Living Well

Training the brain to boost self-confidence

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Eating well, exercising, and being socially active are some factors that can help raise self-esteem. For some people, however, the road to confidence is much more challenging. Now, researchers suggest it may be possible to train the brain to boost confidence.

In a new study, scientists have identified brain activity patterns that can predict a person’s confidence state. What is more, they have discovered that this brain activity can be manipulated to increase self-confidence.

Study leader Dr. Aurelio Cortese, of the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institute International in Kyoto, Japan, and colleagues recently published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Self-confidence is generally defined as the belief in one’s own abilities. As the University of Queensland in Australia put it, self-confidence describes “an internal state made up of what we think and feel about ourselves.”

Low self-confidence can lead to shyness, social anxiety, a lack of assertiveness, and communication problems. These can have negative implications for many aspects of life, including relationships and career progression.

Studies have shown that low self-confidence can also increase the risk of mental health problems, such as depression and bipolar disorder.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to boosting self-confidence. Some people find making personal changes – such as adopting a healthy diet or joining a social club – can improve self-confidence, while others may benefit from mindfulness or counseling.

In the new study, Dr. Cortese and colleagues suggest it may be possible to alter brain activity as a means of boosting self-confidence.

Identifying and manipulating brain patterns to boost confidence

The researchers came to their findings through the use of a novel imaging technique known as “decoded neurofeedback.” This involves brain scans to monitor complex brain activity patterns.

The team tested this imaging method on 17 study participants as they performed a simple perceptual exercise. As a result, the researchers identified specific brain activity that was associated with low and high confidence.

“How is confidence represented in the brain? Although this is a very complex question, we used approaches drawn from artificial intelligence to find specific patterns in the brain that could reliably tell us when a participant was in a high or low confidence state,” explains study co-author Dr. Mitsuo Kawato, director of the Computational Neuroscience Laboratories at ATR.

Next, the researchers wanted to see whether they could use this information to induce high confidence states among the study participants.

All subjects took part in training sessions, in which they received a small monetary reward whenever high confidence states were detected through decoded neurofeedback.

Through these training sessions, the researchers found that they were able to unconsciously boost participants’ self-confidence. In other words, the subjects were unaware that their brains were being manipulated to make them more confident.

“The core challenge was […] to use this information in real-time, to make the occurrence of a confident state more likely to happen in the future.

Surprisingly, by continuously pairing the occurrence of the highly confident state with a reward – a small amount of money – in real-time, we were able to do just that: when participants had to rate their confidence in the perceptual task at the end of the training, they were consistently more confident.”

Dr. Aurelio Cortese

Importantly, the researchers note that they used “rigorous psychophysics” to quantitatively measure confidence among participants, as a way of ensuring that the results of the training session did not simply reflect changes in mood or self-reporting.

As well as shedding light on the brain processes responsible for self-confidence, the authors believe that their findings may bring us one step closer to uncovering new ways to improve self-confidence and other important mental states.

Source : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314777.php

Eradicating mitochondria from cells may reverse aging

For the first time, scientists have shown that mitochondria – the “powerhouses” of cells – are crucial for aging, after finding that removing mitochondria from human cells reduced levels of markers for cellular aging, triggering a process of rejuvenation.

Study leader Dr. João Passos, of the Institute for Aging at Newcastle University in the UK, and his team say their findings pave the way for new strategies to reverse the aging process.

They publish their findings in The Embo Journal.

The aging process is believed to be triggered by various forms of damage that our cells are subject to as we get older.

Cellular senescence has been associated with such damage, where certain cells have lost the ability to replicate. As a result, they build up over time, causing damage to surrounding healthy tissues by producing increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) – a process known as oxidative stress.

For their study, Dr. Passos and colleagues set out to gain a better understanding of the role mitochondria play in cellular senescence and the aging process.

Mitochondria generate chemical energy in cells, enabling them to do their job. Previous studies have also linked mitochondria to production of ROS, though the research team notes that other studies have linked ROS production to non-mitochondrial sources, producing conflicting results.

Removing mitochondria reduced markers of cellular aging.
The team decided to conduct a series of genetic experiments, in which they grew human cells in a lab and removed almost all mitochondria to monitor the effects.

The researchers explain that cells usually use a process called mitophagy in order to eradicate faulty mitochondria. In this study, Dr. Passos and colleagues “tricked” cells into performing mitophagy at a much greater level, allowing them to eliminate the vast majority of mitochondria in aging cells.

The team found that when the mitochondria were removed from the aging cells, this triggered a rejuvenation process; markers of cellular aging – including ROS, inflammatory molecules and certain gene expressions – fell to levels that were comparable to those normally seen in younger cells.

Additionally, the researchers found that as cells age, mitochondrial biogenesis – the process by which new mitochondria are formed within a cell – is a key driver of cellular aging.

Dr. Passos says their results are “very surprising and exciting,” noting that while scientists already knew that mitochondria played a role in the aging process, they have struggled to determine to what extent they contributed.

Source: medical news day

How exercise can enhance memory and learning

Science has proven how exercise can improve weight loss results as well as reduce the risk of developing some chronic diseases, but could working out also improve the health of your brain and make you smarter?

“We know exercise can stimulate the growth of brand-new brain cells in the hippocampus, and because we know that the hippocampus is important for long-term memory and imagination, this suggests that exercise can improve not only memory function but our creativity as well,” Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and professor at New York University and author of “Healthy Brain, Happy Life,” told FoxNews.com.

“It helps parts of the brain important for attention, for memory and for mood, and it does this by doing things like changing the anatomical structure of the brain— it actually increases the size of some of these areas, and enhances the physiological responses of these areas.”

Most studies on the effects of exercise have been done in the elderly, but Suzuki wanted to see if exercise could change the brains of young and healthy adults. She set out to learn whether that was possible by studying her students at NYU.

After getting certified as a group fitness instructor, Suzuki told her students they would be actively participating in the research process. She would teach ‘intentional exercise,’ a type of class similar to intenSati, where you make exercise aerobic and mental by yelling positive affirmations or mantras like “I am strong” or “I am powerful” while exercising.

“Each class was one hour of me teaching them aerobic exercise, followed by an hour and a half lecture discussion talking about and telling them about what exercise was doing to their brain,” she said.

Suzuki would also test her young participants with a memory-encoding task at the beginning and end of the course. The task was designed to clearly show the function of one section of the hippocampus.

“I tested students on a challenging memory task that required them to differentiate between similar-looking objects in memory. I found that one semester of increased exercise in my class improved their response times for correctly answered questions. In other words, they answered correctly more quickly if they were in my exercise class compared to if they were not in the exercise class,” Suzuki said.

“Improvements in response times have been reported before, but this was unique because it was shown in a group of healthy young university students with just once a week of increased exercise. This suggests that if significant effects can be seen with this modest amount of exercise, then we might see even more striking effects if we got up to two to four times a week of increased exercise.”

Even though her research was on young students, exercising can improve the health of your brain at any age, Suzuki said.

“You don’t have to be a triathlete to get the benefits of exercise on your brain. No matter what age you are, no matter what health status you are, you can get these benefits of exercise.”

Like in most types of chronic disease, stress can have detrimental effects on the brain. Long-term stress can affect several areas of the brain, including the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex— which is essential for cognitive abilities like the working memory, decision making and flexible thinking— and the amygdala, which is responsible for the response and memory of emotions, especially fear.

“It [stress] actually makes certain brain areas smaller,” Suzuki said. “People that have chronic stress have smaller parts of the brain that are important for memory. That part of the brain is called the hippocampus.”

To protect yourself from brain cell-killing stress, Suzuki refers to exercise.

“We know if you put animals on exercise, you can help protect their brains from lots of stress that you can give them, but not only that— if animals are already stressed and you put them on an exercise program, you can regrow these brain areas that are being attacked by stress hormones in the blood stream,” she said.

Aside from exercise, Suzuki believes we can exercise our brain with what she calls simple brain hacks that can enhance certain functions.

Source: Foxnews

Here’s why you should not sit too much during the day

Sleeping more than nine hours and sitting too much during the day — along with a lazy lifestyle — can send you to an early grave, warn researchers.


According to the findings from non-profit organisation Sax Institute’s “45 and Up Study”, a person who sleeps too much, sits too much and is not physically active enough is more than four times as likely to die early as a person without those unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Too much sitting equates to more than seven hours a day and too little exercise is defined as less than 150 minutes a week.

“This is the first study to look at how those things (sleep and sitting) might act together,” said lead author Dr Melody Ding.

When you add a lack of exercise into the mix, you get a type of “triple whammy” effect.

“Our study shows that we should really be taking these behaviours together as seriously as we do other risk factors such as levels of drinking and unhealthy eating patterns,” Dr Ding added.

Dr Ding and her colleagues from University of Sydney analysed the health behaviours of more than 230,000 of the participants in the “45 and Up Study”.

They looked at lifestyle behaviours like smoking, high alcohol intake, poor diet and being physically inactive and added excess sitting time and too little/too much sleep into the equation.

The team found another problematic triple threat: smoking, high alcohol intake and lack of sleep (less than seven hours a night) is also linked to a more than four-times greater risk of early death.

“The take-home message is that if we want to design public health programmes that will reduce the massive burden and cost of lifestyle-related disease we should focus on how these risk factors work together rather than in isolation,” explained study co-author professor Adrian Bauman.

The non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer) now kill more than 38 million people around the world and cause more deaths than infectious disease.

“Better understanding what combination of risk behaviours poses the biggest threat will guide us on where to best target scarce resources to address this major – and growing – international problem,” the authors noted in a paper published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Source: zee news

20 Things You Should Throw Away for Better Health

When we talk about the steps you need to take to get healthier, they often involve buying new things: workout clothes, fitness equipment, ingredients for healthy recipes, and the list goes on. But becoming the healthiest version of yourself also means throwing away the stuff that’s holding you back—and we don’t only mean junk food. Get your recycling or garbage can ready!

20 Things You Should Throw Away for Better Health

Old plastic containers
Go through your collection of food-storage containers and toss anything made of clear, rigid plastic, and stamped with a 7 or “pc” (stands for polycarbonate). “These are the types of containers that may contain BPA,” says Sonya Lunder, MPH, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, who also advises tossing warped or cracked containers. While manufacturers have take BPA out of many of the newer polycarbonate containers, old ones still probably have it. And multiple trips through the dishwasher can up leeching of the chemical. Lunder also cautions against heating any type of plastic in the microwave because of chemical-leeching concerns. “Glass is safer in general,” she says.

Air fresheners
Though some companies have recently announced they’re phasing out phthalates, which are used to help fragrance linger longer, many air fresheners (solids, sprays, and plug-ins) still contain this type of chemical, which in large doses may have harmful effects on reproduction or development. “These products are simply chemical perfumes that you put in the air,” says Lunder, who argues that it’s much healthier to take care of the root cause of a smell than mask it with chemicals.

Antibacterial soap
Antibacterial soap is no more effective at killing bacteria than the regular stuff—and they may not be safe, according to a 2014 FDA report. Triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial cleansers, has been shown to alter hormone regulation in animals, and there’s also concern that the chemical may contribute to antibiotic resistance.

When we talk about the steps you need to take to get healthier, they often involve buying new things: workout clothes, fitness equipment, ingredients for healthy recipes, and the list goes on. But becoming the healthiest version of yourself also means throwing away the stuff that’s holding you back—and we don’t only mean junk food. Get your recycling or garbage can ready!

When we talk about the steps you need to take to get healthier, they often involve buying new things: workout clothes, fitness equipment, ingredients for healthy recipes, and the list goes on. But becoming the healthiest version of yourself also means throwing away the stuff that’s holding you back—and we don’t only mean junk food. Get your recycling or garbage can ready!

Old plastic containers
Go through your collection of food-storage containers and toss anything made of clear, rigid plastic, and stamped with a 7 or “pc” (stands for polycarbonate). “These are the types of containers that may contain BPA,” says Sonya Lunder, MPH, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, who also advises tossing warped or cracked containers. While manufacturers have take BPA out of many of the newer polycarbonate containers, old ones still probably have it. And multiple trips through the dishwasher can up leeching of the chemical. Lunder also cautions against heating any type of plastic in the microwave because of chemical-leeching concerns. “Glass is safer in general,” she says.

Air fresheners
Though some companies have recently announced they’re phasing out phthalates, which are used to help fragrance linger longer, many air fresheners (solids, sprays, and plug-ins) still contain this type of chemical, which in large doses may have harmful effects on reproduction or development. “These products are simply chemical perfumes that you put in the air,” says Lunder, who argues that it’s much healthier to take care of the root cause of a smell than mask it with chemicals.

Antibacterial soap
Antibacterial soap is no more effective at killing bacteria than the regular stuff—and they may not be safe, according to a 2014 FDA report. Triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial cleansers, has been shown to alter hormone regulation in animals, and there’s also concern that the chemical may contribute to antibiotic resistance.

Your stash of diet soda
If you haven’t already, you may want to reconsider your diet soda habit—especially if you’re trying to lose weight. A much-buzzed-about study published in the journal Nature found that non-caloric sweetenerssuch as saccharin (Sweet-n-Low), sucralose (Splenda), and aspartame (Equal) may mess with the gut bacteria that play a key role in healthy metabolism. Researchers found a link between these sweeteners, altered gut microbes, glucose intolerance and metabolic syndrome (both precursors to Type 2 diabetes) in mice and humans.

Worn-out running shoes
Most running shoes should be replaced every 300 to 400 miles, says Jason Karp, MD, exercise physiologist and author of Running for Women. For a runner who logs 30 miles a week, that’s about every three months. When shoes wear down, they lose their cushioning and are less capable of absorbing the impact of your foot landing with each step, so more force is transmitted to muscles, bones, and tendons, putting you at risk for injuries, he explains. If you’re not a runner, replace them about every six months, or as soon as you notice that the tread is looking worn out.

Frayed toothbrush
If you’re brushing in the morning and the evening like you’re supposed to, then your toothbrush bristles are probably becoming frayed and worn faster than you realize. “In my experience, bristles start to fray after about two months of use, so I recommend my patients replace their brushes every three months,” says American Dental Association spokesperson Ruchi Sahota, who is a practicing dentist in California. Worn-out brushes are less effective at cleaning teeth and fighting off decay.

Clutter
“In the end, we are what we think about, and what we think about is heavily influenced by what we keep around us,” says motivational speaker and life coach Gail Blanke, author of Throw Out Fifty Things. She calls the things that neither serve a specific purpose nor exist to make you feel good “life plaque”: “The more life plaque we pile around ourselves, the less we can focus on what we really care about,” she explains. Not sure where to start? Toss things that annoy you every time you see them, like socks that have lost their match, or your overflowing kitchen junk drawer. No matter what you decide to throw out (or donate), your goal is to whittle the physical objects down to only items that help you feel energized and accomplish your goals.

Clothes you don’t wear anymore
Take a peek in your closet. How many items have you not worn within the last year? Many people who’ve lost weight keep the bigger sizes around in case they regain it, while others hold onto the size 2 jeans they wore in high school, thinking maybe if they diet they’ll fit again. In either case, seeing these items every day can bring on anxiety. That’s not how anyone wants to feel when getting ready.

Leftovers lingering in the fridge
When it comes to highly perishable food that contains animal ingredients, the rule of thumb is to eat, toss, or freeze after three days, says Michael P. Doyle, PhD, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. “Listeria is linked to scary things like meningitis, miscarriages, and even death,” he says. “It can grow to millions at refrigerator temperatures in under a week.”

Old mascara
Liquid makeup, including mascara, can harbor a lot of germs, says Thomas Steinemann, MD, an American Academy of Ophthalmology spokesperson who practices in Ohio. That’s why he recommends throwing tubes away two to three months after opening. “Each time you use mascara, you are brushing it and any germs onto your lashes,” he says. “You’re also contaminating the brush with even more bacteria present on your skin or eyelashes, then plunging it into a moist room-temperature environment, which encourages bacterial growth.” One of the primary functions of eyelashes is to keep debris and germs from entering your eye, so it’s important to keep the makeup you put on them as germ-free as possible, he adds.

Dirty contact lens case
“Using a dirty lens case is one of the primary risk factors for getting eye infections,” says Dr. Steinemann, who recommends replacing you lens case at least every three months, as well as cleaning, air-drying facedown, and using fresh solution daily. “Even if you care for your lens case fastidiously, a grimy biofilm builds up on the surface that’s a magnet for dirt and germs,” he explains. “If you don’t change it out for a new one, you’re putting yourself at risk for a potentially serious eye infection like a corneal ulcer that can become infected and—even when healed—result in a scar that could affect your vision,” he adds. Don’t mess with your eyes, people!

Stale spices
Spices that have been hanging out in your cabinets for years probably won’t make you sick—but they won’t add any flavor to your food, which is key when you’re trying to cook healthy meals that don’t go overboard on fat or calories. Fresh spices can mean the difference between bland meals that makes you consider giving up on your goals and ordering delivery, and amazingly flavorful food that’s good for you and satisfying.

Old sunscreen
When it comes to sunscreen, the expiration date really does matter, says Beth Lange, PhD, chief scientist at the Personal Care Products Council. The chemicals that block the sun break down over time, so no matter how much you slather on, it’s not going to protect your skin from aging or cancer risk.

Old lip gloss
Anything that’s used around your mouth collects a lot of bacteria quickly, and the longer the bacteria sits in a moist tube, the more it grows. This increases your chance of infection if it gets into a cut or crack on the delicate skin of your lips. For this reason, experts recommend that you throw out lip gloss or other lip makeup no more than six months after you open it and begin using it, or by the expiration date, whichever is sooner.

Musty, clogged air filters
If you have an air purifier at home, you get a gold star. “HEPA filtered air cleaning devices—the most efficient kind—are important because according to the EPA, indoor air quality is 25 to 100 times worse than outdoors,” says Philip Tierno, PhD, a microbiologist with New York University. In fact, the average 1,500 square foot house can accumulate 40 pounds of dust (40,000 dust mites per ounce). “One in five Americans suffer from allergies or asthma, which can be exacerbated by dust, mold, and bacteria in the air so a good filter system goes a long way,” he adds. Just don’t forget to replace the filter every so often or you could actually be growing mold and bacteria, and blowing contaminants back into your air. How often depends on what kind you have, so check with your manufacturer and use common sense. One telltale sign it needs to be tossed is a musty smell.

Your kitchen sponge
Studies show the kitchen sponge is the germiest thing in the average American household, says Tierno. While some experts recommend microwaving sponges daily to zap bacteria, Doyle recommends skipping them completely: “When you use a sponge to clean meat juices, which can contain harmful microbes like salmonella, and it stays moist at room temperature, they grow quickly and studies show even the dishwasher doesn’t kill them.” He advises using a washcloth to clean dishes instead, grabbing a clean one every few days, and throwing the dirty ones in with your laundry. “Because it’s thinner, a washcloth dries quicker than a sponge between washes, which helps significantly slow bacterial growth,” he explains.

Plastic cutting boards
Slicing and dicing on plastic cutting boards scores the surface (those lines you begin seeing after the first few times you use one). Once bacteria get into these tiny grooves and begin to grow, they can be very difficult to get rid of, says Doyle. He recommends switching to wooden cutting boards because wood contains resins that are naturally antimicrobial. Translation: when you score a wooden cutting board and bacteria seeps in, it dies instead of thrives.

Smart devices
You don’t need to toss your iPhone or Android out completely (phew!), but you should definitely unplug from time to time. Mounting research indicates that information overload—what happens when you use smart devices constantly—is linked to depression and anxiety. Recent studies suggest that this is particularly true for people who are overly attached to their smartphones and tablets, and for those who use multiple devices at once (which experts call media multitasking). Power down and stow your devices in a drawer at least a few times per week to give your brain a break‚ ideally on a set schedule (for example, weekdays after 9 p.m. or weekend mornings before noon).

Your chair
Global studies show that the average person sits 7.7 hours a day, and some estimate people sit up to 15 hours a day, says Robert Emery, professor of occupational health at the University of Texas School of Public Health. Excessive sitting impacts the body’s metabolic system, and can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and depression. But it’s not as simple as putting in more time at the gym, which may not even reverse “sitting disease,” adds Emery. The American Medical Association recommends switching to a standing desk for work as an excellent way to combat the health issues associated with too much sitting

 Source: Health.com

Woman Gives Birth An Hour After Learning She’s Pregnant

Katherine Kropas had no idea she was pregnant with a 10-pound baby until an hour before she gave birth.

Kropas, 23, started her day off Tuesday with intense back pain, but at first, doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Then, they did an ultrasound.

“They took one look, and they rushed me off into labor,” she told ABC’s Boston station WCVB. “I found out that I was having a baby at 10:15. She was born at 11:06 p.m.”

She gave birth to a baby girl, Ellie, who weighed 10 pounds and 2 ounces. Kropas told WCVB she felt that she’d put on some weight, but figured maybe it was just typical holiday weight gain.

Ellie’s grandmother, Karen Kropas, told WCVB she’s heard of this happening, but never thought she would see it firsthand.

“You laugh and you say that’s ridiculous,” she told the station. “And then it happens to you, and you’re like, ‘This really does happen.'”

South Shore Hospital in Massachusetts told WCVB that it happens about once or twice a year there. In a Berlin study of 29,462 births published in the British Medical Journal in 2002, researchers determined that a one in 475 women did not realize they were pregnant until about 20 weeks gestation and one in 2,455 didn’t realize it until they went into labor.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior medical contributor for ABC News and practicing OB/GYN, said she’s seen cases like Kropas’s in her career.

“It tends to happen in women who are overweight or obese to start, may have irregular periods and are less aware of their bodies,” Ashton said. “For most women who have been pregnant, they are aware of multiple physical signs and symptoms, and those signs and symptoms are not subtle.”

She said though this case is incredible, it’s far from desirable.

“It represents a missed opportunity for prenatal care for the baby, which is definitely not ideal,” she said.

Source: abc news

19-year-old girl wakes up during brain surgery, asks doctors ‘How’s it going?’

A teenage girl in Poland woke up during brain surgery and asked her doctors how the operation was going.

Iga Jasica, 19, had been undergoing the procedure to have a cancerous growth removed from her brain. Doctors say she woke up halfway through the surgery when the anesthetic wore off. Her brain was exposed, but surgeons say the southwest Polish girl’s health was not in jeopardy.

“Despite coming round, she didn’t feel anything and was never in danger,” neurosurgeon Dawid Larysz told The Daily Mirror. He added that Jasica wouldn’t have been able to see or feel anything. Jasica doesn’t remember waking up during the surgery.

Doctors are investigating whether the anesthetic may have been improperly administered. Other experts told The Daily Mirror that the operation itself could have triggered her waking up despite the anesthetic.

While chatting with doctors during the procedure, Jasica reportedly brought up cats. After the surgery, she reflected on the experience The Daily Mirror reported

“I missed Christmas because of this operation, but it is the best present I could have had, as I am now feeling great,” Jasica told The Daily Mirror when the procedure was complete.

Source: fox news

Boy survives after having nail scissors lodged in his heart

Children have long been warned of running with scissors, but for one boy, the worst-case scenario took a lucky turn, thanks to a neighbor who is an emergency paramedic, reported Central European News (CEN).

Sasha Ulyanov, 3, was playing at home with his three sisters when he ran into a wall carrying a pair of nail scissors and stabbed himself in the heart. The children’s mother was out taking lunch to their father, who was working in the field.

“Sasha is our youngest child. He was running with the scissors through the kitchen door and misjudged it, and ran into the door frame with the scissors in his hand. He fell to the floor screaming, and our oldest daughter, Diana, who is 15, picked him up and rushed him next door to our neighbor,” the children’s mother, Natalia Baltsyukevich, 35, told CEN.

That neighbor, Liubov Mikhalchik, is an emergency paramedic in their village of Pashkovich in Eastern Belarus Voranava District. “I realized straightaway that it was a serious injury.” Mikhalchik said. “You could see the scissors vibrating to the beating of his heart,”

Mikhalchik first ensured the scissors were not disturbed before arranging for Sasha to be transported to the local hospital. Surgeon Dr. Viktor Kovalchuk, head of the department of pediatric surgery at the Medical University of Grodno, and his team removed the scissors from the muscular wall of the right ventricle of the heart, then removed the blood that pooled in the pericardial.

“I can’t ever remember having someone come in with such a serious heart wound and still surviving,” Kovalchuk told CEN. “ The scissors had wedged in the wall of the heart, and we needed to operate immediately. The boy’s heart was already showing signs of failing.”

The surgery was successful, and Sasha spent two days in the specialist ward before being transferred to the Grodno Regional Hospital, where he was kept in the ICU for seven days. Sixteen days after his injury, he was allowed to return home.

“I can’t thank the doctor and all those involved in setting my son’s life enough,” his mother said. “It is fantastic that he is already back home after just two weeks in hospital.”

Source: fox news

World’s First Womb-Transplant Mother Hopes to Inspire Others

The parents of the world’s first womb-transplant baby said they hope their story inspires other couples who are struggling with infertility. The 36-year-old mother from Sweden had been born without a uterus, but last month she gave birth to a healthy but premature boy after having a womb transplant. “Yes, we made history,” the woman told The Associated Press on Monday. “It’s hard to answer but for us it feels like we are normal parents with a newborn baby — lots and lots of happiness and love for this little boy.”

The woman, who agreed to the interview provided her identity was not disclosed, was among nine to receive a new womb in a ground-breaking trial last year. “Even if I had years and years of sorrow and loss of hope, at the first touch and when I saw my baby I just felt as a mother,” she said. Her husband added they will be forever grateful to the 61-year-old woman who donated her uterus, the mother of one of his best friends. “What she did for us was so amazing and selfless that the words ‘thank you’ don’t seem like enough,” he said.

Source: nbc news

Doctors perform rare surgery on man with five heart chambers

In what is claimed to be the first -of-its-kind surgery in the country and only the third in the world, doctors at a hospital treated a man suffering from a rare congenital heart condition of having five atrial chambers instead of four.

Doctors perform rare surgery on man with five heart chambers

42-year-old Pali Devaram, who had been suffering from breathlessness and continuous coughing and heart pain, was diagnosed with the rare heart defect termed ‘Cortriatrium with Mitral Regurgitation’ after he underwent a medical check up at Medipulse Hospital here.

“On diagnosis, we found him to be suffering from a rare congenital disease… We carried out some more tests in consultation with a cardiothoracic surgeon and found him to have five chambers in his heart instead of four,” the private hospital’s Cardiologist Alok Madan said. Madan said Cortriatrium is a defect where an additional membrane or a septum creates fifth chamber in the heart.

After the final diagnosis, a team of doctors carried out a nearly four-hour-long surgery on Devaram on Wednesday. “We cut the membrane, which had created the wall above fourth valve thereby forming a fifth chamber and made it a four chambered heart, which is a normal heart,” Cardiothoracic surgeon Sanjeev Suresh Waidand said.

Now, the patient would be able to lead a normal life as any other healthy person, he added.

Claiming it to be the first-of-its-kind surgery in India and only the third in the world, the hospital’s director Navneet Agarwal said, “First two surgeries of such type have been administered in China and Germany.”

He said that the age of the patient and the severe Mitral Regurgitation made this surgery unique and rare, which costed about Rs 1.25 lakh to the patient. Patient’s relative Dinesh said they had visited many doctors and hospitals across the country but no one was able to diagnose the disease.

“In last two months, Pali’s problems of breathlessness, constant coughing and heart pain had aggravated,” he said.