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I’m a respiratory therapist. With the fourth wave of the pandemic in full swing, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant, the trajectory of the patients I see, from admission to critical care, is all too familiar. When they’re vaccinated, their COVID-19 infections most likely end after Stage 1. If only that were the case for everyone. Get vaccinated. If you choose not to, here’s what to expect if you are hospitalized for a serious case of COVID-19. Stage 1. You’ve had debilitating symptoms for a few days, but now it is so hard to breathe that you come to...

In Russia, 30-year-old Valery Spiridonov will be flying to the United States to meet the doctor who plans to perform the world’s first head transplant on him. During the operation, Italian surgeon, Dr. Sergio Canavero, intends to completely remove Spiridonov’s head and reattached it to a healthy body. Spiridonov suffers from a rare form of spinal muscular dystrophy called Werdnig-Hoffman disease. Now, Spiridonov says Canavero will be announcing the plans soon: Today, the 31-year-old is wheelchair reliant due to a muscle-wasting disease, announced his neurosurgeon would explain how the plan was progressing in September. Mr Spiridonov says he is ready...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 6, 2009 FACT SHEET Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Public Health and Medical Sciences The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Public Health and Medical Science. The Memorandum establishes a framework for deeper cooperation between these government institutions, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, scientific research institutions, including those of the Russian Academy of...

SPRINGS, South Africa, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South African researchers have discovered a medication that temporarily arouses patients from a permanent vegetative state.Scientists Ralf Clauss, now practicing nuclear medicine in the UK, and Wally Nel, in family practice in South Africa, found that Zolpidem, an insomnia drug, effectively restored consciousness to three individuals who were all in permanent vegetative states for at least three years before commencing the trial. After administering the drug, which the doctors have been doing every morning for three years, the three individuals all “wake up” to varying degrees, answer simple questions and engage...

April 3, 2006 — The news is being hailed as a medical milestone: Several years after receiving new bladders engineered entirely in a laboratory, seven young patients are all still healthy. It marks the first long-term success of total-organ tissue regeneration, an area of medicine that until now was more the stuff of science fiction than clinical reality. Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, reports in tomorrow's issue of the medical journal The Lancet on the success of the new procedure, which was performed on children born with...

Capsaicin, the compound that gives red pepper its heat, could stop the spread of prostate cancer, claims a new study. Red chilli pepper has previously been linked to inhibiting the growth of pancreatic cancer cells, and has been suggested to cut fat and energy intake when added to the diet. “We show that capsaicin has a profound inhibiting effect on the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo , inducing apoptosis [programmed cell death] of prostate cancer cell lines,” wrote lead author Akio Mori from the University of California, Los Angeles. The new study, published in the...

Genes decide if coffee hurts or helps your heart 21:00 07 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Related Articles Coffee: The demon drink? 24 September 2005 Genetic engineers decaffeinate coffee 18 June 2003 Coffee drinkers have lower diabetes risk 08 November 2002 Search New Scientist Contact us Web Links Caffeine content of common beverages, Mayo Clinic Caffeine, MedlinePlus University of Toronto Journal of the American Medical Association Coffee can raise or reduce your chances of suffering a heart attack – it all depends on your genes, researchers suggest. People with a genetic makeup that causes them to metabolise caffeine...

ROE, MEDICAL SCIENCE, THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT, ROSS PEROT + HILLARY CLINTON by Mia T, 7.27.05 As the John Roberts' Supreme Court nomination fight opens, the predicted battle to save or kill Roe v Wade already has taken to the streets, the Internet and the media. But the 32-year-old constitutional right to an abortion may face its gravest challenge not from red state values triumphing on the Supreme Court, but from medical research being carried out in elite blue state universities and in Europe and Asia.   It is the very language of Roe that carries the seed of its own...

...In short, what do we want from our health-care system? As Americans, we expect it all. We expect: (1) The highest standard of care; (2) continued innovation, and (3) broader access to new technologies at a lower cost. It's possible to achieve two of these three goals. Which, then, can we do without? Will we accept less than optimal care? Will we accept a significant slowdown in medical progress? Will we say, implicitly or explicitly, "80 is long enough for a person to live?".... Some critics contend that the largely private system in the U.S. is more costly and less...

Stem cells have been obtained from a cloned human embryo for the first time by scientists in South Korea. The breakthrough is being seen as a significant step towards growing patients' own replacement tissue to treat degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The team took genetic material from volunteer women and combined it with their eggs. The resulting embryo was then cultured to produce the cells. The experiment - the first published report of cloned human stem cells - means so-called therapeutic cloning is no longer a theory but a reality. Grow-your-own organs Supporters of medical cloning say it can...

A Japanese scientist has developed a coat which appears to make the wearer invisible. The illusion was part of a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at Tokyo University. It is the brainchild of Professor Susumu Tachi who is in the early stage of research he hopes will eventually make camouflaged objects virtually transparent. The photograph was taken through a viewfinder that uses a combination of moving images taken behind the wearer to give a transparent effect. It's hoped the technology will be useful for surgeons frustrated their own hands and surgical tools can block their view of operations and pilots...