Health and Wellbeing

A study from researchers at Imperial College London seriously suggests that it may be wise for fast food outlets to provide statin drugs free of charge with the condiments, so that customers can neutralize the heart disease dangers of fatty food. Statins are a class of drugs that can reduce the amount of "LDL" cholesterol in the blood. Some data suggests that this reduction is accompanied by a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack and stroke. Read More

It has been possible to successfully cryopreserve semen, blood, embryos, oocytes, stem cells and other thin samples of small clumps of cells for a few decades now. However, cryopreservation of human internal organs, such as livers and hearts for storage and transplant, currently requires toxic doses of cryoprotectants – substances that protect biological tissue from freezing damage due to ice formation – in order to survive the cooling process. A solution could be at hand in the form of a technology used to preserve sushi that can instantly freeze water, meaning there is no time for cell damaging ice crystals to form. In fact, it’s already being used to preserve teeth. Read More

Call me crazy, but I’ve always found some peace of mind knowing that the latest medical gadget scanning some worrisome part of my body isn’t an accessory for a smartphone, but costs in the millions of dollars and is the result of years of expensive research and development. However, as someone who has more than their fair share of moles dotted all over their body, I’m willing to make an exception for the handyscope. Consisting of an optical attachment and an accompanying app, the handyscope turns an iPhone into a digital dermoscope to provide an instantaneous up close look at potential skin cancers. Read More

Many people take pills to help manage or cure serious illness, and some of these life-saving drugs can only be absorbed in very specific parts of the intestine. The problem with oral administration is that pills often don’t dissolve at exactly the right site in the gastrointestinal tract where medicine can be absorbed into the bloodstream. A new drug delivery system developed by scientists at Brown University uses a magnetic gelatin capsule and an external magnet that can precisely sense the force between it and the pill and vary that force, as needed, to hold the pill in place. The team has successfully used the technology with rats and in future it could provide a new way to deliver many drugs to humans, including those with cancer or diabetes. Read More

Let's talk for a minute about the female orgasm. For a lucky minority of women, these exist in abundance, ready to be plucked ripe off a well-fruited vine at a moment's notice. If you're one of these girls, you can stop reading now and get back to washing your hair with that herbal goop that makes you bellow like Meg Ryan. If you're at the other end of the scale, where orgasm is a fleeting, furtive animal that must be hunted with patience and skill, then this device might be up your alley … so to speak. Read More

Our publisher Mike ran into this device at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. It took him a good five minutes to work out what it was for. "This is fascinating," he thought to himself, "and it really needs to be written up for Gizmag. But certainly not by me." So I'm not sure whether to take it as a compliment or a measure of my character that he immediately sent the story my way ... anyway, in the interests of transparency, I wish to point out before we get started that the only chastity devices I have ever used have been my looks and my personality – and even those powerful tools haven't been very effective. Read More

Respected medical journal Lancet has taken a retrospective look at the past century and found that despite incredible advances in the field of medicine, some common issues persist. Problems identified in 1911 that strike a familiar chord today include the quest to understand and eventually cure cancer, an economic depression and it's negative effect on healthcare delivery and the plight of African nations. Challenges faced in first world countries included the impacts of illicit drug addiction, occupational health and workers' compensation issues, the need for better education of doctors, and the continued prevalence of curable and preventable diseases. Read More

There are definitely two schools of thought as to whether or not humans should have meat in their diet, but even many non-vegetarians claim that the production and consumption of animal protein could definitely stand to at least be scaled back, both for environmental and health reasons. It has been estimated that it takes 40 square meters (48 sq. yards) of land to produce one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of meat, while 120 kilograms (265 lbs) of carrots or 80 kilograms (176 lbs) of apples could be raised within that same space. Obesity and cardiovascular disease, meanwhile, have been linked to high-fat diets – diets which often include things like sausages and hamburgers. With concerns like these in mind, researchers from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging have developed food ingredients derived from lupin seed proteins, that can reportedly stand in quite convincingly for both milk and animal fat. Read More

For as long as I can remember, keeping skin young and fresh has generally involved the liberal application of various moisturizing and nourishing creams with strange-sounding ingredients and an even greater number of anti-aging claims. Spain's Nylstar has managed to bind an important component of skin with 24K gold at a nanoscale level to create NYG nanoparticles. The new nanomaterial is then integrated with nylon fibers to make something called Nylgold dermawear, which is said to have a nourishing and protective effect on the skin of the wearer. Read More