Powassan

Powassan

Powassan is a rare virus that can cause swelling around your brain and in the membranes around your brain and spinal cord. Even though only 75 cases have been reported in the U.S. over the past decade, it has started to show up on medical radar screens of late because experts are warning the disease could start to spread faster now that it is transmitted by the deer tick.

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E-Cigs Are 95% Less Harmful Than Tobacco

E-Cigs Are 95% Less Harmful Than Tobacco

Electronic cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than tobacco and should be promoted as a tool to help smokers quit, according to a study by an agency of Britain's Department of Health. E-cigarettes, tobacco-free devices people use to inhale nicotine-laced vapor, have surged in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic but health organizations have so far been wary of advocating them as a safer alternative to tobacco and governments from California to India have tried to introduce bills to regulate their use more strictly.

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Feel-Good Exercise Hormone Irisin Is Real

Feel-Good Exercise Hormone Irisin Is Real

Scientists in the US have found that a feel-good exercise hormone called irisin DOES exist. Previously thought to be a myth but new research team from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute used mass spectrometry to look for irisin in blood samples of individuals after exercise. The form of mass spectrometry used in the new study was far more accurate and reliable in measuring irisin. Found that these people had released the exercise hormone from their body, which activates fat cells to increase energy turn over

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Scientists Genetically Engineer Yeast To Produce Morphine-Like Painkiller

Scientists Genetically Engineer Yeast To Produce Morphine-Like Painkiller

Normally takes around a year to create painkillers from opium poppies. First they have to be grown, harvested, shipped around the world and finally processed. Now researchers have been able to cut this time down to just a few days. Scientists can do this by genetically engineering yeast to do it instead. cientists get the chemical thebaine, which they then turn into the opioid hydrocodone (painkiller).

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Researchers Falsely Claims Traces of Bubonic Plague on New York Subways

Researchers Falsely Claims Traces of Bubonic Plague on New York Subways

Almost half of these DNA sequences didn’t match any known species. Researchers associated some of these microbes with the bubonic plague and anthrax. Research team initially claimed that the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, was found on the subway. Suggested that they represent normal co-habitants of a shared urban infrastructure that may even be essential to maintaining such an environment.

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White House funds ways to treat and identify heroin epidemic

White House funds ways to treat and identify heroin epidemic

The number of heroin overdose deaths in the U.S. continues to climb, so White House is funding efforts to prioritize treatment over punishment for heroin user. $13.4 million grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They will partner public health and safety officials to trace the origin of the drugs and its distributors. The project will be funded for one year and will target high intensity drug trafficking areas in Appalachia, New England, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore.

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IBM TO BUY MERGE HEALTHCARE IN $1 BILLION DEAL

IBM TO BUY MERGE HEALTHCARE IN $1 BILLION DEAL

IBM Corp said it would buy medical image company Merge Healthcare Inc. in a $1 billion deal and combine it with its newly formed health analytics unit. IBM plans to combine data and images from Merge Healthcare's medical imaging management platform with Watson's cloud-based healthcare computing system. The system analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language and proposes evidence-based answers.

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Our Health & Industry-Funded Research

Our Health & Industry-Funded Research

The New York Times blasted wide open an argument that highly affects the health industry in an article this past weekend. The problem? Three words: industry funded research. Coca Cola is a leader in this. The report was sparked after a newly-formed nonprofit organization claimed to be working on developing solutions to prevent and reduce chronic disease associated with poor diet and obesity. The issue is this organization has received significant funding from Coca-Cola. Another key issue is that the group suggests poor diet and health habits aren't to blame for obesity and weight gain. 

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Top 10 Most Innovative Companies Worldwide

Top 10 Most Innovative Companies Worldwide

From IBM to some newer faces, there are so many companies disrupting the healthcare industry for everything from preventive are and better cancer treatments to technology and hospital equipment. Here are the top 10 innovative companies from around the world changing the future of health. 

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What is climate change doing to our health?

What is climate change doing to our health?

The 2014 National Climate Assessment, conducted by a team of more than 300 experts and a federal advisory committee, concluded that new health threats will emerge and existing ones will only get worse. Increased global temperatures, ground-level ozone and air pollution are expected to limit lung function and increase emergency room trips for those with asthma, whose ranks have substantially increased in the past decade. 

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CDC Warns of Pool Parasite this Summer

CDC Warns of Pool Parasite this Summer

Outbreaks in pools, hot tubs and other recreational and municipal locations can be dangerous according to a report released late last week. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that over 90 outbreaks between 2011 and 2012 results in almost 1800 illnesses and 95 hospitalizations. The outbreaks even caused one death. 

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Orbital Medicine: Exploring Health in Space

Orbital Medicine: Exploring Health in Space

As you can imagine, medicine in space is completely different than it is here on earth. Our bodies operate in many different in zero gravity. One would not want to get sick in space. Zero-gravity plays a lot of games with our bones, muscles, organs, eyeballs and the brain itself. There's also infectious risks on a spacecraft which stems from sealing multiple people inside a self-contained vessel. Virus or bacteria could simply circulate around from person to person throughout an entire mission.

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Medicare is Turning 50

Medicare is Turning 50

As of July, Medicare turns 50, In the journal Generations, “A Prescription for the Next Fifty Years of Medicare." Dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health writes an article describing a prescription for the future of Medicare. States that Medicare must evolve to improve senior health in the future. When Medicare bill was passed 50 years ago: millions of older adults in the US benefited. 

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Precision Medicine is the Future of Treating Cancer

Precision Medicine is the Future of Treating Cancer

Personalization is threaded into the social fabric of America. Innovation is rooted in customizing and personalizing even the smallest parts of our lives, stemming from technology and retail to travel, media and wellness. The future continues to promise even smarter applications where personalization fits, but what about our health? 

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