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Category Archives: Medicine

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A Cancer Kill Switch

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Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a way to trigger an ancient cancer "kill switch" hidden...
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a way to trigger an ancient cancer “kill switch” hidden in our genes(Credit: ralwel/Depositphotos)

Cancer is one of our most persistent enemies, but while we now have advanced immune systems to fight the good fight, how did early multicellular life manage to stave it off? A genetic “kill switch” seems to have been the original weapon of choice, and now researchers at Northwestern University believe they’ve discovered a way to trigger that mechanism. This knowledge could potentially pave the way to a therapy where cancer cells commit suicide, which would be impossible for cancer cells to adapt a resistance to. read more

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People are Avoiding Doctors due to ObamaCare

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from the Blaze:

Obamacare is now so terrible, people aren’t going to their doctors — even when sick

When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, its supporters celebrated the legislation, calling it a landmark bill that would make Americans healthier and lower health care costs for families. Eight years later, it’s clearer than ever the ACA’s “Obamacare” exchanges have done quite the opposite. Not only are health care costs skyrocketing, the health insurance provided by Obamacare is so expensive for people to use that millions more Americans are now choosing not to go to the doctor — even when they’re sick or injured. read more

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Harvard Breaking Down Bacterial Walls

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In this artist's rendition of a bacterium, the blue dots represent the cell wall-building protein RodA...
In this artist’s rendition of a bacterium, the blue dots represent the cell wall-building protein RodA – and disrupting that protein’s function could be key to a new class of antibiotic(Credit: Harvard Medical School)

Bacteria can be hardy little creatures, thanks mostly to their strong cell walls that can protect them against drugs, viruses and other dangers. Finding ways to disarm these defenses is a key component of antibiotics, and now researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a structural weakness that seems to be built into a range of bacterial species, potentially paving the way for a new class of widely-effective antibacterial drugs. read more

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STINGel Doesn’t Give Cancer a Chance

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A scanning electron microscope image of the injectable cancer-fighting hydrogel, dubbed STINGel
A scanning electron microscope image of the injectable cancer-fighting hydrogel, dubbed STINGel(Credit: Hartgerink Research Group/Rice University)

The cure for cancer might have been inside us all along – our own immune system. The trick is to give it a boost to find and destroy those rogue cells, and that’s the focus of the field of immunotherapy. To that end, a new hydrogel has been developed that can be injected directly to the site of a tumor, where it stays to slowly release its payload of immunotherapy drugs for longer.

Put the two into a ring, and the immune system will win every round against cancer. To give itself a fighting chance, the Big C instead focuses its attention on stealth attacks, using a variety of tactics to evade detection by the immune system until it can grow strong enough to overwhelm the body. read more

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Obama Holdover has got to Go

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from Michelle Malkin at Conservative Review:

Malkin: Give VA Secretary David Shulkin the boot

Will the VA scandal never end?

While the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary lives high on the hog and his lying chief of staff resigns in disgrace while escaping any punishment, legions of vets every day in this country are denied the medical care they earned.

President Trump was supposed to drain the swamp. But at the historically fraud-ridden and profligate VA, the alligators continue feasting on the public dime. read more

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How Long Can We Afford Runaway Healthcare Spending?

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from the American Spectator:

Healthcare Spending to Reach $5.7 Trillion by 2026

Profligacy never had it so good. But for how long?

“National healthcare spending trends are unsustainable in the long term,” President Donald Trump’s budget acknowledges.

An article published earlier this month in the medical policy journal Health Affairs buttresses this simple point. Medical inflation stands to outpace both economic growth and actual inflation. Our spending — government, individual, business, etc. — on healthcare, projected to increase 5.5 percent annually over the next nine years, pushes the total to $5.7 trillion a year by 2026. read more

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Stunning – Lab Grown Kidneys

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A stunning medical breakthrough has seen human kidney tissue capable of producing urine grown in the lab, in a world first.

Experts used stem cells to create mini-kidneys that were implanted into mice, with tests revealing they were able to filter and excrete waste.

The research will allow medical researchers to model kidney diseases using the new structures, advancing our understanding of a number of conditions.

It is also a key step in creating working kidneys for transplant, grown from a patient’s own tissue, a more realistic possibility in the future.

Scroll down for video  read more

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New Flu Pill Works in One Day – And You Can’t Have It

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by: Brent Smith at the Common Constitutionalist

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Many of us don’t think much of the flu, other than the warnings on commercials for various remedies, that it’s cold and flu season. It’s never been thought of as a killer disease or affliction.

However, the fact is that Worldwide, the flu has become an epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, “these annual [flu] epidemics to result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 290 000 to 650 000 deaths.”

Up to 650,000 deaths worldwide from an illness, that until recently we’ve put in the same class as the common cold.

But one might say – okay, that’s worldwide, and worldwide means a lot more third world nations with poor healthcare than developed nations. Yes, to some extent this is true, and it skews the curve as it were, but even here in America, influenza kills about 50,000 per year. That’s 137 Americans dying every day. In fact, it’s number eight of the top 10 killer diseases in America – above kidney disease and approaching the same level as number seven, diabetes.

But fear not, for a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Shionogi & Co. has developed a drug that is capable of killing the flu virus in a single day. That’s right – one pill – one day. read more

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New Single Dose Flu Vaccine Works in One Day

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from the Daily Mail:

Experimental flu drug could kill the virus in ONE day – but the medicine won’t be available until next year

A new medicine can rid flu suffers of their symptoms in as little as a day, but the drug will be no good to this year’s epidemic because it won’t be available to the United States until 2019.

Scientists in Japan said they have developed an experimental pill that kills the influenza virus in 24 hours, three times faster than what it takes Tamiflu to rid the virus in sick patients. Tamiflu is one of the most popular drugs to treat people sick with the flu.

Researchers said a late-stage trial on American and Japanese flu patients showed that Shionogi & Co. compound wiped out the virus in as little as a day, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Scientists in Japan developed a new flu drug that is said to kill the virus in 24 hours 

Scientists in Japan developed a new flu drug that is said to kill the virus in 24 hours
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Canada Won’t Help with Hookworm

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Yes, Canadian healthcare is the best!

from The Insurgent:

Warning! Walking barefoot on the beach can be hazardous to your health

But not as hazardous as socialized medicine.

Who doesn’t dream of a romantic, moonlight walk along the beach? Walking barefoot, feeling the sand between your toes. Sounds delightful.

But a couple of weeks ago, a Canadian couple returned from their vacation in the Domincan Republic to discover that the itchiness they were experiencing in their feet was the result of hookworms that they picked up from that barefoot walk on the beach.

According to the CDC: read more