As part of my ongoing LED light bulb reviews, the following is my real-world testing of the EcoSmart 13-watt (60-watt-equivalent) LED bulb.  In case you haven’t noticed, traditional 100w & 75w incandescent bulbs have been phased out (all manufacturing in the U.S. has ceased). Why? Because although America has just 5% of the world’s population, we use 26% of the world’s energy. And lighting is a major culprit. I have been testing all sorts of replacement bulbs — so you don’t have to. Skip the compact fluorescents and head straight to the new generation of LEDs. They’re “instant on,” dimmable (most of them), and light a room just as good — or even better — than traditional bulbs.  The best bulb I’ve found so far is the “EcoSmart” 60-watt-equivalent “bright white” LED. Although packaged as a 60-watt replacement, it has nearly the same number of “lumens” (amount of visible light) as a 75-watt incandescent. It will last 25x longer than an incandescent bulb — up to 23 years! And only uses 13 watts of power. The color of the light is pleasing, too — a very natural, bright white. Bottom line: It will save you up to $161 vs. a regular 75-watt bulb. And it will keep working for a quarter century. It’s $9.95 at Home Depot — a great deal. I’ve included a photo so you can spot it quickly in the aisle. Suggestion: Buy one and try it. I bet you’ll like it! Let me know…

Results:  Over the 4-year study period, there were 121,084 firearm fatalities. The average state-based firearm fatality rates varied from a high of 17.9 (Louisiana) to a low of 2.9 (Hawaii) per 100,000 individuals per year. Annual firearm legislative strength scores ranged from 0 (Utah) to 24 (Massachusetts) of 28 possible points. States in the highest quartile of legislative strength (scores of >9) had a lower overall firearm fatality rate than those in the lowest quartile (scores of <2) (absolute rate difference, 6.64 deaths/100,000/y; age-adjusted incident rate ratio [IRR], 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.92). Compared with the quartile of states with the fewest laws, the quartile with the most laws had a lower firearm suicide rate (absolute rate difference, 6.25 deaths/100,000/y; IRR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.83) and a lower firearm homicide rate (absolute rate difference, 0.40 deaths/100,000/y; IRR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.38-0.95).

Conclusions and Relevance:  A higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in the state, overall and for suicides and homicides individually. As our study could not determine cause-and-effect relationships, further studies are necessary to define the nature of this association.

Full report:   http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1661390

Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH; Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH; Michael C. Monuteaux, ScD; David Hemenway, PhD; Rebekah Mannix, MD, MPH

JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-9. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1286.

Published online March 6, 2013

(AP) RIO DE JANEIRO – Doctors say a 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his skull.  Luiz Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff at Rio de Janeiro’s Miguel Couto Hospital, said doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite’s skull during a five-hour surgery.  “He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain.” Essinger said.

via Brazilian construction worker survives 6-foot metal bar through skull – HealthPop – CBS News.

The non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation has prepared a superb summary of the Affordable Care Act.  No hype.  No political spin.  No mis-information.

Read about:   The individual mandate.  Employer requirements.  Prevention and wellness programs.  How public programs are expanded.  Premiums.  Cost-sharing subsidies.  Related tax changes.  Health insurance exchanges.  Impacts on private insurance.  State role.  Cost containment.  Improving quality and health care system performance.  Nutritional information required to be disclosed by restaurant chains.  Long-term care.  Coverage and financing.

Here’s the link to the KFF summary of health care reform as provided by the Affordable Care Act:  http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf

F.Y.I., regarding “coverage and financing,” the KFF summary reports:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the new health reform law will provide coverage to an additional 32 million when fully implemented in 2019 through a combination of the newly created Exchanges and the Medicaid expansion.

CBO estimates the cost of the coverage components of the new law to be $938 billion over ten years. These costs are financed through a combination of savings from Medicare and Medicaid and new taxes and fees, including an excise tax on high-cost insurance, which CBO estimates will raise $32 billion over ten years.  CBO also estimates that the health reform law will reduce the deficit by $124 billion over ten years.

Medical professionals seldom use the world “miracle” with any treatment.  But those are precisely the words being used by the scientific community in regards to T-DM1, a new drug for women with Stage 3 or Stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer. 

As reported in today’s MSN HEALTH: 

“This week there was big news for HER2-positive women: a dramatic announcement about T-DM1, an experimental drug that’s been in clinical trials since January. Known colloquially as ‘super Herceptin’ by the women taking it, T-DM1 is an unusual joint project between two companies, Genentech, which makes the targeted antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin), and ImmunoGen which contributed its cancer-killing agent DM1.

“Oncologists don’t like the term ‘miracle drug,’ and try not to use it — but the word miracle was in fact used when researchers presented results of a Phase II trial of T-DM1 at the Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, last Tuesday.”

For the full article, visit this link:  http://on-msn.com/o1ifjV

Here’s another excellent article from ABC NEWS HEALTH:  http://abcn.ws/K51YWL

Let’s all hope T-DM1 lives up to the promise seen in the clinical trials, to give women a powerful new weapon in the fight against this terrible disease.

Image courtesy ABC NEWS and Getty Images

The icky stuff you see floating on the top of stagnant water may become the latest weapon in spotting cancer cells circulating in a bloodstream.  That’s the bottom line from renowned scientist, Yoshinobu Baba, Ph.D. , and his research with the pond-scum microbe called Euglena.

According to an article from the American Chemical Society, “Baba’s team turned to Euglena in an effort to solve the medical problem of detecting the minute number of cancer cells that break off from the original, or primary, tumor site and travel through the bloodstream. Those cells, termed circulating tumor cells (CTCs), enable cancer to spread, or metastasize, and start growing at distant sites in the body. Metastasis is the main reason why cancer can be such a difficult disease to treat. Detecting those cells would raise a red flag so that doctors could treat or more intensively monitor patients.”

Baba’s novel technique uses Euglena to help detect those minute cancer cells.  It’s an ingenious combination of scientific brilliance and Mother Nature.

For the complete article, with the scientific premise behind the technique, visit the American Chemical Society’s Web site at this link:  http://bit.ly/GRiV8R

Image courtesy of Yoshinobu Baba

(The Guardian / UK)  “Taking a low dose [75-milligram] of aspirin each day may prevent cancer and stop it spreading, according to three papers to be published in leading medical journals on Wednesday. It could also possibly have a use as a treatment for the disease.

“Dr Peter Rothwell from Oxford University and the John Radcliffe hospital and colleagues, the authors of the studies in the Lancet and Lancet Oncology have previously shown that long-term daily aspirin, for 10 years or so, reduces the risk of colorectal (bowel) cancer and other common cancers, but some experts have voiced concerns over potential long-term side-effects, because aspirin can cause stomach bleeding.

“The new studies reinforce aspirin’s claim to be a weapon against cancer. They show that taking daily low-dose pills for just three years can reduce your risk of cancer by about a quarter — 23% for men and 25% for women. The risk of dying of cancer is cut by 15% — and by 37% for those who take aspirin for longer than five years.

“The second study found that aspirin helped prevent the spread of cancer — or metastasis — to other organs, which is a serious threat to the patient’s survival. Aspirin reduced the proportion of cancers that spread instead of staying localised by 48%.

“The drug also reduced the risk of being diagnosed with a solid cancer that had already spread by 31%. For patients initially diagnosed with a local cancer, the risk of later metastasis was reduced by 55%.”

For the complete article, visit http://bit.ly/GDovty

Image courtesy of Scot Frei / Corbis

ABC News / Australian 9NEWS:   “A U.S. transgender woman has been charged with practising cosmetic surgery without a licence after she injected a patient’s buttocks with a cocktail of substances including cement and [tire] sealant, police say.

“Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested last Friday for conducting a botched butt implant at a Miami home last May, ABC reports.  Police said Morris shot a mixture of cement, glue, mineral oil and ‘Fix-A-Flat’ [tire] mender into the woman’s buttocks and then sealed the amateur incision with super glue.

“Morris, who appears to have an ‘enhanced’ rear end herself from police photos, first met her victim to discuss the procedure in May 2010.  ‘They agreed on the price of $700 for the procedure, which was intended for cosmetic purposes,’ Sgt William Bamford told ABC.  But the patient soon complained of serious pains in her abdomen and throughout her body, and was hospitalized.”

For the complete head-shaking story, visit http://bit.ly/rwQ7if

Police photo of Oneal Ron Morris courtesy of ABC News / Australian 9NEWS

Just when you thought scientific research couldn’t get any more bizarre, here’s a new benchmark:  Researchers at the University College London have apparently discovered a link between the number of Facebook friends and the size particular of brain regions, such as the amygdala, where memory and emotion are processed.

The researchers do not suggest whether they believe it was Facebook activity that increased the size of these portions of the brain — or — if someone’s amygdala size, for instance, influences a person’s desire to acquire Facebook friends.

If you’d like to know more about this unusual study, check out the Reuter’s report here:  http://reut.rs/rm6Apb.  And, yes, feel free to share the details with your friends on Facebook.

Image courtesy of Reuters

According to the Associated Press, “IBM’s supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world’s best ‘Jeopardy!’ players on TV, is being tapped by one of the nation’s largest health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorize treatments.  WellPoint Inc., which has 34.2 million members, will integrate Watson’s lightning speed and deep health care database into its existing patient information, helping it choose among treatment options and medicines.”

I have mixed feelings about this development.  We all remember how the HAL 9000 turned against the astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Sure, that was science fiction.  But so were artificial satellites when they were envisioned a decade before Sputnik by the master science-fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.  Computers are marvelous tools.  But good ol’ fashion intuition, by a seasoned physician, is (with current technology) impossible to replicate.

For the full AP article, visit http://bit.ly/n621oi

Photo courtesy AP and IBM

According to a news report from the BBC, the world’s smallest electric motor “could have applications in both nanotechnology and in medicine….

“The butyl methyl sulphide molecule was placed on a clean copper surface, where its single sulfur atom acted as a pivot….  As well as forming a part of the tiniest machines the world has ever seen, such minute mechanics could be useful in medicine — for example, in the controlled delivery of drugs to targeted locations.

“The next thing to do is to…couple it to other molecules, lining them up next to one another so they’re like miniature cog-wheels.”

To read the complete BBC report, visit http://bbc.in/qZKTg4

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug — Zalboraf — that has shown effectiveness in treating a challenging, and in some cases fatal, form of skin cancer.  This is the second melanoma treatment to be approved this year; in March, the FDA approved the drug Yervoy.  For more information, review the article at http://bit.ly/pxhyhW

As reported in the European Respiratory Journal, dogs can be trained to sniff the breath of patients and confirm cases of lung cancer.

The four dogs in the study were two German shepherds, a Labrador retriever, and an Australian shepherd.  The dogs’ overall accuracy was 71%.

For additional details, take a look at the following excellent report in today’s Daily Mail: http://bit.ly/q0ChrB

The Los Angeles Times reports that MIT scientists have created a drug that “…takes advantage of a molecule called double-stranded RNA, which is produced by many, many viruses when they infect mammalian cells. Uninfected, our cells usually don’t make this double-stranded RNA, and to some extent our cells have evolved to recognize this structure and respond. Just not potently enough. The drug created by the MIT team can enter mammalian cells and is engineered to induce the cells to commit suicide if — and only if — they contain double-stranded RNA.”

The scientists’ preliminary studies were effective against 15 virus types, including Dengue fever and H1N1.  It will be interesting to see if the next phase of research can replicate this significant level of success.

For the full LA Times article, visit http://lat.ms/q077Jb

“Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to successfully destroy cancer tumors in patients with advanced disease — a goal that has taken 20 years to achieve.  Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania engineered patients’ own pathogen-fighting T-cells to target a molecule found on the surface of leukemia cells.  The results provide ‘a tumor-attack roadmap for the treatment of other cancers,’ including those of the lung and ovaries as well as myeloma and melanoma, researchers said.”

For the complete article, visit http://reut.rs/p3tGN9

Photo courtesy of Reuters

One of my readers asked me to research something he spotted a couple of years ago: a mouse suspended in mid air without any perceivable support mechanisms.

Yes, it did occur. It was a rather unique NASA experiment. The trick? Scientists used a superconducting magnet to levitate the water inside of a mouse. Here’s an article from LiveScience: http://bit.ly/kb330d

If NASA could develop the system on a larger scale, it’s possible that the same technique could be used with humans to simulate the effects of microgravity. (We’re 60 – 70% water, so the technique should, in theory, work.)

If that fizzles for NASA, fear not: Perhaps the gadget could become part of the next Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas.

A recent study of 700 lunches packed for children attending daycare found that nearly all of the lunches were at an unsafe-to-eat temperature by lunchtime.

It was common for the researchers to find milk, fruit, and meats above 40 degrees F.  It was also common for hot items, such as soups, to have cooled to the point that could foster bacteria growth.  It only takes an hour or two for bacteria levels to rise enough to make a child sick.

According to the CNN article that discussed the research, “If your child complains of a stomach ache or is vomiting or has diarrhea, it’s not necessarily a bug caught from another child.”

There are easy steps to help your children’s food stay at the proper temperature.  Many of these steps are outlined in the following CNN article  http://bit.ly/qmloax

A couple of weeks ago I described how living organs for transplant procedures are being created with stem cells.  Well, the breakthroughs on the bioengineering front continue to happen fast and furious.

Just recently, researches have successfully “printed” a living blood vessel using a fluid containing a brew of blood-vessel cells and muscle cells.  This is an ingenious application of 3D printers — remarkable devices that can create three-dimensional objects by applying multiple layers of a liquid construction material.  (For more info, visit this Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing.)

Printed blood vessels could have tremendous applications in surgery.  For instance, a patient awaiting bypass surgery could have blood vessels printed in the days leading up to the procedure — with the vessels made from a small sampling of his or her own cells.  The ultimate vision is to print complete organs — even new hearts — as an alternative to transplants.

Given the pace of this technology’s development, I believe were only talking a handful of years before we see it saving lives in major hospitals.  Very exciting.

Numerous reports came out today citing the National Institute of Health and its thought that a “universal” flu shot is not to far off.  The intent is to create a single shot for all strains of flu, and potentially eliminating the need for annual flu shots.

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/nYgYhb.

Photo courtesy International Business Times

Many patients don’t survive the waiting list for a donor organ.  I know, first hand, as I lost a long-time friend while he was waiting for a compatible donor heart.

This logjam is beginning to open with the medical community’s announcement that a patient received a trachea (“windpipe”) that was created with the patient’s own stem cells.  (Stem cells are a versatile type of cell that can transform into many types of cells. http://1.usa.gov/ubcAp)

The trachea was constructed with an artificial “skeleton” of a spongy material which was then immersed in a solution of stem cells.  The cells grew into the sponge material, creating a living organ in less than two weeks.  The resulting trachea was then implanted into the patient (who was suffering from tracheal cancer).  The patient’s body accepted new-formed organ as if it was the original trachea.

In theory, the same process could be used to create other, more complex organs:  liver, pancreas, heart, etc.  We’re still quite a ways from this level of organ development.  But the medical door is now open a crack.  Further progress is just a matter of time.

For more information and additional photos, take a look at a recent article at CNN http://bit.ly/qAibNI.

Image courtesy Harvard Bioscience

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced $41.5 million in grant money for the re-invention of the toilet — the porcelain appliance that’s been a staple of homes and living quarters since the 1700s.  The Foundation stated that current toilet technology is too costly for families in third-world communities, and requires water and sewer connections that many developing societies do not have.  So they’re reaching out to inventors and creative thinkers, everywhere, for a new solution.

If you have some clever ideas swirling in your head, take a look at the  “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” information PDF at http://bit.ly/p4qVZs

You can also read a great overview article at http://bit.ly/ottbCy

Image courtesy of CNN

The pace of research and discoveries in the field of medicine, in cancer research particularly, is nothing less than stunning.  Some of the greatest strides are in the field of “personalized medicine,” where diseases are treated at the genetic level — with treatments optimized for each individual patient.

Scientists have discovered that any particular type of cancer is actually a defined group of related cancers.  For instance, prostate cancer is actually comprised of a family of 24 cancers.  And there are eight primary variants of breast cancer.  Knowing the specific cancer variant, in any particular patient, gives doctors an inside track to targeting the cancer with the optimum treatment.

But that’s just the first step.  The most-recent breakthroughs are in the knowledge of each individual’s genetic code.

Just a few years ago, it would have cost millions of dollars to map the entire genome (genetic blueprint) of a single person.  But that price tag has plummeted to $5,000 — thanks to innovative technology companies like Complete Genomics.

Combining precise knowledge of a person’s genome with specific knowledge of a cancer variant is a powerful one-two punch.  It has the real potential to enable ultra-tailored, ultra-effective cancer treatments.  We’re not there yet.  But the convergence of technologies is happening right before our eyes.  Stay tuned.

For additional reference, visit these links:

Wiki genome information:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome

Genomics and the treatment of prostate cancer:  http://bit.ly/lRLPtI

Interesting article on Complete Genomics:  http://bit.ly/k8ZW4K

Graphic courtesy of MIT / Technology Review

We’ve all heard the pre-flight airplane safety briefing that says, “In case of cabin decompression, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. Pull a mask towards you and place it firmly over your mouth and nose, and breathe normally.  Please note that the bag may not inflate.”

I was flying to Chicago the other on business.  Curiosity finally got the best of me and I asked a flight attendant “Why don’t those little bags inflate?”  He didn’t know.  He asked the other flight attendants.  They didn’t know either.

Since my last flight, I did a bit of searching online.  It turns out that even some pilots in discussion forums were unsure.  But I finally pieced together the answer:  With every inhale, we breathe in quite a volume of air — about half a liter per inhale.   However, the oxygen-delivery system in an airplane can’t deliver that large volume as quickly as we consume it.  So the little bags mix our exhaled air (which still contains a substantial amount of oxygen) with the relative trickle of pure oxygen that’s coming into the bag from the airplane’s supply tube.  When we breathe in, the bag quickly compresses as we inhale all of the air in the little bag plus whatever oxygen has trickled in from the oxygen tube.

So the bag is really just a mixing device, combining the exhaled air from our lungs with that of the supplemental oxygen.  But because our inhales are so large (compared to the size of the bag), the bag will not inflate.

Mystery solved.

And regarding the “breathe normally” part of the safety briefing?  Yeah, right.  Under those circumstances, I think most of us would be sucking in air as fast as our lungs would work.

Image courtesy of London Heathrow Airport.

As reported in PhysOrg.com, researchers at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in Massachusetts have succeeded in creating a “living laser” out of human cells.

According to the report, “It sounds like something out of a comic book or a science fiction movie — a living laser — but that is exactly what two investigators [at the Center] have developed.”

The researchers used a human cell and genetically re-engineered it to emit light using the same principle in which some types of jellyfish emit light.

Scientists hope that these biological lasers could someday be used in “photodynamic therapies.”  That is, treating diseases such as cancer by applying light — from inside the body — to activate photosensitive drugs to destroy cancer cells.

To read the complete PhysOrg.com article, visit http://bit.ly/mRzGqR

CNN recently published a list of the cell phone models that emit the highest and lowest levels of radiation.  In the same article, they provided a handy link to a searchable database of all models.  With current concerns over cell phone radiation and health, it can’t hurt to know about relative radiation exposure levels prior to making a purchase or considering an upgrade.

The following is a link to the full CNN article with the list of highest and lowest radiation emitters:  http://bit.ly/iTpgj6

And here’s a link to the searchable database of all cell phones:  http://bit.ly/kz9GJ9

Photo courtesy of CNN