One year after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the testing of a cooling cap system as a way to prevent hair loss of patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, a new clinical trial strengthens the case for the wide use of similar devices.

For their study, researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston tested a new but similar device called the Orbis Paxman Hair Loss Prevention System on 95 breast cancer patients which randomly received a cooling cap for testing. The clinical trial reveals that the device helped 51 percent of patients to maintain a good amount of hair after four rounds of treatment. This is a significant improvement compared to the patients who did not receive the device and who lost all their hair after rounds of chemotherapy.

Hair loss happens during chemotherapy because the treatment kills cells that divide rapidly, a trait specific to cancer as well as hair cells. The idea of a cooling cap is to reduce the amount of hair loss by reducing the amount of the chemotherapy drugs to the cells on our head. This is possible by cooling a patient’s scalp to around 66 degrees Fahrenheit. The cooler temperature leads to the constriction of blood vessels reducing overall blood flow to the region by 20 to 40 percent. This means that the chemotherapy agent which travels through the bloodstream will also reach hair cells in reduced quantity.

During the clinical trial, breast cancer patients wore the silicone cooling caps for 30 minutes before beginning the treatment. They kept the cap during the entire time of the chemotherapy as well as 90 minutes after the treatment was over.

To examine the results, the researchers brought in independent evaluators to determine how the patients’ hair looked like without knowing that they wore a cooling cap during chemotherapy.  The study will include a follow-up period with the patients for up to five years to determine if the reduction of the chemotherapy agent to the scalp leads to the development of cancer cells in the area.

The clinical trial was funded by the Paxman Cooling company, the producer of the cooling cap which is meant to replace the DigniCap Scalp Cooling System approved by the FDA last year.

Image source: Baylor College of Medicine

A new study found that optimism might be one of the most important factors that could make people live longer. Optimistic women tend to live longer compared to others. This study focused on positive thinking and how it affects our lives.

They discovered that optimistic people live longer because they tend to make some healthy choices. Researchers discovered that optimistic women tend to work-out more, to eat healthier and to care about themselves. This is why they have a lower risk of developing certain diseases like cancer and stroke.

Of course, optimism is not the cure for diseases but researchers observed that optimistic people tend to be happier and to appreciate everything in life. Once a person loves its life they get past problem easily. They are not as stressed as other people and that is an important factor for a long life.

Negative, stressed and depressed people tend to live shorter lives because they only see the dark side of things. This negative energy affects their habits and their lives causing them to commit suicide or to develop some diseases.

Specialists observed that optimistic women tend to also have a better biological function which keeps them healthy. Specialists linked optimism to higher antioxidants, lower inflammation, and healthier lipid levels. All of these are important for our health.

In order to conduct this study, researchers analyzed health studies which included more than 70,000 women. These studies were conducted between 2004 and 2012. All of the studies showed that optimistic women had better results when it comes to blood pressure, physical activity, and diet.

This study managed to prove that optimistic women have fewer chances of dying from a disease than pessimistic women. The findings show that pessimistic women have a 30% higher risk of dying from a disease than optimistic ones.

Researchers mentioned that, despite the fact that they prove that optimistic women tend to live longer; the study did not provide a cause and effect. Researchers also mentioned that a healthy lifestyle can make a person feel more optimistic and an optimistic person has a healthy lifestyle. This means that these two are linked to each other and they also influence each other. The advice that researchers gave was for people to enjoy life and take care of themselves.

Image source: Pixabay

Students are known for experiencing depression, especially during exams and term papers. The students who are the most affected by depression are medical students. Many other studies before this one proved that students experience depression and even suicidal thoughts.

This new research focused on medical students and the way they feel. They discovered that 1 in 10 med students experience suicidal thoughts and have developed depression. In order to conduct this study, researchers analyzed students from more than 45 countries.

Researchers analyzed different studies that were published since January 1963 up to September 2015. These studies involved almost 130,000 medical students from more than 45 countries. This recent study found that almost 30% of med students experience depression symptoms and more than 10% have suicidal thoughts. These numbers are concerning.

Another thing that is very concerning is the fact that less than 20% of those who were diagnosed with depression followed a treatment. This means that the rest of them ignored the specialist’s advice and continued to experience more depression symptoms.

The researchers mentioned that they were expecting this kind of result because many doctors experience depression even after they finished med school. They mentioned that this is an open secret for med students.

The worst part is that in some of these cases, people even commit suicide because they don’t benefit from any treatment for their condition. Once depression is getting worse, suicidal thoughts appear and after that, people can even commit suicide.

Researchers said that some of the factors that affect medical students are stress and anxiety. Both of them are caused by the fact that medical school is very competitive and people need to work hard in order to finish their studies.

One of the solutions to this problem is to change some things in the curricula of med schools and also change the student evaluation procedure. These small things might help students experience less stress and anxiety during exams.

This study is important because it might be an important step into finding out the cause for the depression that medical residents experience. Medical profesionals mentioned that not only students experience depression, those who graduated feel the same way, too. A study which was published last year showed that more than 25% of new doctors battle depression.

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Technology has evolved a lot over the years and people have become more and more addicted to it. Now you can do almost anything with a mobile device or a tablet. You can search things online, watch movies, text and talk to anybody. The only problem is that it takes time apart from your family and real friends.

When a person spends too much screen time they tend to forget about their real life. This is why parents are trying to limit their children and teenagers’ screen time. Despite the fact that they are regulating their children’s screen time, a new survey showed that parents spend as much time on their smartphones and laptops as their teens.

This new survey showed that people tend to spend more than 6 hours a day on their devices. The interesting fact is that children and teenagers spend 6 hours a day on their devices while their parents spend almost 9. This is a bit ironic since parents know that screen time needs to be reduced.

Some adults mentioned that they have an excuse; they need to stay on their devices because they need to work. This survey actually showed that parents spend most of their time listening to music and playing games.

Instead of being a role model for their children, parents do the same thing their children do. This is why more and more people are spending half of their day on their devices. People need to be careful and use their devices less every day so that they don’t become addicted. They also need to spend more time with their family and friends.

Another interesting thing is that when parents were asked if they considered themselves as a role model for their children when it comes to social media use, they said that they were. This is ironic, too.

Parents need to show their children that screen time is important because the internet can help them. Beside this, parents also spend less screen time and dedicate more time to their children. This could benefit both parents and children in the long run.

Image source: Wikipedia

Texas will implement in the coming days a complete overhaul of existing rules regarding the treatment of abortion remains. The upcoming rules will require that the woman who undertake an abortion no matter at what stage of pregnancy, will be required to bury the remains of the operation. However, Satanic Temple representative claims that the rule violates their religious freedom.

Texas has seen a number of attempts from pro-life groups to classify fetal tissues to the status of a human being, as well as various ways to limit women’s access to abortions in safe environments with unnecessary regulations.

The new regulation is at this point only a rule, as the proposed measure has not gone through the legislative process yet, only through a bureaucratic one. However, it will have the same effects for abortions happening in hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers. The fetal remains after an abortion will be required to be buried or cremated by the institution which is paid by the abortion patient.

The fetal burial rule won’t apply to abortions or miscarriages which occur at home. Additionally, healthcare providers will not be required to acquire death certificates for the remains because it would have created privacy issues.

Pro-life supporters have welcomed the new rule which will go into effect on December 19^th, stating that human and fetal remains should not be disposed of in the same manner as standard medical waste. The rule represents a higher standard of conduct which reflects their respect for the sanctity of life.

However, the new rule will be met with a number of lawsuits from different pro-choice groups. Among the dissidents of the new rule, the Satanic Temple claims that it will violate the group’s religious beliefs and thus must be exempt from them, according to Lucien Greaves, a spokesperson for the religious organization.

Greaves has stated that the Satanic Temple will only file a lawsuit if a member who claims exemption is forced to comply with the upcoming regulation. For Satanists, the human body is inviolate and shouldn’t be subject to any outside influence. As such, it violates their religious freedom.

The Satanic Temple invokes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense for their stance. The law is also a common defense used by conservatives in support of discrimination based on sexual orientation and other aspects.

A new research study manages to strengthen the findings of other similar studies seeking to combat the idea that the flu vaccine causes autism in kids. The novel aspect of the study is that it examined whether or not the pregnant women who either have the flu or get the flu vaccine are increasing their children’s chance of developing autism.

The study which was published in JAMA Pediatrics analyzed an extensive amount of data on approximately 197,000 children who were born between 2000 and 2010 and were registered in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California healthcare system after a period of gestation of at least 24 weeks.

Researchers also conducted follow-ups analysis on the children in periods from two years and up to 15 years. They discovered that 1.6 percent of the kids were diagnosed with ASD. Among the mothers of 1.6 percent of kids, only fewer than 1 percent had the flu while being pregnant, and only around 23 percent of the mothers received a flu vaccine during their pregnancy.

These findings led researchers to conclude that there was no correlation between a mother either being infected with the flu virus or receiving the vaccine to combat or prevent it, and her not yet born child. Lisa Croen, the senior author of the study firmly emphasized the lack association between autism in children and whether or not the mothers had the flu or got the flu vaccine during their pregnancy.

The researchers encouraged women to get the flu vaccine without any reservations to its effects on children during pregnancy. They also did not recommend any changes in the United States’ vaccination policy.

Although there were a number of studies examining whether the flu vaccine causes autism in children of young age, there was no previous research of its effects during pregnancy. Researchers found that previous studies only analyzed the symptoms of influenza in pregnant mothers and not the vaccine during the pregnancy or after it.

Those studies produced mixed results among which an increased risk for premature labor and delivery as well as higher risk of birth defects. Scientists are hopeful that the new study will help future mothers make more informed decisions about their own health and that of their babies.

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A recent study has discovered an indirect link between the various form of gut bacteria and the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The study was recently published in the journal Cell and it suggests that the disease may very well begin in our digestive systems.

Parkinson’s disease, which causes tremors and stiffness as well as several digestive issues, was long thought to be caused by high concentrations of protein in our brain. However, the new study has shown that administering mice with microbes taken from Parkinson patients, worsened the animals’ symptoms. This was not the case they researchers used samples from healthy people.

The team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology was led by Sarkis Mazmanian, decided to act based on previous studies which revealed that the gut bacteria of people suffering from Parkinson looked different than that of healthy individuals. More specifically, there are even certain classes of bacteria which were either missing or depleted from patients with Parkinson’s.

This has led the researchers to think that the gut bacteria may somehow be linked to the disease. Their experiments used genetical identical mice so that the only variable was the gut bacteria. Their findings revealed that gut bacteria do indeed regulate and are even required for the various symptoms of Parkinson’s.

Although the researchers are not entirely clear on how the bacteria affects the development of Parkinson’s, their findings do strengthen the emerging research which reveals that certain brain disorders may also be influenced by bacteria in our digestive systems.

If future research does indeed prove a direct connection between Parkinson’s and gut bacteria, then researchers are very optimistic about a possible treatment as getting drugs into the gut is much simpler than getting them to the brain. Mazmanian has also founded a company known as Axial Biotherapeutics, meant to explore any possible treatments through this link.

Researchers studying gut bacteria have not been able to classify them all, and determining which exact ones influence the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease might prove even more difficult. Companies that sell probiotics claiming to cure a range of disease have no solid proof to back up their claims, and if they have helped anyone it was very likely that it only by chance.

Image credit: Caltech

HIV is a serious problem in many countries and there are efforts currently underway to discover a vaccine to the infamous virus. One such effort has recently begun in South Africa, where the disease has reached epidemic levels. The new vaccine trials provide new hope for the people affected and their families.

Although HIV can be kept under control thanks to drugs that suppress the activity of the virus, the spreading of the virus has not yet been addressed and it probably won’t be without a proper vaccine. Currently, in South Africa, more than a thousand people every day are infected with HIV to a population of around 53 million.

The new vaccine trials are officially known as HVTN 702 and the vaccine that is being tested is the modified version of a previous drug which showed a number of positive results in other trials in Thailand. The current study in South Africa hopes to involve around 5,400 sexually active men and women with ages between 18 and 35 in 15 locations across the country.

If the target number of participants is reached, the study will be the largest as well as the most advanced HIV vaccine trials to ever take place in South Africa. Many other institutions and health officials are hopeful about South Africa’s clinical trial. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has stated that a successful vaccine together with a number of HIV prevention tools will lead to the eradication of AIDS and of the HIV virus.

Compared to the previous version of the vaccine used in Thailand, which only showed a 31.2 percent efficiency rate in preventing the spread of HIV, the HVTN 702 hopes to provide greater and a more sustained protection over a longer period of time. The vaccine has also been adapted to combat the specific HIV subtype which is prevalent in southern Africa.

The clinical vaccine trials throughout the country are being funded by NIAID. The participants will be randomly assigned to either receive the actual vaccine or just a placebo. The exact trial involves treating the participants with five injections of the vaccine over a period of one year. The final results of the study are expected only until late 2020.

Image source: Pixabay

A team of researchers from Northwestern University has managed to develop a flexible, soft microfluidic device which can easily stick to human skin. This new first of its kind skin patch can measure and analyze the sweat of wearer to determine how the body responds to exercise.

The skin patch is similar in size and thickness to a quarter Its both a simple and low-cost device that can analyze key biomarkers found in sweat to help people learn how to better take care of their bodies during exercise. It can determine whether a person needs to drink more water or to replenish electrolytes, or if anything is medically wrong with your sweat.

It is fortunate that the device is inexpensive since it is meant for only a one-time use and only for a few hours after it is first applied on the skin of the forearm or on your back. Another great health benefit of the skin patch is that it detects the presence of a biomarker specific to cystic fibrosis. This feature is what makes scientists think that the device could see a broader use in disease diagnosis.

According to John A. Rogers, the leader of the multi-institution development team of the skin patch, the wearable skin interface allows for a new type of measurements that were not possible with any other type of pads or sponges used to collect sweat. He emphasized the importance of sweat in determining a person’s overall health, as it stores important chemical compounds which provide a lot of physiological information.

The skin patch provides relevant information through integrated electronic which communicate wirelessly to a smartphone, where anyone can see the results of the sweat analysis and the recommendations based on the results.

Researchers tested the accuracy and durability of the skin patch in two different experiments. One involved indoor cyclists while for the other experiment, the skin patch was worn by participants in the El Tour De Tucson long bicycle race in arid and harsh conditions. The skin patch collected the sweat forming  on the athletes back in  both experiments.

The study is titled “A Soft, Wearable Microfluidic Device for the Capture, Storage, and Colorimetric Sensing of Sweat” and was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine

Image credit: Northwestern University