WeirdMedical™

These headlines go to show you that humans and their inventions are adequate but rarely perfect…

FDA clot device advisory tells of patients’ risks (re: Inferior Vena Cava Filters)

Left-sided Cancer: Blame your bed and TV?

A Newly Candid FDA on the Future Of Medical Device Regulation (re: example – external infusion pumps, pp. 3 & 4)

Mobile toilet tissue role

Now this is a good use of our federal tax dollars…

In the northwestern reaches of Washington (D.C. that is) sits a museum that is a “must see” if you like the slightly off-taste, arcane, twisted and in some cases, down-right gross medical oddities. Visit the bricks and mortar “Roadside America of American medicine,” the National Museum of Health and Medicine, America’s oldest taxpayer-funded Cabinet of Curiosities near Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A row of little skeletons.

At the National Museum of Health and Medicine you can see precariously displayed and disturbingly barely described:

• hanging display of a complete brain and spine, suspended in liquid in an eerily lit glass cylinder
• girl’s head preserved in arsenic
• well-preserved hairball from the stomach of a 12-year old girl who compulsively ate her own hair
• skull with a huge civil war bullet buried in its frontal lobe
• and the list goes on…

To visit…virtually go to the RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Reporters or National Museum of Health and Medicine, or in real life visit:

6900 Georgia Avenue, Washington, DC

Hours:     M-F 10 am – 5:30 pm, Sa, Su, Hol call ahead

No kidding. This is for real – so when you go to the NMHM in D.C., tell them you want your tax dollars’ worth!

Obstetricians will not find this weird but those in other medical specialties may…

Mother’s hormonal balance during gestation can have a weird affect on their newborns. An over-production of estrogen can cause neonates, male or female, to present with enlarged breasts.

MedlinePlus Encyclopedia: Hormonal effects in newborns

In fact, these neonates can experience a type of milk production with the white discharge called, “witch’s milk.” This witch’s milk or colostrum is just like mother’s initial fluid before breast milk production is established. For more on this condition, visit the iVillage website.

But not to worry…this condition usually disappears within 2-3 weeks…a relief for already nervous new mom’s!

Remember what your dad always told you about grilling in the great outdoors?…thoroughly dowsing the new coals with lighter fluid BEFORE setting them ablaze?

Clearly principles of  physics apply…if you apply more lighter fluid AFTERWARDS the flame can travel up the stream of lighter fluid and set your can (of lighter fluid that is) ablaze as well.

Well, the same applies to urinating on a live electrical wire…it is an unfortunate lesson for all of us. We are saddened for this family’s loss and send them our sympathy – read on.

In the immortal words of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:

“Teach your children well…” that applies to physics and physiology.

Who would have thought that avoiding osteoporosis would be such yummy fun?

We now have new evidence that beer is more of a health food than originally thought. It’s been discovered that silicon found in commercially produced beer promotes strong bone development.

Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis have proven there is a relationship between commercial beer production methods and producing a final end product rich in silicon essential for greater bone mineral density.

According to the lead author of the study, Dr. Charles Bamforth, “The factors in brewing that influence silicon levels in beer have not been extensively studied. We have examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer.”

“Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon,” Dr. Bamforth concluded.   [See February 2010 issue - Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society of Chemical Industry.]

So beer once again is king...and ounce-for-ounce it’s easier on our budgets than wine!

picture courtesy Sirtified’s Blog

No more wine for our cardiovascular systems…let’s drink a few beers to our skeletal health!

As the one of the more obscure U.S. holidays comes to a close…and with 6 more weeks of winter to endoure…

It is time we all learned more about…you guessed it…Punxsutawney Phil.

Yes, today was Groundhog Day Tuesday, and Phil saw his shadow! But did you know that this little guy is a huge American tradition? The Christian Science Monitor shares with us 5 little known facts about our little PA buddy:

1) Phil is immortal.

2) Phil’s about as accurate as your average meteorologist.

3) Phil’s got competition.

4) Phil’s gone high tech.

5) There’s no Groundhog Day in Alaska.

Hey…this post is fair game. We never promised consistent medical oddities but we always promised consistent weird.

Stay tuned for Fastnacht Day Tuesday – now that IS a medical condition waiting to happen!

Preclinicals – not for just rats, mice and pigs anymore…

Now, zebrafish…For the treatment of Insomnia researchers from Harvard have recently found a new surprising option to aid in therapy development.

Found in tropical regions, this fish proves a worthy test subject in either adult or larvae form. One interesting point noted by the researchers was that zebrafish generally show more relation to humans in sleep patterns than other animals. Also, zebrafish can be cheaply and quickly raised as test subjects. In all, the researchers found 463 sleep altering compounds in the fish, of which many resembled human characteristics.

Sleepy head:
Credit: Albert Pan and Alexander Schier

Having trouble sleeping? Oddly enough you may a sleep study with this fish!

Ready for a weird workout routine for 2010?

The Ross sisters have a weird ability. During the 1940s they performed a unique blend of  acrobatics and contortionism. While they have not performed in years, the Internet has brought them renewed interest with clips of their act appearing on YouTube. In their “Solid Potato Salad” clip they perform one of the most weird displays of motion one can imagine. Named Veda, Dixie, and Betsy Ann, these sisters may look alike but what may really add to their weird and uniqueness is that they are born three years apart from 1926 to 1929.

Biographical Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ross_Sisters, Video Source: That's Entertainment III DVD

You have NO excuses for your 2010 fitness resolution…get off your chair and go workout!

For most people in today’s reduced-healthcare-cost, right-to-die, euthanasia-friendly culture a persistent vegetative state diagnosis is essentially the final blow if not death sentence…

The human brain is on par with space in terms of what we don’t know. The traditional means of determining consciousness can only measure so much. For one lucky man, science caught up. Rom Houben, now 46, suffered in silence for 23 years until Dr Steven Laureys used state of the art imaging equipment to discover his hidden mind. Just recently disclosed, Dr Laureys plans to use Mr. Houben’s case to highlight what many patients around the world may need.

For Mr. Houben his horror is over. What may be one of the weirdest-nightmare-like experience ever described he “I screamed, but there was nothing to hear…”

Man trapped in 23-year 'coma' reveals horror of being unable to tell doctors he was conscious (Source: Daily Mail, UK)

Nobel winners uncover a connection…

The 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine went to three scientists who discovered an  enzyme called telomerase that allows cells to divide indefinitely. In general, cells have a limit on the number of times they can divide and over time this causes degradation of organic structures, or aging. In an article published by WIRED Aaron Rowe reveals that the scientists realized that they could persuade cells into producing telomeras.

However, there is a catch.

Currently cells in adults divide roughly 80 times before they die off, which limits susceptibility to cancer. When cells produce telomerase they continue dividing, which eventually leads to a higher probability of developing cancer.

Chromosomes

Mark Muller, a cancer and telomerase researcher at the University of Central Florida, stated that “Ninety percent of all cancer cells are telomerase rich.” Further, he posits that telomerase inhibitors could fight cancer itself and allow the cancer cells to essentially die off.

While currently the telomerase enzyme causes a Catch 22 of immortality and cancer, ethical and other pragmatic issues aside, it may be that in the future drugs may be able to combat cancerous cells without attacking all telomerase-rich cells, allowing mankind to achieve immortality in a safe manner.

Ready to rise above mere mortality?