Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN0_LWeXrmH/

The answer is yes if you can’t tolerate certain foods such as those containing lactose. Canadian sleep researchers at the University of Montreal and MacEwan University surveyed 1082 college students and found an impressive link between nightmares and diet.

Data gathered included dietary information, food intolerances, allergies, personality type, measures of sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and dreams using the Nightmare Disorder Index.

The results. About a third of participants reported frequent nightmares, and women were more likely than men to experience poor sleep, remember dreams, and report food sensitivities. Forty percent of all surveyed reported that their diet affected their sleep quality. Sweet desserts were blamed by 31% while 22% blamed dairy. Healthy food intake avoiding late night ingestion was associated with better dream recall. The opposite: a diet of fatty, greasy, spicy foods and including late night gorging led to nightmares and negative dreams. Those with gastrointestinal issues such as gas, stomach cramps, or reflux as well as those with food allergies including lactose intolerance were more likely to suffer.

So if you wake up certain a zombie is chasing you with a chainsaw, you might want to cut out that late night pizza, mac and cheese, or 7 layer chocolate cake.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250701020653.htm

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1544475/full

#dreams #nightmares #diet #dairy #desserts #lactoseintolerance

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN0-HNvXPcP/

An already FDA-approved cancer vaccine was spectacularly effective in controlling pancreatic cancers that carry the KRAS markers. A multi-center phase 1 study, helmed by oncologists at New York’s Sloan Kettering and Texas’ MD Anderson, studied the vaccine labeled ELI-002 developed by Boston’s Elicio Therapeutics.

The results demonstrated that the vaccine can trigger a vigorous killer T cell response to this KRAS marker carried by 88% of pancreatic cancers. They also showed that 65% of patients who mounted this T cell response to the vaccine enjoyed no radiographic progression of their cancers. Even more exciting, five of the sewpatients were free of tumor relapse without any subsequent therapy following the vaccine. When the study ended after nearly 20 months, these excellent responders were all alive without evidence of cancer recurrence. In contrast, the untreated controls developed cancer relapses in an average of 3 months and only survived an average of 15 months.

Unlike most cancer vaccines that are custom produced for each patient’s tumor, ELI-002 can be mass produced making it readily available for administration and less expensive. A phase 2 trial of the vaccine is already in progress.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, with only about 13% of patients surviving five years after diagnosis and recurrence rates as high as 80% within two years of surgery. Hopefully, this vaccine immunotherapy will help change those dismal statistics.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03876-4

#cancer #pancreatic #vaccine #ELI002 #elicio #iommunotherapy

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN09U9v2nzK/

I recently reported the troubling surge in laughing gas recreational use highlighting the damage that this nitrous oxide gas can do to your mouth and throat as it cools. This rising use of the drug is also killing more of us each year. I am sad to report that 1240 Americans lost their live sto nitrous oxide poisoning between the years 2010 and 2023.

This widely-used medicinal gas safely helps to smooth the induction of general anesthesia in the operation room. In the party room, though, its careless inhalation from pressurized canisters that serve as whipped cream chargers leads to oxygen deprivation, neurological damage, and death.

Don’t let that happen to your or your children. Educate, educate, educate.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2836925

#laughinggas #nitrousoxide #whippets #hypoxia #death

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN08cgWau2f/

What’s the trick? A small modification in your walking gait could delay any need for knee replacement surgery for years. So say University of Utah bioengineers and musculoskeletal researchers after studying a select group of 68 patients with knee arthritis in a year-long placebo-controlled trial.

Their Lancet Rheumotology study revealed that a slight change in the foot angle while walking reduced both the pain and destructive changes of osteoarthritis as effectively as pain and anti-inflammatory medications. The necessary change in foot angle varied for each individual: for some, turning the toes slightly inward did the trick, while for others, turning outward worked better.

The study participants trained with motion-capture and biofeedback. They then practiced at home until their slightly modified gait felt natural. Remarkably, they stuck with the adjustment for the duration of the study.

The most exciting findings: At the study’s conclusion, the MRI scans of those who modified their gaits revealed less cartilage damage than controls. Their pain relief mirrored that achievable with over-the-counter painkillers like ibuprofen and was nearly as good as even stronger agents.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(25)00151-1/abstract

#osteoarthritis #knee #gait #pain #cartilage #jointreplacement

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN07cQI3q01/

Gold nanoparticles, coated with specific antibodies to viruses, bacteria, or virtually any disease-causing agent, now form the basis of a diagnostic system 100,000 times more sensitive than current technologies and capable of delivering a result in about 15 minutes. Molecular bioengineers at Arizona State University have developed the reagents and the detection device they’ve named the NasRED, which stands for Nanoparticle-Supported Rapid Electronic Detection.

For example, when exposed to say antigens from CoVid viruses, the CoVid-antibody coated gold nanoparticles clump together and capably reflect light in the NasRed detector. This one-drop blood test can rapidly and precisely detect COVID-19, influenza, HIV, Ebola, and/or Lyme with unprecedented precision. Each test costs about two dollars, a fraction of the price of current lab methods. The detection device is small and portable permitting its use in rural hospital and clinics.

Work is already underway to shrink the test prep and detection devices even further, raising the possibility of a do-it-yourself home test with better than lab-quality accuracy……someday soon.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250814094651.htm#google_vignette

#gold #nanoparticles #testing #CoVid #influenza #hiv #nasred

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN06krQ2q-f/

Immunologists at the Medical University of South Carolina have found a way to direct the body’s immune system to censor itself permitting transplanted human organs to flourish with medicinal immunosuppression. Their study appeared recently in Frontiers in Immunology.

The investigators genetically engineered so-called regulatory T cells, Treg lymphocytes, to selectively destroy those B lymphocytes programmed to produce the antibodies that attack transplanted organs. This self-immunosuppression could extend the life of transplanted organs and permit so-called presensitized patients with pre-existing B lymphocytes ready to churn out anti-organ antibodies an opportunity for successful transplantation.

Let’s hope clinical trials demonstrate the utility of this approach.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250817/Genetically-engineered-immune-cells-show-promise-for-preventing-organ-rejection.aspx

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1601385/full

#transplantation #immunosuppression #Treg #antibodies #presensitized

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN05tuXXix_/

In the search for ever more effective and selective ways to fight cancer, researchers at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science in collaboration with those at Rockefeller University have bioengineered a bacterium that selectively ferries a cell-killing virus into cancer cells. They call this system CAPPSID which stands for Coordinated Activity of Prokaryote and Picornavirus for Safe Intracellular Delivery.

The prokaryote in question is a salmonella species and the picornavirus is the Senecavirus. This salmonella selectively invades tumor cells and delivers not only the virus but also an enzyme necessary to activate the virus once inside the tumor cell. This permits the virus to slip past the immune system, sneak into cancers, and attack tumor cells from the inside.

Using a preclinical mouse model, the bacteria successfully homed in on their tumors, delivered the virus, and then self-destructed to release it. To prevent the virus from killing normal mouse cells, the virus can only proliferate in the presence of the protease enzyme supplied by the cancer-homing bacterium.

This is the first example of directly engineered cooperation between bacteria and viruses with the goal of cancer eradication. , and it may open the door to a new class of living medicines for solid tumors. Clinical studies are now in the planning stages making it possible that this technology could be added to existing cancer therapy…..someday soon

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-025-01476-8

#cancer #bacteria #viruses #salmonella #picornavirus #trojanhorse

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN04xTN2nvK/

Blah, blah blah you’re thinking. Yea, yea, yea Dr. Smith I’ve heard this all before. PLEASE don’t click off and give me a couple minutes to help you save your own life or the lives of those you love.

An astounding 77% of Americans do not know that blood pressures greater than 130/80 are a significant risk for heart attack and stroke as well as dementia, kidney failure, and blindness. One in 4 still think the numbers are the old cutoffs 140/90. So discovered University of Pennsylvania public health researchers after they they surveyed 1653 of our friends and neighbors this past April.

Among their key findings:

-24% don’t know the blood pressure levels that are considered high. The cutoff is now 130/80, not 140/90.

-37% assume incorrectly that high blood pressure always has noticeable symptoms like dizziness and shortness of breath; they don’t know that high blood pressure is a silent illness.

-39% think that your blood pressure is fine if you are calm and relaxed. Not so.

-35% of survey respondents had diagnosed high blood pressure, while the CDC estimates that 48% of all Americans have hypertension.

-88-92% of those with high blood pressure know how to maintain a normal blood pressure: regular exercise, only 26% do; limiting salt intake, only 31% do; maintaining a healthy weight, only 21% do; take prescribed medications regularly, only 51% do; monitor blood pressure daily, only 18% do.

The researchers conclude that better public education is the key to improving these statistics. In that spirit, let’s review the American Heart Association’s current definitions regarding blood pressure levels. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 or less than 80, elevated blood pressure is less than 120-129/less than 80, high blood pressure-stage 1 is 130-139 or 80-89, high blood pressure-stage 2 is 140 or higher or 90 or higher, and a hypertensive crisis is higher than 180 or higher than 120.

I urge you to share this information with your friends and family. Blood pressure monitors are dirt cheap, and every household, EVERY HOUSEHOLD should have one. Does yours?

https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/many-americans-unaware-high-blood-pressure-usually-has-no-noticeable-symptoms/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2837834

#bloodpressure #hypertension #exercise #diet #monitoring