Lifeboat Foundation

“While epidural stimulators have shown some degree of success with limb paralysis in research elsewhere, this is the first such study at the VA, explained Dr. Ashraf Gorgey, chief of spinal cord injury research at the Richmond hospital. Gorgey said the study has several goals: to see how well an epidural stimulator made by Medtronic for pain management can work on spinal cord injuries and to demonstrate the promise of the technology, which can be implanted with minimum surgery. “With this study, we might get companies like Medtronic and Boston Scientific to start creating something more specific for spinal cord injuries,” he said. “We also want to show that you don’t need invasive surgery to use this device. We use just a needle under fluoroscopy, and through the needle, we thread the leads in. On the same day Josh had his surgery, he was down in this room working out on the mat.””

That immediate change following the implant bolstered confidence in his decision to enroll in the research, he added.

When he is not at the VA — he spends 90 minutes there three times a week — Burch works with his brother, Travis, also a former Marine, renovating and flipping houses in Portsmouth, and he plays on two wheelchair rugby teams. He credits the sport, once known as murderball, and his teammates on the Oscar Mike Militia, an all-veterans team, for his recovery to date.

Continue reading “The VA Is Testing an Implant That Could Allow Paralyzed Veterans to Walk Again” »

Two important sars-cov-2/covid-19 links.

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An experimental COVID-19 vaccine could potentially provide universal protection against future COVID variants as well as other coronaviruses—maybe even the ones responsible for the common cold. And it’s dirt cheap—less than $1 a dose, researchers say.

Continue reading “Is a cheap ‘universal’ coronavirus vaccine on the way?” »

The study also linked COVID-19 to a 60% to 97% increased rate of preterm birth, and— in infected women with a fever and shortness of breath—to a fivefold increase in neonatal complications such as immature lungs, brain damage, and eye disorders. About 13% of babies tested positive for the virus, and cesarean delivery was linked to a higher risk of transmission. Breastfeeding didn’t appear to transmit the virus—a small bit of good news.

New study bolsters the case for vaccinating pregnant women.

Mice fed every other day in another study lived, on average, 12% longer than mice fed every day, largely due to the delay of cancerous diseases.

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According to the International Food Information Council’s 2020 Food and Health Survey, you most likely know someone who is practicing intermittent fasting. The survey of 1000 adult Americans found that one in ten were putting down the fork during specified periods of time, making it America’s most popular “diet.”

Continue reading “Intermittent Fasting for Longevity: The Science Behind the Hype” »

A new study by American researchers from Kansas State University and Agricultural Research Service have alarmingly found that house flies can carry the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus for up to 24 hours after exposure and are potential transmission vectors of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus!

House flies are known to transmit bacterial, parasitic and viral diseases to humans and animals as mechanical vectors. Previous studies have shown that house flies can mechanically transmit coronaviruses, such as turkey coronavirus; however, the house fly’s role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission was not explored until now. The goal of the study was to investigate the potential of house flies to mechanically transmit SARS-CoV-2.

The work adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that schizophrenia and certain other neuropsychiatric conditions may be in part neuroinflammatory disorders.

Summary: People with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders may have a more permissive blood-brain barrier which allows the immune system to become more actively involved in the central nervous system. The resulting inflammation may contribute to the clinical manifestation of psychosis-like symptoms.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

Continue reading “The Immune Link Between a Leaky Blood-Brain Barrier and Schizophrenia” »

The U.S. spends more per person on prescription drugs than any other nation, and spending on cancer drugs has more than doubled since 2013 to over $60 billion annually, according to the data firm IQVIA. New medications typically cost $90000 to $300000 a year. And those prices have risen much faster than patient survival.

Each year the U.S. approves dozens of new uses for cancer drugs based on early signs that they can shrink or slow the spread of tumors.

A 3D biomaterial scaffold design to slowly release stem cells ensures that implanted stem cells stick around to relieve pain and reverse arthritis in mice knee joints. This reduces the use of stem cells by 90%, thus avoiding the challenge of redness, swelling and scar tissue that can arise from large doses of such stem cells, and potentially opening a path to reversal of osteoarthritis in humans for the first time.

The results were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal on February 25.

There is currently no treatment that can reverse the course of osteoarthritis, and our sole options are to try to relieve pain. Stem cell therapy potentially offers hope and has been shown to alienate the disease, but a ‘goldilocks’ dose of stem cells remains out of reach. Too much of a dose of stem cells and the subject suffers redness, swelling and scar tissue. Too little and the therapy is only successful for a limited period due to gradual cell loss.

Lockheed Martin Space hired 2700 people plus 700 interns in 2020, a year unlike any other for human resources managers. Almost overnight, the prime contractor with about 23000 employees switched from its traditional in-person approach to virtual recruitment, interviewing and training.

SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner spoke with Lockheed Martin Space executives Nick Spain, human resources vice president, Renu Aggarwal, talent acquisition director, and Heather Erickson, organizational development director, about the opportunities and challenges posed by heightened demand for talent amid a pandemic.