Scientists have discovered a naturally occuring brain hormone called orexin, which when administered nasally, has reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well rested monkeys in cognitive tests. The drug’s first application may be for the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy, but the drug performs the job of increasing alertness, […]

Ordinarily, knee cartilage can’t regenerate because it has no oxygen supply so damage is permanent. Now, scientists at The University of Colorado have developed a gel which enables cartilage to restore itself and may obviate the need for knee replacements. The hydrogel has been successfully tested in goats and clinical studies are under way. The […]

Sanjay Gupta M.D., the super nueorsurgeon and CNN correspondent has penned an interesting book which talks about the line between life and death and how new medical techniques are retrieving those who have died and brought them to life again. New medical advances pose an interesting future in this controversial area. Cold is now used […]

There are some things about animals we just don’t understand yet. Take Oscar, a prescient four year old cat living in a Providence Rhode Island nursing home. Oscar has consistently and reliably been able to sense when residents are approaching their final hours. He curls up next to them and won’t leave until they have […]

The results of a study, presented at the 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine, showed that playing the video game Re-Mission (TM), specifically designed for young adults with chronic illness, has a broad impact on specific brain functions. Several key regions of the brain are activated when patients play the game, including neural structures relating […]

Caffeine in coffee has been reliably proven to enhance alertness and endurance but only when taken in limited amounts, generally thought to be one cup every six hours maximally. One way it works in the brain is this; Adenosine is a relaxant that is required to restore the nervous system from a stress state to […]