Skin Deep and Beyond

As you’re enjoying these last days of January, save some time to look into this week’s stories, and remember to view our videos as well!

Watch our Medical Headline Videos:

• Can you imagine skin cells being turned into beating heart cells or becoming neurons capable of transmitting brain signals? Don’t miss our story from San Francisco’s Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, "Skin Cells as Stem Cells! Medicine’s Next Big Thing," where stem cell technology is being taken to the next level by Dr. Deepak Srivastava and Shen Ding, Ph.D. who are using the patients’ own skin cells to repair bodies from the inside out. As Dr. Srivastava says, "It’s the ultimate in personalized medicine."
• Sid Khosla, M.D., from the University of Cincinnati Health Professional Voice Center, explains how he used his research on jet engines and flow patterns together with his knowledge about throat cancer patients to help those unable to speak above a whisper to regain their voices. Watch "Jet Engines Help Save Jan’s Voice" to see how one patient got back her voice after 35 years of barely speaking above a whisper.
• In our story from Vanderbilt University, "Mutation Medication: New Lung Cancer Therapy," Dr. Leora Horn talks about a targeted therapy to pinpoint specific gene mutations that lead to lung cancer, and then selecting a specialized drug that can block the mutated gene and prevent the growth of that cancer. In an early clinical trial, 57-percent of the patients had tumor shrinkage after two months on the newly FDA-approved drug.

This week’s In-Depth Doctor’s Interview is with Dr. Andrew Butler, an Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory University who discusses a promising clinical trial using a robotic arm in combination with drug therapy where he hopes to help stroke patients regain movement to their pre-stroke levels and decrease the amount of time they need to spend in a rehabilitation hospital.

And for anyone who feels awkward about what to say or do when a loved one gets a terminal diagnosis, don’t miss our story on some common errors people make, and tips on what to say and do instead. David Kessler, co-author with the late renowned thanatologist, Elisabeth Kubler Ross, of On Grief and Grieving, says you may want to rethink what your doctor tells you, since a study found 40-percent of oncologists offer treatments they really don’t think will work, and 63-percent of doctors in a Harvard study overestimated the survival time of their patients by an average of about 530-percent too high!

In case you missed them, you may want to check our past reports, Premium Content in Archives Double Cure for Lupus and Sickle Cell Disease or Premium Content in Archives Low-Calorie Diet May Cure Diabetes. Premium Content in the Archives may be purchased for as little as $9 for 24-hour, unlimited access. If you would like to access Premium Content for the first time click here.

Finally, do you think collagen can help wrinkles and that facials are really good for your skin? Read the answers and the best bets to help you look young in our "Skintervention" story, where Barry DiBernardo, M.D. talks about a modern day magic mirror – a machine that can see below the surface of the skin, showing sun damage, pore size, wrinkles and bacteria, as well as show you what you’ll look like in 10 years.

And there's more where that came from...

Marjorie Bekaert Thomas

President, Ivanhoe Broadcast News

"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character… would you slow down? Or speed up?"
-- Chuck Palahniuk