Fwd: Google looking for cancer

'Google Inc. is designing tiny magnetic particles to patrol the human body for signs of cancer and other diseases, in the latest example of the Internet giant's sweeping ambition.

 

Google said its nanoparticles, less than one-thousandth the width of a red blood cell, would seek out and attach themselves to cells, proteins or other molecules inside the body. The company also is working on a wearable device with a magnet to attract and count the particles, as a monitoring tool.

 

The goal is to provide an early warning system for cancer and other diseases, with an eye toward more effective treatment.

 

"Every test you ever go to the doctor for will be done through this system," said Andrew Conrad, head of the Life Sciences team at the Google X research lab, who disclosed the project on Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live conference. "That is our dream."'

 

http://online.wsj.com/articles/google-designing-nanoparticles-to-patrol-human-body-for-disease-1414515602

9 Reasons to Fear Ebola

9 Reasons to Fear Ebola

Fwd: Ebola

'The missteps and delays in diagnosis of the Liberian man prompted some states to impose or consider restrictions on travelers coming from the West African countries where the virus has killed nearly 5,000 people.

Responding to concerns that mandatory quarantine would inhibit doctors and nurses from traveling to West Africa, Cuomo said New York wanted to encourage personnel to go, lauding their "valor" and "compassion," while also protecting public safety at home.

"These people are extraordinary for their valor and their courage and their compassion," Cuomo said. "Anything we can do to encourage it, we want to do."

 

He added that New York was not changing the policy announced on Friday.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/27/us-health-ebola-usa-newyork-idUSKBN0IG12920141027

 

10 things candy makers won't tell you

10 things candy makers won't tell you

Food Q&A: Is Canned Fruit Healthy?

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=12961

Canned Fruit: Good or Bad? | Healthy Eats – Food Network Healthy Living Blog

http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2013/10/05/canned-fruit-good-or-bad/

With Fruits and Veggies, More Matters

http://www.m.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/fruits-veggies-more-matters

Vegetable of the Month: Peas

http://www.m.webmd.com/food-recipes/vegetable-month-peas

Canned Fruits, Veggies Healthy, Too

http://www.m.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20070316/canned-fruits-veggies-healthy-too

Fwd: Ebola

Technologies like this allow us to imagine a new form of quarantine. Rather than relying on primitive instruments, indiscriminate profiling or questionnaires, we should consider running a pilot program to test asymptomatic travelers using sensitive P.C.R.-based techniques. Obviously, such technologies are expensive, but the cost is not prohibitive. A typical P.C.R. reaction, including labor, costs between $60 and $200 (we have already spent 100 times more disposing of the contaminated sheets from the home Mr. Duncan stayed in). Since the test takes about a third of the time of a trans-Atlantic flight, the flight would become the quarantine.

 

Huge logistical questions would need to be solved. Where would such a screening test be administered — before departure from West Africa, or upon landing? Could we imagine a walking quarantine in which travelers were granted provisional entry, but recalled if they tested positive? What infection precautions would need to be in place for such testing? What forms of consent would be required? Who would bear the costs? Who exactly would be tested?'

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/opinion/how-to-quarantine-against-ebola.html?_r=0

 

The Best And Worst Countries In The World For Eating

The Best And Worst Countries In The World For Eating

UN Ebola chief raises 'nightmare' prospect that virus could mutate and become airborne

UN Ebola chief raises 'nightmare' prospect that virus could mutate and become airborne

Fwd: Ebola

'Dr. Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, a specialist in treating Ebola, sounded the alarm today on CNN about how ill-prepared U.S. customs is when dealing with visitors from Ebola-stricken areas.

 

MacGregor-Skinner, an ‎Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State University, International Development Consultant, told Jake Tapper about how dangerous Ebola is.

 

    "When my team was in Nigeria and we were treating Ebola patients the first thing they said to me was 'Should we tell the truth?' 'Yeah when you come back we're telling the truth.'

 

    As we flew out of Nigeria I had my temperature taken and I was interviewed twice. As I came through Germany I had my temperature taken I was interviewed and questions were asked 'Where have you been? What have you done?'

 

    When I got back to Washington D.C. I said 'I've been working with Ebola patients." I was told 'Welcome back. Off you go!' No one took my temperature. No one asked me any questions. So we told the truth. There was no process, there was no program here to make sure we were OK."'

 

http://gotnews.com/video-ebola-doc-one-asked-questions-dc-customs/

But the system has its limits, relying on the traveler to reveal whether he or she has been exposed. And it leaves it to local officials to conduct the screening as they see fit, Dr. Cohen said. It is unclear how consistently or effectively those screenings are conducted across West Africa, and Dr. Cohen said she did not know how many potential travelers had been caught by screeners — if any.

 

"Our expectation is that people who are sick or people who are exposed should be getting the message they shouldn't be traveling."'

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/us/man-in-us-with-ebola-had-been-screened-to-fly-but-system-is-spotty.html?_r=0

 

Fwd: Ebola

'U.S. health officials said on Tuesday the first patient infected with the deadly Ebola virus had been diagnosed in the country after flying from Liberia to Texas, in a new sign of how the outbreak ravaging West Africa can spread globally.

 

The patient sought treatment six days after arriving in Texas on Sept. 20, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters on Tuesday. He was admitted two days later to an isolation room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

 

U.S. health officials and lawmakers have been bracing for the eventuality that a patient would arrive on U.S. shores undetected, testing the preparedness of the nation's healthcare system.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/30/us-health-ebola-usa-idUSKCN0HP2F720140930

Fwd: Ebola

'Sierra Leone on Thursday took the dramatic step of sealing off districts where more than 1 million people live as it and other West African countries struggle to control the Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.

 

With three new districts under quarantine, about one-third of Sierra Leone's 6 million people are now living in areas where their movements are heavily restricted. In parts of Sierra Leone and in neighboring Liberia where these cordons have been used in this outbreak, food prices have soared, some markets have shut and the delivery of goods has slowed.'

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/sierra-leone-ebola-travel_n_5880986.html

 

 

Eyeball injections equal eye-popping profits

http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2014/08/14/eylea-regeneron-eyeball-injections-eye-popping-profits.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=V_Taboola

Lithium in Drinking Water

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/should-we-all-take-a-bit-of-lithium.html

Fwd: Diabetes

'Researchers have developed a way to use a laser to measure people's blood sugar, and, with more work to shrink the laser system to a portable size, the technique could allow diabetics to check their condition without pricking themselves to draw blood. In a new article, the researchers describe how they measured blood sugar by directing their specialized laser at a person's palm.'

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140821141610.htm

... We live in interesting times.

 

ALS

Although respiratory support can ease problems with breathing and prolong survival, it does not affect the progression of ALS. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, usually within three to five years from the onset of symptoms. The median survival time from onset to death is around 39 months, and only 4% survive longer than 10 years. Physicist Stephen Hawking has lived with the disease for more than 50 years, though he is an unusual case.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis

 

Fwd: Aging

'There's a good reason people over 60 are not donor candidates for
bone marrow transplantation. The immune system ages and weakens with
time, making the elderly prone to life-threatening infection and other
maladies, and a UC San Francisco research team now has discovered a
reason why.


"We have found the cellular mechanism responsible for the inability of
blood-forming cells to maintain blood production over time in an old
organism, and have identified molecular defects that could be restored
for rejuvenation therapies," said Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD, a
professor of medicine and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center
of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. Passegué, an
expert on the stem cells that give rise to the blood and immune
system, led a team that published the new findings online July 30,
2014 in the journal Nature.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/uoc--kta073014.php