The Health Blog

Now, that was gross! Some may say, but as a medical student, hearing that makes me thrilled and amazed. How can it even be possible to remove an appendix through the mouth? As a medical student, I was used to removing the appendix through a small abdominal incision and laparoscopic surgery. Just recently, an experimental surgery of removing the patient’s appendix through the mouth was performed by some US surgeons, first of such surgery in the US.

Last week, surgeons at the University of California San Diego’s Center for the Future of Surgery performed the highly experimental operation, which involved guiding surgical instruments through the mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach with a tube-like device known as a flexible endoscope.

Jeff Scholz, a 40-year old former Marine of San Diego, was the first person in the U.S. to try the surgical procedure. He reported that he felt very little pain after the surgery and he recovered within a few days.

The procedure is known as Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). It is less invasive that laparoscopic surgery because only one small incision is needed to insert a small camera in the belly button to complete the surgery vs. three incisions required for a laparoscopic procedure.

The procedure’s safety is of major concern. Researches are further needed to prove the safety of NOTES.

Source:  WebMD

A recent study published in the Aging Cell journal found out that certain ingredients in black tea could act as an insulin substitute and might help prevent type 2 diabetes. Several components of black tea – called theaflavins and thearubigins can mimic the action of insulin and we know that lack of insulin production leads to diabetes.

The researchers advise that diabetics shouldn’t be rushing to drink masses of black tea thinking it will cure them of diabetes. Their research into tea compounds is at a preclinical, experimental stage and people with diabetes should continue to take their medication as directed by their doctor.

Source: HealthDay

Hair loss, from thinning to balding, is a condition that affects both men and women as they age. While there are many aspects of aging that are difficult to embrace, losing one’s hair can be particularly traumatic. Fortunately, many advances have been made in treating hair loss and new treatments are being discovered as medical science progresses. Among the most cutting edge research involves hair cloning, hair follicle regeneration, and scalp transplants.

Research into hair cloning, also called hair multiplication, is being conducted by scientists and hair restoration physicians utilizing stem cell research. The basis of hair cloning is to create multiple hair follicles from one original follicle. The current method of hair transplantation requires removing hair follicles from the back and sides of the head and relocating them to the balding areas in front. This process limits the amount of hair that can be transplanted by the amount of donor hair available. With hair cloning, there would be an unlimited supply of hair available for transplanting, making a new full head of hair possible for anyone.

Another approach into restoring hair growth is hair follicle regeneration. This was once thought impossible in adults, but experiments on mice have shown that hair follicles considered inactive can be induced to grow hair again. When the skin is wounded, there is period of time during the healing process in which the skin cells can be triggered into forming new hair-producing follicles that weren’t there before. Scientists are hoping to develop practical and effective methods of treating hair loss in people with this exciting new discovery.

Since the introduction of LASIK laser eye surgery in the early 1990’s, millions of nearsighted patients have willingly opted to undergo the knife and laser treatment in order to correct their eyesight and reduce their need for glasses and contact lenses. While there is plenty of agreement on the short-term benefits of LASIK surgery, the big unknown has been whether the results of LASIK surgery would last long-term. The results of a newly published study should be reassuring for all LASIK patients, which reports favorable long-term outcomes of LASIK laser eye surgery.

The LASIK case study, which was published in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, was completed by researchers from the Miquel Hernandez University Medical School in Spain . Following over one hundred LASIK patients over a ten year period, it is one of the largest and longest follow-up studies ever done on LASIK outcomes. The study showed that there was a very low rate of complications and a high rate of satisfaction with the LASIK procedure in the long-term.

LASIK (laser in-situ keratomileusis) is the most popular type of laser eye surgery for treating myopia, or nearsightedness. The LASIK procedure is a two step process. The first step is to cut a corneal flap. The second step is to reshape the corneal tissue exposed by the flap with an excimer laser to correct vision.

I have amblyopia and my consultant in ophthalmology said that I can have a LASIK treatment to correct it.

What should I consider before undergoing LASIK treatment

Risk-taking: One requirement before LASIK treatment is conditioning yourself to undergo the procedure. There are unavoidable complications in a percentage of patients, and there are no long-term data available for current procedures.

Costs: This procedure is costly. One has to have adequate monetary funds for the procedure itself, the preoperative and postoperative medications. Most medical insurance will not pay for refractive surgery, so cost could be an issue.

Sports and Activity: People who actively participate in contact sports like boxing, wrestling, martial arts or other activities in which blows to the face and eyes are a normal occurrence are not good candidates for the treatment. In my case, I was a member of a Karate-do club but since I entered medical school, I had to stop.

Are you overweight? Have you tried to lose weight with diet and exercise, but failed? Are you concerned about your health? If so, you are definitely not alone. Worldwide, more and more people are struggling with obesity and it’s health consequences. As people search for help with weight loss, many are considering weight loss surgery. One of the most promising
surgical options is laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, also known as
lap band surgery.

Lap band surgery is a weight loss procedure that helps a person lose weight by limiting the amount of food that can be eaten at any one time and increasing the feeling of fullness after eating only a small amount of food. Lap band patients will not only eat less but will also learn new eating habits as they adopt a lap-band diet.

During surgery, small slits are cut into the body and the surgeon places a silicone ring, known as a lap band or gastric band, around the stomach opening. The band creates a new small stomach pouch and reduces the size of the opening to the main stomach area, slowing the digestion process. It is considered a safer and less drastic alternative to gastric bypass surgery
because it does not involve cutting the stomach and intestines or rerouting the digestive tract.

Researchers from University of Cincinnati reported that bone marrow stem cells may cure eye disease. The study with mice showed that bone marrow stem cells can switch roles and produce keratocan, a natural protein involved in the growth of the cornea — the transparent, outer layer of the eyeball. The abnormal corneas of animal models injected with bone marrow stem cells began to change shape and heal.

It was further found out that bone marrow stem cells can contribute to the formation of connective tissues. A trial was planned to follow up this finding and if it succeeds, the procedure could bring hope for patients who suffer from genetic corneal diseases to help prevent blindness.

Corneal transplants are the current mode of treatment for genetic corneal diseases, but experts say that this treatment was successful to some degree but do not always eliminate the problem. When the donor cells disappear, the condition recurs.

Viagra is known for its anti-impotence effect on males. But did you know that it also can save lives of premature babies?

English doctors gave the drug to Lewis Goodfellow, who was born at 24 weeks, weighing just one pound, eight ounces (780 grams), as one of his lungs failed and not enough oxygen was getting into his bloodstream. The drug worked as a vasodilator and opened up tiny blood vessels in his lungs, allowing oxygen to be captured and flow around the body.

In an interview by AFP to his parents, they said that they could not put into words how they feel. “The doctors are worth their weight in gold. We admire each and every one of them for what they have done.”

A recent study shows that women who switch from the breast cancer pill tamoxifen to a newer class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors live longer, Italian researchers reported on Monday. This study adds to a growing body of evidence that the new drugs are far safer, preventing cancer with fewer side effects than tamoxifen.

However, aromatase inhibitors are only for women who are post-menopausal. Tamoxifen is still the best choice for younger patients.

Tamoxifen transformed breast cancer therapy when it was shown to reduce the risk of cancer coming back by close to 50 percent. It was also an easy-to-take pill. But the drug raised the risk of death from strokes and endometrial cancer. Then a newer class of drugs, the aromatase inhibitors, was developed. Reuters