Real prospects for life extension

Good TED video.

She is 56 years, I wonder if she is secretly testing her findings on herself, or if it's just her genes or diet that makes her look younger.

Ben Goldacre on the placebo and nocebo effect

Placebo and nocebo @ wiki.

Drowning does not look like drowning

While we're on the topic of saving lives I thought I'd post this too:

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

Source...

Watch this video, it might save someone's life

America can't be considered a civilized country

Sure the US is a developed and rich(for now) country, but it's only very few people who are rich. However, America is not a civilized country. I'll give two recent exhibits out of a very deep pool of uncivilized conduct.

And this recent article:

Sonoma County CA separates elderly gay couple and sells all of their worldly possessions Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health. One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see elderly_man.jpgHarold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes. Full story...

TED: Growing new organs

Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.

Institute website Next stop: Immortality :)

23 years of conscious coma

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them - but could make no sound. 'I dreamed myself away,' he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer.

The truthfulness of this story has been criticized by none other than the acclaimed skeptic Randi. Is the story real or not, or somewhere in between?

Wired article Houben has since proven able to answer yes-or-no questions with slight movements of his foot. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and raises the chilling possibility that, as estimated by Coma Science Group leader Steven Laureys in a Monday New York Times story, as many as four in 10 people considered utterly comatose may be misdiagnosed. But the legitimacy of interviews given by Houben and his facilitator to Der Spiegel, and shown on video by the BBC, may not be as certain. “I believe that he is sentient. They’ve shown that with MRI scans,” said James Randi, a prominent skeptic who during the 1990s investigated the use of facilitated communication for autistic children. But in the video, “You see this woman who’s not only holding his hand, but what she’s doing is directing his fingers and looking directly at the keyboard. She’s pressing down on the keyboard, pressing messages for him. He has nothing to do with it.”

Imagine how messed up it is for this guy if he IS conscious and sees the woman typing stuff that he IS NOT thinking.

MSNBC article Most troubling about the claim that Houben is communicating are the facts that he is doing so with the help of a therapist who points his finger to the keys on a computer keyboard. The therapist, Linda Wouters, has told news reporters that she can feel Houben guiding her hand with gentle pressure from his fingers. She feels him objecting when she moves his hand toward an incorrect letter. But, given his injuries, Houben should not be able to generate any pressure in his fingers. And if he can do so, why did no one else detect this ability over the past 23 years?

There is a simple way to test this. Say or show a simple word to Mr Houben while the person guiding his hand is not there. Then have the facilitator come back and ask Houben to write that word. If he can answer Yes/No questions with his foot, then you could also ask him, are you typing these words? We need more info on this story. I hope someone gets to the truth of this. Locked-in syndrome @ wiki Facilitated communication @ wiki

Poor Piglet

Mitchell & Webb - Homeopathic Emergency Ward

Making filthy water drinkable

You can buy these bottles here. Quite pricey, but it might come in handy when the zombie apocalypse is upon us. No need to stack our shelter with many liters of water. Too bad the shelf life is only 3 years.

Improvements in Prosthetic Arms

It seems that war often drives medical innovation.

Amazing to see the interface between technology and the human body improving. The Singularity is near! Related to this post about a prosthetic arm.

Irukandji Syndrome

wiki Irukandji syndrome is a condition induced by envenomization through the sting of Carukia barnesi, the Irukandji jellyfish, and other cubozoans.[1] It is seldom fatal, but is nevertheless one of the most painful experiences a human can experience. The condition was given its name in 1952 by Hugo Flecker, after the Aboriginal Irukandji people who live in Palm Cove, north of Cairns, where stings are common.

Fucking scary.

Distribution of blood types

Ricky Gervais - Bad Excuse

10 Baffling Medical Conditions

This list includes such gems as music-induced seizures, cold allergy, foreign accent syndrome and persistent arousal syndrome.

Treacher Collins Syndrome

Warning, very shocking and sad.

Treacher Collins Syndrome @ wiki. I wouldn't know if I'd want my daughter to live like this. Maybe they should have let her die at birth, I mean without medical assistance she couldn't even eat or breathe. Now she'll have to face her condition and many operations throughout her childhood.

Doctors can’t tell why Mandy Sellars' legs keep expanding

Another one for our bizarre medicine collection. Doctors can’t tell Mandy Sellars why her legs keep expanding – all they say is that her only option is a drastic amputation. She travelled to the US for a new TV show in search of an alternative...

It’s not easy being Mandy Sellars. She has hugely outsized legs that make having a normal life nearly impossible.

People stare whenever she leaves the house, she needs a special car to get around and can’t work full time.

What’s more, her condition is getting worse and doctors say she needs an amputation so severe she won’t be able to sit up.

Full Article...

Boy With Heart Outside Chest

A four-year-old Chinese boy born with a protruding heart has undergone five hours of surgery as doctors try to correct the defect. Zhang Weiyuan has Pentalogy of Cantrell, which means the heart does not have a sternum or muscles to protect it and is covered only by skin. It is so rare it occurs in around five in a million births. After the operation, octors at Shenjing Hospital at the Chinese Medical University said that Weiyuan would have to be in intensive care for three days before they could find out if the operation was a success. Full Article...

The Answer:

more music charts

A girl who spontaneously bleeds from her pores is baffling doctors

"She has even undergone transfusions after pints of it seeped through her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and the soles of her feet. Sometimes her condition is so bad she wakes up with her entire body covered in dried blood. Villagers near her home in Uttar Pradesh, India, believe she must be cursed and shout cruel things in the street. Indian medics now believe her condition is an extreme version of a rare blood platelet disorder for which they cannot find a cure. However, a ray of hope has been offered by a British specialist, who believes Twinkle may have a different clotting disorder, for which treatment will be possible. Last year, Twinkle was a normal 12-year-old who enjoyed school, painting and playing with her friends - but then she suddenly started bleeding between five and 20 times a day."