Healthbolt » 12

Team Diarrhea to the rescue

Liz Lewis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:48:32 +0000

A group of public health graduate students from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) with the dubious title of ‘Team Diarrhea’ played an instrumental role in finding the sources the U.S.’s two most recent major salmonella outbreaks – in peanuts earlier this year and in jalapeño peppers (previously blamed on tomatoes) in 2008.

It’s not a glamorous role. Looking the part of everyday telemarketers, the Team Diarrhea or Team D players work in a giant cubicle, asking people questions about their food poisoning symptoms.

But it’s a role that is highly important. By rapidly discovering the source of a food poisoning outbreak, continued exposure can be minimized, thus saving people from severe illness, and possible death.

You can find out more about their role in this interesting Scientific American article.

(image source)

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Transplanting Hair Where?

Liz Lewis — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:00:04 +0000

Mention hair transplants and most people will assume you’re talking about transplanting hair onto the scalp. And while that is still the most common location for hair transplants, according to this article from MSNBC, hair transplant procedures are now taking place all over the body.

These days doctors can harvest and replant hair follicles pretty much anywhere. Scalp transplants remain the most common, accounting for 93,000 of the nearly 99,000 surgical hair restoration procedures that took place in the United States in 2008.

Second most common was eyebrow transplants, followed by moustache and beard procedures, and eyelashes.

As for the most ‘unique’ hair transplant procedure, that would have to be the pubic hair transplant performed Dr. Paul T. Rose, former president of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) and founder of a hair restoration clinic in Tampa Bay, Florida. He managed to take hair from the back of the patients head and relocate it to his pubic area where he had scarring and lose of hair.

Sounds much easier that it probably was.

(image source)

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Travel tips for those with Celiac Disease

Liz Lewis — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:00:36 +0000

For most of us, travelling requires simple things – some money, a passport, a full tank of gas. But for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, travel becomes a little more complicated.

To make life on the road easier for those dealing with celiac disease and gluten intolerance, Lisa A. Lundy, author of The Super Allergy Girl: Allergy & Celiac Cookbook -From A Mother Who Knows, has put together a short video full of useful tips and ideas.

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Boy or Girl? IntelliGender Might Tell

Liz Lewis — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:58:59 +0000

The makers of an over-the-counter gender prediction test say their product, the IntelliGender, will let expecting moms know the sex of their baby as early as 10 weeks after conception.

It’s a simple urine test that’s based on the science that certain hormones found in the pregnant woman’s urine, when combined with a “proprietary mix of chemicals”, will react differently depending on whether the woman is carrying a boy or a girl.

Apparenly, within 10 minutes of taking the urine test, the specimen will turn green if it’s a boy, and orange if it’s a girl.

But IntelliGender co-founder Rebecca Griffin is quick to say that they do not guarantee 100% accuracy. The test, after all, is not a diagnostic tool.

For that, you need to wait for a sonogram at around 20 weeks.

So what do you think?

Would you take the test?

(article source)

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Talking Bacteria

Liz Lewis — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:51:07 +0000

Did you know that you have ten times more bacteria cells than human cells on you at any one time? Makes it sound like everyone is a human time bomb, just waiting to get sick. But in actual fact, these bacteria are our protectors, covering us like a suit of armour.

That’s just one of the interesting pieces of information you can pick up by listening to this fascinating TED Talk by bacteriologist Bonnie Bassler.

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