Muscle stem cells are a fickle group. Shortly after they're removed from their native environment (snuggled along the length of our muscle fibers), they begin to …
Month: May 2016
At-risk teens benefit from bonds with their doctors
When Seth Ammerman, MD, first meets his patients, he asks them what they're good at. He wants to know what sort of long-term goals they …
Stanford Medicine conference provided a big look at big data
Big data was a hot topic here last week, when Stanford Medicine hosted the 4th annual Big Data in Biomedicine Conference. There was a lot to discuss, with …
Greater use of palliative and hospice care needed, new study shows
All patients with advanced cancer should receive palliative care soon after diagnosis, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, but only about half of …
Setting priorities in adolescent medicine research
Today, the world has more than a billion young people aged 10 to 19. Most of them live in low- and middle-income countries, and of …
Study shows that different brain cells process positive and negative experiences
Stanford psychiatrist-bioengineer-neuroscientist-inventor Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, has pioneered two separate technologies that, while quite different from one another, pose the prospect of working together to enable new strides in …
The die-off within us: Are our low-fiber diets ruining our descendants’ lives?
Members of the Hadza, a 300-person remnant of an all-but-vanished Tanzanian hunter-gatherer society, consume 150 grams of fiber per day on average. That's a clump of indigestible …
Zika and reproductive rights: new geographies, similar concerns
As summer inches closer, growing mosquito populations and numbers of vacationers traveling South pose an increased threat of Zika virus transmission inside the continental United …
Engineers develop new type of wearable device
Much has been written about the growing popularity of wearables to track one's health behavior and activities. Now, engineers at Michigan State University, in collaboration with Bell …
How watching a television medical drama gave a medical student confidence
When I was in high school, I remember being fascinated by the television series "House," the medical mystery show whose title character was the doctor …
Stanford’s Big Data in Biomedicine Conference begins today
The Big Data in Biomedicine Conference kicks off today. Now in its fourth year, the event provides a forum for experts to discuss ways to use large-scale data analysis …
Beware of black salve, a pseudo-treatment of cancer, dermatologists warn
As a child, I was a big fan of the Little House on the Prairie books and show, and I still have a clear image in …
New Stanford-developed tool allows easier study of blood cancers
In the history of science and medicine, the breakthrough discoveries get a lot of deserved attention, but often overlooked are the invention of the tools …
Racism inside the clinic: One physician’s story
How would you react if a patient directed a racist tirade at you? Or insulted your gender, your sexual identity, your religion? You walk in …
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford celebrates 25 years
It's been nearly 25 years since the doors opened to the first patients at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford on June 10, 1991. After a …
A closer look at hypnotherapy (aka hypnosis)
Those in the know now call hypnosis "hypnotherapy," a name the practice has earned by demonstrating real benefits to people with conditions ranging from post-traumatic …