<![CDATA[io9: Mad Medicine]]> http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: Mad Medicine]]> http://io9.com/tag/mad medicine http://io9.com/tag/mad medicine <![CDATA[Eighth grade dance marathon used to test the dangers of heavy metal headbanging]]> Medical science is finally paying attention to the injury risks of headbanging...only 25 years too late. They did it in the most scientifically rigorous way possible: by studying how many headbanging eighth graders got whiplash after dancing to heavy metal. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5615159&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Do you suffer from sexsomnia? You're not alone.]]> It's one of the most common, and most poorly understood, sleep disorders. Sexsomniacs have sex with bedmates in their sleep, or sometimes while sleep walking. Now a new study sheds light on the phenomenon. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5556935&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Drug That Manipulates Retroviruses To Fight Cancer]]> A potential therapy for cancer already lurks in our own genes. Chunks of ancient viruses lie embedded in the human genome. Administer just one protein to cancer cells and these built-in viruses go hyperactive, eventually killing the cell. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5512257&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Man Thought to Be in a 23-Year Coma Was Conscious the Whole Time]]> It's a nightmarish medical scenario: a man spent 23 years paralyzed but conscious while his doctors believed he was in a vegetative state. And his situation might be more common than we'd like to think. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5411568&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Biotech Company Sued for Accidentally Growing Extra Bones In People's Bodies]]> A company called Stryker Biotech was in court last week defending a bone-growth product it sold for years, despite reports that it would "drift" in the body, causing bones to grow in random locations. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5397263&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Handheld Device Electrifies Your Breast Tissue, Diagnoses Cancer Risk]]> Soon, you could be determining your breast cancer risk with a simple needle jab, to collect a small amount of tissue — which doctors would electrify and subject to weird chemicals, before extracting the estrogen for analysis. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5376516&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Woman Gets a Tooth Implanted In Her Eye To Cure Blindness]]> A woman, blind for 9 years, can see again after doctors performed a rare surgery where her own tooth was inserted into eye. How does this procedure work? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5362073&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Strange Case of Seizures That Turned a Woman Into a Man]]> Researchers report an odd case in the latest issue of Epilepsy & Behavior. Whenever their patient had an epileptic seizure, she thought she'd become male - and that other women near her had turned into men too. What caused it? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5351169&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Perfecting Closed-Skull Brain Surgery]]> Although surgeries that involve nary a slice or a stitch have heretofore been limited to science fiction, doctors in Switzerland announced that they've successfully performed closed-skull brain surgery on 9 patients using only sound waves. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5324954&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Is Stem Cell Tourism About To Go Legit?]]> It's medical tourism's bleeding edge: people traveling to countries with no stem cell bans. Last year, a boy went to Russia for stem cell injections in his brain – he got only tumors. Is this the future of medical innovation? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5303061&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Is Your Doctor Exposing You to Too Much Radiation?]]> A new study released this week shows that medical imaging scans expose patients to seven times more radiation than they did twenty years ago. Could a scan for cancer actually be giving you cancer? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5164347&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Several Mysterious Human Placentas Found in Illinois Sewer System]]> Sanitation workers in the Illinois town of Urbana-Champaign have been finding human placentas clogging up the drainage system several times in the last month. Placentas are temporary organs women grow while pregnant to nourish fetuses. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5162582&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Heal Your Wounds with Lasers]]> We're one step closer to Star Trek's medical tricorder. Doctors say they've successfully used a new laser technology that closes wounds by inspiring torn tissues to grow back together at a rapid clip. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5151559&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Viagra Is the Latest Bioweapon in the CIA's Arsenal]]> Today CIA officials have admitted that one way they secure loyalty in hard-to-penetrate regions like rural Afghanistan is to bribe people with Viagra. Covert operators have often used trinkets and sex as a way to loosen the tongues of possible informants, but Viagra is a new twist. Not surprisingly it works particularly well among older male tribal leaders in Afghanistan, who can have up to four wives. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5118858&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Sinus Infection? Try Marijuana!]]> Good news and bad news, pot smokers. Marijuana contains highly-effective antibiotics that could be the key to stopping antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But unfortunately if you smoke the stuff, you become more vulnerable to infection — probably due to smoke damage in your lungs. Nevertheless, your prescription for medical marijuana just got a lot more useful. New research confirms that molecules found in pot called cannabanoids are powerful antibiotics. According to Environmental Graffiti:
Scientists studying cannabis related antibiotics were now able to pinpoint the basic backbone structure that is common to all cannabanoids, to be the active component in killing off bacteria. Now that the bio-active section of the cannabanoid molecules has been identified, researchers and drug makers are busy developing and testing antibiotic drugs as well as considering potential uses for cannabanoids in various soaps and cleaning products. At present they are focusing their efforts on the derivatives of the non-psychoactive cannabanoids. This is presumably because the US FDA, and other governing bodies world-wide, might have a hard time with people getting high in order to cure a bacterial infection.
But aren't people with really bad infections the ones who are most in need of a good high? I mean, think about it. When you're sick, you're usually so out of it that all you can do is sit on the couch and watch all the episodes of True Blood stored on your DVR. Wouldn't a nice buzz make that experience better in every possible way? How Cannabis Could Save Your Life [via Environmental Graffiti] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5063442&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Cure for Progeria, the Disease that Makes Children Die of Old Age]]> One in every 4 million children suffers from a genetic disorder called progeria that causes them to age prematurely — developing wrinkled skin and baldness before the age of 10, and usually dying of heart disease or stroke by puberty. The disease has always intrigued researchers interested in unlocking the genetic key to aging. Now it looks like a group of geneticists at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland may have found a drug that can reverse the effects of heart disease caused by premature aging. In an article published today, the team also suggests that this could have ramifications for adults with heart disease too. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5059775&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Simple Chemical Treatment that Kills Hunger Pangs Forever]]> The ability to suppress hunger is a holy grail for many obesity researchers — as well as people who want to lose large amounts of weight. And now it looks as if a group of scientists at Johns Hopkins have figured out a non-invasive way to lower appetite by preventing the body from manufacturing the "hunger hormone" ghrelin. They do it by chemically vaporizing a blood vessel that feeds the top section of your stomach, called the fundus. As long as it's nourished with a steady blood supply, the fundus makes about 90 percent of your body's ghrelin. Once researchers use sodium morrhuate to dissolve the blood vessels that feed the fundus, your hunger aches will disappear. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5050377&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Possible Cure for Ebola Could Revolutionize Antivirals]]> Ebola is the poster virus for outbreak scares because it spreads extremely fast and kills 90 percent of its victims by causing them to bleed uncontrollably. Featured in science-scare book The Hot Zone and countless cheesy movies, Ebola is considered ripe for development into a bio-weapon. But now it seems that a group of U.S. researchers may be on the fast track to a cure. In an article published online today in PLoS Pathogens, they explain that they've discovered how Ebola viruses trick their way into cells, and have a drug that can stop this process in its tracks. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5045185&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Wearing the Face of a Stranger]]> It's hard to imagine living with a severe facial deformity, but what about living your life with someone else's face? Until recently, victims of severe facial trauma or burns have had little recourse beyond often ineffective skin grafts. But this week, doctors have declared two face transplants long-term successes. Caution: The photo after the jump shows a facial wound. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041736&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Prosthetic Limbs that Fuse with Your Skeleton]]> Your next prosthetic arm will be almost as good as the one you were born with: It will fuse with your existing skeleton. Veterinarians at North Carolina State University have developed a technique for attaching prosthetic limbs directly to the underlying bone structure in the remaining limb portion. Called "osseointegrated prosthetics," these limbs knit themselves with the patient's bone, allowing more for natural movement and avoiding some of the problems of "strap-on" prosthetics. A German Shepherd named Cassidy was the first canine patient to receive an osseointegrated prosthetic, and the researchers feel advances in fabrication and materials will allow them to shift the technology to humans in the near future. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5030285&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Now You Have an Even Better Excuse to Snarf Ritalin]]> It turns out that there's a valid medical reason for your burning urge to eat huge piles of Ritalin in order to feel speedy, erm I mean, increase your powers of concentration. According to a new study, doctors have increasingly been diagnosing ADHD in young adults over the age of 12, despite the fact that attention deficit disorder is traditionally found in kids around age 7. Could it be that ADHD is sweeping the entire human population, becoming an adult problem as well as something that afflicts hyperactive elementary school kids? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5028406&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[In 30 Years, Artificial Wombs Mean No More Abortions]]> When you ask scientists to predict the future, they don't scrimp on the weirdness. A recent article in Nature included predictions from a number of researchers asked to speculate about how humans will reproduce in 30 years. Scott Gelfland of the Ethics Center at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater said he thought the development of artificial wombs might be a boon to the religious right. He imagined that states could pass laws mandating that every aborted fetus be brought to term in artificial wombs. Gelfland had no predictions about who would raise the babies after they were born. [Nature] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5026586&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Rare Disease Bonding is the New Social Connector]]> If you're sick of bonding with people over Scrabulous and superpokes and pop music, then maybe it's time to migrate to a social network where the only thing people have in common are their rare diseases. Rareshare.org is a new social network like MySpace which is totally devoted to connecting people who have the same rare diseases. As the internet enables more self-diagnosing and self-medicating, I suspect that Rareshare will become a source for (legal) drug-swapping as well as strange disease fetishists. Also, it's probably a great idea for those of you looking to find other people with Morgellons or chemtrail-related ailments. [Rareshare] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5025022&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Autism Genes Are Linked to Early Learning]]> Most studies of autism link it to genetics. The condition is often referred to as the "geek syndrome" because some studies have shown a high incidence of autism in areas like California's Silicon Valley, where highly technical people are having children together. Scientific studies have backed up the idea that autism is genetic, identifying several genes that seem implicated in the disorder. Now a new study has revealed that many of the genes associated with autism are — luckily — ones whose functioning can be modified in early childhood. Autism genes are associated with early learning and are essentially designed to be reprogrammed — so, given the right learning environment, children born with autism could rewire their brains and be spared the worst effects of this disorder. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5024596&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Johns Hopkins Seeks Volunteers to Take Magic Mushrooms]]> A recent study showed that taking psilocybin (magic mushrooms) creates a sense of well-being, and now Johns Hopkins University is following up on that study. Researchers at Johns Hopkins medical school are investigating whether taking psilocybin can help cancer patients who are feeling defeated and unhappy. And they're looking to recruit people to take shrooms for the study right now. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5024499&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Sheep Dialysis Machine: Are Pets the Medical Devices of the Future?]]> Using animals to grow human body parts has been done, but how about using a live sheep for dialysis? The idea comes from one design student Revital Cohen. The project she's calling "Life Support" seeks to use a sheep whose genome has been spliced with a human to produce human blood. The transgenic sheep then becomes a dialysis machine for diabetes patients, filtering their blood as it frolics in pastures during the day, then gets needles shoved in its head each night. Adorable! More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5022944&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spray-on Skin Coming to a Drugstore Near You]]> When it comes to regneration, the salamander is nature's gold standard. Scientists have studied the animals for years trying to figure out how they regrow tails, legs, and even eyes, but despite a few baby steps, they've made little progress. Now a new raft of technologies promises to catapult human healing power into the same league as the amphibians. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5019412&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Carbon Nanotubes Cook Cancer]]> The world needs new ways of murdering cancer cells, and scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have delivered. Their weapon? The much-hyped carbon nanotube, which apart from being electrically conductive, able to be woven into stronger-than-steel fabrics, and just all-around awesome, also happens to useful as an anti-cancer smart missile. By attaching the tubes to an antibody that searches out cancers and binds to it, nanotech expert Pavitra Chakravarty and her colleagues found a way to deliver nanotubes to the cancer. Just about the only thing the tubes appear incapable of is carrying a warhead, though, so researchers fired near-infrared light at the tubes, heating them up until they cooked the cancer into oblivion. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5017054&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Organ Ambulances in New York Wait for Dead Bodies to Dismember]]> If you ever need to call an ambulance in New York City, you might get more than you bargained for. Two ambulances to be precise; one to help keep you alive, and one to harvest your organs, in case you don't make it. Given the organ shortage out there in America — apparently 18 people die a day because they couldn't get someone else's fresh flesh — this is definitely a good cause, but having an extra set of paramedics hanging around waiting for you to die so they can dismember you is a little creepy. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=395488&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Synthetic Replacement Veins Will Make You a Cardiovascular Cyborg]]> Next-gen cyborgs will have human blood flowing through artificial veins (pictured), and their organs will be grown in a lab to act just like real organs, only better, stronger, faster. We have the technology. The next time someone you know gets a coronary bypass, they might come out of the operation as a cyborg. In fact, there is a new field of biotech whose practitioners are calling themselves cyborg engineers. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5013274&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Ingestible Robots Survey Your Esophagus, Stomach, and Intestines]]> Your body will soon be teeming with tiny robots. Last year, robotics researchers managed to guide micro-robots through a pig's bloodstream using a magnetic field from an MRI machine (just a dry run before the bots infest us humans). Now scientists have invented a camera-bot you can swallow that will slide down your gastrointestinal tract, pausing to take pictures along the way. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=394977&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Implantable Wi-Fi network Invented, Dennis Quaid Flies Into Jealous Rage]]> It's been 21 years since Dennis Quaid pioneered the field of implantable communications technology by sending traveler's dispatches from inside Martin Short's body (and briefly Meg Ryan's too, hubba hubba!) in Innerspace. Now, Dennis, it seems you've been outdone. The UK's Office of Communications has just issued a report describing tests underway on a Bluetooth wireless sensor network that gets implanted inside people's bodies to monitor their vital signs and automatically alert the paramedics in case they collapse or have a heart attack, according to the Times of London. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=388340&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Robot Surgeons to put Human Docs out of Work]]> The next time you have to go under the knife, a robot may be doing the cutting. Engineers at Duke University are pushing the envelope of cutting edge surgery with a robot arm they've built that can perform simple procedures all by itself. The system guides itself using 3-d ultrasound imaging as its eyes, and has shown it can accurately guide two needle probes through tissue in a simulated biopsy and blood vessel graft. The bot's still in its experimental phase, but ultrasound specialist Stephen Smith and his research team believe the day is near when robots will autonomously conduct surgery without the need for human guidance. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=387848&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Ketamine Makes a Good Anti-Depressant]]> At first blush, you want to chuck this in the "no-kidding-that's-why-it's-abused" department. But the horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic pleasure drug ketamine may have found a clinical home next to Prozac. A serious study by people smarter than most of us suggests ketamine ("Special K" to friends and close acquaintances) restores normal activity in an area of the brain that's usually in overdrive in people with diagnosed clinical depression. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=386973&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Meet McSleepy, the World's First Robot Anesthesiologist]]> Anesthesiologists are required to participate in every surgery, standing by to administer drugs and monitor the patient's vital signs while surgeons do their jobs. But now a group of researchers at Montreal's McGill University have invented a device that could replace human anesthesiologists with robots in the next five years. An anesthesia bot called McSleepy has just successfully completed its first surgery, administering drugs to a patient undergoing a tumor removal on his kidney. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=386691&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Regrowing Fingers Using Pig Bladders]]> Lee Spievak regrew his fingers from powdered big bladders. While tinkering with his model airplane two years ago, Spievak accidently sliced a half inch off of the middle finger on his right hand — nail and all — in the propeller. Doctors told him he'd never get it back, but his brother Alan sent him some powder derived from a pig bladder. Spievak rubbed the powder on the stub every day for a month and the finger grew back. In four months, the nail was also back, fully formed (pictured). Find out how below. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=386242&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Nanoparticles Causing Heart Attacks, Kidney Stones?]]> And you thought the nanotoxic gym socks were bad. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine have found nanoparticles in kidney stones, gall stones, and in the hardened arteries which can lead to heart attacks. All of these conditions are caused by calcium build up, and researchers believe nanoparticles may be the seeds that set the calcium deposits growing. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376643&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Stick Your Severed Spine Back Together with a New Biochemical Gel]]> Severed spines may not mean paralysis for much longer. Inject a special gel into mice with severed spinal cords and six weeks later the mice are back on their feet. It's a pretty neat trick, one that scientists at Northwestern accomplish by impregnating the gel with biochemical signals that hinder the growth of scar tissue and promote growth of myelin, the sheath that protects nerve cells and fosters their growth. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376151&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Woman Gives Birth to Her Own Kidney]]> Got kidney cancer? Any non-functioning organs you want to get rid of? If you have a vagina, you're in luck because doctors have discovered a new use for it beyond pleasure and procreation. It's called Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopy Surgery (NOTES) and it means that doctors can magically pull your own kidney, appendix, or other annoying internal body part out through your vagina, or if you prefer, your mouth. Find out more about this bizarre new organ-removal method below. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=375253&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Injecting Your Breasts with Nanoparticles to Detect Cancer]]> Next time you need to get tested for breast cancer, doctors may blast a few of your cells with nanoparticles and then run a small magnetic device over them. The device, pictured here, is called a HistoMag, and it can detect cancer cells with far greater accuracy than current techniques, as well as being much faster. Could this increase survival rates for breast cancer, while also eliminating the need for those awful, uncomfortable mammograms? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=363838&view=rss&microfeed=true