Category: Health

Posted on

After Almost Losing His Mother, This Teen Invented a Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer Early

I bet we’ll be hearing from this young man for many years.

After Julián Ríos Cantú watched his mother endure two bouts with breast cancer, the 18-year-old from Mexico decided he wanted to help out other women who might not have access to affordable healthcare.

Posted by Julián Ríos Cantú on Monday, November 20, 2017

Cantú’s mother ended up having a mastectomy. Standard screenings missed the lumps in his mother’s breasts because her high breast density obscured the growths. Cantú said, “At that moment, I realized that if that was the case for a woman with private insurance and a prevention mindset, then for most women in developing countries, like Mexico where we’re from, the outcome could’ve not been a mastectomy but death.”

Cantú took matters into his own hands, inventing Eva, a “bio-sensing bra insert” that uses thermal sensing and artificial intelligence to create a thermal map of women’s breasts. Abnormal temperatures and tumor growth are related, and an Eva insert can help women detect cancerous growths. It also helps with the self-examination process.

As things stand today, patients don’t have a lot of options for early detection of breast cancer. If you’re under 45, you can’t receive mammograms due to concerns about exposure to radiation. Even if you’re over that age, mammograms can be very expensive.

The Eva technology does not emit any radiation, and women of all ages can wear the insert.

The company has performed clinical trials on more than 2,000 women in Mexico. Eva’s website says,

“Eva’s technology is approved by the FDA as an adjunct method for breast cancer detection in section 884.2980 Teletermographic Systems. Similarly, Eva Clinic operates under the highest ethical standards, strictly following the Official Mexican Standard NOM-041-SSA2-2011, for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control, and surveillance of breast cancer.”

The product is now available for use at certified Eva clinics, but who knows? Maybe someday it’ll be in our houses, helping women detect breast cancer even earlier.

The post After Almost Losing His Mother, This Teen Invented a Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer Early appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received

Healthcare is on many people’s mind these days, and the 2020 election is full of ideas on how to take our broken system and hopefully improve it.

Senator Bernie Sanders is and has been passionate about the topic for much of his career, and is championing a controversial Medicare for All plan that would see the end of private insurance offerings for good.

Regardless of what you think about Medicare for All, I’m sure we can all agree that healthcare costs are too damn high, and something has to be done.

Recently on Twitter, he asked his followers to share the most absurd medical bill they ever got in the mail, and you guys.

They delivered.

 

20. Always decline the ambulance ride.

19. Nobody should be worrying about the bill.

18. Yeah, that’s not a choice.

17. This one might win for most ridiculous.

16. I’m not sure that’s really science.

15. Heartbreaking AND absurd.

14. A whole new level of insult to injury.

13. We need equal opportunity healing.

12. I’ll bring my own Band-Aid.

11. Only the rich get to live.

10. I mean what else can you do?

9. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

8. Answer: hardly anyone.

7. That’s a pretty penny for stuff you could have gotten at Walgreens.

6. You need a surgeon for that?

5. That’s a pretty high price for wielding a pair of tweezers for under 5 minutes.

4. Kidney stones are the worst and if $16k would help, I would have paid it.

3. I think they’re billing the wrong person.

2. Everyone should have a problem with this.

1. What on earth does most of that even mean?

 

I’m not here to discuss politics, but I think we can all agree that most of these are pretty darn silly.

If you were running for president, how would you solve the problem of rising healthcare costs, access to care, care for veterans, and all the rest?

There’s no easy answer, of course, but give it a go!

The post Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

After Just One Use, Vaping Can Damage Your Blood Vessels

A lot of bad news about vaping has come out lately, and here’s some more.

A new study published in Radiology claims that vaping one time – even without nicotine – can damage blood vessels, reduce blood flow, and create dangerous toxins.

The researchers found that the heat created by e-cigs meant to turn liquid into vapor also stirs the compounds into toxic particles. They studied MRI scans of 31 healthy non-smokers before and after vaping nicotine-free e-cigs to come to their conclusions.

After the participants took 3-second drags 16 times from e-cigs loaded with tobacco flavoring and sweeteners, researchers found they had significant decreased blood flow in the femoral artery – the main artery that delivers blood to your thigh and leg.

Felix Wehrli, the study’s principal investigator, says their study defeats “the notion that e-cigarette vaping is harmless.”

“Beyond the harmful effects of nicotine, we’ve shown that vaping has a sudden, immediate effect on the body’s vascular function, and could potentially lead to long-term harmful consequences.”

The researchers observed an average 34% reduction in the artery’s dilation, and found vaping led to a 17.5% reduction in peak blood flow and a 20% reduction in oxygen in the veins.

Author Alessandra Caporale expanded on their findings in a statement:

“E-cigarettes are advertised as not harmful, and many e-cigarette users are convinced that they are just inhaling water vapor. But the solvents, flavorings and additives in the liquid base, after vaporization, expose users to multiple insults to the respiratory tract and blood vessels.”

With the recent issues sweeping the nation – 100 teens in 14 states have reported lung damage after vaping (including 14 hospitalizations and a number of deaths) – these findings are especially troubling.

Earlier this spring, another study found that flavored e-juice also had toxic effects, like weaker cell survival and increased inflammation.

The American Lung Association has joined with the CDC and others in warning care when turning to e-cigs.

“Inhaling chemicals into your lungs is dangerous. E-cigarettes are guilty until proven innocent, and we are very much in the guilty stage,” says one spokesperson.

Dr. Robert Jackler, founder of Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, has dark warnings, as well.

“Nobody knows what it does to the human lung to breathe in and out aerosolized propylene glycol and glycerin over and over. It’s an experiment, frankly. We will find out, years from now, the results.”

And since those results could be “it kills you, in time” avoiding the products altogether seems the smartest course of action.

To me, anyway.

The post After Just One Use, Vaping Can Damage Your Blood Vessels appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Facebook Rolled out Education Features to Combat Anti-Vax Propaganda

It’s amazing that in 2019, a lot of parents out there buy into the anti-vaccination rhetoric and expose their kids (and others’) to potential harm.

That’s why it’s encouraging that Facebook has taken steps to fight harmful misinformation and “fake news” that appeals to these anti-vaxxers. On Facebook, informational windows will pop up when a person searches for anything related to vaccines, taps related hashtags on Instagram (which Facebook owns), or visits vaccine-related pages and groups.

Furthermore, in the U.S., users can use pop-up windows to connect to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to read about accurate, credible information about vaccines. If you live outside the U.S., you can connect to the World Health Organization through the pop-up windows.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the organization is fully onboard with the move by Facebook:

“We know that parents often turn to social media to access health information and connect with other parents, and it can be difficult to determine what is accurate and who the credible sources of information are. [Combating] vaccine myths and misinformation is a shared responsibility and we applaud these efforts.”

A new feature is rolling out on Facebook and Instagram to combat the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.Facebook,…

Posted by Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Friday, September 6, 2019

Health experts have said that anti-vaccination information online has played a large role in fewer people getting vaccinated against diseases and that has led to outbreaks in measles and other illnesses—in fact, the US is close to having its status as a measles-free country. So this is very timely and very important.

Nice work, Facebook. Let’s see more of this in regard to the spread of misinformation, because we all know how harmful that can be to Americans and others around the world.

The post Facebook Rolled out Education Features to Combat Anti-Vax Propaganda appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Russia Confirmed That the Cold War–Era Ex-Bioweapons Lab That Stores Samples of Smallpox Recently Exploded

Well, that’s not good…

Samples of the highly contagious (but eradicated) disease smallpox only exist in two laboratories in the world. As a relic of the Cold War, one is in the United States, and the other is in Russia – and the one located in Russia recently weathered an explosion.

The smallpox sample, along with cultures of anthrax and ebola (and other deadly pathogens), is housed at the Virology and Biotechnology Center in Novosibirsk. The lab was once in the service of developing bioweapons during the Cold War, and it still remains tightly secured. The walls around it are reinforced concrete, high-tech fences and motion detectors help with patrolling the perimeter, and even though a scientist died 15 years ago after an accident with Ebola, the facility is generally considered to be safe.

That is, it was before part of the facility exploded during regularly scheduled repair work.

The facility leadership put out a statement (translated from Russian):

“There was an explosion of a gas cylinder with a fire on the 5th floor of a six-story reinforced concrete laboratory building in the sanitary inspection room being repaired. No work with biological material on the body was carried out. One person was injured, building structures were not damaged.”

View this post on Instagram

Russia releases #smallpox #virus ???

A post shared by ????? ?????? (@leisanelsonut) on

The employee suffered burns on his legs, and doctors confirm that no biohazards were found outside the facility, and that there is no threat to the general population.

If smallpox were to escape this facility or the one in the United States, containment would be a hard row to hoe.

The disease, caused by the variola virus, was a horrific scourge, killing 300 million people in the 20th century alone. It was declared eradicated in 1979 following a global vaccination program, with the final death coming from a terrible accident in 1978.

It claimed the life of Janet Parker, a medical photographer who came into contact with a sample of the disease in a Birmingham Medical School laboratory.

The head of the lab, one Henry Bedson, committed suicide due to the guilt of releasing the deadly disease.

Once free of the disease, world powers made the decision to destroy all cultures except for those at the two secure laboratories for posterity (or bioweapons…again, Cold War). The last samples of the disease still reside there today.

Except for the live virus scientists fear could emerge from the thawing Siberian permafrost.

That, it would see, is a problem for another day.

The post Russia Confirmed That the Cold War–Era Ex-Bioweapons Lab That Stores Samples of Smallpox Recently Exploded appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Woman Was Found Pecked to Death by Her Pet Rooster

People are killed and eaten by their pets more often than we’d like to think. That said, I bet you’ve never considered the ways your pet fowl could spell the end of your life.

This 76-year-old Australian woman probably didn’t. She probably also didn’t think about the fact that the varicose veins on her legs ran right at beak-level – ripe for the pecking.

Apparently, she was out collecting eggs when her rooster pecked her lower left leg. It caused “significant hemorrhage with collapse and death,” and the autopsy showed two major lacerations – one of which was over a “perforated large varix.”

The official cause of death was exsanguination due to bleeding varicose veins.

Before you go and sell your chickens, know this woman did have a medical history that created a perfect storm that helped the rooster along. She had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and, yes, varicose veins.

Uncontrolled bleeding from varicose veins has caused people to die before, and one being punctured can be considered a medical emergency.

Pressure can build inside the veins, a condition that affects about 25% of adults 50 and older, and has led directly to several other elderly patients’ deaths.

Fatal rooster attacks are, as you probably expect, very rare, but this instance should serve as a reminder that even relatively small and harmless animals can pose a threat when all of the other factors line up just right, say the researchers who wrote up the case study.

“This case demonstrates that even relatively small domestic animals may be able to inflict lethal injuries in individuals if there are specific vascular vulnerabilities present.”

Another option, of course, is to have your veins treated. If you choose not to, though, you’ll want to avoid minor injuries and, if you sustain one, make sure to take it seriously.

“Apply pressure to the bleeding point, lie down, elevate the leg, and get help,” advises one expert.

Good advice, my friends. And now you know.

The post A Woman Was Found Pecked to Death by Her Pet Rooster appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

10 Fascinating Facts to Get Your Juices Flowing

If you’ve been in a rut lately, let’s put an end to that RIGHT THIS INSTANT!

You know why? And you know how? Because of this stellar fact set!

It covers all kinds of topics and it will give you a big BOOST.

Let’s dig into these facts.

1. Get busy, over 50 folks!

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

2. Beware of the Zone of Death

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

3. That’s one way to go out

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

4. Folks, I really hope this is true

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

5. “He was…an American Gravedigger”

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

6. Smoke ’em if you got ’em!

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

7. I’ll do it if you do it

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

8. I did not know that!

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

9. Do you see the world differently?

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

10. I think women were happy about that

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

Now that’s better, wouldn’t you agree!

Work your brain out folks, it’s good for you!

The post 10 Fascinating Facts to Get Your Juices Flowing appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A New Planned Parenthood App Will Let Users Order Birth Control in Every State in the U.S.

This is important news, so pay attention.

Planned Parenthood (and women’s reproductive rights in general) has been the subject of a lot of scrutiny and argument over the past several years from some politicians and people, but I, for one, think that this is a great development. Why you wouldn’t want affordable birth control to be available to all women in every corner of the United States is beyond me, but that’s just where we are right now.

Luckily, a lot of people and women are still fighting the good fight. It was recently announced that the Planned Parenthood Direct app is now available in 27 states across the U.S., and it will be available in all 50 states in 2020.

In 2019, pretty much everything is on-demand. Why not #birthcontrol, too? Check out Planned Parenthood Direct, the…

Posted by Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson Action on Monday, May 13, 2019

The app allows users to order birth control, make appointments at Planned Parenthood clinics, and get prescriptions for antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections.

Alexis McGill Johnson, the acting President and CEO of the organization, said, “As politicians across the country try to restrict or block access to critical reproductive and sexual health care, the Planned Parenthood Direct app is just one part of the work we do to ensure that more people can get the care they need, no matter where they are.”

Planned Parenthood pulled out of the U.S. government’s Title X funding program in August because the Trump administration passed new rules wherein the organization would no longer be allowed to refer patients to abortion services. Planned Parenthood would have received $60 million in federal funding if they had stayed in the Title X program, but its leaders decided to withdraw.

We're committed to helping all patients get the care they deserve. Through the Planned Parenthood Direct app, you can…

Posted by Planned Parenthood of Southern New England on Saturday, September 7, 2019

The Planned Parenthood Direct app doesn’t take insurance, but birth control can cost as little as $20 for a three-month supply, and users can get birth control just by answering standard questions.

You can check to see if the app is available in your state HERE. This is definitely a small step in the right direction, despite all the negative news surrounding reproductive rights in America right now.

The post A New Planned Parenthood App Will Let Users Order Birth Control in Every State in the U.S. appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

The common fitness target of 10,000…

The common fitness target of 10,000 steps/day came from a Japanese pedometer company who gave their product a name that means “the 10,000-step meter” because the Japanese character for “10,000” resembles a person walking: 万. There is no known science behind a goal of 10,000 steps.