The Despicable Avengers
This needs to happen faster
MIT Builds A Needle-Free Drug Injector
The needle and syringe are icons of modern medicine.
But a device developed at MIT to squirt medicines quickly and pretty much painlessly through the skin suggests that the future of medicine could be needle-free.
The idea is to shoot an extremely thin, extremely fast jet of medicine straight through skin and into muscle. “It’s sort of like a laser beam,” project leader and mechanical engineering professor Ian Hunter tells Shots.
But because the jet is so thin — he compares it to a mosquito’s proboscis — it’s unlikely to produce much pain. Details of the prototype are published in the journal Medical Engineering and Physics.
Needles, as we all know, can be quite painful, and it’s estimated that at least 10 percent of the population has needle phobia. There’s also the risk of accidental jabs, which can spread disease. Jet injections could avoid these problems.Jet injection technology has been around for quite a while. It’s been used in mechanical devices for more than a century (think of a car’s fuel injector), and was first used to deliver vaccines in the 1960s. The technology even showed up on Star Trek as “hypospray.” Nor is it the only needle-free alternative in the works for vaccines and other medicines.
But Hunter says this device has big advantages, thanks to some 21st-century technology.
Existing medical jet injectors use a spring or other mechanical method to force liquid out. All the medicine comes rushing out at once, at a fixed speed and pressure. It gets the job done, but it’s not very precise. The diameter of the jets also tends to be several times bigger than those from Hunter’s device, causing more pain and raising the risk of infection.
Hunter’s injector uses a piston made from a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. A computer chip calls the shots for the injection, so to speak, allowing for millisecond-by-millisecond control over the speed and pressure of the jet.
Once the skin is penetrated with a quick burst, the injector can back off a bit to deliver a precise quantity of the drug, exactly where it’s needed.
“I think that’s the big difference between this device and other devices, is the degree of precision,” Hunter says. “We have a degree of control that hasn’t been possible before.”
The new injector has yet to be tested on people, but has been used on animals, like sheep, without apparent discomfort. “The sheep did not seem to even be aware that they were being injected,” Hunter says. But it will be a few years yet before the injector could be ready for use at home or in a hospital near you.
In the meantime, Hunter’s team will work on additional features that take advantage of the injector’s built-in computer. They want to combine it with a separate device that can sense the thickness and elasticity of the patient’s skin, so the injector could adjust its speed and pressure accordingly. It could also tell the difference between the patient’s skin and that of the health care worker, to prevent accidental self-injections.
Treat Sunburns With Tea (and Other Tips)
Green tea has plenty of skin-protecting benefits — hence its use as a common ingredient in skin creams — but black tea could be the answer to curing a nasty sunburn. Gently applying chilled black tea to the affected area will help soothe the skin, and the tea’s tannins can help speed the body down its road to recovery. Cooled chamomile tea also has anti-inflammatory properties that can help treat skin affected by sunburns and irritants like poison ivy. For severe cases of skin irritation, though, it’s best to seek medical advice — and avoid these topical solutions altogether if the skin is broken or cracked.
Got a pesky mouth sore? Applying a used tea bag to the spot can help relieve the area and reduce inflammation by soaking up excess saliva. Biting down on the bag can also keep a wandering tongue from pestering the wound and causing further irritation (not to mention accidentally biting down on it… ouch).
For those who just can’t get enough tea by sipping, adding a few cups of brewed black tea to a marinade will help tenderize beef before cooking (thanks again those tannins!). The jury’s out on whether tea or coffee makes the better marinade, but that’s what experimenting is for, right?
And in case those fragrances building up at the gym are less than ideal, throw some dry tea bags in running shoes or a smelly bag when not in use. The tea bags will help absorb the musky scents while imparting some of their own — more pleasant — aroma.
Pretty spiffy eh?
http://greatist.com/health/treat-sunburns-with-tea-and-other-tips-032212/#
Apparently, mustard can help stop cramps
Athletes hoping to avoid leg cramps during strenuous exercise typically turn to sports drinks and gels to replenish fluids. Runners and triathletes often race with packets of energy gels in their pockets or attached to race belts. Those packets usually are purchased at running stores or health-food outlets. Some athletes turn to fast-food restaurants for a more unlikely source of cramp prevention: mustard packets.
Cramps can be caused by a deficiency in acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates muscles to work. Mustard contains acetic acid, which helps the body produce more acetylcholine. (The mustard is consumed, not applied topically.)
It’s also possible that turmeric, which gives mustard its yellow color, has some beneficial properties. Turmeric is a plant from the ginger family native to South Asia. In Asia it’s used as a dietary supplement and also as an antiseptic for cuts and burns.
Joe Biondi, a longtime swim coach in the Tampa, Florida area, has recommended mustard to his swimmers and triathletes in recent months and used it himself. “I’ve had a number of athletes try it and it seems to work,” Biondi said.
Whatever the reason for mustard’s cramp-preventing properties, the condiment is a tastier alternative than vinegar or pickle juice, two other home remedies often prescribed for cramps, whether athletic-induced or the “night cramps” that wake people from deep sleep. Since it’s tough for anyone to consume straight vinegar under normal circumstances, let alone in a state of duress, pickle juice is sometimes offered.
Vinegar is a common ingredient in both pickle juice and mustard. One or two spoonfuls of mustard, the equivalent of a fast-food packet, are all that’s needed to provide relief. Some athletes take mustard prior to races or strenuous workouts or during a session. Athletes typically consume sweet-tasting gels or sports drinks during activity, so even big fans of mustard might find the taste a little strange in a different context.
Though little research has been done to explain the connection between how mustard or vinegar works in relieving cramps, the anecdotal evidence is significant. Amanda Carlson-Phillips, the director of performance nutrition at Athletes’ Performance, says the key is to replenish lost sodium.
“There’s about 200 mg of sodium in one tablespoon of mustard, which is the same as eight ounces of Gatorade Endurance,” Carlson-Phillips says. “So a couple packets of mustard would provide some good sodium and prevent or help with cramping. The body doesn’t care where the sodium comes from, just as long as it gets there.”
http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/nutrition/mustard-a-cure-for-cramps.html
Too bad I hate mustard =[
35 Facts That Prove Higher Education Has Become A Corporate Scam
The Student Loan Debt Bubble
1. After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.
2. According to the College Board, college tuition is absolutely soaring. The following comes from a recent CBS News article….
Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8.3 percent this year and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.
3. Average yearly tuition at private universities in the United States is now up to $27,293. That figure has increased by 29% in just the past five years.4. In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.
5. In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.
6. According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark in early 2012.
7. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.
8. Over the past 25 years, the cost of college tuition has increased at an average rate that is approximately 6% higher than the general rate of inflation.
9. Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600. Today, it is $35,568.
10. The cost of college textbooks has tripled over the past decade.
11. One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.
12. According to recent Pew Research Center polling, 75% of all Americans believe that college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.
13. College has become so expensive that it is causing many college students to do desperate things in order to pay for it. For example, an increasing number of young college women are actively advertising on the Internet for “sugar daddies” who will help them pay their college bills.
14. The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.
15. Approximately 14 percent of all students that graduate with student loan debt end up defaulting within 3 years of making their first student loan payment.
The Quality Of College Education In America Stinks
16. The typical U.S. college student spends less than 30 hours a week on academics.
17. According to very extensive research detailed in a new book entitled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses”, 45 percent of all U.S. college students exhibit “no significant gains in learning” after two years in college.
18. Today, college students spend approximately 50% less time studying than U.S. college students did just a few decades ago.
19. 35% of U.S. college students spend 5 hours or less studying per week.
20. 50% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to write more than 20 pages.
21. 32% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to read more than 40 pages in a week.
22. U.S. college students spend 24% of their time sleeping, 51% of their time socializing and 7% of their time studying.
23. Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor’s degree within four years.
Not Enough Jobs For College Graduates
24. Only 55.3% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed last year. That was the lowest level that we have seen since World War II.
25. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the “official” unemployment rate for college graduates younger than 25 years old was 9.3 percent in 2010.
26. One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don’t even require college degrees.
27. In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.
28. In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.
29. In the United States today, approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.
30. In the United States today, 24.5 percent of all retail salespeople have a college degree.
31. The percentage of mail carriers with a college degree is now 4 times higher than it was back in 1970.
32. Right now, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.
33. According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.
34. Record numbers of Americans are going to college, but incomes for young American adults just keep falling. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.
35. Once they get out into the “real world”, 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the “real world” while they were still in school.
So is going to college always a bad idea? Of course not.
But it is a huge gamble.
