StemCell Therapy

To mark World Cancer Day, an international day to raise awareness of the disease, NoCamels is highlighting some recent medical developments in Israeli cancer research, treatment, and care all from 2019-2020.

Why does cancer therapy help some patients and not others? That is a question Israeli Professor Yuval Shaked of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has been trying to answer with his latest medical research. Shaked recently published a study in Nature Reviews Cancer, a monthly review journal covering the field of oncology, that delved into how understanding and predicting individual host responses to cancer therapy can significantly improve care.

The initial cancer treatment phase can be often successful, but many patients are affected by the development of resistance, characterized by tumor relapse and/or spread, the Technion said in a statement.

The majority of studies devoted to investigating the basis of resistance have focused on tumor-related changes that contribute to therapy resistance and tumor aggressiveness, Shaked wrote. But over the past decade, the diverse roles of various host cells in promoting therapy resistance have become better understood. The current understanding is that cancer therapy can induce local and systemic responses in the patients body, and these actually support the resurgence of cancer and its progression.

Current modern immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer care, Shaked said in a Technion statement. However, despite considerable advances in cancer treatment, most patients do not respond to therapy at all or from a particular stage. Without the ability to predict the effectiveness of treatment, many suffer from disease recurrence or spread, which sometimes erupts with even greater violence.

Over the years, many have investigated and are still investigating the effect of therapy on the tumor itself, but few have analyzed the effect of the therapy on the patient, he pointed out.

This shift in focus can produce better care and help advance personalized and precision medicine, he indicated.

We are not saying that existing treatments are not good, he emphasized in the statement. They just arent suitable for everyone. Each treatment triggers a host response, and when this response exceeds the therapy effect, we receive ineffective treatment. For the therapy to be effective at the specific host level, it is important to predict the same counter-response and try to block it. This is how we will gain much more effective therapy.

Shaked is the head of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center and the chief scientific advisor of OncoHost a company he founded that uses response profiling to improve personalized cancer therapy.

OncoHost recently opened a new state-of-the-art laboratory in Binyamina for this very research and has already begun clinical trials in Israel. The company is in talks to start trials in Europe and the US, Shaked said,

It was recently awarded a $1 million grant as part of the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to advance its research.

For immunotherapy, one of the most important effective approaches today in the field of cancer, only some 20-30 percent of patients today respond. Through blood testing, we can predict the outcome of patients treated with immunotherapy and continue such treatment only in patients in whom treatment is expected to be effective, he said.

Based on the present study, in the future, we may offer combined therapies to increase the effectiveness of treatment or allow patients who are currently unresponsive to immunotherapy drugs to respond to them. This is a huge revolution that we must advance not only in research but also in the commercialization of research into actual therapies. Only then can we contribute to saving lives, he added.

Israels Alpha Tau Medical, an Israeli medical technology company that developed breakthrough radiation cancer therapy, announced late last year that initial results of a preclinical trial have proved very promising.

Alpha Tau Medical was founded in 2016 to focus on R&D and commercialization of its breakthrough cancer treatment, Alpha DaRT (Dffusng Alpha-emtters Radaton Therapy). The technology, initially developed in 2003 by Professors Itzhak Kelson and Yona Keisari at Tel Aviv University, delivers high-precision alpha radiation that is released when radioactive substances decay inside the tumor, killing cancer cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue.

The first clinical trial of the treatment was conducted in Israel and Italy starting in 2018. The trial was designed to establish the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of the companys Alpha DaRT technology for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the skin and head and neck area.

The results, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, showed nearly 78.6 percent of 28 patients received a complete tumor response rate. That means the patients all responded to the alpha radiation treatment in some way.

Overall, these impressive outcomes serve as an excellent basis for future trials in other tumor types, said the principal investigator of the trial Prof. Aron Popovtzer, MD, from Rabin Medical Center in Israel. The Italian arm of the trial was led by Dr. Salvatore Roberto Bellia from the IRST (Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori).

Future clinical trials will also investigate Alpha DaRT in other oncology indications, as a monotherapy or in combination with various systemic therapies.

Late last year, Israeli scientists said a new study they conducted showed that a small molecule called PJ34 triggered the self-destruction of human pancreatic cancer cells in mice.

According to the research,publishedin the peer-reviewed open-access biomedical journal Oncotarget, the administration of the molecule reduced the number of cancer cells in developed tumors by up to 90 percent in 30 days.

The study was led by Professor Malka Cohen-Armon and her team at Tel Aviv Universitys Sackler Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Talia Golan and her team at the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center, and conducted with transplantations of human pancreatic cancer cells into immunocompromised mice, or xenografts.

Professor Cohen-Armon indicated that the mechanism, tested in parallel studies, acted efficiently in additional types of cancer, eradicating a variety of resistant cancer cells (breast, lung, brain, and ovarian cancer) including types resistant to current therapies.

PJ34 is being tested in pre-clinical trials according to FDA regulations before clinical trials on larger animals and then humans begin, Tel Aviv University said in a statement at the time.

Dr. Golan is a lead researcher at the Pancreas Cancer Olaparib Ongoing (POLO) Clinical Trial at the Sheba Medical Center.

This past summer, NoCamels reported on Dr. Golans work on a drug regimen that proved promising for some pancreatic cancer patients, specifically those with advanced stages of the disease as well as a BRCA 1 or 2 germline mutation.

BRCA1 & 2 are tumor suppressor genes, meaning that those with the deleterious mutation have a higher lifetime risk of developing cancer. The gene is predominantly linked to breast and ovarian cancer, but several studies name pancreatic cancer as the third most common cancer associated with these mutations.

Among patients with pancreatic cancer, onlyfour to seven percent have this gene variation, so Dr. Golans clinical trial team looked for participants from across the world.

Dr. Golan tested the effectiveness of a drug regimen that featured a PARP inhibitor called Lynparza, the trade name for the biological agent olaparib.The drug blocks the production of Poly ADP-ribose Polymerase (PARP), a protein that repairs DNA in tumor cells.

Her study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, explained: PARP inhibitors cause an accumulation of DNA damage and tumor-cell death. The PARP inhibitor olaparib has been shown to have clinical efficacy in patients with a germline BRCA mutation and ovarian or breast cancer.

The results of the Phase III randomized, double-blind study with a placebo control group showed that, in essence, the drug treatment regimen stalls the progression of the disease. Of the 3,315 patients who underwent screening, 154 fit the study criteria to be assigned to trial intervention, thus 92 received the treatment and 62 received the placebo.

The median progression-free survival was significantly longer in the olaparib group than in the placebo group (7.4 months vs. 3.8 months), the study detailed.

Israeli and British scientists published a new study in October that showed that a simple blood test that relies on a DNA repair score proved effective for lung cancer screening.

The study was led by Professor Zvi Livneh and Dr. Tamar Paz-Elizur, both members of the Weizmann Institute Department of Biomolecular Sciences, alongside Professor Sir Bruce Ponder of the University of Cambridge and Professor Robert Rintoul from Royal Papworth Hospital and Cambridge.

Titled DNA-Repair Biomarker for Lung Cancer Risk and its Correlation with Airway Cells Gene Expression and published in the peer-reviewed journal the National Cancer Institute-Cancer Spectrum (JNCI-CS), the scientists study found that patients DNA repair scores a summation of the activity of three DNA repair enzymes (OGG1, MPG and APE1) through which cells are known to respond to genetic damage can significantly improve current lung cancer risk prediction, assisting prevention and early detection.

The study involved 150 British patients with non-small-cell lung cancer and a control group of 143 healthy volunteers. The scientists calculated each participants DNA repair score based on blood activity levels of three enzymes known to respond to DNA damage, the Weizmann Institutesaidin a statement.

They found that the DNA repair score of those with lung cancer was lower than the control group across the board, establishing this enzymatic activity as a robust biomarker for lung cancer risk independent of smoking.

The results, the Weizmann Institute said, validated a previous studypublished in 2014by Professor Livneh that examined DNA repair scores in an Israeli population, showing that the new approach could potentially be implemented to promote more effective lung cancer screening worldwide.

Reliance on age and smoking status as the two main risk factors isnt enough, as preventative screening in this selected population misses most lung tumors, the Israeli and British scientists wrote in their paper. Moreover, individuals who are not obvious candidates for screening remain unaware of the danger they may face leading to delayed treatment and poorer prognosis, they went on.

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Top 5 Recent Advances In Israeli Cancer Research And Treatment | Health News - NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News

Fifteen additional U.S. airports will begin screening for travelers who may carry the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV),the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today (Jan. 28).

As the total number of confirmed cases in China continues to climb, U.S. health officials aim to prevent an outbreak at home while studying the newfound disease and developing treatments. "At this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said during a news briefing today. For "the individual American, this should not [have] impact on their day-to-day life."

The purpose of expanding screenings from five airports to 20 is to identify ill passengers returning from China, and to educate travelers about symptoms of the coronavirus so that individuals can seek medical attention if they suspect they may be infected, added Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Local and state health officials, directed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), remain on the lookout for travelers with signs of respiratory illness or fever who either traveled to China recently or could have made contact with an infected person. In addition, close contacts of infected individuals are being monitored for signs of developing illness; this precaution will help the CDC to catch additional cases and understand how the disease progresses through time, Messonnier said.

"The coming days and weeks are likely to bring more confirmed cases," as well as potential reports of human-to-human transmission within the U.S., said CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield. But as of yet, "there is no spread of this virus in our communities here at home," he said.

Related: 10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species

Besides preventing a potential outbreak, CDC officials are developing diagnostic, therapeutic and preventative measures to take down the new virus. Chinese health officials have made the genetic sequence of the virus available online, and using that information, the CDC developed a "rapid" diagnostic test. The agency plans to share the test with domestic and international partners after verifying its accuracy.

As far as treating the viral infection goes, currently, "there is no proven therapy for coronavirus infection," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In China, a select number of patients are being treated with antiviral drugs, including Remdesivir, which was initially developed as an Ebola treatment, and a drug called Kaletra, made of two separate antiviral medications.

"There's no proven efficacy of these" against the new coronavirus, Fauci said. "That is why it's so important that we get isolates of the virus."

By gathering these isolates, or samples, of the virus from infected people, CDC officials hope to design a therapy that will train patients immune cells to detect and destroy the virus, Facui said. Similar treatments, known as monoclonal antibody therapies, were developed for the coronaviruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but were only tested in petri dishes and animal models, he said. These in-development treatments also could potentially treat the new virus, but likely wouldn't target the bug specifically enough to be particularly effective, Fauci said.

The more isolates of the new virus the CDC can procure, the more "robust" and specific its treatment solutions will be, Azar added. The agency hopes to deploy representatives on the ground in China to study isolates from infected people at the epicenter of the outbreak. The Chinese government will allow international experts from the World Health Organization to work on "increasing understanding of the outbreak to guide global response efforts," according to a statement published Jan. 28. The extent of U.S. involvement has not been clarified yet.

Related: Top 10 Mysterious Diseases

In the meantime, CDC officials are already in the midst of developing a candidate vaccine to innoculate individuals against the new virus. Using the data shared by Chinese health officials, the agency identified a "glycoprotein spike" on the virus' surface that enables the bug to enter host cells. The spike shall serve as an "immunogen" for the vaccine, meaning that the medicine will recognize the virus by binding to the structure, Fauci said.

Fauci said that he predicts, "with some cautious optimism," that the CDC could launch aPhase 1 clinical trial of a potential vaccine within the next three months. This initial trial would test the safety of the vaccine; assuming that the results are positive, the agency would then evaluate the state of the outbreak before proceeding to a larger safety and efficacy trial.

"We are proceeding as if we have to deploy a vaccine we are looking at the worst scenario, that this becomes a bigger outbreak," Fauci said.

As compared to their secretive stance during the 2003 SARS epidemic, Chinese health officials have been "cooperative" in meetings with the CDC and other international partners, and forthright with sharing information, Azar noted. Thanks to this transparency, "within one week, the CDC had invented a rapid diagnostic test. Within two weeks, we have a candidate vaccine that we're working on," he said.

That said, the virus continues to spread rapidly in China, and until the U.S. can deploy researchers to the scene, health officials can only work with the data they have at home. Continued transparency is needed to answer important questions about 2019-nCoV, including where the virus came from, whether asymptomatic people can transmit the infection, and how many cases have truly occurred so far, Azar said.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Coronavirus screening expands to 20 US airports; researchers start work on a new vaccine - Livescience.com

Dr. McKibbens first-hand knowledge and experience in pediatric therapies, pediatric trials, preventative medicine, and clinical regulatory strategy, both at the FDA and in the Industry, make her an excellent addition to our team of Expert Consultants.

ROCHELLE, Va. (PRWEB) January 29, 2020

NDA Partners Chairman Carl Peck, MD, announced today that Dr. Linda McKibben, a former Pediatric Medical Officer/Clinical Reviewer in the Division of Vaccines and Related Products at the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), has joined the firm as an Expert Consultant. Dr. McKibbens expertise includes pediatric therapies, pediatric trials, preventative medicine, public health, health policy, and clinical regulatory strategy.

Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. McKibben served in multiple roles at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Senior Advisor for Health Services Research at the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Senior Medical Officer in the Office of HealthCare Partnerships (OHP), and Medical Epidemiologist at the National Center for Prevention of Injuries (NCIPC). She has also served as a Senior Policy Analyst/Medical Director of Altarum Institute (Alexandria, Virginia), and Vice President of Health Policy at The Lewin Group (Falls Church, Virginia).

Most recently, she served as a Clinical Trials Medical Consultant for Ripple Effect Communications, where she supported the Deputy Director of Extramural Research at NIHs National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and as a Medical Consultant in the Integrated Product Development Division of PAREXEL Consulting.

According to Dr. Carl Peck, Dr. McKibbens first-hand knowledge and experience in pediatric therapies, pediatric trials, preventative medicine, and clinical regulatory strategy, both at the FDA and in the Industry, make her an excellent addition to our team of Expert Consultants. We are very pleased to welcome her to NDA Partners.

Dr. McKibben earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia, Doctor of Public Health degree in Health Policy from the University of Michigan, Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University, School of Public Health, and bachelors degree in microbiology/pre-medicine from the University of Georgia. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and board certified in preventative medicine.

About NDA PartnersNDA Partners is a life sciences management consulting and contract development organization (CDO) focused on providing product development and regulatory services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries worldwide. The highly experienced Principals and Expert Consultants in NDA Partners include three former FDA Center Directors; the former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Science Officer at the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP); an international team of more than 100 former pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agency senior executives; and an extensive roster of highly proficient experts in specialized areas including nonclinical development, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, CMC, medical device design control and quality systems, clinical development, regulatory submissions, and development program management. Services include product development and regulatory strategy, expert consulting, high-impact project teams, and contract management of client product development programs.

ContactEarle Martin, Chief Executive OfficerOffice: 540-738-2550MartinEarle@ndapartners.com

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Dr. Linda McKibben, Former FDA Pediatric Medical Officer, Division of Vaccines and Related Products, Joins NDA Partners - PR Web

January 28, 2020

By: Nigel Coke, Inter-American Division News, and Adventist Review

We are doing a fabulous job of not moving enough, Jason Aragon said as he started his presentation dubbed, Stand Up, Stand Up.

Aragon was referring to a global survey done on levels of inactivity for 2001 to 2016, which showed that 8 out of 10 adults and children do not engage in enough physical activities on a weekly basis and that this was a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases, mental health challenges, and lower quality of life.

Highlighting figures from the survey, Aragon pointed out that inactivity was no different in all demographics, regardless of whether people are rich or poor.

Doing enough exercise, instead of sitting down daily, will help the oxygen flow to our bodies and in the brain, which will help to give us clarity of thoughts and make better decisions, said Aragon, who is the director of the graduate program in public health and preventative medicine at Montemorelos University in Mexico.

If you want to be rich in terms of your physical fitness, you are the master of your destiny, Aragon said. No other health behavior is as dependent on will power as is exercise, he added. You can be rich when it comes to physical fitness if you put in the work. You can deposit daily to that account.

The Power of Sedentary Behavior

In the Dallas Bed Rest Study of 1966, five individuals were tested for oxygen output and workload (strength) capability after three weeks of total inactivity on bed rest and then after eight weeks of intense physical training. Forty years later, those same five individuals were tested again. The individuals had maintained some regular physical activity over the 40 years. Researchers found that their oxygen output and workload capability had declined over the 40 years (because of aging) about the same amount as it had declined when the five individuals were put on total bed rest for three weeks in 1966. Muscle loss and lowered lung capacity had happened very quickly whenever they stopped physical activity altogether.

Muscle wasting is more accelerated when we are lying down or sitting for long periods than if we were doing physical activities thats the power of moving, Aragon emphasized after describing the Dallas study.

Aragon was presenting on the second day of a health summit hosted by the Inter-American Division (IAD) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, January 22-26, 2020. Attendees included church leaders and health ministry directors from across IAD.

During the presentation, the university professor engaged the attendees in physical exercises to illustrate and reinforce the need for physical activities.

In redefining retirement, Aragon posited that retirement is not about finding a place to sit but about being able to move and enjoy life and do things for yourself, not the sedentary lifestyle that was often the case during working life.

In concluding, he warned the audience that if they want to outwalk death, they would have to walk at a quicker pace than they were currently moving.

The muscles grow weaker as we get older. The stronger our muscles, the better we can combat aging. Move as if your life depends on it, because it does.

The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-American Division news site.

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Health Leaders Are Challenged To 'Get Up, Move, and Live Longer' - Adventist Review

There is one group that by their actions, rather than words, loves a good screening test; the top hospitals for heart and cardiac surgery, our premier academic medical centers. Researchers [1] called administrators at these top hospitals inquiring about their executive wellness programs. For the unacquainted, these executive wellness programs carry out half and one-day evaluations of executives, or the wealthy worried well specifically looking for diseases to be treated, as well as lifestyle, behavior modifications. Since the authors are cardiologists and cardiovascular disease remains the #1 cause of death they focused on the testing provided.

The Results

Of the 12 tests, none of them are recommended by the ACC/AHA (American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association), the USPSTF (United States Preventative Services Task Force, or ACPM (American College of Preventative Medicine) to be applied indiscriminately to asymptomatic adults.

And you can be sure that members of the faculty at all these institutions were involved in setting those standards. There are flaws, freely acknowledge, in the study. Most importantly, the information came from administrators, not the actual clinicians so perhaps these tests were not applied to everyone, without consideration of their symptoms or risk. And while we have the charges, in a world of medical opacity, we dont really know what was paid by insurance or out of pocket. But the researchers' final point is, to my mind, the most important, so I will leave them the last words.

In addition to clinical care, the top cardiology hospitals also provide medical education. Offering executive physicals with tests that are not recommended for healthy persons to anyone who can pay out of pocket potentially sends the message to trainees that a 2-tier health care system is acceptable, and that evidence is not important. Furthermore, indiscriminate screening can create a cascade effect and thus violate the principle of primum non nocere (first do no harm) wherein unnecessary tests may create a chain of events resulting in additional ill-advised tests or treatments that may cause avoidable physical or psychological harm.

[1] Researchers were from Washington University School of Medicine and the St. Louis School of Medicine not part of the top 20, so no conflict of interest although the cynical might cry sour grapes.

Source: Assessment of Cardiovascular Diagnostic Tests and Procedures Offered in Executive Screening Programs at Top-Ranked Cardiology Hospitals JAMA Internal Medicine DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.6607

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A New Form of Health Inequality - American Council on Science and Health

Medical costs will continue to outpace general inflation by close to 3 times with the regional average expected to be 13.6 per cent in 2019, says the Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) Key Medical Trends in the Middle East and North Africa report.

This is anticipated to grow to 14 per cent in 2020. As the cost of delivering health benefit programmes continues to rise across the region, employers are working with the likes of Mercer Marsh Benefits to develop smarter healthcare plans and embrace wellness and preventive medicine.

Regionally, the top three health risk factors influencing medical costs are respiratory conditions, diseases of the circulatory system and endocrine and metabolic diseases.

Type 2 diabetes remains a significant concern across the Middle East, with KSA having the highest prevalence of the condition (31.6 per cent) followed by Oman (29 per cent), Kuwait (25.4 per cent), Bahrain (25 per cent), and the UAE (25 per cent).

With several countries in the region looking to introduce mandatory healthcare regimes, employers will need to combat the over utilisation of benefits and the underutilisation of primary care. The commercialization of the hospital sector, together with the increasing availability of healthcare is driving an uptake in healthcare services and the resulting costs.

Employers face a challenge in balancing the cost of healthcare provision with the quality needed to meet regulatory standards and employee needs.

The top three causes for the increasing costs the region faces are; (1) the over prescribing of low-value health tests and procedures, (2) high cost pharmaceuticals and (3) overly lengthy inpatient stays.

Julio Villalon Garcia, Mercer Marsh Benefits Leader, Middle East & Africa, said: Although there are clear challenges facing us, the region is making significant investment into tackling some of the issues raised in this report, specifically by encouraging employees to take greater personal responsibility for their own well-being through more visible support for preventative care. The MEA region is a global leader in adopting virtual health consultancies and telemedicine, and 88 per cent of our respondents are either considering or already support this new technology the global figure is 78 per cent.

In time, I expect employees to develop a better understanding of their own healthcare needs. This, together with improved access to preventive care and simpler and more user-friendly technology, has the potential to allow medical inflation to be better managed. -- Tradearabia News Service

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Regional healthcare costs at 3 times the rate of inflation - Trade Arabia

Twin sisters have opened a vet surgery which treats pets with herbal remedies including mistletoe and medicinal mushrooms.

Reagan and Jordan Carnwath, 29, grew up 'obsessed' with animals and in their childhood would bring sick or injured creatures home to care for them.

The identical twins both studied veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow, and Reagan graduated in 2013 with Jordan completing her studies a year later.

After finishing her studies, Reagan moved to Dumfries and Galloway to work in a rural veterinary surgery, but in 2017 she returned to her home city and established Herbal Vet Scotland.

Unlike most vet surgeries, regular services such as spaying and neutering are not performed at the practice, in Glasgow's South Side.

Instead, complementary holistic treatment is given in addition to regular medical care provided elsewhere, on a referral basis meaning medical records can be accessed.

Pet owners could be issued with recipes for meals to cook for their pets, and acupuncture could be performed as a form of pain relief.

But Reagan says the business is the 'first of its kind' in Scotland, and their patients include cats, dogs, and horses.

She stays at the Glasgow branch while Jordan travels further afield in Scotland to visit patients on their farms.

Reagan said: "We're the only dedicated herbal practice of its kind in Scotland.

"If animals need conventional treatments we'll send them back to their regular vets but we choose to model on holistic medicine and it seems to work well.

"In North America it's really big with vets that work in this way.

"It's important because it shows these treatments are effective.

"A lot of people worry about coming across a vet like us and wonder how effective it is.

"We're not replacing conventional veterinary care.

"We see a lot of animals with skin diseases and cancers.

"We're not saying 'we can cure cancer', but we have a whole lot of treatments we do such as injections of mistletoe and diet changes.

"One of our patients got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the adrenal gland and the vet said it would be weeks to months to live.

"We saw the dog and started him on weekly injections of mistletoe and now he's doing really well - he's full of energy and acting like a puppy again.

"We won't say we've cured him, but he's living a really good quality of life.

"He's on medication to control his blood pressure, that's the only conventional medicine he's on.

"He's also on a home cooked diet and medicinal mushrooms as well."

Both sisters believe that raw diets, including raw meat, can be beneficial to animals - but they also provide owners with recipes for home cooked meals.

Reagan, from Cambuslang, Glasgow, said: "We give the owners recipes and they cook them up at home.

"They cook a big batch up and can freeze it so it's not too time consuming.

"An advantage is you know exactly what's going on.

"Dog food can be quite processed with meat derivatives."

Herbal powders, creams and ointments are also prescribed as treatment, along with mistletoe injections.

Reagan said a home cooked diet and herbal treatments can be 'preventative' and keep animals healthier so they don't need as much conventional veterinary care.

She said: "Some conventional medicines like steroids are super cheap but others are really expensive.

"We offer puppy and kitten consultations to get diets right, reducing needs for over vaccination - setting them up to be as healthy for as long as possible.

"It's preventative.

"It's really the future of preventative medicine."

Reagan added: "Since little girls we were obsessed with animals and we've been lucky to grow up and realise our dream to become vets.

"We were animal mad and always bringing injured ones home to our mum, much to her delight."

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Scots twins open vets to treat pets with herbal remedies including mushrooms and mistletoe - Daily Record

The bathroom scale..friend or foe?

Todays discussion is about our second ingredient for change Monitoring.

Monitoring is exactly what it sounds like, we take a measure as the baseline (the starting point) and then we continue to measure and track the results of our efforts to see if our change plan and the actions we take are having the desired effect.

So, lets look at how were going to use this concept to build our skills for change and talk about the number one tool for positive changes to our health and body composition, the bathroom scale. As a career personal trainer, I coach health and wellness through nutrition and exercise and I understand the sensitivity, the emotion, and the challenges associated with our physique culture, perceptions of body image and our health. And the bathroom scale is not without a little controversy.

The short and sweet answer is a resounding YES, followed with DAILY, possibly even twice daily, upon rising and before bed. Lets look at why it may have been, and continues to be, a little controversial. Ask 10 trainers or give it a quick google and youll find that there are those that think monitoring (see what I did there?) your weight is not a good idea.

It starts with physiology. Our bodies are composed primarily of water, the average human being has a baseline level that fluctuates between 45% and 75%, depending on age, gender and body composition (fat mass vs. lean mass). So, lets assume that a healthy individual has a baseline of 60% water. Now, this baseline level varies with nutrition, activity level, exposure to the sun, wind, etc. and as a woman, it also fluctuates with your menstrual cycle. A 150 lb individual is about 68 kg, which translates into 41 litres of water. A 5% change to that baseline, which happens all the time, can result in + or of approximately 4 lbs!

Its often assumed that weighing yourself might be adverse psychologically, causing depression, promoting body dysmorphia, or at the very least, a negative self-perception. The idea that we might not understand that water levels fluctuate with salt, or alcohol intake, or a womans menstrual cycle, and that seeing the number on the scale jump around a little, could cause some serious psychological issues has been put to the test and found to be false. One study on the effects of daily self-weighing in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine presented the findings of a randomized controlled trial comprised of 91 men and women and it concluded that there were no adverse psychological effects. The researchers recommended daily self-weighing as a primary weight control strategy. It turns out that the scale is not our enemy.

Back to the concept of monitoring. How can you change what you dont track? In several other recent studies participants were required to weigh themselves daily, that was it. Just get on the scale, same time, every day. It turns out that weighing yourself daily resulted in significant and clinical weight loss. They called it adoption of weight control measures simply put, if you track something, you pay attention to what might affect it.

In the field of industrial and organizational psychology its known as the Hawthorne Effect (I had to use that one) it was first recognized in the 1950s in an analysis of earlier studies of productivity done at Western Hawthorne Electric. The initial study results were confusing to researchers. It didnt matter what was being manipulated, production went up. If the lights were dimmed productivity improved, but if they were brightened it also improved! It wasnt until years later researchers realized that it wasnt the specific intervention, but the observation that improved productivity. When someones watching production goes up!

If your goal is to lose bodyfat and improve your body composition, the number on the scale has to down, its that simple. The concept of swapping bodyfat for muscle or losing inches without change on the scale is wrong, the rates of change are just not the same. Muscle growth is challenging, it takes time and effort to build strength and size. Now this is entirely anecdotal, but I competed in drug-tested bodybuilding competitions and over the course of 8 years my stage weight went from 204 lbs to 220 lbs. As a professional trainer with a goal of winning National and International titles I gained an average of 2lbs of muscle per year.

Monitoring is critical to successful change and if youve decided to start weighing yourself daily, just take note that your weight goes up and down for a variety of reasons and that tracking and recording your weight wont result in a nice straight line. The points on that line will fluctuate up and down, but as long as that trend is dropping, youre on target!

Sean Hawthorne is the owner and operator of OneLife Health and Wellness, Kelownas first and longest running private, personal training facility. While working in Dubai, UAE as a Contracts and Project Manager, Sean decided to leave his successful career in Civil Engineering Technology and pursue his passion for health, fitness and helping others achieve their goals. He returned to Canada in 2001, taking formal education in Exercise Science and starting his career in the field of health and fitness. Working in collaboration with their clients, Sean and his team of health and fitness professionals strive to continually improve their skills and to help everyone reach their goals.

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HAWTHORNE: Monitoring, the bathroom scale - Pentiction Western News

If your doctor is always after you to schedule your annual physical examination, there's a good reason: Preventative medicine works.

A preventive care-based approach to maintaining health puts you in the drivers seat, that is you are in charge of maintaining/optimizing your health and well-being, said Arti Madhavan, M.D., Family Medicine Special, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital.

The New Year is a perfect time to make a commitment to better health. A good place to start is by choosing to make good choices and trusting your instincts when it comes to your body.

Actions such as eating healthy and exercising on a regular basis are some good examples of how to positively impact your health, said Junaed Haq M.D., Henry Ford Health System. Not only will this lead to weight reduction, but it will also have a direct effect on your blood pressure, blood sugars and your mental health status, he said.

Of course, the flip side is also avoiding items known to have negative impacts, like smoking, vaping, sugary drinks and salty snacks, the board-certified family medicine doctor added.

Make sure to get your flu shot if you have not already had it, Haq said. The flu can have significant impacts on ones health and young children and the elderly are especially vulnerable. Thousands of Americans are hospitalized annually with the flu.

Another step you can take is to follow up regularly with your physician as directed if you take prescription drugs. This way you can ensure the medications are doing what they are intended to do, he said.

Preventative care is all about identifying how you can work to improve your overall health as well as catch diseases in their early stages before they manifest themselves clinically. Finding potential problems in the early stages has many benefits, said Madhavan, including:

Being easier to treat and more likely to achieve a cure

Being less expensive to treat. By identifying and treating diseases in their early stages, there are fewer medical expenses involved

Having an improved quality of life and longer lifespan

Avoiding the uncomfortable symptoms associated with chronic diseases, cancer and more if left undiagnosed

Another benefit of preventative care is having a healthcare provider who knows you and your family.

A yearly face to face visit with your physician helps in establishing trust and strengthening the doctor-patient relationship. Its an opportunity to have a customized wellness plan designed for you based on your lifestyle choices, risk factor for diseases, etc., said Madhavan.

That trusted relationship can prove invaluable when addressing issues such as depression, substance abuse or even chronic diseases like high blood pressure or hypertension. Thats because these inevitably require the individual to make treatment and lifestyle choices that are not easy and cause inconvenience and discomfort at least in the short term, he said.

For children, the doctor-patient relationship is critical.

Well child visits promote strong, healthy relationships between the child, parent and the physician which in turn contributes to the optimal physical, mental and social well-being of the child, said Madhavan.

During well child visits, doctors evaluate the child and compare his or her physical development as well as important motor, social and language milestones achieved to the age-expected norms. This can assist in early diagnosis of developmental delays in speech and language, gross and fine motor skills, social skills and cognition/learning early which, in turn, allows resources such as speech therapy, physical/occupational therapy to be implemented faster for a chance at better outcomes, said Madhavan.

Left untreated or undiagnosed, developmental delays are associated with learning difficulties, behavioral problems and decreased functional ability later in life, he said.

Madhavan added that well child visits also provide opportunity for:

Scheduled immunization updates

Discussion of injury prevention measures such as use of helmets, firearm safety, seat belt use etc.

Education regarding diet and nutrition

Parents to discuss any of their concerns in a timely fashion

Providers to screen for any evidence of child abuse or neglect

Patients do not outgrow the need for an annual doctor visit. According to Haq, it is important to stay current through the years on any immunizations that you may be a candidate for based on your underlying medical conditions. Some routine immunizations that are common to all regardless of medical history include the influenza vaccine and the Tdap vaccination that offers protection from tetanus as well as whooping cough. The influenza vaccine is annual and the Tdap vaccination is good for 10 years, he said.

Madhavan outlined general screenings people need at various ages and stages in their lives:

In their 20s and 30s - recommended screenings include depression, alcohol abuse, intimate partner violence and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV as well as cervical cancer screening with a pap smear and HPV testing. People in this age group should also be screened for obesity, elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and more.

In their 40s and 50s recommended screenings include depression, alcohol abuse, chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and obesity as well as cancer screenings with mammography for breast cancer and screenings for cervical, prostate and colorectal cancers.

Age 65 and over recommended screenings include those for previous age groups plus screening for osteoporosis, especially in postmenopausal women; fall risk assessment in community dwelling older adults; and screening for elder abuse. In addition, males ages 65-75 who have ever smoked are advised to have a one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm completed.

Over age 75, he said the cancer screening decision is an individual one, considering their overall health, prior screening test results and other factors.

In addition, smokers between 55-80 years old who have a 30-pack year history of smoking and are still smoking or quit in the past 15 years are advised lung cancer screening using a low dose Computerized Tomography (CT) scan, he said.

For more detailed information regarding recommended age and gender specific screening guidelines, Madhavan suggested visiting uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org and cdc.gov.

Make your physical, mental, emotional health a priority in 2020 by adopting the practices identified below by Arti Madhavan, M.D., Family Medicine Special, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital:

Eat healthy

Get adequate sleep

Engage in stress reduction activities such as yoga, meditation, etc.

Regular exercise, whether its organized such as joining a gym or just adopting a more active lifestyle

Stop smoking /vaping

Cut down excessive alcohol intake

Regular medical checkups - at least a yearly physical

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Use preventative care tips to avoid health challenges in the future - Dearborn Press and Guide

FLORIDA TODAY Published 6:27 a.m. ET Jan. 28, 2020

Dr. Khalid George is aBoard Certified Gastroenterologist for Parrish Medical Center based in Titusville.(Photo: Provided)

Dr. Khalid George is aBoard Certified Gastroenterologist for Parrish Medical Center based in Titusville.

Q: Why did you go into this career?

A: I was fascinated by the preventative aspect of the field, particularly in the form of colon cancer screening.

Q: What Services do you provide?

A: Screening colonoscopys for colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease (to include Crohns disease and Ulcerative colitis). Irritable bowel syndrome, pancreaticand liver disease. Barretts esophagus, acid refluxand dysphagia-trouble swallowing.

Q: What makes this area of medicine fulfilling for you?

A: The preventative as well as the procedural aspect of the field.

Q: When did you realize this was the right medical career path for you?

A: Early on in my medical school days after spending sometime in the pediatric GI unit.

More: Health Pro: Plastic surgeon provides 'unique expertise' in his field

More: Health Pro: Aesthetician helps people 'feel good about themselves'

More: Health Pro: For GI doc, easing pain makes 'world a better place'

Q: Whats the latest advancement in your field that will benefit patients?

A: There have been plenty of advancements in this field over the last decade, especially in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. In the next few years we will see more biologic therapies in the form of pills. Bariatric GI is another area that is evolving and will be a huge part of our practice in the future.

Q: Best advice for current and potential patients?

A: Regular screening for colon cancer starting at age 50 is key to preventing colon cancer.

Have a suggestion for FLORIDA TODAY's Know Your Health Pro feature? Contact Tim Walters at twalters@floridatoday.com

Get to Know Your Health Pro

Name: Khalid George M.D., Board Certified Gastroenterologist

Where youre based: 825 Century Medical Dr. Suite A, Titusville, FL 32796

Education: St. Georges University School of Medicine, the Island ofGrenada

Professional Background: Residency: Henry Ford Hospital/ Wayne State University, Fellowship: Providence- Providence Park Hospital/ Michigan State University

Contact: 321-268-6224

On the web: https://www.parrishhealthcare.com/doctors/g/khalid-george-md/

Read or Share this story: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/life/wellness/2020/01/28/health-pro-preventative-aspect-field-fascinated-gastroenterologist/4555467002/

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Health Pro: Preventative aspect of field fascinated gastroenterologist - Florida Today

Twin sisters have opened a vet surgery which treats pets with herbal remedies including MISTLETOE and medicinal mushrooms.

Reagan and Jordan Carnwath, 29, grew up 'obsessed' with animals and in their childhood would bring sick or injured creatures home to care for them.

The identical twins both studied veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow, and Reagan graduated in 2013 with Jordan completing her studies a year later.

After finishing her studies, Reagan moved to Dumfries and Galloway to work in a rural veterinary surgery, but in 2017 she returned to her home city and established Herbal Vet Scotland.

Unlike most vet surgeries, regular services such as spaying and neutering are not performed at the practice, in Glasgow's South Side.

Instead, complementary holistic treatment is given in addition to regular medical care provided elsewhere, on a referral basis meaning medical records can be accessed.

Pet owners could be issued with recipes for meals to cook for their pets, and acupuncture could be performed as a form of pain relief.

But Reagan says the business is the 'first of its kind' in Scotland, and their patients include cats, dogs, and horses.

She stays at the Glasgow branch while Jordan travels further afield in Scotland to visit patients on their farms.

Reagan said: "We're the only dedicated herbal practice of its kind in Scotland.

"If animals need conventional treatments we'll send them back to their regular vets but we choose to model on holistic medicine and it seems to work well.

"In North America it's really big with vets that work in this way.

"It's important because it shows these treatments are effective.

"A lot of people worry about coming across a vet like us and wonder how effective it is.

"We're not replacing conventional veterinary care.

"We see a lot of animals with skin diseases and cancers.

"We're not saying 'we can cure cancer', but we have a whole lot of treatments we do such as injections of mistletoe and diet changes.

"One of our patients got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the adrenal gland and the vet said it would be weeks to months to live.

"We saw the dog and started him on weekly injections of mistletoe and now he's doing really well - he's full of energy and acting like a puppy again.

"We won't say we've cured him, but he's living a really good quality of life.

"He's on medication to control his blood pressure, that's the only conventional medicine he's on.

"He's also on a home cooked diet and medicinal mushrooms as well."

Both sisters believe that raw diets, including raw meat, can be beneficial to animals - but they also provide owners with recipes for home cooked meals.

Reagan, from Cambuslang, Glasgow, said: "We give the owners recipes and they cook them up at home.

"They cook a big batch up and can freeze it so it's not too time consuming.

"An advantage is you know exactly what's going on.

"Dog food can be quite processed with meat derivatives."

Herbal powders, creams and ointments are also prescribed as treatment, along with mistletoe injections.

Reagan said a home cooked diet and herbal treatments can be 'preventative' and keep animals healthier so they don't need as much conventional veterinary care.

She said: "Some conventional medicines like steroids are super cheap but others are really expensive.

"We offer puppy and kitten consultations to get diets right, reducing needs for over vaccination - setting them up to be as healthy for as long as possible.

"It's preventative.

"It's really the future of preventative medicine."

Reagan added: "Since little girls we were obsessed with animals and we've been lucky to grow up and realise our dream to become vets.

"We were animal mad and always bringing injured ones home to our mum, much to her delight."

Read more:
Twin sisters have opened a vet surgery which treats pets with herbal remedies including MISTLETOE and medicinal mushrooms - Yahoo News UK

President Trump got his first full day of defense at his Senate impeachment trial on Monday. Trump's lawyers mostly whistled past inconvenient new revelations that former National Security Adviser John Bolton, in his forthcoming book, badly undermines one of their key arguments against impeachment: that there's no first-hand evidence Trump tied Ukraine military aid to investigations of Joe Biden and other Democratic rivals.

In fact, Trump lawyers Pam Bondi and Eric Herschmann devoted their presentations to attacking former Vice President Biden and his son Hunter. It wasn't until the night's last full presentation, by high-profile defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, that Trump's legal team even mentioned Bolton. And Dershowitz argued that "nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense."

Dershowitz and Trump attorney Ken Starr offered historical and legal arguments about impeachment, with Dershowitz taking the extreme minority legal view that impeachment requires "criminal-like conduct," and abuse of power and obstruction of Congress don't fit that bill. Starr's presentation "was a bizarre spectacle: the man who brought us the last impeachment of a president lecturing the Senate on the dangerous evils of impeachment," writes The New Yorker's Susan Glasser. You can watch some highlights from Trump's defense, curated by PBS NewsHour.

"I'm old enough to remember when, in 1998, Starr produced the most X-rated document ever to be printed under congressional seal, in service of lobbying for [Bill Clinton's] impeachment," Glasser writes. "Now, in 2020, the author of that report is acting as the sanctimonious guardian of congressional dignity, lecturing us all on the floor of the Senate about the unfair, improper charges against Donald Trump? Within seconds of opening his mouth on the Senate floor, Starr had his liberal critics and lots of non-liberals, too sputtering with outrage."

Still, Glasser adds, "in the end Starr's comments, trolling as they were, seemed inconsequential and destined to be quickly forgotten," at least compared to Bolton's bombshell. If the outcome of Trump's trial seems predetermined, Bolton's first-hand report of a quid pro quo might at least convince four Republicans to ensure witness testimony.

Trump's team had some factual errors in their presentation. The Associated Press tackles a few of them, and you can watch CNN's Jake Tapper fact-check some others and Jeffrey Toobin denounce Bondi and Herschmann's "parade of lies" about Joe Biden below. Peter Weber

The rest is here:
The first case of Wuhan virus has reportedly been detected in the U.S. - The Week

January 27, 2020 -Advancements in genomics and precision medicine have improved healthcares understanding of human disease, but stakeholders will need to address disparities and increase data sharing in order to leverage the full potential of genomic medicine, according to a study published in Nature.

Over the past two decades, technological advancements, as well as the collection and analysis of genetic and clinical data, have enhanced the use of genomics in healthcare. With these industry-wide changes, genomic medicine is poised to go mainstream, researchers noted.

The future of medicine will increasingly focus on delivering care that is tailored to an individual's genetic makeup and patterns, said Judy H. Cho, MD, Dean of Translational Genetics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and a co-author of the report.

Applying this knowledge will help us to enhance personalized health and medicine for patients at The Mount Sinai Hospital now and for years to come.

Despite the progress the industry has made in genomic medicine, researchers stated that there are still several barriers to overcome, including deeply entrenched disparities and limited genomic knowledge.

READ MORE: Genetic Variant Reveals Disparities in Heart Failure Diagnosis

The absence of evidence-based guidelines to support healthcare recommendations continues to hinder the clinical applications of genetic data. In some countries, this is compounded by confusion over reimbursement and disparities in testing across society, researchers said.

Many healthcare professionals lack experience in genomic medicine and need education and guidance to practice in the rapidly evolving space of genetic and genomic testing.

In addition, researchers noted that concerns about data sharing and a lack of strong infrastructure are limiting the industrys ability to advance genomic medicine.

There are also concerns about the consequences of unfettered release of genetic data of dubious or inflated clinical relevance, and limited infrastructure to pull these results into mainstream medical systems, the team said.

To overcome these challenges, the group recommended that the industry take proactive measures to address disparities in scientific research, and to identify clinical opportunities that will benefit individuals and societies around the world.

READ MORE: Evaluating the Benefits and Challenges of Genomics in Healthcare

It will be particularly important to include populations historically under-represented in genomic research. As over time, clinically sequenced genomes will outnumber those collected in academia, research and healthcare communities will need to develop a harmonized approach to genomics to transcend historical boundaries, researchers stated.

Progress will be critically dependent on platforms and governance that lower barriers to the integration of genetic and phenotypic data across studies and countries, along with technical standards that are reliable, secure and compatible with the international regulatory landscape.

The industry should also increase data sharing and access in order to develop comprehensive inventories of genomic information across populations and environments.

Research access to functional data, generated at scale, should lower the barriers to mechanistic inference, provide system-wide context, and enable researchers to focus wet-laboratory validation on the most critical experiments, researchers said.

Collectively, these efforts will support compilation of a systematic catalogue of key networks and processes that influence normal physiology and disease development and inform a revised molecular taxonomy of disease.

READ MORE: Over 70% of Orgs Say Precision Medicine Meets or Tops Expectations

Finally, stakeholders will need to transform basic knowledge into fully developed physiological and molecular models of disease development. Researchers will have to apply biological insights to facilitate new treatment and preventive options, the group stated.

Ultimately, barriers to genomic medicine are most directly overcome by demonstrating clinical utility in disease management and therapeutic decision-making, with evidence for improved patient outcomes, the team said.

Given the clinical importance of slowing disease progression, target-discovery efforts will increasingly need to embrace the genetics of disease progression and treatment response, as these may involve processes distinct from those captured by studies of disease onset.

With these recommendations, the researchers believe the industry will be able to leverage the promise of genomics and precision medicine to deliver more personalized, targeted care.

Collectively, these developments can be expected to accelerate personalization of healthcare delivery. Provided costs are sustainable, a more preventative perspective on health could emerge, managed through proactive genomic, clinical and lifestyle surveillance using risk scores, complex biomarkers, liquid biopsies and wearables, researchers concluded.

For the full potential of genomic medicine to be realized, there will need to be sustained collaborative endeavor on several fronts to ensure that the capacity to generate ever more detailed maps of the relationships between sequence variation and biomedical phenotypes delivers a comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms that can be translated into the medicines of tomorrow.

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Addressing Disparities Will Advance Genomics, Precision Medicine - HealthITAnalytics.com

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarships

Five University of Sydney alumni and current students have been awarded Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarships to conduct research or undertake a postgraduate program at an institution in the United States.

Nicholas Hindley (Lecturer in Statistics and Data Science at the University of Sydney and PhD candidate at ACRF Image X Institute) hopes to initiate a research program with a global and multi-disciplinary approach to study the safe and effective implementation of machine learning in a clinical setting.

Alice Yan (environmental lawyer, graduate of Bachelor of Commerce and Law) will explore the world-leading environmental policies pioneered in the United States. She will specialise in the ground-breaking science that has driven these policies. Alice hopes to apply this learning to help shape the future of Australian environmental policy.

Ruebena Dawes (graduate of Bachelor of Science - Advanced Mathematics (Honours) and PhD candidate) will study in the laboratory of one of the worlds foremost experts in genomic informatics at Yale School of Medicine, to find genetic answers for an undiagnosed cohort of 82 families with rare disorders. Obtaining a precise genetic diagnosis is of utmost importance for families with genetic conditions, guiding clinical care and enabling precision and preventative medicine.

Gemma Tierney (graduate of Bachelor of Applied Science - Physiotherapy) is an Indigenous physiotherapist of Kamilaroi descent. She will undertake a master of public health, specialising in maternal and paediatric health. She will pursue a career that provides more equitable healthcare to Indigenous women and children.

Ultimately, I aspire to work for National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (NACCHO) in which Indigenous communities work with non-government organisations to deliver appropriate and high-quality healthcare to often remote and rural Indigenous maternal and paediatric communities, Gemma said.

Dr Sarmad Akkach (graduate of Master of Medicine - Ophthalmic Science) is a surgical trainee and researcher with expertise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health and rural eye care delivery. He will undertake a master of public health, where he will conduct research into novel methods of eye care delivery in rural and low-resource settings.

Guy Coleman (Weed Control Scientist at the University of Sydney) is passionate about the use of machine learning and robotics in weed management. His research will focus on developing efficient machine learning data pipelines and testing how growth stage of wheat, cotton and relevant weeds influences detection accuracy.

It is very exciting to think I will be conducting research on Australian crops and weeds at a US institution as part of the Fulbright Future Scholarship. Improving agriculture in Australia and around the world through collaborative research is incredibly important if we are to feed the growing world population sustainably, Guy said.

My specific research focuses on annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) in wheat, although I also incorporate other grass weeds, such as wild oats (Avena fatua), and broadleaf species, including wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), for comparison. In the US I will also look at palmer amaranth in cotton, which is a significant problem species for American cotton farmers.

Since the scholarships were established in 1949, 5,000 scholarships have been awarded in Australia, including 274 students, researchers and alumni from the University of Sydney. The scholars will be officially announced at a gala dinner in Canberra at Parliament House on 27 February 2020.

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Fulbright Scholarship success - News - The University of Sydney

A fifth case of the deadly coronavirus has been confirmed in Australia.

The global death toll overseas has risen to 81 and an estimated 3000 people have been infected in China.

The virus presents similarly to the common cold when in its early stages. Fever, sore throat, coughing and shortness of breath are symptoms.

All travel out of the Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, has been halted.

But the number of cases in Australia could surge, with 43 flights arriving from China into Australia in the last 24 hours.

There are fears the virus may spread more readily than first anticipated.

Theres some information from China that people who are going to be sick, several days before they become ill, may be able to transmit this virus, Dr William Shaffner, professor of Preventative Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre told 3AWs Ross and John.

If true it would make this virus more difficult to control.

There are also concerns as many as a hundred Australian children are trapped in the Wuhan region.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the Australian government is in negotiations with Chinese officials to determine if it is possible to airlift Australians out of the affected area.

If we are able to support Australians to travel, if they wish to leave, then we would like to do that, she told 3AWs Neil Mitchell.

The Australian government does not have reliable figures on how many citizens are stranded in Hubei province, complicating efforts to evacuate them.

We dont have a definitive number on the number of Australians in Wuhan or in Hubei province, because it will include a significant number of dual nationals, some of who may not have travelled on Australian passports, Ms Payne said.

Australians who believe they have family in the affect area, or any Australians who are in the area, are encouraged to contact the consular emergency line on1300 555 135 (in Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (overseas).

All passengers arriving in Australia from China are now being met by biosecurity staff and health officials at the airport.

Press PLAY below for more.

Harvard epidemiologist and adviser to the World Health Organisation, Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, said for every person infected with the virus almost four other people also get it.

I was incredibly, incredibly shocked, he told 3AWs Neil Mitchell.

This number would, unchecked, be quite exponential and spread much faster than many other viruses, especially coronaviruses.

This has the potential to be just as dangerous as SARS. We dont know if it will ultimately kill more people as SARS, but the vitality and the transmission parameter so far makes us think its just as dangerous as SARS, if not worse.

Its a brave new world, we have not seen a virus hitting like this in a long time.

Dr Feigl-Dings warning comes as Chinese authorities reported the doubling of the infection rate in 24 hours.

A vaccine to treat the coronavirus could begin being tested in as soon as three months.

They say we could be testing a vaccine as early as three or four months now.

Image: Kevin Frayer/Stringer

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Fifth case of deadly coronavirus confirmed in Australia - 3AW

Here are the top stories covered byDocWire Newsthis week in the Homepage section. In this weeks edition of the round-up: the FDA approves a new migraine drug; e-cig use is linked to respiratory disease; gender-tailored methods could mitigate the effects of opioid abuse; and cell phone use may be connected to medical errors.

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)approvedUbrelvry (ubrogepant) tablets for the immediatetreatmentof migraine with or without aura in adults. According to the FDA, this marks the first drug in the class of oral calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists approved for the acute treatment of migraine. Migraine is an often disabling condition that affects an estimated 37 million people in the U.S., said Billy Dunn, M.D., acting director of the Office of Neuroscience in the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in apress release. Ubrelvy represents an important new option for the acute treatment of migraine in adults, as it is the first drug in its class approved for this indication. The FDA is pleased to approve a novel treatment for patients suffering from migraine and will continue to work with stakeholders to promote the development of new safe and effective migraine therapies.

Electronic cigarette(e-cig) use is associated with an increased risk of respiratory disease, according to a study whichappeared intheAmerican Journal of Preventative Medicine. The authors wrote that: Although switching from combustible tobacco, including cigarettes, to e-cigarettes theoretically could reduce the risk of developing respiratory disease, current evidence indicates a high prevalence of dual use, which is associated with increased risk beyond combustible tobacco use. In addition, for most smokers, using an e-cigarette is associated with lower odds of successfully quitting smoking. cigarettes should not be recommended.

Gender-tailored methods that address the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) could mitigate the effects ofopioid use disorder, according to the findings of a studypublished inthe journalAddictive Behaviors. In this study, researchers assessed 201213 nationally-representative data from 388 women and 390 men with opioid use disorder. The results of the study showed that women with opioid use disorder were more likely than men to have comorbid mood or anxiety disorders, and less likely to have conduct disorders.

Nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) are susceptible to makingmedical errorswhen interrupted by incoming cell phone calls, according to a studypublished inJAMA Pediatrics. The researchers wrote of this study that: This studys findings suggest that, although communication-related interruptions cannot be eliminated, interventions to reduce the frequency and adverse consequences of interruptions should include consideration of time of day, nurse experience, nurse to patient ratio, and level of patient care required.

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Homepage Round-Up: FDA Approves New Migraine Therapy, E-Cigs Linked to Respiratory Disease; and More - DocWire News

Electronic cigarette (e-cig) use is associated with an increased risk of respiratory disease, according to a study which appeared in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

In this longitudinal analysis study, researchers evaluated adults aged 18 years and older from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Waves 1 (which took place between September 2013 to December 2014), 2 (October 2014 to October 2015), and 3 (October 2015 to October 2016). At wave 1, the researchers assessed lung or respiratory disease using the following yes or no question: Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you that you had any of the following lung or respiratory conditions? COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma.

Lung or respiratory disease at Waves 2 and 3 was assessed with the question:In the past 12 months, has a doctor, nurse, or other health professional told you that you had any of the following lung or respiratory conditions? (yes or no): COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Respondents who answeredyes to any of these questions were categorized as having lung or respiratory disease at Wave 2 or 3. All respondents were categorized as either categorized as current users, former users, or never users. The researches collated data between 2013 and 2016 and analyzed the data between 2018 and 2019.

According to the results of the study, the researchers observed a statistically significant association between former e-cig use (AOR=1.31, 95% CI=1.07, 1.60) and current e-cig use (AOR=1.29, 95% CI=1.03, 1.61) at Wave 1 and having incident respiratory disease at Waves 2 or 3, after controlling for combustible tobacco smoking, demographic, and clinical variables. The results also showed that combustible tobacco smoking (AOR=2.56, 95% CI=1.92 to 3.41) was notably linked with having respiratory disease at Waves 2 or 3. Moreover, the odds of developing respiratory disease for a current user of both e-cigs and all combustible tobacco were 3.30 juxtaposed with a never smoker who never used e-cigarettes.

Current use of e-cigarettes appears to be an independent risk factor for respiratory disease in addition to all combustible tobacco smoking, the study authors wrote in their conclusion.

Although switching from combustible tobacco, including cigarettes, to e-cigarettes theoretically could reduce the risk of developing respiratory disease, current evidence indicates a high prevalence of dual use, which is associated with increased risk beyond combustible tobacco use. In addition, for most smokers, using an e-cigarette is associated with lower odds of successfully quitting smoking. cigarettes should not be recommended.

Read the original here:
E-Cig Use Linked to Respiratory Disease - DocWire News

Elegant science are not two words you hear put together very often. But for Carmel Valley resident Dr. Pamila Brar the phrase sums up her lifes career goals. Brar sees elegant science as the promise of precision medicine and works as the chief medical officer and clinical phenotyping research lead at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla. Her clinical research focuses on genomics, electronic medical records and artificial intelligence to identify various markers of health and disease.

The promise of precision medicine is intoxicating to me, Brar explains, the ability to tailor care to each individual is so very compelling and feels right in such an intuitive way. I am passionate about helping to extend the healthy human lifespan, and to help us all understand what makes us who we are as individuals.

Brar was recently appointed to the board of directors of the Clearity Foundation, which strives to improve the survival and quality of life for women with ovarian cancer. Brar says she was interested in joining the foundation because it stands as a glowing example of an organization that provides the highest level of scientific knowledge to patients and their doctors, combined with truly helpful psychological support, and at no charge to patients.

Brar points out that, because ovarian cancer is such an elusive disease with no clear screening tools, it requires serious attention for us to outsmart it. It often contains multiple cell types even within a single tumor. So, in a way, it isnt just one disease. It is a valiant enemy. And to add insult to injury, it affects women in the prime of their lives.

Brar has personal experience in witnessing the devastating toll that ovarian cancer can take. During her internal-medicine residency, one of her interns was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 25. I recall her complaining of vague symptoms and all of us attributing it to the demands of medical training, she says. I remember the shock of learning she had ovarian cancer. After all, she was one of us -- a doctor. She wasnt supposed to be the patient. Tragically, she died within six months of diagnosis. Her situation hit very close to home for me, and her death left a big hole within our close-knit group.

Brar says she knew from around the age 7 or 8 that she wanted to be a doctor. She attended medical school at Louisiana State University at New Orleans and then trained at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla. She worked in general practice at Scripps Clinic from 1999 to 2009. Then as we would say in my home state of Louisiana, I got a wild hair and decided that I wanted to stretch my wings and open my own private concierge medicine practice in La Jolla in 2010, she explains. During that time, she became quite intrigued with the fertile science and biotech environment San Diego has to offer.

I learned of the opportunity to participate in a new preventative precision medicine clinic at Human Longevity, Inc. founded by Craig Venter. I decided to leave my practice to participate in this new movement of genomics and precision prevention, Brar says. She served as medical director at the Health Nucleus at Human Longevity from 2015 to 2019. In that role, she led a multidisciplinary team responsible for the integration of whole genome sequencing, microbiome, metabolome and whole-body imaging, as well as the delivery of results to the participants. And she started to dream big.

My dream is that during my lifetime (I am 47), we will eradicate cancer, both through radical prevention, advanced screening and targeted and precise therapies, she says emphatically. I believe through the use of artificial intelligence, we will be able to make exponential advancements in the understanding of disease and health. We are inundated with data, and to be able to apply machine learning to these complex data sets, we can make connections faster and more profound than those that our minds can.

One challenge that still exists, Brar admits, is gender bias in research. She says statistics back this up. Even in animal studies, she explains, we have seen gender bias reproduced with more male mice in studies than female mice. Its our job as doctors, researchers and patients to close that gap. She encourages more women to participate in clinical trials and points out that awareness is key.

Despite the statistics, significant progress has been made. Women are now evenly represented in conditions such as diabetes, mental health, cancer and respiratory disease. But they still remain underrepresented in cardiology, HIV, chronic kidney disease, hepatitis and digestive disorders. We still have a long way to go, says Brar, but we are making progress.

Brar says she is very enthusiastic about the notion of understanding and realizing human potential and considers herself fortunate to be at the forefront of some of the most meaningful and potentially powerful research in the world.

The team of incredible people that I have the honor to work with at the J Craig Venter Institute, at Human Longevity, Inc. and at the Clearity Foundation truly embody the best of the scientific community working for the good of the human race. Lucky me!

For more on the Clearity Foundation, visit http://www.clearityfoundation.org.

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Carmel Valley doctor joins Clearity Foundation board in the fight against Ovarian Cancer - Del Mar Times

The sun is setting on another exhilarating yet tumultuous decade for the American health care industry. There was, of course, the signing into law, implementation and evolution of the Affordable Care Act. We also saw the beginning stages ofartificial intelligenceand machine learning, major advocacy for the removal ofdata silos, thewearable crazeand, more recently, a major challenge in addressing theopioid and behavioral health crises.

As an investor, the past 10 years have been invigorating. Digital health is here to stay. Technology has opened so many doors and created an enormous opportunity for innovation across the health care industry. This positive momentum has encouraged new investors, some supporting health care for the very first time, to enter the market, while existing investors like myself remain quite active.

But the excitement isnt just spreading from promises and visions. Many digital health startups have established tangible outcomes and validation in return on investment to their customers. This is a positive sign an indication that there is real value being created in our sector.

I dont see this momentum slowing anytime soon. As we move into the 20s, here are some of the catalysts and evolutions that Ill be paying the most attention to and collaborating on with our current and future portfolio companies to help improve our health care system:

Consumer Expectations Strengthen

First, consumers will expect health providers and payors to offer holistic, personalized health services as the new standard of care. More than ever before, consumers are becoming empowered by access to information and a plethora of digital health platforms. They will want (and then expect) solutions that factor in biology and genomics, lifestyle and socioeconomic characteristics, and environmental influences to produce better health outcomes. By providing health consumers with the right tools and insights, we can effectively empower them to manage their health outside of the traditional health care system, a relatively new and powerful phenomenon driven by technology. (More on that later.)

Seamless Integrations Improve Care

Concurrent with this,consumers are increasingly demanding a seamless, integrated digital front door, or a conduit that provides convenient access to appointment scheduling, care records and insurance information. Those on the services side will use this to directly engage with consumers, drive better adherence rates, behavior change and service utilization, particularly when it comes to chronic condition management.

Personal Data Further Empowers Consumers

One key positive result ofrising consumer awarenessis that people will become the hub for their own health information and, even more importantly, become active participants in managing their health. We are going to see more and more individuals be better informed of their health profile and predispositions for certain conditions, as well as see their willingness to harness preventative medicine. To encourage consumers to be active participants in their health, by putting them in control of their data and determining how its used, we can build trust, increase utilization and protect privacy.

Technology Serves As Backbone

While I mentioned this current decade produced the early momentum we are seeing behind AI in health care, this technology will eventually become the foundation of first-line digital interactions between consumers and health institutions. AI is a core piece of the backbone behind the digital front door assisting with triaging, guidance, scheduling and administration, care coordination and even delivering low acuity therapeutics. Im confident that AI will better enable many more doctors, specialists and providers to practice at the top of their license.

As part of the maturing AI landscape, I believe voice technologies and natural language processing will become more advanced and make pivotal contributions to health care, such as overhauling caregiver workflows, lessening the growing administrative burden thats leading to burnout and facilitating more quality time between providers and patients.

Although technology is a great tool, it is important to use technology in a way that is useful to health consumers. Simply using the latest and greatest innovation does not make the solution effective and, in fact, if implemented poorly, it can detract from the overall experience. Technology must fit into the lives of consumers and their workflow. For example, our portfolio company uses connected devices and voice through a HIPAA-compliant Amazon Alexa skills program to allow its members to access health care information using their existing Alexa devices; its technology we know many of our members use today.

What The Next Decade Will Look Like

Its impossible to look ahead and not wonder what role major tech companies are going to play in the evolving health care ecosystem. Yes, some large companies have dabbled in health care services before, but the past 12 months are unlike anything I have seen with highly-publicized activity from organizations such as Apple, Amazon and Google.

I believe the pace at which big tech and retailers wade into health care is going to accelerate. Why? Based on my observations of the space, its due to promising results that have been evidenced and forward-thinking health systems and payor executives who are now willing to opportunistically partner with strategic innovators to meet the new health care consumer where they are. What lays ahead in terms of innovative consumer health devices, more user-friendly platforms to access information and other technological advances will be one to watch.

Finally, what will this new climate look like for self-insured employers (who cover tens of millions of lives)? These employers will remain focused on reducing their health cost trend and improving the health and productivity of their teams by leveraging innovation.

Forward-thinking employers should continue to build a suite of digitally-powered health benefits in order to better compete for talent. Areas including behavioral health and addressing musculoskeletal injuries/pain are poised for growth and, hopefully, more widespread availability.

I am energized by the promise of the coming decade, the opportunities to improve the lives of those who are faced with health challenges and the democratization of these advances to the wider global community.

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The Digital Health Landscape In 2020 And Beyond - Forbes

What is the secret to physical and mental well-being? Since the beginning of time, people have searched for the answer. Every country has its own traditions and take on self-care. In Finland, it involves steamy saunas and icy dips; in Tibet, sound vibrations are believed to heal and harmonize the body; and in the United States, floating in darkened soundproof pods to chill out is enjoying a renaissance. This new year, try a new wellness ritual from around the globe.

While floating in a pitch-black soundproof pod filled with salt water might seem terrifying, this is one of the hottest wellness trends in the U.S. Devotees say the lack of stimuli creates a deep state of mental and physical relaxation that lasts long after emerging from the tank.

Ancient Amazonian tribes used this psychedelic brew made from tea leaves for spiritual and religious purposes. Now, however, it has become popular worldwide as an alternative healing treatment to reach an altered state of consciousness and to heal past traumas, depression, cancer and more. During a retreat, a shaman prepares the drink and guides the participant through the ceremony, which can result in the body purging in all forms, which is believed to be part of the cleansing process.

Hammam, or traditional Moroccan bath houses, aren't for the shy, as they are typically experienced in the nude and separated by gender. These public baths are places to socialize, relax and get squeaky cleanyou'll be rigorously scrubbed and exfoliated down to a new layer of skin with black soap and a hand mitt.

Finland ranks as the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row by the United Nations. Could one of their secrets to being so content lie in their national pastime of sweating out the blues in a sauna? Or maybe it is the adrenaline rush of ice swimming, another popular activity Finns do for a jolt of joy on a cold winter's day.

Volunteering to be whacked with a bunch of oak leaves might not sound relaxing, but it's a traditional type of massage in Russian banyas, or bath houses. The beating of water-dipped branches takes place in a sauna, and it is believed to boost circulation and prevent premature skin aging.

Traditional yoga poses involving headstands or backbends might be intimidating to some, but Laughter Yoga is something everyone can do. In Mumbai in 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria created this hilarious meditative practice that involves cracking up for no reason in order to lower levels of stress hormones. Now it's contagious, and Laughter Yoga clubs can be found all over the world.

For centuries, Buddhist monks have used "singing bowls" for meditation and healing purposes. The vibrations created by these bowls are believed to balance, heal and restore out-of-harmony parts of the mind and body by reducing stress, focusing the mind and even relieving pain.

Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing is the Japanese practice of immersing oneself in nature through the five senses as a form of preventative medicine and therapy. In fact, trees give off organic compounds that support cancer-fighting cells by boosting the immune system. A simple stroll in the woods also lowers blood pressure and accelerates recovery from surgery or illness.

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Global Wellness Rituals to Try This Year - Newsweek