Daily Archives: 29/09/2017

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rocket Could Fly You Anywhere On Earth In Under An Hour

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Elon Musk might be determined to travel to Mars, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about closer to home.

The SpaceX founder has revealed that the Interplanetary Transport System spacecraft could actually be used to travel around Earth and could in theory, take you anywhere on the planet in under an hour.

SpaceX

Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Musk explained that the ITS would be attached to SpaceX’s new BFR (which stands for exactly what you think it does) and could propel passengers to most of the world in under 30 minutes and the rest of the globe in under an hour.

If you’re thinking that this is just a new and exciting way for the super rich to get from A to B you’re going to be sorely mistaken.

Musk claims that the cost would be around the same as a full-fare economy ticket.

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As you can see from the promotional video above, the BFR detaches after doing the heavy lifting and lands itself back on the launchpad. The ITS then carries on with its journey and lands just 39 minutes later.

Musk’s vision of course extends beyond Earth, and the Interplanetary Transport System will be the flagship that he believes can take humans to Mars.

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Augmenting Our Mental Health

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This week I had the privilege of joining some of the country’s foremost mental health practitioners at Mayden’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT Connect 2017) conference to hear about the latest trends and practice in this increasingly high profile area. There were the leading lights in commissioning, delivery and policy, from both the adult and children and young people (CYP) spheres of mental health.

As a layman, it was both enlightening and humbling to meet the people at the sharp end of what many describe as a ‘Cinderella Service.’ There were of course harrowing stories from the perspective of mental health service users and those who treat them.

But what really struck me was how forward looking the delegates were in terms of technology. Doing a fair amount of work in the field of Artificial Intelligence currently, I must admit I was not expecting AI and augmented reality to be on the agenda of those working with mental health patients. But what do I know, apparently!

This part of our nation’s health service isn’t bogged down in the common debates on pay, staffing, budgets, and reform (though they had all of course read Simon Stevens’ Five Year Forward View). They were instead passionately focused on wielding the technology at our disposal to manage people’s conditions in new ways.

Chaise longue are old hat in psychology now, Minecraft and Pokémon Go are in. I’m not being facetious, gaming is now a genuine, credible avenue for exploring new approaches to mental health. We were shown a fascinating example of a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) programme that gives the user an avatar to interact with issues in a fantasy world which allows them to overcome their personal challenges in a safe space. But this wasn’t about replacing human interaction with gadgets and games, nor was it about working with more patients using less people. It was about using tools to augment/complement the work of more conventional face-to-face therapy.

We heard of a case of an individual with acute autism who could not cross bridges, but practicing on a Virtual Reality version allowed them to overcome their fear. Crossing a bridge may sound trivial to you and I, but to this individual it was life changing. Another touching case was of children who would struggle to leave their houses due to crippling anxiety, who then found a new lease for the outdoors at the prospect of rounding up a 100+ Pokémon.

What became an increasingly clear part of the picture was that these strides had come partly due to the new generation of professionals entering the sector. Not only were they new, enthusiastic and un-jaded, many were of a millennial generation who have grown up with computing, apps, ‘tech’, as part of their daily lives. It is perhaps therefore no surprise that they are exploring ways to use that tech to do their jobs differently and better.

It seems that our other public services may have a lot to learn from Cinderella.

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Health24.com | Is it OK to use older blood for transfusions?

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In April 2017 it was reported that the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) was facing a serious shortage of type O blood, with just over a day and a half’s supply in its banks across the country.

The current blood stock at SANBS is enough for 2.2 days, the major shortage still being type O blood.

It was once believed that fresh red blood cells were best suited for transfusions. But a new Australian study has added to the evidence that older blood is just as good, if not better.

Using older red blood cells in transfusions to critically ill patients doesn’t appear to increase their risk of dying, Australian researchers report.

A little older, a little better

“Red blood cells for transfusion for critically ill patients are like a good red wine – a little older, a little better,” said researcher Dr Jamie Cooper. He is professor and director of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre at Monash University in Melbourne.

Study co-author Alistair Nichol added that a lot of inadequate research had suggested that fresher blood would be better to use in critically ill patients. Nichol is an associate professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.

The report was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the presentation of the study findings at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine meeting in Vienna, Austria.

The current practice is safe

The current practice is to use the oldest available blood, Nichol said. Red blood cells can be stored for up to 42 days, the researchers noted.

“But due to concerns about the use of older blood, some blood banks had been reducing the age of the blood they transfuse,” Nichol said. Reducing the age of blood for transfusions, however, may result in more blood shortages, he pointed out.

“The current practice is safe and doctors no longer need to try and get the freshest available blood for their patients,” Nichol said. He added that using newer blood to give transfusions to critically ill patients may be harmful.

Small difference in death figures

From November 2012 through December 2016, the researchers randomly assigned nearly 5 000 critically ill patients to receive blood transfusions with either newer or older blood. The patients were from 59 medical centres in five countries – Australia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Newer blood had been stored for an average of 11 days, while older blood was about 22 days old.

Ninety days after the transfusion, 24.8% of patients who received newer blood died, while 24.1% of those who had received older blood died, the findings showed.

After six months, the difference in deaths between those who received newer or older blood remained less than 1%.

According to Dr Edward Murphy, a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, these findings are consistent with other recent studies. “To my mind, the issue is settled that there is not a significant difference in outcomes related to how you store the blood cells,” Murphy said. “It’s reassuring that there is no difference.”

Image credit: iStock 

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Health24.com | This explains why you get clots in your period blood

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Just because you’ve been getting a period every month, give or take, since puberty doesn’t mean that you have it all figured out.

For example, why on earth do you sometimes have large, dark clumps of jelly sticking to your menstrual pad or tampon? Shouldn’t menstruation blood be more of a liquid than a jam?

Well, just like blood running throughout your body can clot, so can your period blood. But while a clot in your leg can be ominous, clots in periods are completely normal and generally nothing to worry about.

Why are there clots in period blood?

Susan Wysocki, a nurse practitioner and board member of the American Sexual Health Association, explains, “Our bodies are engineered in a way that blood, with the help of internal chemicals, clots so that we don’t bleed to death.”

Typically, anti-coagulants released by the body during menstruation fend off period clots. But sometimes, especially if you have a heavy flow, not all of your uterine tissue is able to be broken down, which leads to clots forming and being released during menstruation.

These clots are typically red or dark in colour and appear during the heaviest days of a woman’s period.

Read more: How to tell the difference between period blood and spotting

Do all women get period clots?

In short, no. “It really depends on individual chemistry and whether they have a heavy or light period,” Wysocki says.

It also isn’t unusual to experience clots sporadically throughout your years of menstruation. Interestingly enough, women might notice period clots during the first and last years of their periods.

“It’s not unusual for women to have heavy, heavy bleeding during puberty”, which could likely involve clotting, Wysocki says.

On the other end of the spectrum are peri-menopausal women, whose ovulation and menstruation are beginning to occur further apart. When they finally do start bleeding, their periods might be heavier than they’re used to and contain clots.

Read more: What your period blood consistency says about your health

What does this mean for your health?

Usually period clots are nothing to worry about. But in some cases, it can be a sign of a bigger medical problem.

According to Wysocki, it’s possible a sudden change could be due to a miscarriage, disease, or infection. (Although in these cases, clotting would probably be accompanied by pain and other symptoms.)

Clot-filled periods could also be a sign of uterine fibroids, or small, non-cancerous growths in the uterus that a study out of the Women’s Hospital of Birmingham found will be experienced by 70% of women before they turn 50.

Read more: Here’s why you should always masturbate on your period

When should you see a doctor?

There are some instances when you should talk to a medical professional. For example, clotting that’s accompanied by weakness and fatigue could be a sign of anaemia, a condition in which your body doesn’t produce enough red blood cells to carry oxygen.

Wysocki also says that teens who experience heavy, clot-filled periods which leave them pale and light-headed should consult a doctor to rule out von Willebrand disease (VWD), a condition that prevents blood from clotting properly. (She says women typically discover if they have VWD during adolescence due to how annoying and disruptive the periods are.)

Wysocki also notes that women should also consult a professional if they notice a sudden change in their period or if they’re experiencing overall discomfort.

“Some people might think that ‘normal’ is being miserable, which it doesn’t have to be,” she says. Hormonal contraceptives including the pill, patch and IUD are effective ways to alleviate heavy periods – and the clots that go with them.

This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za

Image credit: iStock

Laura Stampler

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Health24.com | Could babies’ umbilical cords help heart patients?

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Instead of discarding the umbilical cord after birth, new research suggests the stem cells it contains could potentially be used to improve the lives of people with heart failure.

Stem cell research is being done on an ongoing basis to ascertain which medical conditions could benefit from stem cell therapy.

With parental permission, doctors harvested stem cells from umbilical cords that were then injected into people with heart failure.

An increase in heart function

People who received those injections were monitored for a year, and were found to have an increase in heart muscle function. Study volunteers also reported positive changes in their day-to-day lives, regaining the ability to do things such as drive a car.

“Their quality of life really improved,” said study author Dr Fernando Figueroa. He’s a professor and programme director in translational research in cell therapy at the University of the Andes School of Medicine in Chile.

People have reported among other things more energy and improved sexual function after stem cell infusions. 

Results need to be interpreted with caution

At least one expert suggested interpreting the study results with caution, however.

Dr Mary Norine Walsh, medical director of the cardiac transplantation programme at St. Vincent Heart Center in Indianapolis, said, “It’s very encouraging, but the limitations of this study are that it was done in just a few patients and they were almost all men, and they were not that ill at baseline.”

Walsh noted that because the study volunteers weren’t very ill, it’s not clear how patients would respond if they were sicker. She also pointed out that the study only had short-term data.

“But it is an interesting study because the investigators demonstrated that for those that received stem cells there was an improvement compared to the patients who received the placebo,” Walsh said.

A noninvasive procedure

The study included 30 patients, ages 18 to 75, who were receiving medication for heart failure, but were in stable condition.

The patients received one intravenous infusion of stem cells either from an umbilical cord or a placebo.

“The rationale behind our trial was to overcome two main hurdles that are facing stem cells today,” said study co-author Maroun Khoury, a professor at the University of the Andes School of Medicine.

“The first is that many stem cell treatments require surgery to inject the cells into the heart muscles. With this, it was a noninvasive procedure where the patient had an injection, was monitored for two hours and then went home,” Khoury said.

“The second is the variability. There have been a lot of clinical trials conducted where you are not able to see the outcome because they are using the cells of their donors, and the outcome will vary depending on the donor’s cells,” he explained.

The study was published on 26 September in the American Heart Association’s Circulation Research.

Heart function improved for a year

“We decided to use one source of cells from an umbilical cord donation so the product is not a variable, it’s constant, and the only variable is the patient,” Khoury said.

The study authors were surprised and encouraged by the results.

Based on previous animal research they expected the stem cells to travel to the lungs.

Patients only had one injection, done in a peripheral vein. As expected, the stem cells traveled to the lungs, yet somehow heart function improved for an entire year, according to the study. Figueroa said the results were “kind of amazing”.

No adverse side effects were found as a result of these injections.

Follow-up studies needed

The researchers plan to follow up with the study patients for three years to analyse the long-term outcome after one injection.

If the research continues to prove that umbilical cord stem cells are a viable option, Khoury said that they should be relatively easy to obtain. Most parents of newborns were happy to donate them when they learned they’d be used for a medical treatment, he said.

However, until that time, Walsh, who is also the president of the American College of Cardiology, encouraged heart patients to continue with their treatments.

“We have other therapies that can improve heart function and quality of life,” she said.

“It’s important for people to know that and take action and see their doctor if they feel ill. For many patients, our usual or standard therapy can be lifesaving,” Walsh said.

Stem cell bank in South Africa

Stem cell banks in South Africa, such as Cryo-Save, specifically bank umbilical cord blood that can used for medical purposes. According to Cryo-Save, stem cells from cord blood are “younger” than those in bone marrow and have a significantly greater capacity to multiply and grow (proliferate) and to differentiate into different types of cells.  As these stem cells are not yet exposed to outside factors, thus less likely to cause complications.

Cord blood is collected, tested, cryopreserved and used as needed. Unlike in the case of bone marrow, there is no need to take time to locate a possible donor and then determine whether they are still willing and able to donate when needed.

If you need more information, do not hesitate to visit the Cryo-Save website.

Image credit: iStock

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A Parkinson’s Drug Could Be Used To Stop Cancer Too

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A drug commonly used to treat Parkinson’s disease could be repurposed as cancer medication after trials demonstrated that it has significant anti-cancer effects.

Carbidopa, a drug prescribed to patients alongside levodopa or L-DOPA (in order to reduce the med’s negative nauseating side effects) inhibits the growth of cells and tumours in mice, according to the study published in the Biochemical Journal.

Lead author on the study, Dr Yangzom Bhutia, said: “Carbidopa as an anti-cancer agent to treat [pancreatic] cancer would be something truly amazing.” 

Kilav via Getty Images

It is estimated that around 1 in every 500 people in the UK are affected by Parkinson’s disease, meaning there is approximately 127,000 people living with the condition.

The degenerative neurological disorder influences movement and motor skills, with symptoms including shaking, rigidity and difficulty in walking. But there is currently no cure, only things that can slow the progression.

One of these treatments is a combination of dopamine-producing drug L-DOPA and carbidopa, which is taken to counteract the effects of excess dopamine travelling around the body, as only 5-10% of L-DOPA is actually absorbed and crosses the blood-brain barrier.

Patients who take this magical cocktail of drugs have been shown to have lower cancer rates than most of the population (except in the case of melanoma).

L-DOPA has already been investigated in the past and was found not to be the cause of the reduced cancer stats, so Bhutia’s team decided to look at carbidopa instead: “Interestingly, no one has previously suspected carbidopa as a potential player in this phenomenon,” he said.

They then tested the effects of carbidopa on a human pancreatic cancer cell line and also in mouse models of pancreatic cancer and found it did “significantly” inhibit the growth of cancerous cells.

The recommended dose of carbidopa for Parkinson’s disease patients is 200 mg/day, but when given at a dose even as high as 450 mg/day, they found there are no side effects, so it could be prescribed in high quantities to fight cancer.

The team are hoping that moving this research into clinical trials will not be too difficult, or expensive, as the drug is already FDA-approved for Parkinson’s and therefore wouldn’t require rigorous testing that new drugs to the market normally have to undergo.

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“We would like to partner with oncologists to design and conduct clinical trials in cancer patients to establish whether or not carbidopa would be useful as an anticancer drug in humans,” said Bhutia.

Parkinson’s expert, Professor Aideen Sullivan, University College, Cork, added: “Since carbidopa has already been proven to be safe and well-tolerated by people with Parkinson’s, its application in cancer treatment, where most current therapies are associated with severe and long-lasting side-effects, will be welcomed by patients.”

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