Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0xVnPGLO1o/

The CPSC and DM Merchandising are recalling Bunkhouse and Lotsa LITES! Connectable Mini String Lights since they overheat when plugged directly into a plug creating burn and fire hazards.

About 34,600 light strings were sold at gift stores and boutiques nationwide.

Immediately unplug and stop using these recalled string lights. Contact DM Merchandising at 1-800-548-6784 or via email at [email protected] for a full refund.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Bunkhouse-and-Lotsa-LITES-Mini-String-Lights-Recalled-Due-to-Burn-and-Fire-Hazards-Imported-by-DM-Merchandising-Recall-Alert

#bunkhouse #lotsalites #stringlights #overheating #burns #fires #recall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pUOcKL-n-/

When a women travels out-of-state to access medically necessary reproductive services including pregnancy termination, the records of her treatment can be, without her permission, shared with her in-state medical team if both institutions use the same electronic medical record system or EMR.  That’s a terrible problem when she lives in a state where abortion services are illegal.

In April, 2023, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) proposed regulations that compel EMR companies to institute programming modifications so that sensitive health information such as a woman’s reproductive procedures can be shielded from automatic sharing without her permission beginning in January, 2026.  These protections for reproductive health information are supported by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the National Health Law Program, and the Center for Reproductive Rights as well as by more than 13 health care organizations and individual physicians.

Problem is that this proposed regulation is opposed by EPIC, the maker of the most frequently used EMR as well as by United Healthcare.

Here’s what you need to do.  If you are a woman seeking reproductive services out of state, be certain that your out of state medical records are not shared with any other institution or medical team.  You have the right under HIPAA law to shield your medical records under threat of a lawsuit against anyone or any institution that violates your privacy.  

For all of us, let’s contact our congressional senators and representatives urging them to support the proposed ONC reproductive privacy rights.  Then get busy using social media, your phone, and email to contact United HealthCare and EPIC to lambast them for opposing a woman’s right to reproductive privacy. In America, its the squeaky wheel that gets action!

https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/07/electronic-health-records-abortion-patient-privacy/

#womenshealth #reproductiveservices #abortion #emr #sharing #Epic #UnitedHealthcare #ONC

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pTKj_rkLw/

A hand-held eye s-fe laser quickly analyses biomarkers flowing through tiny blood vessels in the retina and, in so doing, can instantly determine the presence of a traumatic brain injury.  Biochemical engineers and ophthalmologists at the UK’s University of Birmingham have developed a system called EyeD.  

EyeD incorporates a Class 1 laser to generate a beam that enters the eye and bounces off retinal vessels.  The reflected light signals enter a detector and are analyzed via Raman spectroscopy.  Previous studies have identified the biomarkers generated by injured neural tissue, and the EyeD system can identify their presence rapidly and accurately. 

While EyeD remains experimental, it is headed for commercial development.  Placed first in the hands of ED trauma teams and then in ambulances for EMT use, the system can more rapidly jump start brain-saving and lifesaving imaging and therapy faster than currently possible.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg5431

#TBI #traumaticbraininjury #laser #raman #eye #retina

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pSR4ErsVJ/

Researchers at Tufts Medical Center and Harvard’s Wyss Institute have constructed human respiratory cell microrobots with unique abilities to repair tissue damage.  They collected surface cells from one investigator’s windpipe.  Observing the single cells under the microscope, they noted that the moving hairs, the cilia on the cells that normally help move mucus on the airway surfaces, help propel the cells into natural groups.  These self-assembled robots, when placed on a sheet of nerve cells injured with a cut, traversed the damaged zone and facilitate healing.  The research team speculates that these so-called Biorobots, derived from a patient’s own cells and thus immune to rejection, might be able to not only jump start healing of nerves and the spinal cord tissues but also clear arterial plaque and even deliver drugs.  We can only hope for such Biobot deployment.,.. someday soon.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202303575

#microrobots #ciliatedcells #healing #nerve #tufts #harvard #wyss

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pQz95LROf/

When inflammation and infection destroy dental pulp tissue deep within a tooth, traditional therapy, the root canal procedure, removes the diseased pulp, fills the tooth with an inert material, and caps the tooth with a crown.  Now, researchers at Boston’s Forsyth Institute report a discovery that promises a better approach which cleanses and regenerates healthy pulp tissue.  Their studies show that the naturally occurring compound Resolvin E1, RvE1, can inhibit pulp infection and inflammation.  RvE1 application to pulp also promotes the formation of stem cells that can later become other dental components.  More work is ahead, but RvE1 may be the key to restoring damaged and infected teeth rather than removing and replacing them with implants……someday soon.

https://forsyth.org/ada-forsyth-scientists-work-to-bring-tissue-regeneration-to-replace-root-canal-treatment/

#tooth #regeneration #endodontics #resolvins #rve1 #rootcanal #forsyth

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pP7IOLGv5/

The stethoscopes that doctors wear around their necks or tuck into their lab coats allow monitoring or lung and gastrointestinal functions.  Problem is: your medical team members can’t listen all day long and ambient hospital and medical office  noise often washes out valuable diagnostic sounds.  

To solve these problems, Northwestern bioengineers have developed tiny, battery-powered microphone wearables that can be attached to a baby’s or an adult’s skin and record or relay via bluetooth body sounds continuously.  The units have two microphones: one records body sounds; and the other records ambient noise and permits noise cancellation.  

The device can monitor breathing rhythms, depth of breathing, heart sounds including murmurs and valvular sounds, and the sounds emitted by the stomach and bowels as they function through the day and night.  Using AI analysis, clinicians will be able to diagnose some diseases non-invasively by recognizing characteristic sound patterns.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02637-5

#sound #microphones #breathing #gastrointestinal #heart #AI

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pPAWCLJoU/

The smell and taste of food trigger specialized brain cells that curb your appetite and compel you to stop eating.  Neuroscientists at UC-San Francisco have studied this phenomenon in a mouse model.

The brain cells that exert this function, called prolactin-releasing hormone cells or PRLH cells, are located deep in the brainstem, the center for many of our involuntary bodily functions.  They turn on when we first taste food.  Another group of neurons, CGC cells, become activated by stomach filling and they inhibit further eating as we become full.

It wasn’t until the investigators developed techniques to image and record the electrical activities of these groups of brainstem cells that this mechanism which triggers hunger and fullness became apparent.  Even more interesting is the finding that the CGC appetite suppressing cells, when activated, release GLP-1, the hormone that the latest diet drugs mimic.

As we better understand this push-pull mechanism, we can better control our appetites and body weights.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06758-2

#hunger #satiation #PRLH #CGC #glp1 #semaglutide

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pOKwxrpp-/

The sprays, gels, and waxes that are applied to hair contain volatile organic compounds.  When heat is applied with styling irons and blow dryers, these compounds are liberated and inhaled into the airways.

The most notable organic compound is decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, better known as D5 siloxane for short.  This compound and the fragrances in these hair care products are known to irritate respiratory linings as well as damage liver and nerve tissues from the results of animal studies.

The bottom line: when heating your hair with these chemicals at home or in the salon, ventilate the room to the greatest extent possible.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05156

#hair #styling #blowdry #voc #volatileorganiccompounds #d5siloxane #lungs #liver #nerves

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pNWSXrxEE/

The diabetes drug semaglutide not only squelches the appetite for food but also significantly reduces alcohol cravings.  Researchers at the University of Oklahoma collaborating with those at the Oklahoma State State University report their preliminary study of  6 obese patients who also suffer from alcohol use disorder.

Treatment with semaglutide not only led to weight loss but also led to a reduction in alcohol use disorder symptoms as quantitated by the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test.

Larger, blinded, randomized tests of this phenomenon are on the drawing board.  Once the mechanism is better understood, GLP-1 agonists including semaglutide and tirzepatide may become standardized therapy for not only diabetes and obesity but for alcohol use disorder as well.

https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/decreased-alcohol-use-disorder-symptoms-with-semaglutide-for-weight-loss-a-case-series/

#semaglutide #glp1agonist #alcoholusedisorder #AUD #diabetes #obesity

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0pMk9lrmVm/

When soccer players repeatedly deflect the ball with their heads, they suffer concussive-type damage to the frontal portion of their brains with diminished neural organization and diminished verbal learning performance.  Columbia University radiologists draw these conclusions from research they are scheduled to present to their specialty’s annual meeting.

The investigators conducted two studies involving 500 soccer players during which they correlated brain imaging data with detailed questionnaires quantitating the level of soccer heading.  The group of high intensity headers with more than 1500 incidents over 2 years showed significant imaging pathology including elevated frontal white matter diffusivity, a decrease in the orientation dispersion indices, and blunting of the normally sharp gray matter-white matter transition line.  These anatomic changes are associated with diminished learning and problem-solving skills.

In Europe, soccer is called football since the chief means of propelling the ball toward the goal involves kicking, not heading.  If you have children, teens, and young adults playing the game, strongly encourage them to keep the ball off their heads.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231129112526.htm

#soccer #heading #concussion #learning #problemsolving