Month: August 2017

The UK’s Daily Mail Online has a really interesting story though lacking a few vital details about breakthrough surgery to restore movement and feeling in limbs for those that have been paralyzed by a severed nerve.  The procedure starts with taking sections of nerve cells from deceased donors.  The nerve cells are treated with enzymes to clean them up, sterilized and frozen, reducing the risk that they will be rejected when grafted to the patient.  The surgery itself is described like it is outpatient with one small incision and no general anesthesia. Without this new procedure, doctors had to perform much...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that mice fed tryptophan developed immune cells that enable a more balanced gut.  Tryptophan is an α-amino acid that is used in the making of proteins and an essential building block for a very important brain chemical, serotonin.   Low levels of tryptophan are associated with insomnia and a host of other mental health issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and binge eating.  If you have ever experienced feeling very tired after having a turkey dinner or warm milk before bed you can probably thank tryptophan.  But this important amino acid is the least common...