treatment, most of us don't think twice about doing all we can to get rid of the cancer; we also take medicine to control our cholesterol or anything else that seems off balance. You may be thinking, "Well, those things are potentially life-threatening." Ok, then what about getting a cast if we break a bone rather than letting it heal on its own?
The guideline committee considered a recent survey by the fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which showed almost three-quarters of people who had had fertility treatment between September and October 2024 had said they were using additional tests or emerging technologies, despite most not being proven to work. And only 37% of those questioned said the risks of any add-ons had been explained.
For centuries, cannabis has been recognized in different cultures as a plant with therapeutic potential. In modern times, as legalization spreads across the United States, scientific research and anecdotal evidence are converging on one powerful conclusion: cannabis is more than just a recreational substance-it is a versatile tool for wellness and, in particular, pain management. Among the wide range of cannabis products now available, high-THC full spectrum weed is gaining attention as a preferred choice for individuals seeking effective relief from chronic pain, inflammation, and discomfort.
When treating severe burns and trauma, skin regeneration can be a matter of life or death. Extensive burns are usually treated by transplanting a thin layer of epidermis, the top layer of skin, from elsewhere on the body. However, this method not only leaves large scars, it also does not restore the skin to its original functional state. Unless the dermis, the layer below the epidermis, which contains blood vessels and nerves, is regenerated, it cannot be considered normal living skin.
They initiate downstream inflammatory signalling pathways such as type I interferon (IFN), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-ÎşB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) by recognizing endogenous or exogenous nucleic acid11,12. In plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), activation of the TLR7 and TLR9 pathways leads to the release of large amounts of IFNs, promoting the presentation of autoantigens and the occurrence of inflammatory responses13.
Before I explain, I want to clarify that I firmly believe in body autonomy. If someone chooses to take a weight loss medication, they should be able to do so without judgment. I hope all potential users are fully informed about the risks and benefits of these medications and are followed responsibly by medical providers. Ideally, they would also be screened for a current or past eating disorder or any other condition that might contraindicate the use of GLP-1s and GIPs.
People dealing with spider or mosquito bites often find it hard to tell the difference. And it's important to know which is which for your safety. In the woodsy areas of Griffith Park, Jose Yakushi and his daughter take extra precautions against insects, but the creepiest of crawlers took a bite out of Jose when he was at home cleaning his garage. "I felt something bite me in the leg and then I saw it and it was a spider," Yakushi said.
I frequently meet patients with lupus whose disease has caused severe neuropsychiatric symptoms, and watching them emerge from their cognitive cocoons after immunosuppressive treatment is always breathtaking. Other autoimmune neurologic phenomena can present in equally bizarre ways. Some people with antiphospholipid syndrome-a condition associated with the formation of blood clots-can experience chorea (involuntary muscle movements)or acute changes in cognition (one of my patients was diagnosed after becoming markedly confused).
Some doctors are now advising their pregnant patients to avoid plastic itself, which contains harmful chemicals that can hurt some mothers and babies alike. Marya Zlatnik, a University of California at San Francisco fetal medicine specialist, told the Washington Post that when giving some of her early-pregnancy patients the rundown of what they should and shouldn't consume or be exposed to, she's begun adding plastic products to her no-no list.
You lost yourself? Yeah. Where did you go? I don't know. I don't have a sense of who I am. Marc Pierrat's mind once ran as smoothly as the gears on his endurance bike. He was a mechanical engineer by training and a marathoner for fun, a guy who maintained complicated systems at work and a meticulously organized garage at his Westlake Village home.
