Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
10 High-Tech Health Breakthroughs Coming Soon to Your Body
popularmechanics.com — Medicine of the future will make even today ’s broad-based therapies obsolete. Breakthroughs such as cancer-hunting nanoparticles, virus-busting lasers and featherweight heart monitors have begun to usher in a new era of targeted treatment...
MrBabyMan- 570 diggs
- digg it
- lucidguru, on 05/09/2008, -0/+15Hopefully they will perfect the magnetic brain stimulation to the point where people can experience "altered states of consciousness" without the need for drugs.
- Spamcan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I see a brilliant mall kiosk venture in someone's future.
"Welcome to Virtual Amsterdam, how can I BLOW YOUR MIND, man?"- johnnyapollo122, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0They are ALREADY doing work with altered consciousness using devices similar to this. Off the top of my head, I know that they have even been able to directly trigger the perceived presence of someone else in the subject's presence even when no one is there (which might help to explain reports of paranormal phenomenon) as well as trigger a form of temporary autism that is reversible by the same process, in which the person can draw hyper-accurate images and do other things that autistic people can do that most people typically cannot. Freaky stuff, dude.
- Spamcan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I see a brilliant mall kiosk venture in someone's future.
- CreateSomeNoise, on 05/09/2008, -0/+19Hopefully they will perfect the BRAIN such that people will be forced to use it.
- Consh, on 05/09/2008, -5/+2Approximately 9% of this stuff will become a true breakthrough.
I like rounding stuff down so I'll say none of it will. - usgovterrorists, on 05/09/2008, -1/+14I would settle for a few cures.
Unfortunately the drug companies want to make money treating us, not curing us.
Name all the cures from the last 50 years, and I rest my case!- jp12380, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7Unfortunately I believe you are right.
- allan17, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Sadly this is true. Why? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these companies exist to make money. It is not in their best interest to cure you.
- psbpv3o, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3They've had a cure for cancer for the last 30 years. OMG! CONSPIRACY!!!! But no, they really have. Bastards.
- DiggWalker, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1I suck, I could only find 5 of the 10, they need to make an 11th that helps you find all of them.
- m0zzie, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1apparently i was born with the 11th that you speak of.. there's 2 on each page!
- AlienX3.5, on 05/09/2008, -1/+11is one of these breakthroughs going to help put everything in this article on one page?
- technonoob, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1The EKG is brillant
- Nesscz, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2when will they make something to stop this itch on my balls
- dvsbastard, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2They already have... it's called "Soap"...
Personal hygiene is your friend...- jesuswuzanalien, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2... and obviously not yours.
- dvsbastard, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2They already have... it's called "Soap"...
- dlite922, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2Was it just me, or this one didn't "WOW" you. It wasn't anything that impressive.
NEXT!- Janizzary, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Yeah. i was expecting some Ray Kurzweil stuff :(
- Sabretou, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Yeah, apparently the image of a ***** dog licking your screen is more "WOW" and "impressive" than Health breakthroughs.
- theswissllama, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2When I saw that it was on five different pages, I just said ***** it and stopped reading.
- ShaneMcDeath, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5It seems to me, with all these breakthroughs that we see on a weekly basis on Digg, that the process between that eureka moment in the lab and when it's put into use for the general public, needs to be looked at. Are we being as efficient as we can possibly be ? Can we speed up that process anywhere along the line ?
- psbpv3o, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2A product always has to be tested extensively to make sure it's safe. (For example i have been using crest pro health mouth wash for the past month, and I noticed my teeth getting darker and my sense of taste being diminished about a week ago. What ends up happening? There is a headline on how the product has the above side effects!)
Plus it needs to be commercially viable, if no long-term or immediate profit can come from it, the company has no reason to release it and investors have no reason to fund it.
Many of these future prediction articles about computer chipped brains and air fueled cars are just plain ignorant. Sure the technology could be there, but could companies make consistent money from these products? No. Capitalism, is kind of a bitch. - jimjacks, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0We are going to start to see pharmaceuticals get to the market quicker as molecular imaging is now possible and begins to expand.
- psbpv3o, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2A product always has to be tested extensively to make sure it's safe. (For example i have been using crest pro health mouth wash for the past month, and I noticed my teeth getting darker and my sense of taste being diminished about a week ago. What ends up happening? There is a headline on how the product has the above side effects!)
- Phi01, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1i have no idea what any of that stuff is going to do for me!!
- londubh, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1You can do one thing that'll improve your health within a few weeks. Stop eating high fructose corn syrup.
- Compactman, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0Get back to work Mr.Gavin Newsom.
- londubh, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1OK. Mr. Lard Ass.
- Compactman, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0Get back to work Mr.Gavin Newsom.
- BluesFan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Heart attacks run through my family really bad,that said I'm a unhealthy eater so hopefully the clot bot will be able to clear my arteries before I take the big one.
That or I could change my eating habits.....Damn you KFC!!! - mrzack, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2I don't want no chip in my arm. Just eat healthy foods, and don't take the pharmaceutical poisons...
- Slybri, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0None of this technology will be available for the average American, only the richest 10%.
- kerosion, on 05/09/2008, -1/+8One-page version.
1. Magnetic Brain Stimulation:
For the 20 percent of depressed patients who don’t respond to drugs such as Prozac, the traditional last-ditch treatment option has been electroshock therapy. Recently, researchers worldwide began investigating a promising new alternative: transcranial magnetic stimulation. In TMS, magnetic pulses created by a metal coil attached to the scalp generate small electrical currents in the brain; these stimulate nerve cells in areas involved in depression—without harming surrounding gray matter. The treatment gained more momentum this spring when the Israeli firm Brainsway announced successful trials of its newest incarnation: deep TMS. “The magnetic fields of standard TMS devices extend only about half an inch into the brain’s cortex,” says Uzi Sofer, Brainsway’s CEO. “But the coils of deep TMS can stimulate neurons farther inside the brain by projecting magnetic fields into the skull from several points around its periphery.” This means that, for the first time, clinicians can target the brain’s deep-seated limbic system, which plays an important role in mood regulation. So far, the device has lived up to its promise: 40 percent of the 64 depressed patients who received deep TMS achieved a clinically significant degree of recovery. As Brainsway lobbies for FDA approval of the device, Sofer is also evaluating deep TMS’s suitability for Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions that affect brain areas far below the surface.
2. Stem-Cell Scaffold:
To pinch-hit for missing tissue at an injury site, stem cells need a scaffold to grow on—but artificial materials such as plastic won’t do, since the body flags and rejects them as foreign substances. Ravi Kane, a biological engineer at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., has circumvented the problem with his biodegradable stem-cell framework made from alginate, a complex carbohydrate found naturally in brown seaweed. Time-release microscale beads called microspheres are embedded in the scaffold with a carb-eating enzyme called alginate lyase. As a result, the scaffold degrades at a tuneable rate once inside the body. Kane hopes the algal frameworks will allow doctors to implant stem cells directly into injured tissue—healthy bone stem cells at a fracture site, for instance, or neural stem cells in brain areas ravaged by Alzheimer’s. Future versions of the scaffold could pack a one-two punch, delivering stem cells and drug compounds at the same time. “This is a modular system,” Kane says. “There’s still room in the scaffold to put other types of microspheres inside.”
3. Instant Diagnosis:
Since 1954, troopers have used breathalyzers to determine whether drivers have imbibed—and just how much. Jun Ye, a physicist at the University of Colorado, has transported the concept into an entirely new realm: medical diagnostics. The device he’s designed detects thousands of different biological molecules in a single exhalation, creating a snapshot of the breath’s contents that could signal the presence of illnesses, from cancer to cystic fibrosis. This split-second diagnosis is powered by a laser called an “optical frequency comb,” which emits a wide spectrum of lightwaves that interacts with airborne compounds. “You have this rainbow of light coming out in a regularly spaced comb pattern,” Ye says. “When breath molecules fly through the rainbow, they set off resonant frequencies that make the comb look like it has missing teeth.” If the resulting pattern shows the presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide, for example, the exhaler may be suffering from asthma. “You don’t have to wait days for test results,” Ye says. “Within a minute, you know what’s going on.”
4. Pre-emptive Strike Against Cancer:
Scientists around the world are working overtime on new cancer treatments, including more effective chemotherapy and better bone-marrow transplant procedures. Johns Hopkins biochemist Thomas Kensler aims to make all their efforts moot. Along with colleagues at Dartmouth College, Kensler is uncovering surprising ways to prevent malignancies from forming in the first place. Like an earthquake or avalanche, cancer is the end result of a whole sequence of unstable conditions: Abnormal cells must cluster in the wrong place at the wrong time, and cell-to-cell communications must break down, allowing cell proliferation and differentiation to proceed unchecked. Kensler has disrupted this sequence in the lab by treating healthy tissue with a chemical compound called CDDO-Im. Derived from acids in plants, CDDO-Im activates natural enzymes that remove toxic compounds from cells—compounds that might otherwise create DNA mutations that lead to cancer. CDDO-Im won’t be available to patients for several years, but when it is, Kensler says, “I can see doctors recommending healthy people for this procedure based on their genetic susceptibility and the environmental conditions they’ve been exposed to. Our goal is to prevent that very first cancerous cell from tipping over the edge.”
5. Implantable Nanowire:
If Zhong Lin Wang has his way, routine blood-pressure checks at the doctor’s office will soon be a thing of the past. The Georgia Institute of Technology physicist has designed an implantable nanowire that measures pressure fluctuations constantly, enabling patients to track their vital stats from home.
How does the sensor work?
The nanowire we use has two important properties: It’s both a semiconductor and piezoelectric. That means that if there’s an external mechanical force that bends the nanowire, such as blood vessel contractions, it creates an electrical field inside the wire. The presence of this electrical field affects the wire’s conductivity, which is something we can measure. If the conductivity changes, that indicates blood pressure is changing.
How is this an improvement over previous techniques?
Older devices have a wrap around the arm that’s really large. But this sensor can be implanted into an arm and monitored in real time. Patients wear a watch-type unit that records the data, so if something abnormal comes up, the watch sends an alert signal to them or their doctor right away.
Does it have any other potential applications?
Scientists often need to measure very tiny amounts of pressure in an automatic way. In gas lines hundreds of miles long, for example, sensors like this could help prevent potential explosions.
6. Superbug Zapper:
Antivirals and antibiotics have long been the first line of defense against superbugs like HIV and staph—but they have some serious drawbacks. Antivirals can wreak havoc on the pancreas and liver, and antibiotics don’t work against mounting drug-resistant strains. In response, Arizona State physicist K.T. Tsen has developed the ultimate multipurpose treatment tool: a superfast infrared laser that zaps bacteria and viruses without harming surrounding tissue. What makes Tsen’s approach so novel is that his laser bumps off pathogens by mechanical means, not chemical or biological ones. “We use the laser to create large vibrations on the protein coat of the bacteria or virus, exciting it to such a high-energy state that the weak links on the capsid, or outer shell, break off,” he says. Since mammalian cells don’t have such a shell, this method destroys unwanted bugs while leaving patients’ bodies unscathed. Large-scale clinical trials are still pending, Tsen says, but preliminary in vitro experiments indicate the laser effectively destroys the HIV virus. “Based on our progress so far, I’m very optimistic—the laser might be in hospitals within a couple of years.”
7. Targeted Delivery:
Pills may treat symptoms of the illness they’re designed to fight, but when they’re absorbed into the bloodstream indiscriminately they can also trigger debilitating side effects. Chemotherapy agents, for instance, cause nausea and hair loss, while antibiotics can trigger fatigue and shortness of breath. To help patients avoid side-effect doldrums, researchers at Philips’s pharmaceutical division are developing the medical equivalent of a targeted missile-delivery system. Philips scientists place particles of drugs inside microscopic bubbles of fluorocarbon gas and then inject them into a patient’s bloodstream. After the bubbles have reached the area flagged for treatment, a technician administers a high-energy ultrasound pulse. “When you hit a certain ultrasound resonance, the bubbles break, and that disperses the particles,” says Christopher Hall, lead researcher on the project. Hall hopes doctors will someday be able to use bubble-encased drugs to treat prostate, breast and brain cancers, eliminating the grueling physical toll usually associated with such therapies. “Microbubbles let you give a dose in a more rational way,” he says. “You can deliver a high concentration of the right drug to the spot where you want it.”
8. Bloodstream Bot:
Nowadays, procedures like removing tumors or Roto-Rootering plaque-filled arteries can require long hospital stints. But a mosquito-size robot developed by Oded Salomon, an engineer at Israel’s Technion Institute, may be able to pull off these surgical feats without making large incisions—so recuperation is much faster. Taking a cue from ’80s PC games like Laser Surgeon: The Microscopic Mission, Salomon’s 1-mm-dia. bot, dubbed “ViRob,” uses its barblike metal arms to grip the insides of veins and arteries and excise small amounts of tissue with built-in slicers. To operate most surgical probes, surgeons must grasp an external handle that protrudes from the body, but ViRob has no such limitations. After the bot is injected into a vein, operators can manipulate its speed and direction by tuning an external magnetic field to a variety of frequencies. “You don’t need to control ViRob manually from outside, so you can access areas that otherwise can’t be reached,” Salomon says. “And doctors might even be able to perform operations remotely while a patient is at home.” He predicts specialists will begin using the robot for procedures such as biopsies and blood vessel repairs within five years.
9. EKG Untethered:
Wake up in the morning, stick a featherweight patch on your chest and tackle your day with the assurance that computers are keeping a constant eye on your ticker. That’s the vision moti-vating scientists at the Netherlands’ Holst Center, who are developing a next-gen EKG monitor that trumps competitors’ in size and convenience. “With conventional EKG systems, you have an electrode patch that is connected to a rigid box in your jacket pocket,” says Julien Penders, a program manager for the project. “We go one step further—the entire device can be worn on the surface of the body.” The secret behind the monitor’s ultracompact design is a chip that detects signals from the patch’s electrodes and readies them for wireless transmission to a com-puter. In most EKG sys-tems, this data-processing step siphons lots of juice, but the team’s smart chip is optimized for low power consumption, eliminating the need for bulky battery packs—and paving the way for its use as a preventive medicine. “The less intrusive the technology, the better,” Penders says. “You can monitor your heart rate by simply patching a flexible EKG to your chest.”
10. Nano Cancer Fighters:
Sangeeta Bhatia can relate to the film Fantastic Voyage, in which scientists shrink a team of doctors and inject them (and their submarine) into a patient to perform treatments. As an MIT biological engineer, she gets to turn sci-fi into reality, developing nanoparticles programmed to make a beeline for cancer cells and release chemotherapy drugs nearby.
How did you get into developing microscopic disease-fighters?
At MIT, I did my Ph.D. on how to use microfabrication tools—which had previously been used for building semiconductor chips—for tissue engineering to restore liver function. Then I got more broadly interested in the idea that there were all these ways to make tiny body parts using nanotechnology that people had developed for making paints and computers and things.
And now you make nanoparticles that vanquish cancer cells. How are they better than plain old chemo?
The particles have substances on their surfaces that make them home in on the cancer—one type contains a peptide that binds to proteins found in a tumor’s vessel linings. This represents a new frontier in that you’re taking the toxic chemotherapy cargo directly to the tumor, so you don’t get the side effects of delivering a poison throughout the entire body.
When will this treatment be available to patients? Things like this take anywhere from five to 10 years to get FDA approval. In the meantime, we’re also developing materials that can track what tumors are doing—whether they’re becoming more invasive or getting ready to metastasize. We’d like to treat the cancer before it spreads.- monsterette, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1...diagnosis from a single exhalation, delivering toxic chemotherapy directly to the tumor, remote operations while a patient is home, & more...absolutely fabulous...let's hope this 'new medical frontier' launches in less than ten years....
- mach32, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0popular mechanics - lol
- SubjectiveC, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I heartily approve of rTMS. For depressed people, it is an amazing experience of recovery if you're lucky enough to have it work on you. At least for a little while.
- monsterette, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Imagine...medical targeting treatments - curing the exact areas they were intended to treat....
- killerknives, on 05/09/2008, -1/+250% of which will soon be proven to cause cancer
- mf89, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Which we can then cure using the other 50%!
- blast_flame, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1100% of them will be proven to cause cancer. I predict that with time 100% of everything will be predicted to cause cancer. We need to get working on how to cure/prevent cancer like the method in the artificial or aubrey de gray's WILT plan not flopping around in vain trying to avoid anything that looks like it could cause cancer.
- robbiemuffin, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1with the exception of trm, most of this is rather blasé :(
- jimjacks, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0Nano technology is the holy grail of cancer treatment. It will allow us to image prior to treatment to ensure efficacy of the treatment and give us a way to non-invasively diagnosed the type of disease. It will also allow us to specifically treat cancer without the nasty side effects that chemo and radiation therapy have.
- kavin007, on 06/06/2008, -0/+0If you interesting in losing fat then try "Fat Loss 4 Idiots" after reading reviews on : http://www.fatloss4idiotsreviews.net/
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by