1 April, 2014

Soon, ‘electronic skin’ to release drugs in body

Imagine a tattoo-like thin wearable device that can store information and also deliver medicine – combining patient treatment and monitoring at one time? Researchers in the US have created an ‘electronic skin’ that can store and transmit data about a person’s movements, receive diagnostic information and release drugs into skin.The technology could aid patients with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy, they claimed.  

What we are talking here is a ‘sticky patch containing a device roughly four centimetres long, two cm wide and 0.003 millimetres thick’, said Nanshu Lu, a mechanical engineer at University of Texas in Austin. The researchers constructed the device by layering a package of stretchable nanomaterials – sensors that detect temperature and motion, resistive RAM for data storage, microheaters and drugs – onto a material that mimics the softness and flexibility of the skin.

‘The novelty is really in the integration of the memory device,’ Stephanie Lacour, an engineer at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, added. The device works if it is connected to a power supply and data transmitter, both of which need to be made similarly compact and flexible before the prototype can be used routinely in patients. ‘Although some commercially available components, such as lithium batteries and radio-frequency identification tags can do this work, they are too rigid for the soft-as-skin brand of electronic device,’ Lu explained.  

The findings were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology1.

Source: http://health.india.com

01.04.2014

Strong muscles in kids lower heart disease, diabetes risk

Teenagers with stronger muscles have a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes later in life, a study shows. Stronger kids also have lower body mass index (BMI), lower percent body fat, smaller waist circumferences and higher fitness levels. ‘It is a widely-held belief that BMI, sedentary behaviours and low cardiovascular fitness levels are linked to diabetes, heart disease and stroke but our findings suggest muscle strength possibly may play an equally important role in cardiometabolic health in children,’ explained Mark D. Peterson, an assistant professor at University of Michigan Medical School.

Researchers analysed health data for more than 1,400 children ages 10 to 12, including their percent body fat, glucose level, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and triglycerides. Those with greater strength-to-body-mass ratios – or pound-for-pound strength capacities – had significantly lower risks of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers also measured cardiorespiratory fitness – how well the body is able to transport oxygen to muscles during prolonged exercise, and how well muscles are able to absorb and use it.   

The study is one of the the first to show a robust link between strength capacity and a lower chance of having diabetes, heart disease or stroke in adolescents. ‘The stronger you are relative to your body mass, the healthier you are,’ Peterson says. Exercise and even recreational activity that supports early muscular strength acquisition should complement traditional weight-loss interventions among children and teenagers in order to reduce risks of serious diseases throughout adolescence, the researchers mentioned.  

Previous studies have found low muscular strength in teenagers is a risk factor for several major causes of death in young adulthood, such as suicide and cardiovascular diseases, said the research published in the journal Pediatrics.  

Source: http://health.india.com

01.04.2014

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years

Abraham Lincoln