HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

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December 28, 2015 (San Diego's East County)-- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Elephants don’t get cancer (Ivanhoe)

Researchers have wondered for years why elephants rarely get cancer.  A researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah, working with the local zoo and Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus found the answer that could lead to better treatment and maybe even prevention of the disease in humans.

Preventing Parkinson’s : medicine’s next big thing? (Ivanhoe)

As many as one million Americans are living with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive movement disorder with no cure.  Medications may help control the symptoms for a period of time, but eventually, they lose their punch. Researchers now say they’ve found a way to prevent Parkinson’s from developing in animals, a huge step toward eliminating the disease in people.

Surgeons To Test New Technique For Saving The Almost-Dead (JWR)

Surgeons at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh will be testing a new technique to save patients’ lives by placing them in a state of suspended animation, hovering within the mists between life and death. Squirm-inducing details include draining all of a patient's blood and replacing it with a saline solution that stops nearly all cellular activity. This process, which could be equated to inducing hypothermia, would give surgeons enough time to operate on injuries that would otherwise be fatal.

ER Docs Say Rule Change Could Raise Patients' Out-Of-Network Bills (NPR)

Two physicians groups say federal government regulations for out-of-network emergency care payments will cost consumers more because insurers will pay less.

HIV antibody curbs virus in trial (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Dramatic reduction in circulating HIV produced in those not receiving antiviral drugs.

Gonorrhoea 'could become untreatable’ (BBC)

Gonorrhoea could become an untreatable disease, England's top doctor warns, amid concerns some pharmacies are not prescribing for it properly.

Blood transplants miss key immune cells, study says (U-T)

Blood stem cell transplants may miss key infection-fighting cells, animal study finds.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Home insurers rush to exclude drones as Christmas sees popularity soar (Telegraph)

Canny underwriters have foreseen the risk of drones falling into the hands of ‘amateurs, fools and children.’

The Cybersecurity Argument For And Against Device Encryption (NPR)

Government officials argue that encrypted communication poses national security risks. But tech companies say that making it possible to unlock devices would make the tools less secure for everyone.

How chemists plan to sniff out bombs (BBC)

How chemistry is being used to find terrorists' explosives

 


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