Body Energy Club
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Google Glass Helps Live Stream Surgery
Many scoffed at the idea of Google Glass, the computer you wear like glasses, but surgeons have begun to use the software to live stream and consult during the surgeries. Dr. Christopher Kaeding is the Professor of Orthopedics at Ohio State University, the Executive Director of OSU Sports Medicine and the Head Team Physician for the Sports Department. He became one of the first surgeons to use this technology for this purpose. On August 21, 2013 Dr. Kaeding performed an operation on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee of a 47-year-old woman, while consulting with Dr. Robert Magnussen, an assistant professor of clinical orthopedics at Ohio State, who sat in his office. To continue reading click…
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Is the Andean Diet the Key to Longevity?
Carmelo Flores Laura claims the Andean diet and a life of outdoor activity has helped keep him alive for 123 years. These days he spends most of his time lying on a blanket as life in his tiny village flies by. He has outlived his wife and friends in the village he barely left. (EPA/La Paz Government/Keystone) Flores resides in Frasquia, Bolivia, a hamlet 4,000 meters up, two hours from the nearest road, isolated from civilization. His son says he spent a short time living in La Paz, but felt caged in and wanted to return to his land. The cattle and sheep herder says his long walks with the animals, along with his diet have…
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Survival of the Fittest
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Can Pacemakers Be Hacked?
Emmy winning drama ‘Homeland’ used this as a plot line, showing *SPOILER terrorists hacking in to the vice president’s pacemaker (or more realistically a implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), Credit). in order to assassinate him. While many scoffed this off as science fiction, the technique was proven successful – though not by terrorists – in 2008. The world of hacking sounds like something out of a C. S. Lewis novel. There are the “white hats”, or the good guys, who try and find the hacks in the software before the dreaded “black hats”, or bad guys, get their mischievous hands on them. The late Barnaby Jack was a respected white hat, working for IOActive, a…
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Blind Man Given Gift of Sight
Pierre-Paul Thomas has been given the gift of sight. The 68 year-old was born with congenital nystagmus — a condition in which the eyes move from side to side involuntarily, as well as damaged optic nerves and severe cataracts (Credit). If Thomas had been born today, he would have a better chance of sight, but he was born in the 1940′s when Medicare was not yet available. Thomas is like a toddler: his fingers were his eyes for 66 years. Now he has to discover everyday objects with his eyes. Thomas only recognizes objects through the feel of his fingers, which means everything he now sees he has to feel in order to…
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Teenager Creates Cancer Detection Device
At 15, most boys are chasing girls at the mall, but Maryland teen Jack Andraka was a little more productive with his time. Andraka’s story begins when he was just thirteen. He just lost a close family friend to the disease and wanted to know more. Andraka’s googling led him to discover a shocking truth – there are no affordable and accurate tests to detect this cancer. The test administered now is only done by a doctor after the person isalready suspected to have the disease. The 60-year-old test is a biopsy and is only administered after an imaging test. This means anyone without healthcare is spending a ton of money just to diagnose a disease that will probably…
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Arsenic Levels Lowered In Apple Juice
There has been a lot of publicity recently about the FDA’s decision to lower arsenic levels in apple juice. For a lot of people, the bigger question is why is there arsenic in apple juice to start with? Did you know there are low levels of arsenic in drinking water? Arsenic is an element naturally occurring in the earth’s crust and seeps into our food, water, soil and pesticides. High levels can be dangerous over time, as arsenic can cause cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., Joshua Hamilton said, “Low-level exposures in the womb and during childhood can set the stage for problems later…
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Hannah’s Growing Windpipe
In April of this year a two year-old girl was given a windpipe made from her own stem cells. Hannah Warren, who unfortunately died on Saturday, was the youngest person to receive this experimental treatment. Hannah’s windpipe was crafted from her bone marrow cells and were “seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold,” (Credit) and multiplied to create a functional windpipe. The windpipe was implanted on April 9th, but Hannah couldn’t “overcome additional health issues that were identified as her care progressed,” the hospital said in a statement. Hannah was born in South Korea to Darryl Warren, a Canadian teaching English in South Korea, and his wife Young-Mi. She was born without a…
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Bolivians Expel McDonalds
In 2002, McDonald’s closed their last restaurant in Bolivia. The franchise spent millions of dollars in the Latin American country but could not break out of its deficit. Bolivia has a long tradition of using food as reciprocity. Many relationships are beyond money and companies like McDonald’s go against what the nation believes. Indigenous president Evo Morales called the chain and other American chains a “great harm to humanity,” when addressing the United Nations General Assembly. (Credit) Bolivians are not interested in food for profit and natives would rather buy food from local street merchants, the indigenous women called cholitas. Tanya Kerssen, research coordinator for the Food First Network, calls this Bolivia’s…
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Is Your Food Genetically Modified?
Humans prefer sweet and satisfying foods, so it’s not surprising to hear genetically modified corn began because of the sweet taste. Genetically modified sweet corn has been sold in supermarkets since the 1960s. Without proper food labels, consumers cannot tell if they are eating these modified foods. Corn in particular has an interesting past that shows how we have used science to create sweeter food. In the 1400′s corn of multiple colours was “central to the diet of people living throughout Mexico and the Americas.” 1 The colours surprised European settlers and by 1779 sweet yellow corn had caught their attention. The sweet corn won over the more bitter red,…