Lifeboat Foundation

USA: A cohort study of 3,058 patients with perioperative cardiac arrests showed that frailty is associated with increased mortality and nonhome discharge.

Increased Risk Analysis Index (RAI) among patients with severe frailty was tied to steadily increasing the risk of non-home discharge and mortality, and the association with mortality was most pronounced in the context of non-emergency surgery.

The findings of the cohort study, published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that although roughly 1 in 3 patients with an RAI of 40 or greater survived at least 30 days following perioperative CPR, higher frailty burden was associated with increased mortality and greater risk of non-home discharge among survivors.

Dr. Ralph W. Moss and son Ben discuss how a walk in the woods may help manage symptoms and improve quality of life. Delve into the science behind how the Japanese practice of “Forest Bathing” and aromatherapy can reduce stress, improve mood, and ease pain.

Program Notes:

Continue reading “Essential Oils, Aromatherapy & Cancer — Fragrant Forest Bathing and Potent Pain Relief” »

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether AKI is independently associated with subsequent kidney function trajectory among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The findings suggest kidney disease observed after AKI often present before injury.

In the present study of hospitalized persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD) fournd that acute kidney injury (AKI) did not predict worsening of kidney function trajectory once difference in pre-hospitalization characteristically were fully accounted for. Instead, the authors suggest that much of determinants of faster kidney disease decline observed after AKI may already be present before AKI. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Many now believe that AKI is an independent risk factor for accelerated loss of kidney function. This has led to changes in research focus, practice patterns, and public health targets. However, prior studies associating AKI with more rapid subsequent loss of kidney function had methodological limitations, including inadequate control for differences between patients who had AKI and those who did not.

A pair of new studies led by researchers at Columbia University explains why babies get so many common respiratory infections and identifies a specialized cluster of immune cells found only in babies that help them better cope with new pathogens.

“We know little about how the immune system develops throughout life, and most of what we know about immune system development in children comes from animal studies,” says Donna Farber, Ph.D., an expert in immune system development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons who led the research. “But mice develop much more quickly than humans and their immune systems are a bit different than ours.”

Using a trove of tissue samples from deceased pediatric organ donors, Farber’s team was able to pinpoint aspects of immune system development that distinguish babies from adults.

Pain affects millions of Americans. It’s hard to measure, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all treatment approach. NIH conducts and supports basic, translational, and clinical research on pain, as well as strategies for treating it. Here are just a few recent examples.

Basic pain research

Basic research is conducted in labs by scientists who study the most fundamental building blocks of life, including genes, proteins, and cells. This kind of research helps us better understand living systems and processes.

Some sharks get a new set of teeth every few weeks, while crocodiles can go through thousands of chompers in their long lifetimes. Yet the ability to endlessly replace our pearly whites is something that’s eluded us and nearly all other mammals. By the time our 32 ‘adult’ teeth grow in, that’s as good as it gets.

Now, a Japanese team of scientists is set to trial an experimental drug that would allow humans to grow completely new teeth.

A clinical trial scheduled for July 2024 will initially be for participants with tooth agenesis, a genetic condition that results in the absence of teeth, but the scientists have a view to making the treatment available for general use by as soon as 2030.

MicroNeuro ensures surgical safety and frees surgeons from labor-intensive tasks.

Today, less than 3 surgeries in the world are robot-assisted. The most common type of clinical robotic surgical system surgeons use includes a camera and mechanical arms with surgical instruments attached to them.

Robot assistance is known to provide more precision in brain surgeries than humans performing surgery, which may lead to damage to healthy tissues.

Here’s my new Opinion essay at Newsweek. It’s about the need to use our nation’s massive natural resources to pay for a bipartisan tax free universal basic income, called the Federal Land Dividend. I hope you will read and share it!

In 2018, I began lecturing about the Federal Land Dividend, a bipartisan tax-free Universal Basic Income (UBI) based on monetizing the 640 million acres of mostly unused federally owned land. Due to the lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which include a struggling U.S. economy, there is increasing interest in implementing basic income plans. The Federal Land Dividend is the only method that is both bipartisan and tax free.

An estimated 50 percent of the 11 most western states are mostly empty land that belong to the government. Estimates say this land and its resources are worth approximately $100 to $200 trillion. If we divide the middle— $150 trillion —by America’s population of 333 million, every person would have approximately $450,000 in equity. That’s much higher than the median net worth in America of $122,000.

Continue reading “It’s Time to Consider the Federal Land Dividend” »

Scientists at Harvard University claim to have come excitingly close to finding the proverbial Fountain of Youth. According to a recent publication in the scientific journal Aging, the team has identified six chemical concoctions that have the ability to reverse the aging process in both human and mice skin cells.

Dr. David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study, has hailed this as a “breakthrough” and sees it as a step towards “affordable whole-body rejuvenation.”

Dr. Sinclair has even suggested that human trials could commence within the next year. This prediction has caught the attention of prominent figures, such as tech mogul Elon Musk. He responded to the news with curiosity asking, “Ok, so what exactly is it?”