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    Lightbulb Matters of the heart

    Thought that was what the pacemaker was needed for...

    Heartbeat 'could power pacemaker'
    4 November 2012 - A device which could harness energy from a beating heart can produce enough electricity to keep a pacemaker running, according to US researchers.
    Repeated operations are currently needed to replace batteries in pacemakers. Tests suggested the device could produce 10 times the amount of energy needed. The British Heart Foundation said clinical trials were needed to show it would be safe for patients. Piezoelectric materials generate an electric charge when their shape is changed. They are used in some microphones to convert vibrations into an electrical signal. Researchers at the University of Michigan are trying to use the movement of the heart as a source of electricity.

    In tests designed to simulate a range of heartbeats, enough electricity was generated to power a pacemaker. The designers now want to test the device on a real heart and build it into a commercial pacemaker. Dr Amin Karami told a meeting of the American Heart Association that pacemaker batteries needed to be replaced approximately every seven years. "Many of the patients are children who live with pacemakers for many years. You can imagine how many operations they are spared if this new technology is implemented."

    Prof Peter Weissberg, the medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Advancing technology over recent years has meant people with pacemakers need to change their battery less often. This device could be another step forward along this path. "If researchers can refine the technology and it proves robust in clinical trials, it would further reduce the need for battery changes."

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20182529

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    That would be great news and hope it is successful.

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    Using stem cells from strangers to repair hearts...

    Study: Stem cells from strangers can repair hearts
    6 Nov.`12 — Researchers are reporting a key advance in using stem cells to repair hearts damaged by heart attacks. In a study, stem cells donated by strangers proved as safe and effective as patients' own cells for helping restore heart tissue.
    The work involved just 30 patients in Miami and Baltimore, but it proves the concept that anyone's cells can be used to treat such cases. Doctors are excited because this suggests that stem cells could be banked for off-the-shelf use after heart attacks, just as blood is kept on hand now. Results were discussed Monday at an American Heart Association conference in California and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The study used a specific type of stem cells from bone marrow that researchers believed would not be rejected by recipients. Unlike other cells, these lack a key feature on their surface that makes the immune system see them as foreign tissue and attack them, explained the study's leader, Dr. Joshua Hare of the University of Miami. The patients in the study had suffered heart attacks years earlier, some as long as 30 years ago. All had developed heart failure because the scar tissue from the heart attack had weakened their hearts so much that they grew large and flabby, unable to pump blood effectively.

    Researchers advertised for people to supply marrow, which is removed using a needle into a hip bone. The cells were taken from the marrow and amplified for about a month in a lab at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, then returned to Miami to be used for treatment, which did not involve surgery. The cells were delivered through a tube pushed through a groin artery into the heart near the scarred area. Fifteen patients were given cells from their own marrow and 15 others, cells from strangers.

    About a year later, scar tissue had been reduced by about one-third. Both groups had improvements in how far they could walk and in quality of life. There was no significant difference in one measure of how well their hearts were able to pump blood, but doctors hope these patients will continue to improve over time, or that refinements in treatment will lead to better results. The big attraction is being able to use cells supplied by others, with no blood or tissue matching needed. "You could have the cells ready to go in the blood bank so when the patient comes in for a therapy — there's no delay," Hare said. "It's also cheaper to make the donor cells," and a single marrow donor can supply enough cells to treat as many as 10 people.

    MORE

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    Cool

    Granny says, "Dat's right - get dat waist size down...

    Waist size 'strongly predicts' heart disease risk: Study
    Sunday 3rd April, 2016 - A study involving people with diabetes has shown that belly size is a stronger predictor of a dangerous kind of heart disease than body mass index, researchers said Saturday.
    The study released at the American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago was based on 200 people with diabetes who had not shown any symptoms of heart disease. Researchers found that those with larger waist circumferences were more likely than smaller-bellied people to have problems with the heart's left ventricle, which pumps oxygen-rich blood to the brain and the rest of the body. "We specifically found that waist circumference appears to be a stronger predictor for left ventricle dysfunction than total body weight or body mass index," said principal investigator Boaz Rosen, a doctor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

    Previous research has shown that the higher a person's body mass index (BMI) - a measure of a person's height and weight - the greater their risk of heart disease.

    Having excess belly fat, or having an apple-shaped figure, has already been linked to high blood pressure, high sugar levels, elevated cholesterol, coronary artery disease and heart failure. "Our research examined patients with diabetes, who are considered high risk for developing heart disease already, and found that the shape of your body determined if you were at a greater risk to develop left ventricular dysfunction," said Brent Muhlestein, co-director of research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City. "This study confirms that having an apple-shaped body - or a high waist circumference - can lead to heart disease, and that reducing your waist size can reduce your risks."

    Problems with the left ventricle can lead to congestive heart failure. Researchers said more study is needed to see if diabetic patients with large waists and signs of heart problems go on to develop heart failure or artery disease in the future.

    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...y/2659916.html

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    Yes. BMI only works for couch potatoes. Waist size is a better indicator. Old news in the fitness community.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


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    Lightbulb

    Vitamin D helps damaged hearts...

    Vitamin D 'heals damaged hearts'
    Mon, 04 Apr 2016 - Vitamin D supplements may help people with a failing heart, a study suggests.
    Vitamin D supplements may help people with diseased hearts, a study suggests. A trial on 163 heart failure patients found supplements of the vitamin, which is made in the skin when exposed to sunlight, improved their hearts' ability to pump blood around the body. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals team, who presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, described the results as "stunning". The British Heart Foundation called for longer trials to assess the pills. Vitamin D is vital for healthy bones and teeth and may have important health benefits throughout the body but many people are deficient.

    No safe way to suntan - warning

    The average age of people in the study was 70 and like many people that age they had low levels of vitamin D even in summer. "They do spend less time outside, but the skin's ability to manufacture vitamin D also gets less effective [with age] and we don't really understand why that is," said consultant cardiologist Dr Klaus Witte. Patients were given either a 100 microgram vitamin D tablet or a sugar pill placebo each day for a year. And researchers measured the impact on heart failure - a condition in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood properly. The key measure was the ejection fraction, the amount of blood pumped out of the chambers of the heart with each beat.


    In a healthy adult the figure is between 60% and 70%, but only a quarter of the blood in the heart was being successfully pumped out in the heart failure patients. But in those taking the vitamin pills, the ejection fraction increased from 26% to 34%. Dr Witte told the BBC News website: "It's quite a big deal, that's as big as you'd expect from other more expensive treatments that we use, it's a stunning effect. "It's as cheap as chips, has no side effects and a stunning improvement on people already on optimal medical therapy, it is the first time anyone has shown something like this in the last 15 years."

    The study also showed the patients hearts became smaller - a suggestion they are becoming more powerful and efficient. In the UK, people over 65 are advised to take 10 microgram supplements of the vitamin. However, Dr Witte does not think high-dose vitamin D should be routine prescribed just yet. He told the BBC: "We're a little bit off that yet, not because I don't believe it, but data have shown improvements in heart function, they may show improvements in symptoms and we now need a large study."

    It is also not clear exactly how vitamin D is improving heart function, but it is thought every cell in the body responds to the vitamin. Most vitamin D comes from sunlight, although it is also found in oily fish, eggs and is added to some foods such as breakfast cereals. Prof Peter Weissberg, from the British Heart Foundation, cautioned that the patients seemed no better at exercise. And added: "A much bigger study over a longer period of time is now needed to determine whether these changes in cardiac function can translate into fewer symptoms and longer lives for heart failure patients."

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35959556

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    Unhappy

    Broken heart raises risk of heart failure...

    Broken hearts are at higher risk of failing: study
    Thu, Apr 07, 2016 - The death of a life partner might trigger an irregular heartbeat, itself potentially life-threatening, the results of new research into the risk of dying from a broken heart showed.
    A trawl of data on nearly 1 million Danes showed an elevated risk — lasting for about one year — of developing a heart flutter after the death of a life partner. People aged under 60 whose partners died unexpectedly were most in peril, the data showed. The risk was highest “eight to 14 days after the loss, after which it gradually declined,” a study published in the online journal Open Heart said. “One year after the loss, the risk was almost the same as in the non-bereaved population,” it said.

    Much research has focused on explaining the observed phenomenon of people dying soon after their life partner has died. Several studies have shown that grieving spouses have a higher risk of dying, particularly of heart disease, but the mechanism is unclear. The latest study specifically asked whether bereaved partners were more likely than others to develop atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat and a risk factor for stroke and heart failure.

    Researchers in Denmark used population data collected between 1995 and 2014 to search for a pattern. Of the group, 88,612 people had been newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and 886,120 were healthy. “The risk of developing an irregular heartbeat for the first time was 41 percent higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss,” the study said.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../07/2003643412

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    Very true.
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    New heart patch that can monitor and treat cardiac problems...

    Revolutionary Cardiac Patch Could Mend a Broken Heart
    April 18, 2016 - Have you ever had a broken heart? Now there’s a way to fix that... but perhaps not in the way you think.
    Scientists in Israel have created a life-saving heart patch that can monitor and treat cardiac problems. Researchers at Tel Aviv University developed a revolutionary 3D printed patch, consisting of nano-electronics and live heart tissue grown in a lab. The device, which is applied to a damaged heart, can actually regenerate the cardiac muscle by building up cells in the part with a defect. Co-inventor Tal Dvir, a professor in the Department of Biotechnogy, explained that “the role of the electronics is to sense the function of the tissue and then to activate the tissue when needed."

    The device can also release medication for heart problems relating to inflammation or a lack of oxygen. And because the patch can expand like the heart but is also a self-regulating machine, a doctor can treat his patient from afar. “The patient is sitting in his house and not feeling well, and the physician immediately sees the condition of the heart on his computer, and can remotely activate the heart, provide electrical stimulation, and release drugs,” said Dvir.

    For a heart permanently damaged by disease or a heart attack, the patch could become an alternative to a heart transplant. And it may lead to even more promising discoveries. “We are trying to 3D print the whole heart, with the electronics within,” Dvir said. "And I believe that in the future, in 10-20 years, there would be such bionic organs in the market or in hospitals to be transplanted." This cyborg heart patch still needs to be tested and it could be years before it’s available. But in the future, it may provide an alternative for people with heart disease.

    http://www.voanews.com/content/revol...t/3291097.html

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    Lightbulb

    Turning Skin cells into heart cells...

    Chemical $#@!tail Turns Skin Cells Into Beating Heart Cells
    April 29, 2016 - Scientists have long been fascinated by the ability of amphibians, such as newts and salamanders, to regrow severed tails. One day, humans may be able to achieve a similar feat by repairing damaged hearts and brains.
    Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes Center for Cell Biology and Medicine in San Francisco and in China have developed a chemical $#@!tail that can reprogram cells without genetic engineering. Their work lays the foundation for one day being able to regenerate lost or damaged cells with pharmaceutical drugs. Writing in the journals Science and Cell Stem Cell, investigators describe how a combination of chemicals can turn readily available skin cells into stem cells — master cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body.


    A beating heart muscle cell that was created from a human skin cell using a $#@!tail of nine chemicals.

    Sheng Ding is a regenerative medicine biologist at Gladstone Institute. He led the team of researchers that identified nine chemical compounds that reprogrammed skin cells into heart cells. Transplanted into a mouse heart, the cells developed into healthy heart muscle cells. "It's really the Holy Grail we've been working on now for decades," Ding said. A separate group of researchers used a similar chemical process to alter skin cells into neural cells, to repair brain damage caused by disease.

    Growing heart cells

    A heart attack leaves dead tissue in its wake. Once damaged, those heart muscle cells — called cardiomyocytes — have very little ability to renew themselves. But with their chemical $#@!tail, Ding's team was able to take mouse skin cells and transform them into beating heart cells. Previous work in tissue regeneration involved a laborious process of inserting specific genes into stem cells created from skin cells, then infusing the transformed cells into the body to create healthy tissue.

    But now tissue repair could become a far simpler process, according to Ding. "There is now a possibility that we can provide patients [with] a pill that contains this small molecule $#@!tail that really stimulates or regenerates to repair cells," he said.

    http://www.voanews.com/content/chemi...s/3309065.html

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