Category Archives: Healthcare@Risk™

#359 – WITH COVID 19, ARE WE RELIVING AN ANCIENT GREEK MYTH? – ALLEN TAYLOR

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One of the Greek myths that has come down to us from antiquity is the story of the Lernaean hydra. The hydra was a serpent-like monster that had many heads. If you cut off one hydra head, two more would grow in its place. Pictures of the hydra appear on ceramic vases that were created around 500 BC. Various heroes fought the hydra, but this only led to the hydra becoming ever more fearsome as its number of poison-spewing, fang-laden heads multiplied exponentially. Continue reading →

#358 – OMICRON HAS ARRIVED – BILL POMFRET PH.D.

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Looks like We’re heading into what could be a tough winter. Canada and the United States currently has a 7-day average of about 94,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, nearly all of which are the delta variant.

Case numbers have been increasing the past few weeks, including in places which has some of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Hospitals and caregivers are once again strained. The Pentagon sent medical teams to two major hospitals in Minnesota last month and another team was scheduled to arrive this week. Continue reading →

#358 – WHY DO MEMORIES FADE AS PEOPLE AGE? – ALLEN TAYLOR

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I am sure you have noticed, in others if not in yourself, that it gets harder to remember names, places, facts, and procedures as people get older.

Why is that? Clearly something changes, something physiological. Perhaps if we could identify what changes, we could slow or even reverse that change, enabling us to retain our mental powers far longer than is common today. Some groundbreaking research has been conducted recently at Stanford University in California. This work is described in a paper titled Exercise conditioned plasma dampens inflammation via clusterin and boosts memory. Continue reading →

#356 – HOW MUCH PROTECTION DO COVID-19 VACCINES PROVIDE? – ALLEN TAYLOR

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The purpose of the vaccines currently being used as a defense against Covid-19 is to improve outcomes for vaccinated people who encounter the SARS Cov-2 virus. Possible outcomes are:

  • Complete avoidance of infection after exposure
  • Asymptomatic infection
  • Infection with light symptoms
  • Infection with concerning symptoms
  • Infection requiring mechanical ventilation
  • Infection causing death

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#355 – WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ABOUT CANCER FROM HUMBLE LAB MICE? – ALLEN TAYLOR

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Your immune system is your primary defense against disease—it fights infections caused by pathogenic organisms such as bacteria and viruses. In addition, it fights against your own cells that have “gone rogue” by becoming cancerous. There are several different parts of the immune system, each designed to give you protection against a specific range of threats. One such part consists of the cytotoxic T-cells. Continue reading →