A to Z of Medical Conditions

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions, Cancer, Diabetes

Researchers develop a painless, wearable patch for continuous monitoring of important health data

Patch and quarter

The monitoring patch is compared to a 25-cent coin. CREDIT University of Waterloo Patch reads and sends data on blood glucose, lactates and other critical biomarkers, including indicators of acute cardiac disease

Researchers at two Ontario universities have developed a pain-free, wearable sensor that can continuously monitor blood sugar levels, lactates and other critical health indicators for weeks, sending results to a smartphone or other device.

The Wearable Aptalyzer, created by a team featuring researchers from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, uses an array of tiny hydrogel needles that penetrate just deeply enough to reach the interstitial fluid beneath the skin but not far enough to reach the blood vessels or nerves.

The patch gathers and sends information about markers in the fluid to an electronic device such as a smart phone, creating an ongoing record of patterns in the rise and fall of critical biomarkers.

Once developed for clinical use, it will allow health professionals to access current medical information available only retrospectively after blood tests and lab work.

The new technology could make monitoring the markers of specific diseases and conditions as simple as tracking pulse, blood pressure and other vital signs.

“This technology can provide real-time information about chronic and acute health conditions, allowing caregivers to act more quickly and with greater certainty when they see trouble,” says one of the paper’s two corresponding authors, McMaster’s Leyla Soleymani.

“The Wearable Aptalyzer is a general platform, meaning it can measure any biomarkers of interest, ranging from diabetes to cardiac biomarkers,” says corresponding author Mahla Poudineh, an assistant professor and director of the IDEATION Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Waterloo. “Continuous health monitoring doesn’t just help catch diseases early and track how treatments work. It also helps us understand how diseases happen, filling in important gaps in our knowledge that need attention.”

A user would apply and remove the patch like a small bandage held in place with barely visible, soft hooks. The convenience is likely to appeal to diabetics and others who test themselves by drawing samples of blood or by using solid monitoring patches with metal needles that penetrate deeper and rely on less specific electrodes.

The greatest promise of the technology, though, may lie in its ability to produce weeks’ worth of meaningful results at a time, and to transmit data to electronic devices experts can read without sophisticated equipment.


Among the other potential applications, the Wearable Aptalyzer can make it possible to read and send data that signals cardiac events in real time, making it a potentially valuable tool for monitoring patients in ambulances and emergency rooms, and during treatment. The same technology can readily be adapted to monitor the progress and treatment of many chronic illnesses, including cancers, the researchers say.

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions

Staying Strong: Tips to Preserve Muscle Strength with Age.

As we age, we lose muscle mass; this is called sarcopenia. The consequences of sarcopenia can be devastating, like increased risks of falls, reduced physical capacity, disability, depression, less participation in societal activities, and less enjoyment of life. In 2016, the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD version 10, officially recognized sarcopenia as a disease. It is a condition characterized by loss of muscle mass and function with age. The world population is getting older and older, which is a fabulous thing, but then more people are seeking medical care because of the consequences of sarcopenia.

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions

The DiAL-Health study will help determine how intermittent fasting and calorie counting can improve a person’s “healthspan”

Pennington Biomedical Research Center Research Study Measurements

Pennington Biomedical Research Center Research Study Measurements CREDIT Pennington Biomedical

January is when many people are looking for new diet routines, and intermittent fasting is trending, as are traditional calorie-cutting programs.

Research conducted with animal models suggests that intermittent fasting slows ageing, and those animals live longer. Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham are conducting the DiAL-Health study to see if eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 each day shows similar results in people. These researchers are looking for healthy adults aged 25-49 to participate.

“Time-restricted eating has many of the same benefits of a traditional weight-loss diet and may be easier to follow,” said Dr. Corby Martin, Professor and Director of the Ingestive Behavior, Weight Management and Health Promotion Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical. “In the DiAL-Health study, we’re obtaining much needed information on time-restricted eating, or intermittent fasting, so we can truly see if it can slow aging and improve ‘healthspan.’ Healthspan is the length of your life that you are free of diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure.”

“Traditional diets, or calorie counting, have been around for hundreds of years, but intermittent fasting has become more popular as an option in recent years as it is likely easier to follow,” Dr. Redman said. “In addition to affecting health and possibly longevity, both methods promote weight loss and overall metabolic health, which can help address the nation’s obesity epidemic.”

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions

Is Your Home Office Making You Sick?

Sick building syndrome is an elusive health condition – we have a limited understanding of it, other than its core symptoms and that it’s most commonly developed by poor office environments. Workspaces that are dirty, unorganised, lacking in natural light and using outdated equipment can cause employees to feel intense symptoms of sickness, including nausea, headaches, eye strain, dry skin and others that have now been officially recognised by the NHS as a result of a poor working environment.

But with hybrid working becoming more common, what does sick building syndrome mean for home workers? How can we craft our own home office spaces to combat sick building syndrome? Can hybrid working cause our homes to make us sick?

Causes of sick building syndrome

Research into sick building syndrome has found that there are multiple inadequacies in office environments which can bring about symptoms.

Poor ventilation

Poor air quality is one of the most common causes of sick building syndrome, triggering allergies, headaches, poor concentration and fatigue. A study in 2021 by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found a link between poor office air quality and cognitive ability – meaning poor ventilation can harm both your health and productivity.

Poor lighting

Natural light in an office is the most sought-after feature by employees. It’s not just an aesthetic benefit, however – 84% of workers exposed to natural light have reported a reduction in eyestrain and headaches.

Irregular temperatures

The National Institute of Health indicates that sick building syndrome symptoms increase with the temperature when there is no humidity. A rising temperature can aggravate some specific symptoms, such as sensations of skin, eye and throat dryness.

Poor organisation

The NHS notes the link between poor organisation and cleanliness as another contributing factor. Messy desks and workspaces can allow for a material build-up of dust, triggering allergies, and a mental build-up of stress, triggering anxiety.

Preventing sick building syndrome in your home office

According to ONS Data, 44% of UK workers are now hybrid working – with Microsoft reporting that 56% of workers feel happier since making the transition away from office-based working.

The largely positive response to hybrid working suggests a large percentage of the workforce want to continue home working for the foreseeable future. This makes sick building prevention increasingly important – the last thing anyone wants is for their home to become a place of illness. Here are some suggestions from the experts.

Update your home office

A home office should look different to everyone, and should be tailored to your specific needs. If you suffer from various aches and strains, there are lots of tools available to reduce tension:

  • Neck pain – consider an elevated platform for your monitor. This will improve posture and reduce strain on the neck.
  • Back pain – ergonomic office chairs reduce strain on the back for long periods of sitting.
  • Wrist pain – wrist rests for keyboards reduce tension whilst typing.
  • Eye strain – update your monitor to one with a higher refresh rate (commonly listed as ‘Hz’). The higher the refresh rate, the more smoothly images will transition on your screen, helping to reduce headaches.

Top tip: turn on the ‘night light’ in your computer’s display settings to enable a blue light filter. This will lower eye strain and can improve your sleep pattern.

Invest in natural lighting

Fitting high-quality windows into your home office can boost your quality of life at work. A higher intake of natural light reduces headaches and eye strain, as well as making us more productive.

Kevin Brown, Managing Director and aluminium windows expert at The Heritage Window Company, states: “Thinner window frames and more natural light brings us closer to nature – allowing us to bring the outside into our workspace. Feeling closer to nature dramatically increases our mood, which in turn affects our well-being and productivity.”

Greater access to natural light can also treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which causes fatigue, depression and social withdrawal. SAD affects around two million people in the UK, making larger windows a key player in boosting serotonin levels throughout the darker months.

Choose an appropriate workspace

85% of those currently working from home want to continue hybrid working for the rest of their careers – so choosing an appropriate room for your home office is a must.

Whether you have lots of space or very little, it’s vital that you do not design an office in your bedroom. Your bedroom should only be associated with rest and sleep. The visual stimulant of a workspace in your bedroom can trigger stress and anxiety, harming your quality of sleep and blurring the lines between work and relaxation.

Instead, you should consider choosing a spare room with south-facing windows to design your office. Kevin explains, “South-facing windows are great for solar control. They let in light all day long, as well as being less heat and glare-prone than east and west-facing windows.”

“This is great for the immune system and for access to the energy-boosting properties of natural light – as well as keeping your home office at a regulated temperature in the winter.”

It’s also wise to invest in an air purifier for your chosen space. These vary in price and size depending on the size of your chosen room, but most decent purifiers start at around £50 for a small-medium sized room. Air purifiers help eliminate allergens from the air, as well as reducing dust build-up. This should help keep your air quality and workspace clean.

Finally, avoid placing your desk and monitor against a wall that doesn’t have windows directly behind it. Instead, leave space behind your monitor for natural light to fill. Dark space behind monitors can cause eye strain due to sharp contrast, in turn causing headaches with prolonged use.

Many push desks against walls because they are close to plug sockets, shortening the distance between devices and cables and therefore making your electrical equipment neater. Proper cable management should remedy this concern, with clever management tools like cable trays, covers, boxes, rackets and ties organising your cables into tucked-away bundles.

Top tip: stick an extension cable to the underside of your desk, alongside an under-desk management tray. This should stop your cables from hanging and keep wires in an easy-to-manage space – reducing the build-up of dust and removing a messy eyesore.

We hope you’re feeling inspired to set up the home office of your dreams. There’s only one thing left to do now – get planning!

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions

How a molecule deletes neural chat might help treat Angelman syndrome

Presynaptic Ube3a activity is associated with abnormalities of synapse elimination

Ube3a is transported to the presynapses via Kinesin motor proteins. Presynaptic Ube3a promotes presynapse elimination by suppressing Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling. CREDIT Furusawa et al 2023

Researchers from the University of Tokyo reveal how the presynaptic Ube3a E3 ligase, a causal factor in Angelman syndrome, eliminates neural chat. The study helps find a better drug target for the Angelman syndrome treatment. 

Neurons chat through electrical signals, transmitting information via connection sites between neurons—the synapses. After birth, the number of synapses increases. During childhood, the brain starts to mature and removes many unnecessary synapses. But sometimes, the development of the nervous system goes awry, leading to developmental disorders. 

Kotaro Furusawa, an Assistant professor and the first author of the study, says that their team is interested in understanding “how the brain matures functionally through genetic information and external experience.”  

Furusawa and his team hoped to reveal the molecular mechanism involved in synaptic elimination during neural development and offer insights into developmental disorders such as Angelman syndrome. 

Angelman syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that affects neuronal development and causes physical and intellectual disabilities. In patients with Angelman syndrome, a gene called Ube3a does not function well, which prevents synapse elimination during development. On the other hand, abnormally high Ube3a leads to precocious synapse elimination and causes autism spectrum disorders. 

How the disruption of Ube3a in the presynaptic neurons (that send information to postsynaptic neurons) leads to synaptic defects has been unknown until now. “[It is due to] the technical difficulties in handling the neural circuits of the developing mammalian brain,” Furusawa explains. 

His team probed the sensory neurons of the common fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, and successfully identified the Ube3a and its inner workings. That helped them reveal its role in synapse elimination.  

“It was challenging to identify the main factors involved in the synapse elimination,” adds Furusawa. “We resolved it by an exhaustive search through genetic screening.”