Federally-funded Grand Challenges Canada announced seed funding Sept. 22 for 22 projects submitted by innovators worldwide and designed to improve child and maternal health in the developing world. Examples include: A snack produced from rice bran waste in the Philippines to combat child iron deficiency; A technique for safely storing vaccines at room temperature by […]
Tag: medicine
Lab-grown cells could help combat heart diseases
For the first time, researchers have grown a type of heart cell called an epicardial cell from stem cells in the lab, an accomplishment that could help in developing new treatments for heart disease. Epciardial cells form a protective membrane around the adult heart, and during fetal life provide a source of specialized structural cells […]
‘Stem cell factory’ could help treat blood disorders
Researchers have identified a molecule that causes the stem cells found in cord blood to multiply into more stem cells. Umbilical cord blood can be used to treat genetic and blood cell formation disorders, including leukemia, but the small number of blood stem cells in this kind of blood limits its widespread use. Researchers have […]
Better care coordination, fewer emergency visits
Patients with chronic conditions other than mental illness are less likely to be admitted to hospital if their care is co-ordinated, a metanalysis shows. This review of the literature also shows that among the elderly, such strategies decreased emergency department use by 31 per cent. Care coordination happens when physicians stop being the sole care provider, […]
‘Vegetative’ patient follows the plot of an Hitchcock movie
Some patients thought to be in a vegetative state can have conscious experiences similar to healthy people, a new study shows. Researchers used fMRI to record the brain activity of 2 brain-injured patients and 12 healthy participants while they watched a 8-minute clip of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One of the brain-injured patients, a man […]
How to have sex without hurting your back
Contrary to popular belief, spooning is not always the best sex position for those with a bad back. Using infrared and electromagnetic motion capture systems – like those used in the creation of video games – scientists tracked how 10 couples’ spines moved when attempting five common sex positions. They found that sex positions that are […]
Long term use of pills for anxiety and sleep problems and Alzheimer’s
Prolonged use of benzodiazepines, drugs useful to treat anxiety and insomnia, is linked to higher risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a new study indicates. Researchers looked at the benzodiazepine drug use in 1,796 elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease living in Quebec and compared them to a control group of elderly without diagnosed cognitive problems. They […]
Physicians in Canada 2013
How many doctors are currently practising in Canada and how much are they getting paid? How many of them received their medical training outside of Canada? Are more women entering the physician workforce? A new CIHI report, available upon request, tackles these questions. Original report published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) on September 9, 2014.
22 ideas for improving health in the developing world
The Government of Canada, through Grand Challenges Canada, announces seed funding Sept. 8 for 22 projects submitted by innovators worldwide and designed to improve health in the developing world. Examples include: A device that converts sound into symbols for display on Google Glass, a tablet or laptop, captioning conversations in real-time for deaf people A […]
Experimental drug reverses Ebola in monkeys
A new study reports that treatment with the experimental antibody “cocktail” known as ZMapp resulted in recovery in 100% of the 18 rhesus macaques treated with the drug, even when initiated up to five days after infection. This experimental therapy still requires safety testing in humans, but these results indicate that it could be a […]
Antidepressants during pregnancy may be linked to ADHD in kids
A new study finds that exposure to antidepressants in the womb may be linked to an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the researchers caution that the risks of depressed mothers-to-be stopping their medication may be greater for the unborn child than the increased risk of developing ADHD associated with continuing […]
RNA research could lead to tailored prostate cancer treatment
New genetic research could help doctors predict which treatments will work best for a given prostate cancer patient. Researchers sequenced the RNA – molecules that tell them which genes are being expressed – from tumours in 25 prostate cancer patients. They then cross-referenced the RNA data detailed follow-up information, including reactions to different therapies. They […]
Marijuana legalization linked to lower overdose rates
U.S. states that implemented medical marijuana laws appear to have lower overdose death rates from prescription painkillers and drugs such as heroin, a new study shows. The authors examined ten states (Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont) which enacted medical cannabis laws between 1999 and 2010 and compared […]
MERS-CoV: Marmosets get sick like humans
Researchers have found that marmosets could be used as an animal model to study the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, also known as MERS-CoV. They observed that marmosets carry the same variant of a cell surface protein (DPP4) that MERS-CoV uses to invade human cells. This means that marmosets infected by MERS-CoV get as sick […]
Ancient tuberculosis may have come from seals
Tuberculosis was already present in the Americas before European contact, and new research indicates that some strains may have arrived via an unusual route; seals and sea lions. Researchers have now sequenced the genomes of three strains of tuberculosis from 1000-year-old mummies from Peru. The strains are genetically very different from the European strains that […]
How gut bacteria train our immune system
A new study helps shed light on which beneficial bacteria are needed to help train our immune system. Newborn mice were treated with vancomycin or streptomycin, two antibiotics that each kill certain species of gut bacteria but leave others relatively unaffected. Those treated with streptomycin were much more likely to develop a lung condition that […]
