This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble.
You might also see multiple bubbles for certain supps. These is because some supps affect a range of conditions, but the evidence quality varies from condition to condition. For example, there’s strong evidence that Green Tea is good for cholesterol levels. But evidence for its anti-cancer effects is conflicting. In these cases, we give a supp another bubble.
Whether the goal is better hearing or sharper looks, researchers continue their efforts to improve the features naturegave us. Researchers continue to marvel us with their new technological developments in the field of medical Science
No 10. Next-Gen Hair Transplant
Scientists at Atlanta-based Aderans Research Institute are researching a way to create a nearly inexhaustible supply of hair plugs. Instead of merely transplanting hair cells from a patient’s tissue, researchers extract the cells and grow them in a lab, multiplying them about a hundredfold before injecting them into the scalp.
Availability: Projected within five years.
No 9. Invisible Hearing Aid
Most hearing aids are bulky and unsightly. California-based InSound Medical has created perhaps the most discreet hearing aid yet. The Lyric rests deep in the ear canal, out of sight, and out of the way of wind. A wireless keychain remote controls volume, and the device can be left in the ear for up to four months at a time.
Availability: Available since January 2009.
No 8. Color-Changing Eye Implant
Color-changing contacts have been around for years, but they are easy to spot. NewColorlris lenses, developed by Panama-based KMD, are surgically implanted on the iris (the procedure takes 15 minutes), with a donutlike hole for the pupil to peep through. The result: a permanent, more natural-looking pair of baby blues.
Availability: In Panama and Switzerland now. FDA trials will begin soon.
No 7. Natural Tooth Filling
Researchers at Tufts University are working on a way to use stem cells to repair tooth decay. How it works: Tooth-growing cells are seeded into polymer scaffolds. The scaffolds are then implanted into the jaw, where they regenerate tooth enamel, dentin and pulp. The operation has been successfully tested in pigs and rats.
Availability: Could be available for humans within seven years.
No 6. Artificial Womb
Artificial wombs are mechanisms that are used to grow an embryo outside of the body of a female. Could this be the future of reproduction for humans? Scientists at Cornell University have grown mice embryos in man-made, bubble shaped wombs.
This technology could bring hope to parents who before could not have children. It could also open the door for mothers to choose to have their babies outside their bodies, to avoid the stress of childbirth.
If and when artificial wombs become available, they are sure to be controversial. What are the moral and ethical implications of artificial wombs? What effect would being developed outside the womb have on the child?
No 5. Magnetic Brain Stimulation
For the 20 percent of depressed patients who don’t respond to drugs such as Prozac, the traditional last-ditch treatment option has been electroshock therapy. Recently, researchers worldwide began investigating a promising new alternative: transcranial magnetic stimulation. In TMS, magnetic pulses created by a metal coil attached to the scalp generate small electrical currents in the brain; these stimulate nerve cells in areas involved in depression–without harming surrounding gray matter. The treatment gained more momentum this spring when the Israeli firm Brainsway announced successful trials of its newest incarnation: deep TMS. “The magnetic fields of standard TMS devices extend only about half an inch into the brain’s cortex,” says Uzi Sofer, Brainsway’s CEO. “But the coils of deep TMS can stimulate neurons farther inside the brain by projecting magnetic fields into the skull from several points around its periphery.” This means that, for the first time, clinicians can target the brain’s deep-seated limbic system, which plays an important role in mood regulation. So far, the device has lived up to its promise: 40 percent of the 64 depressed patients who received deep TMS achieved a clinically significant degree of recovery. As Brainsway lobbies for FDA approval of the device, Sofer is also evaluating deep TMS’s suitability for Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions that affect brain areas far below the surface.
No 4. Stem-Cell Scaffold
To pinch-hit for missing tissue at an injury site, stem cells need a scaffold to grow on–but artificial materials such as plastic won’t do, since the body flags and rejects them as foreign substances. Ravi Kane, a biological engineer at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., has circumvented the problem with his biodegradable stem-cell framework made from alginate, a complex carbohydrate found naturally in brown seaweed. Time-release microscale beads called microspheres are embedded in the scaffold with a carb-eating enzyme called alginate lyase. As a result, the scaffold degrades at a tuneable rate once inside the body. Kane hopes the algal frameworks will allow doctors to implant stem cells directly into injured tissue–healthy bone stem cells at a fracture site, for instance, or neural stem cells in brain areas ravaged by Alzheimer’s. Future versions of the scaffold could pack a one-two punch, delivering stem cells and drug compounds at the same time. “This is a modular system,” Kane says. “There’s still room in the scaffold to put other types of microspheres inside.”
No 3. Bloodstream Bot
Nowadays, procedures like removing tumors or Roto-Rootering plaque-filled arteries can require long hospital stints. But a mosquito-size robot developed by Oded Salomon, an engineer at Israel’s Technion Institute, may be able to pull off these surgical feats without making large incisions–so recuperation is much faster. Taking a cue from ’80s PC games like Laser Surgeon: The Microscopic Mission, Salomon’s 1-mm-dia. bot, dubbed “ViRob,” uses its barblike metal arms to grip the insides of veins and arteries and excise small amounts of tissue with built-in slicers. To operate most surgical probes, surgeons must grasp an external handle that protrudes from the body, but ViRob has no such limitations. After the bot is injected into a vein, operators can manipulate its speed and direction by tuning an external magnetic field to a variety of frequencies. “You don’t need to control ViRob manually from outside, so you can access areas that otherwise can’t be reached,” Salomon says. “And doctors might even be able to perform operations remotely while a patient is at home.” He predicts specialists will begin using the robot for procedures such as biopsies and blood vessel repairs within five years.
No 2. Instant Diagnosis
Since 1954, troopers have used breathalyzers to determine whether drivers have imbibed–and just how much. Jun Ye, a physicist at the University of Colorado, has transported the concept into an entirely new realm: medical diagnostics. The device he’s designed detects thousands of different biological molecules in a single exhalation, creating a snapshot of the breath’s contents that could signal the presence of illnesses, from cancer to cystic fibrosis. This split-second diagnosis is powered by a laser called an “optical frequency comb,” which emits a wide spectrum of lightwaves that interacts with airborne compounds. “You have this rainbow of light coming out in a regularly spaced comb pattern,” Ye says. “When breath molecules fly through the rainbow, they set off resonant frequencies that make the comb look like it has missing teeth.” If the resulting pattern shows the presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide, for example, the exhaler may be suffering from asthma. “You don’t have to wait days for test results,” Ye says. “Within a minute, you know what’s going on.”
No 1. Pre-emptive Strike Against Cancer
Scientists around the world are working overtime on new cancer treatments, including more effective chemotherapy and better bone-marrow transplant procedures. Johns Hopkins biochemist Thomas Kensler aims to make all their efforts moot. Along with colleagues at Dartmouth College, Kensler is uncovering surprising ways to prevent malignancies from forming in the first place. Like an earthquake or avalanche, cancer is the end result of a whole sequence of unstable conditions: Abnormal cells must cluster in the wrong place at the wrong time, and cell-to-cell communications must break down, allowing cell proliferation and differentiation to proceed unchecked. Kensler has disrupted this sequence in the lab by treating healthy tissue with a chemical compound called CDDO-Im. Derived from acids in plants, CDDO-Im activates natural enzymes that remove toxic compounds from cells–compounds that might otherwise create DNA mutations that lead to cancer. CDDO-Im won’t be available to patients for several years, but when it is, Kensler says, “I can see doctors recommending healthy people for this procedure based on their genetic susceptibility and the environmental conditions they’ve been exposed to. Our goal is to prevent that very first cancerous cell from tipping over the edge.”
If you have ever told your children/significant other/cubical mate something important only to discover that they forgot it ten seconds later, this tiny artificial brain might be an improvement. It has a memory span of up to 12 seconds. Although not technically a fully-formed brain, the collection of 60 rat neurons was grown by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh as a precursor to more complex studies of synaptic mechanisms.
The “brain” consists of a silicon disc covered in a layer of proteins and peppered with some embryonic rat hippocampus cells. As the cells grew together, they formed their own neural network that could transmit and receive electrical signals. When the neurons were excited with an electrical pulse, the pulse continued to travel around the network for up to 12 seconds – an extraordinarily long time considering that without that organic network the pulse would have stopped traveling after about .25 seconds.
All of this talk of neurons and electrical excitement is just fancy-talk for “this artificial brain exhibits short-term memory.” And because the researchers have unhampered access to the functions of the micro-brain, their future research may give them an unprecedented insight into how the neural pathways of our own brains work to transmit information.
Medawy! 