Lifeboat Foundation

By mushrooms…?

People like Nathan have found out first hand that they can. You may have also seen scientists and doctors talking about mycotherapy for serious chronic conditions like cancer and HIV. That’s because many conditions thought of as diseases really have the same cause– an immune system that was unbalanced and compromised by environmental factors or diet.

Certain foods we eat are inflammatory, they boost problematic cells in our body called TH2 cytokines, which cause inflammation, and these cells can cause allergic reactions, auto-immune conditions, and weaken the cancer-fighting TH1 cytokines. When the TH1 cytokines are weakened by inflammatory foods, cancer is allowed to thrive and grow and spread.

Continue reading “MUSHROOMS VS CANCER: Can immune systems fight off cancer when balanced” »

Patients with a specific form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the United States, are also highly likely to have either underlying heart damage from heart failure and heart attacks, or advanced heart valve disease, or carotid artery disease associated with certain types of strokes, according to a new study from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

This research, published November 17 in BMJ Open Ophthalmology, is the first to identify which types of high-risk cardiovascular and carotid artery disease are linked to the eye disorder. The findings could prompt increased screening to save vision, diagnose undetected heart disease, and prevent adverse cardiovascular events.

“For the first time, we have been able to connect these specific high-risk cardiovascular diseases to a specific form of AMD, the one with subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs),” explains lead author R. Theodore Smith, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Patient-specific modeling could help clinicians determine whether an individual’s brain aneurysm is at risk of bursting.

This is the first time scientists have observed vessels form with such a close resemblance to the complicated structure of naturally occurring blood vessels.

An international research collaboration headed by the University of Sydney has created technology that allows for the production of materials that mirror the structure of living blood vessels, with major implications for the future of surgery.

Preclinical research showed that once the manufactured blood vessel was transplanted into mice, the body accepted it and new cells and tissue began to develop in the appropriate locations, thereby converting it into a “living blood vessel.”

The “most complicated therapy ever” tailors bespoke, genome-edited immune cells to attack tumors.

Scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have identified molecular profiles of the surrounding matrix of a common type of lung cancer that might indicate which patients are likely to develop aggressive tumors.

Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most prevalent type of lung cancer. Yet treatment options for these patients remain limited and have remained largely unchanged over decades. High rates of recurrence and chemotherapy resistance mean that less than one in five patients will survive more than five years after their diagnosis.

In addition to studying cancer cells, Garvan researchers have been turning their attention to the environment that surrounds these cancer cells in the tumor. A major component of this environment is the extracellular matrix, a 3D meshwork of around 300 core molecules. This matrix is present in all tissues in the body, where it normally provides structural and functional support to hold cells together. But in cancers, this matrix is fundamentally altered and these changes can promote tumor growth.

According to the researchers, these drugs may effectively prevent dementia in high-risk individuals with mild to moderate type 2 diabetes, and it may now be worthwhile to give them priority in future clinical trials to determine whether they can be repurposed.

Researchers have begun to investigate whether diabetes drugs could potentially help prevent or cure dementia since type 2 diabetes and dementia share several physiological patterns. However, the results have been inconsistent thus far.

The researchers compared the incidence of dementia in older adults with type 2 diabetes who were receiving either sulfonylurea or thiazolidinedione (TZD) with those receiving metformin alone in order to shed further light on this.

Galactica was supposed to help “organize science.” Instead, it spewed misinformation.

In the first year of the pandemic, science happened at light speed. More than 100,000 papers were published on COVID in those first 12 months — an unprecedented human effort that produced an unprecedented deluge of new information.

It would have been impossible to read and comprehend every one of those studies. No human being could (and, perhaps, none would want to).

Spiraling costs, closed facilities, capacity issues, staff burnout, staff shortages, lots of chaos — sounds like an ailing industry — and that industry is healthcare. Can artificial intelligence help mend some of the problems faced by hospitals and healthcare providers? There has been progress on that front — not fast enough, but progress nonetheless.

While interest in healthcare AI is high, “the level of acculturation of C-level executives is lagging, especially for organizations that would need it the most — pharmas, medtechs and hospitals,” a recent Capgemini report relates. The problem, the study’s authors relate, is data. “Enhancing the patient care pathway and improving care delivery remain on the top of the organizations’ agendas,” according to the report’s team of coauthors, led by Charlotte Pierron-Perlès. However, only about a third of healthcare organizations surveyed by Capgemini prioritize the availability of patient information. “We do not see major progress from 2021 [the year of the previous study].”

The good news is that many healthcare providers are stepping up their AI work. “The healthcare industry is now starting to implement AI and machine learning solutions at increased scale and sophistication,” says Tony Ambrozie, CIO at Baptist Health South Florida. “AI and machine learning will augment their ability to make sense of the vast amounts of data available.”