Four year old Wu Xiaotian has breathing problems that are linked to air pollution.
A boy in China has a chronic cough and stuffy nose that began last year at the age of 3. When smog across northern China surged to record levels this winter his symptoms worsened. Now he needs his sinuses cleared every night with saltwater piped through a machine’s tubes.
Continue reading… “Air pollution is radically changing childhood in China”
Giving up reading the news will make you happier.
Some of us have learned to recognize the hazards of living with an overabundance of food and have started to change our diets. But, did you know that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body? The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike things that require thinking like reading books and long magazine articles, we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-colored candies for the mind. Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food. We are beginning to recognize how toxic news can be.
We totally get why women are living long, happy lives in Hawaii.
It should not be a surprise to anyone that you’re less likely to be depressed there than anywhere else in America when you live in a tropical island paradise like Hawaii.
The smartphone-enabled checkup will actually improve doctor-patient relationships.
Can you imagine a comprehensive, clinically relevant well-patient checkup using only smartphone-based devices? The data obtained during the checkup is immediately readable and fully uploadable to an electronic health record. The patient understands – and even participates – in the interaction far beyond faking a cough and gulping a deep breath.
Continue reading… “The smartphone physical: Medical checkups of the future”
Our breathprint could be used to detect signature metabolites associated with disease.
Our fingerprints are unique to us, but so may be our breath. Compounds in exhaled air produce a unique and stable molecular autograph or “breathprint” – one that could be used to monitor disease or track response to medication.
Continue reading… “Breathprint could one day be used to help diagnose disease”
Facing the aging of the baby boom generation, the U.S. is unprepared for the coming surge in the cost and cases of dementia.
How much does it cost to care for American’s with dementia? A new study has found that the financial burden is at least as high as that of heart disease or cancer, and it may be even higher. And both the costs and the number of people with dementia will more than double within 30 years, skyrocketing at a rate that rarely occurs with a chronic disease.
Continue reading… “Cost of dementia care in the U.S. will double by 2040”
A little dirt never hurt anyone.
Scientific research suggests that all the antibacterial-wiping, germ-killing cleanliness of the developed world may actually be making us more prone to getting sick — and that a little more dirt might help us stay healthier in the long run.
Continue reading… “Excessive cleanliness may be making us sick”
Joe Landolina pictured on the far left created Veti-Gel.
Twenty-year-old New York University student Joe Landolina is working toward an MS in Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials. While trying to get a degree, he has created a gel called “Veti-Gel” that instantly stops bleeding wounds and starts the healing process. (Video)
Continue reading… “College student creates Veti-Gel that instantly stops bleeding wounds”
Wearable health devices are playing an enormous role in this revolution by helping track your metrics passively.
Swissnex San Francisco explored the topic of Big Data and Health Devices together with The Hive, a Silicon Valley Big Data incubator on March 6th. Roger Magoulas (Director of Research at O’Reilly Media), Ian Blumenfeld (Data Scientist and Co-Founder of InSample), and Rachel Kalmar (Data Scientist at Misfit Wearables) talked about how data science is transforming healthcare, and how we can improve our health by using devices and better analyzing the metrics we track. (videos)
Fewer that one in ten people were obese up until 1980. In 2010, 35% of the American people were classified as obese.
Every month, 14 million Americans get a disability check.
The number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed in the past thirty years. Medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled, but disability is still on the rise. Fourteen million people now get a disability check from the government every month.
Continue reading… “The startling rise in disability in the US: 14 million Americans can’t work”
Kids drinking low-fat milk tended to be heavier.
Parenting toddlers is not an easy job. Consider the 2-year-old to-do list: Get tantrums under control. Potty train. Transition from whole milk to low-fat milk.
Continue reading… “Whole milk linked to slimmer kids: Study”