Cutting Edge: 3-D Tech Boosts Surgical Precision

“3-D glasses aid doctors carry through invasive surgery when their hands are hidden from view.”

Now 3D glasses are not for moviegoers alone doctors could make some assistance from it as well.  This is suggested by new studies. Doctors preferred to rely on their own experiences having doubts and being skeptic about using the 3D technology but this was all in the past.  This may now change; it is all because of the new and improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems.  The study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed—funded by industry sponsors. “While the technology still requires some fine-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms,” study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.

Upgrading screens are lashing advancements in 3D technology and now high-definition screens are already available.  According to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI, the next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteenfold improvement in resolution. To test it and evaluate the new 3D technology, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar’s surgical hospital, they will determine if the technology is ready for hospital applications.  A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company financed the study. The surgeons tried-and-true four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system.  The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.

The technology works like this, the images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a replicated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient’s stomach using a needle and thread.  Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were covered from view and to see what they were doing they depend on the screen. “The results were astonishing,” Hubertus Feußner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feußner said. According to the researchers, the most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also.  The doctor that had won and performed best has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.

The surgeons who participated in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest while the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one. Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it? “There’s no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future,” Witte said. The study’s results will be forwarded and presented at a congress of the Association of German Surgeons in Berlin in April of this year.  However, the findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal.

Age Healthy

 Mental, social and spiritual fitness also promote healthy aging.

What you put into your body together with the right combination of diet and mental, physical, social and spiritual fitness plays a critical role in determining whether a persons ages in a healthy way.

The irony, those foods which may not be so appealing to the eyes and taste buds quite often offer the greatest health benefits. Fish, nuts, richly colored fruits and vegetables, legumes, yogurt, whole grains and plenty of water make up a great combination for the ultimate Anti-Aging Diet.  You can eat your way to a healthy living.

The body’s ability to absorb nutrients weakens as the body ages.  Because of this, it is significant to know the variety of sources of age-fighting foods in one’s chase to find their own personal fountain of youth. Richly colored fruits and vegetables are great antioxidants that offer vitamins A, C and E.  Antioxidants help to combat free radicals that can damage cells and cause disease and deterioration.

Bioflavonoid, a more specific antioxidant found in the pigment of richly colored fruits and vegetables.  Bioflavonoid alone are said to lead to better eyesight, improved cardiovascular health, increased capillary strength, improved structure of connective tissues and appearance of skin, and a stronger immune system.

To prevent heart disease high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and much more eat fish, eggs and some oils each offer omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

A well-balanced, anti-aging diet should have phytosterols to maintain lower cholesterol levels, probiotics for digestive health, as well as calcium and iron for bone and blood health, respectively.

Always keep moving, this Is one of the greatest secret of ant-aging and whether you exercise at home, at a gym, in a class, or by yourself, the benefits are sure to be in favor of you.  Remain consistent but it is also recommended that you consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.

Mental, social and spiritual fitness also promote healthy aging.  Latest studies show that mental perception in aging is not necessarily, nor solely affected by the normal aging process, this is according to National Institute on Aging.  In actual fact, to a greater extent of research demonstrates that depression plays a larger, critical role in whether the aging mind is unfavorably affected or deprived of its youth and memory function. New activities, hobbies, and exercise are wonderful anti-depressants. According to Healthy Aging Website list several ways to boost mental, social and spiritual wellness:

·      Take a class, play games, be with people

·      Pick up the phone now and call someone, just to "chat"

·      Volunteer your time. Get involved with a cause you believe in or in something that interests you

·      Seek out variety and challenge in your daily life

·      Give of Yourself. Be generous with the most important thing you own -- your time. Volunteer: how about the Peace Corps, a local nursing home, or teach a youngster to swim.

·      Seek Inspiration/Keep the Faith. Belief in a higher power is of paramount importance according to the contest entrants.

Why Haven’t Electronic Health Records Made Us Healthier

Fact: Before the web about 20 years ago, roughly 4,000 people from 200 companies congregated in San Diego for a conference to talk about the future of health-care information technology.  This was long before the technology of the WEB begins, when computers in physicians’ offices were used only for scheduling and billing patients and paper charts bulged out of huge filing cabinets.

It was one of HIMSS’s or Information and Management Systems Society’s first big conferences.  Several physicians, technologists, visionaries, engineers and entrepreneurs shared one idealistic goal, a goal to use information systems and technology to fundamentally change health care. The intention was not just to improve the old system but a future that looked a lot like we were being promised throughout the economy as it sped into the Internet era.  The aim is for the computers enabling improvements in the practice of medicine to make it safer, higher quality, more affordable and more efficient, all in for one same goal, to make the people healthier. A company that was called Allscripts was then built not long after the said conference.  Its focus was electronic prescriptions.  The old joke about impossible to read doctor’s handwriting was after all no joke, because according to The Institute of Medicine, about 7,000 Americans were dying each year from paper prescription errors. The first fully electronic prescription using Allscripts system was transmitted by an innovative physician named Azar Korbey of New Hampshire.  As of today about 600 million prescriptions out of 1.5 billion in the U.S. are written electronically, this is according to industry source SureScripts.  This is a considerable development but there is more to do but it is safe to say electronic prescribing is saving lives.

Rivals have a common goal, Allscripts, Cerner and Epic, to make all physician practices and hospitals digital.  So the next phase was electronic health records.  These competitors found ways to automate a complicated clinical encounter. The goal seems didn’t seem to be unattainable although putting PCs on every desk was only the first step in the information revolution.  And it all started when these PCs were then connected to the Internet and developed “apps”, everything changed.  Consider Amara’s Law: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

The whole process has been hard, from zero to getting nearly half a million physicians using electronic records, required a tough effort.  Rewording Churchill, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is it, perhaps, the end of the beginning of the electronic health revolution. There had been many critics and disbelievers trying to knock the value of the investments in the system, pass judgment on the government’s stimulus, and doubted the return on investment.  An open letter to president Obama by David Kibbe, a physician and technology advisor to the American Academy of Family Physicians, says that electronic health records are “notoriously expensive” and “difficult to implement.”  Disagreeing about subsidies, Kibbe wrote: “Nor is there conclusive evidence that the use of EHRs improves patient care quality.” More people now understand that making digital records work is critical to fixing health care.  The annual HIMSS conference held last week in New Orleans is expecting 35,000 people and 1,000 vendors to focus on that task.

“The impact of IT on health care over the past decade has so far been modest,” this is concluded by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concluded in a recent report.  The key words: so far. Investors and the industry would be wise not to underestimate what’s coming. It is nothing short of an explosion in innovation and creativity, facilitated by open systems and connectivity. The technology can fix itself; this is was what the council has found out. “The ability to integrate electronic health information about a patient and exchange it among clinical providers remains the exception rather than the rule,” this is what the report saying right now and this is exactly what need the change. The job on getting all the physicians on board is still on going, while the CDC reported in December that 73% of physicians now use electronic health records, up from about a third two years ago.  This means a great progress yet there are still many physicians using paper. Next step is to get all the records connected to each other, this means the industry, through HIMSS and the government, through the Office of the National Coordinator, are pushing for interoperability. For the time being, the existing systems that were already installed needs improvement.  This is because they are not user-friendly, and this claim is from someone who spent 15 years developing and selling them.  With the development of the new iPad and other mobile apps, this will help the industry to do better and it will.  Electronic health records today tend to be “information retrieval” tools and we have to vitally change it.

Human health will be improved once records are open, connected, and more user-friendly, we can start to add intelligence to the network that will help doctors, nurses, care coordinators and patients all do a better job. Health care in next to no time will be overflowing with similarly exciting start-ups producing apps that alter everything.  We actually see it is starting to happen; ground-breaking companies like dbMotion are linking dissimilar systems across health care organizations.  Other innovators, like Humedica recently acquired by OptumHealth, they are learning how to mine data for insights that will help physicians and care coordinators keep track of large panels of patients. Medical apps that dial into electronic health records at last are starting to be seen everywhere. This will impact cost and quality in very significant ways like an example is a wireless scale can notify a nurse when a congestive heart failure patient gains weight indicating dangerous fluid retention.  Or just look how convenient this will be, wearing a device that allows your vital signs to be remotely monitored all the time, rather than at a once-a-year doctor visit. “Technology, properly applied, is indistinguishable from magic.” It is the “applied” part of that dream we are still working on. But I’m confident we’ll get there. A connected system will help patients take responsibility for their health. Strong teams of physicians, nurses and caregivers will use an intelligent network to make their results better and their jobs easier. It does sound like magic. And we are getting closer each year. Just take a walk around HIMSS and you’ll see the future.—Arthur C. Clarke

How can Not Sleeping Affect your Health

One night without sleep can make you feeling tired the whole day and yawning will probably annoy you and the people around. How about two nights of no sleeping or three? It will surely make you cranky and restless. But just a week of not enough sleep can radically change the activity of human genes. – Springhill group

According to a new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, just one week of abnormal, insufficient sleep is enough to dramatically alter the activity of human genes.

University of Surrey in England conducted a survey and the experiment discovered that lack of sleep, at least less than six hours a night will affect the activity of over 700 of our genes.


The genes that will be affected are associated with controlling response to stress, immunity, and inflammation.

Furthermore, the research demonstrates that insufficient sleep reduces the number of genes that normally peak and fall in expression during a 24-hour period from 1,855 to 1,481.

After a week of pitiable sleep the number of genes influenced by sleep deprivation is seven times greater.

Obesity, cognitive impairment, heart disease are just few of the complications of not having enough sleep.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, sleep deprivation and sleep disorders affect from 50 to 70 million people in America thus making sleep disorders very common. But until recently, scientists were unaware how gene expression patterns were modified by poor sleep. These ‘gene expression’ patterns offer critical clues on the possible molecular mechanisms that connect sleep with total health.

26 volunteers were followed; they were exposed to a week of sleep deprivation and a week of sufficient sleep. Each week, blood samples were collected and were controlled for the effects of light, activity, and food during the week of insufficient sleep.

The genes affected by poor sleep were linked to circadian rhythms, metabolism, and sleep homeostasis.

Macromolecular metabolism, gene-expression regulation, chromatin modification, inflammatory responses, immune responses, stress responses, these are the biological processes that the investigators found as being affected.

“This research has helped us to understand the effects of insufficient sleep on gene expression. Now that we have identified these effects we can use this information to further investigate the links between gene expression and overall health.” says Derk-Jan Dijk, Director of the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey.

This study was made possible by a team up of researchers completed by sleep and circadian rhythm experts in functional bioinformatics and genomics, and physiologists.

The biological processes recognized may be involved with the negative results of poor sleep on health and stress the links between sleep homeostasis, circadian rhythmicity, and metabolism.

“The current interest in sleep and circadian rhythms as determinants of health and disease is a vital area of research. By combining our expertise in sleep and ‘genomics’ (the study of the full complement of our genes), we are starting to make breakthroughs that will have an impact on our understanding and treatment of poor health arising from insufficient sleep.” says Colin Smith, Professor of functional genomics at the University of Surrey.

Springhill Group: Cancer Prevention

Lifestyle has a big factor in having cancer and also a big factor to avoid it.

Do not overeat; obesity can cause a lot of risk to get cancer.  It’s a major cause of cancers of the esophagus, colon and rectum, pancreas, breast, endometrium, and kidneys.  Overeating can encourage tumor growth.  Tumors entail a lot more energy to absorb nutrients and grow and divide faster than a normal, healthy cell.  Control your diet.  Eat sufficient and not more than what your body needs.

Exercise can reduce you risk for many types of cancer.  Being fit seems to have an anti-cancer effect in itself aside from helping you loose weight.  Exercising doesn’t necessarily mean going to the gym, you can exercise at home a 30 minute a day at least 5 days a week can help cancer prevention.

Limit your alcohol intake; we need to be careful about how much alcohol we drink. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol regularly increases your risk factor for many types of cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, colon and rectum, and breast; and also causes cirrhosis, which raises the risk of liver cancer.  More than 2 drinks of alcohol a day for men and 1 alcohol drink for women a day can increase risk factors for certain types of cancer.

The most significant cancer risk factor that we can reduce is smoking.  Many though that smoking is only responsible for lung cancer but little did they know that it also causes many types of cancer.  Second hand smoke is even dangerous because this contains more than 60 known carcinogens’.  These carcinogens interrupt normal cell development. This interference is what ignites cancer development.  It is the smoke exhaled from a smoker or a lit cigarette, pipe or cigar.

A well-balanced diet is beneficial for countless reasons.  Eating fruits and vegetables can protect against several cancers, they contain antioxidants, we should eat five serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit each day.  Antioxidants help repair our damaged cells.  Green, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables are your best bet to help prevent cancer.  Studies also demonstrate that dark fruits, like blueberries and grapes, may also have anti-cancer properties.

 
According to many studies, cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower appear to pack a powerful punch at preventing cancer.  Additional cruciferous vegetables include bok choy, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage.

Although meat is a terrific source of protein it is probably the most surprising finding that red meat was convincingly linked to colorectal cancer, along side with processed meat.  Red meat contains much more fat than poultry and fish and studies shown that a diet high in animal fat increases the risk for several types of cancer.  A diet high in fat also is major cause of obesity, which is a risk factor for many types of cancer.  The more meat you eat, the greater the risk is.  About 30% increase in cancer risk factor is added to meat consumers compare to non-eater.  500 grams* of red meat is the only amount recommended in a week and avoid processed meat such as bacon, ham, salami, corned beef and some sausages. Legumes such as beans, lentils and soybeans are good substitutes for protein source.

Another reason not to eat red meat too much according to some scientists is cooking at high temperatures (another reason to curb your barbecue cravings) and red meat’s natural glycoproteins, which induce chronic inflammation in human tissue.

Foods high in folate possibly will reduce the risk of cancer of the pancreas, and diets high in calcium may reduce the risk of bowel cancer.  Additional recommendations include:

• limit consumption of salt
• don't take vitamin supplements – you don't need them and some have been linked to cancer
• Mothers should breastfeed babies for the first six months: breastfeeding protects women against breast and other cancers.
• Eating too many carbohydrates can also lead to chronic inflammation, which in turn, could encourage tumor growth.

Most cancer can be avoided and it is easier than you think.  Lifestyle plays a big role in cancer prevention; you can drastically reduce your risk if you change your lifestyle soon.

Do Infections Speed Up Alzheimer's? Springhill medical group reported>>

“An increase in brain inflammation, such as that caused by age, diabetes and obesity, is known to increase risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Now scientists at UK's Southampton University are about to start a three-year study, using brain tissue generously donated by people who died with Alzheimer's disease, to see if inflammation caused by infections such as those of the urinary tract or chest, also speeds up progress of the disease.” – medical news today

In an announcement released on Wednesday, study leader Delphine Boche, Lecturer in Clinical Neurosciences at Southampton, says: "Many of the known risk factors for Alzheimer's, like age, obesity and diabetes, increase inflammation in the brain and we think that infections could be another risk factor." "There is already evidence that the immune system is on high alert in people with Alzheimer's and we think that an extra trigger, like an infection, could tip the balance and make immune cells switch from being protective to harmful," she adds.

alzheimer's brain

Alzheimer's Research UK has already put £300,000 into the project. The money is part of the charity's £20m investment in leading dementia research in the UK.

The study started in January 2013, and will add to the growing pile of evidence that shows how the immune system is implicated in Alzheimer's disease. The Southampton team believes that in Alzheimer's, the immune system goes beyond its role as protector of the body and starts causing damage, like it does in an autoimmune disease.

For their study, Boche and colleagues will use brain tissue generously donated by people who had Alzheimer's disease when they died. With reference to donors' medical records, the researchers will compare the brains of those who had infections when they died with those who did not.

They will be particularly interested in immune cells known as "microglia", which go around mopping up cellular debris. They will use fluorescent tags to label the cells in the brain, and look at them under the microscope. The team will be looking for signs that infection causes distinct changes in microglia in people with Alzheimer's. Boche says they believe the microglia may produce chemicals that are harmful to surrounding cells and make Alzheimer's worse.

"The findings could have important implications both for our understanding of the disease and for the management of healthcare in the elderly," says Boche, adding that she and her team are "incredibly grateful to Alzheimer's Research UK and their supporters for providing us with the funds to make the research possible".

The hope is the findings will increase understanding about how to delay the progression of Alzheimer's, a disease that affects over half a million people in the UK. Eric Karran, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, says: "Slowing the progression of Alzheimer's could have a huge impact on families and allow people more valuable time with their loved ones." "Only by understanding the factors that drive the disease, can we develop new and innovative ways to slow it down," he adds. Last year, several new studies helped with funds from the charity, showed that inflammation plays an important role in Alzheimer's, and the charity expects this latest project will build on those results.

In June 2012, scientists in the US reported the results of a small trial where a group of Alzheimer's patients treated for 3 years with an immunotherapy drug showed no symptom decline over the treatment period.

Anti-aging without Surgery

 article from springhill group

Ultherapy

Afraid to age but more afraid of knives and undergo surgery? We always look for the best things and best ways on how to avoid looking old. Have you ever wonder how to reclaim your youth while you do not have to go under the knife?

Dr. Luis Zapiach, a plastic surgeon and owner of Art Plastic Surgery in Paramus, N.J., thought that he sees trends in non-invasive procedures increasing year after year.

“We’re doing many, many more non-invasive treatments, which include the injectables Botox and Dysport – these are by far the most common treatments,” says Zapiach. “The other treatments that we’re doing are also injectable treatments such as the fillers Radiesse, Restylane, Juvederm – and then we’re also doing tightening procedures.”

All of us will age and as a part of aging process more and more physical features will vanish along the way. We lose volume in places like our eye sockets, cheeks and jaw line. the doctor have the solution for that, Fillers and injectables, although he said that those are temporary. It will last anywhere from six months to a year but will on depend on the one you choose. A non-invasive procedure that uses a patient’s own fat is permanent though.

“I’m actually a big proponent of fat if you have a good result with these temporary fillers,” said Zapiach. “We use it to volumize the face where people have lost that volume and that contour, also in the nasal labial folds we also put it along the jaw line itself.”

For the millions of people that have sun spots and scars on the surface of their skin that become more prevalent with age, Zapiach said laser technology has vastly improved over the past decade, with patients seeing full results in about three months.

“Before we had a solid beam of laser, now it’s fractionated into a lot of different little beams, and that allows for a much quicker recovery period,” he said. “Whereas before, you needed two or three weeks of downtime; now you only have five days.”

Patients looking to turn back the hands of time have a non-invasive option that was most commonly associated with pregnancy: ultrasound unlike before when face lifts used to be the way to go for patients looking to tighten up the saggy, loosening of the facial skin that comes with age.

“Ultherapy actually has an indication to lift and tighten that area . . . as well as the neck and also the eyebrows,” said Zapiach. “We'll see results in the cheeks that it will lift and tighten the cheeks and jowls as well.”

But the doctor warned that not everyone is a candidate for non-invasive procedures. Dr. Zapiach also cautioned that patients with advanced aging may have to resort to surgical options.