Medicine Archives

February 15, 2023

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• Long COVID is a condition that millions of people suffer from, and it is often worse than the physical symptoms.
• Asking “Are you doing any better?” is not helpful, as it is a chronic illness with an unknown recovery timetable.
• People with long COVID often experience depression, shame, and resentment.
• To pass for well, people with long COVID may need to take a combination of medications.
• Doctors often underestimate the quality of life issues associated with long COVID.
• The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York has a long-COVID team that thinks holistically, but many people don’t have access to the same resources.
• Be gentle with people who have long COVID, as it can be a difficult and isolating experience.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Jennifer Senior’s original post What Not to Ask Me About My Long COVID

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Will CRISPR Cure Cancer? [Brian Gallagher, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen

In Uncategorized

February 14, 2023

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• Brad Ringeisen, chemist and executive director of the Innovative Genomics Institute, is working on two approaches to deliver CRISPR-Cas9 treatment to target cancer cells.
• The first approach is to use antibodies to bind to something that’s only found on a specific cell type.
• The second approach is to use envelope delivery vehicles, which take certain parts of a virus’ targeting system to help specifically target a certain cell type or tissue type.
• Intellia Therapeutics has already shown that CRISPR-Cas9 treatment can be applied intravenously to treat a liver disease.
• The dream is to do an infusion and then monitor the patient for a day or two, as this would be the most efficient and successful way to treat cancer with CRISPR-Cas9.

Published February 14, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Brian Gallagher’s original post Will CRISPR Cure Cancer?

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Contra Kavanagh On Fideism [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By Spencer Chen

In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]

February 14, 2023

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• Chris Kavanagh recently tweeted about Scott Alexander’s article on Ivermectin, criticizing the rationalist community for ignoring conspiracy ecosystems and how they distort things.
• Rachel responded to Chris’ tweet, suggesting that the article may have persuaded some people to get vaccinated instead of taking Ivermectin.
• Chris responded to Rachel, saying that his critique was orientated towards the rationalist community and what it says it does vs. what he sees.
• The author shares a personal story of how he was once a believer in a conspiracy theory, and how anti-conspiracy bloggers and podcasters could have saved him from a five year wild-goose-chase, but chose not to.
• Kavanagh’s criticism of the author’s 25,000 word essay on ivermectin is accepted, but not from him, as he has devoted his career to the subject.
• The author interprets Kavanagh’s comment as suggesting that it is a mistake to even try to evaluate the evidence, as it suggests there might be evidence on both sides.
• The author points out that there were actually thirty different studies that supported ivermectin, and it was adopted in several countries.
• The author compares Kavanagh’s comment to fideism, the belief that someone who reasons their way to belief in God is a sinner.
• The author argues that the PR argument of Kavanagh’s comment looks bad, as it suggests that doing good science is a near occasion of sin for doing bad science.
• The author argues that conspiracy theorists have the same biases as everyone else, but are slightly worse at applying CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
• The author uses the example of premenstrual dysphoric disorder to illustrate how it is not obvious how to apply the heuristic “trust experts”, and how both sides were trying to make the reader short-circuit their thought process.
• The author argues that it is important to have tolerance for others forming their own opinions, and for science communicators to help guide people through this process.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post Contra Kavanagh On Fideism

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If Technology Only Had a Heart [Sian E. Harding, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen

In [Nautilus]

February 14, 2023

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• The history of the total artificial heart is punctuated with both brilliant innovation and continual clinical failure.
• In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson funded a program to develop the first functional self-contained artificial heart.
• The first total artificial heart was implanted in 1969, but a reliable off-the-shelf version is still out of reach.
• The original goal was to replace the failing heart completely, but the goal changed to keeping the patient alive until a transplant donor could be found.
• The development of ciclosporin in the early 1980s dramatically improved the success of heart transplantation.
• Ventricular assist devices (VADs) take blood out of the ventricle of the heart and push it into the aorta at high pressure.
• Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become a therapy in themselves, with survival rates of over 50 percent seen at seven years.
• Solutions for a completely implantable total artificial heart seem tantalizingly close, but no one is anticipating an easy ride.

Published February 14, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Sian E. Harding’s original post If Technology Only Had a Heart

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The Reason There’s Been No Cure for Alzheimer’s [Joanne Silberner, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen

In [The Free Press]

January 4, 2023

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• In the mid-1990s, Alzheimer’s disease began eroding my father’s brain, and medicine had nothing to offer him or millions of other Americans.
• Recently, a drug called lecanemab has been heralded as a breakthrough, but it only slightly slows a patient’s inevitable decline for a few months.
• The amyloid hypothesis has held a vise-like grip on Alzheimer’s research for decades, despite the fact that drugs designed to address amyloid have shown virtually no beneficial effects on patients.
• The incentives of big academic medicine, big governmental medicine, and big pharma have contributed to the persistence of the amyloid theory, despite the lack of evidence.
• Scientists whose ideas fell outside the dogma have recounted how, for decades, believers in the dominant hypothesis suppressed research on alternative ideas.
• Journals have turned down research papers and grants have been rejected, leading some talented researchers to other fields.
• The FDA recently approved the drug aducanumab, which has been met with criticism due to its ineffectiveness and high cost.
• Biogen and Eisai are now pushing for the approval of lecanemab, which has been touted as a “gamechanger” for Alzheimer’s treatment.
• Clinical trials of lecanemab showed a 0.45 point improvement on an 18-point scale, and three patients died from brain swelling and bleeding as a result of the treatment.
• There is concern that the focus on amyloid-targeting drugs will divert resources away from other possible treatments, such as anti-herpes drugs, antibacterials, and “cocktails” of drugs.

Published January 4, 2023. Visit The Free Press to read the original post.

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TagMedicine

What Not to Ask Me About My Long COVID [Jennifer Senior, The Atlantic]

Will CRISPR Cure Cancer? [Brian Gallagher, Nautilus]

Contra Kavanagh On Fideism [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

If Technology Only Had a Heart [Sian E. Harding, Nautilus]

The Reason There’s Been No Cure for Alzheimer’s [Joanne Silberner, The Free Press]

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