Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

August 22, 2014

Nanotechnology Microchip for Detecting Type 1 Diabetes

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: , , , — Ralph C Dreher @ 7:52 AM

Technology is being used in every profession including medical science. Recently, a microchip was created using the nanotechnology to detect Type 1 diabetes in patients. This is a big benefit for doctors because for detecting Type 1 diabetes doctors need to spend a lot of time as they go to identify the specific protein markers in blood. This may take days to weeks. But the recent research by Stanford university school of medicine came up with this nanotechnology chip. This chip can detect Type 1 diabetes within a very low time span – in minutes.

Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an immune disease, by which the immune system can affect the pancreas. By this the pancreas stops producing insulin – a hormone to process sugars. Early detection of Type 1 diabetes may benefit the patient.

Conventional method of using radio active material for testing Type 1 diabetes in patients takes several days for detecting the condition, and in the meanwhile the diseases may become severe. With nanotechnology chip, it is very easy to detect in minutes.

Nanotechnology chip for Type 1 diabetes
Besides the radio active material used in conventional methods of detecting Type 1 diabetes in patients, this nanotechnology chip produces results quickly. It takes a small amount of blood through a finger prick. For detecting the antibodies this microchip depends on fluorescence based method.

The base of the microchip is coated with nanoparticle-sized islands of gold which show the fluorescent signal. This enables the antibody detection. This test recognizes the auto-antibodies levels quickly before they show the symptoms. Even a single auto-antibody will make you get into risk.

With conventional methods, doctors can’t exactly detect the type of diabetes the patient has.
Stanford university researchers developed this wonderful technology, which benefits the patients in many ways and they are also trying to launch this in the market very soon.

Benefits of nanotechnology chip for Type 1 diabetes

  • It is an inexpensive method for detecting Type 1 diabetes.
  • It requires minimal training for the technique to be used and reduces the burden for physicians.
  • Detection of Type 1 diabetes using this technology takes only a few minutes when compared to conventional treatment which takes a few days.
  • Early detection is the main advantage of this technology.
  • This chip can be used for performing nearly 15 tests.
  • It takes a small amount of blood compared to conventional methods.

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May 31, 2011

Use of Tobacco Among Americans in 2009

Filed under: Substance Abuse — Tags: , — Winson @ 9:38 AM

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) includes use of tobacco products, including cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff, cigars, and pipe tobacco. Cigarette use is defined as smoking tobacco, whereas, chewing tobacco and snuff are combined as smokeless tobacco.

69.7 million Americans aged 12 or older were current users of a tobacco product in 2009 according to the survey. 58.7 million persons were current cigarette smokers, 13.3 million smoked cigars, 8.6 million used smokeless tobacco and 2.1 million smoked tobacco in pipes. The rate of current use of any tobacco product among persons aged 12 or older remained steady from 2008 to 2009.

Adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest rate of current use of a tobacco products in 2009 and the 35.8 percent of adults used cigarettes, 11.4 percent used cigars, 6.1 percent used smokeless tobacco, and 1.7 percent used pipe tobacco.

Among persons aged 12 or older, males are higher than the females who used tobacco. Males also had higher rates of past month use than females of each specific tobacco product which includes cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and pipe tobacco. Among youths aged 12 to 17, the rate of current cigarette smoking in 2009 was slightly higher for males than for females.

In 2009, current cigarette smoking was more common among unemployed adults aged 18 or older than among adults who were working full time or part time. Among adults aged 18 or older, current cigarette use in 2009 was reported by 35.4 percent of those who had not completed high school, 30.0 percent of high school graduates who did not attend college, 25.4 percent of persons with some college, and 13.1 percent of college graduates.

July 14, 2010

Common Side Effects of Marijuana

Filed under: Substance Abuse — Tags: , , — Winson @ 9:14 AM

Marijuana is one of the illegal drugs in United states, it is also the most commonly abused drug. THC is the one of the dangerous chemical in Marijuana drug. It is dry, shredded green and brown mix flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves taken from the hemp plant.

Marijuana causes many side effects on the users, and some of the common side effects of using Marijuana are trouble in remembering things, user can feel sleepiness, anxiety, paranoia, it alters time perception. These symptoms vary depending upon the person’s health. Suppose if a person who has history of mental or health problems then it is better to not to take the drugs, it will worsen both his or her body and mind.

Using marijuana effects the body and brain of the user, marijuana side effects can be as innocent as increased appetite to lung cancer. It causes accidents, so it is also one of the side effects. Other physical side effects are dry mouth, headache, nausea, tremor, increased heart rate, decreased coordination, altered body temperature, increased food consumption, reduced blood flow to brain, breathing problems, changes in reproductive organs.

There are few side effects on brain like anxiety and panic, paranoia, confusion, aggressiveness, hallucinations, sedation, depersonalization, poor sense of time, worsened short-term memory, addictive behaviors, slowed reaction time, red, blood shot eyes, difficulty in concentrating.

Long time use of marijuana can make a person loose interest in school, work, relationships and other activities and not only these, it also causes some legal problems. Driving under the influence of Marijuana is very dangerous because it impairs your reaction time. So it leads you to dangerous conditions.

March 19, 2010

Cancer-One of the Serious Killers in United States

Filed under: 2010 — Tags: , , — Winson @ 9:56 AM

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the United States as many people refuse to stop the bad habits.

An epidemiologist from American Cancer Society recently said that medical advances and awareness campaigns have helped reduce the death rate from cancer by almost 16 per cent in the past two decades, but it still was able to kill almost 560,000 in United States and almost 1.5 million people all over the world in 2009. These numbers predict that it may the deadly disease in the future.

Poor lifestyle choices made by people like taking up smoking is one of the major reasons for the widespread of the disease. Many of the people continue smoking even after they get to know that they are being affected by this deadly disease. It generally strikes people in later life when they cross 55 years of age.

Another lifestyle issue among the Americans to worry about is obesity and being overweight. Around two-thirds of US adults are said to be overweight or obese. Obesity or being overweight is now known to cause many types of cancer.

According to a study by the American Cancer Society, being overweight or obese causes more than 100,000 incidents of cancer in the United States. It is said that half the men and women who are diagnosed with cancer will die.

It is very important to understand that sedentary lifestyles and smoking are on some of the major reasons for cancer attack. It is advised not to practice these unhealthy practices and stay away from cancer.

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