A new system for isolating rare circulating tumor cells - living solid tumor cells found at low levels in the bloodstream - shows significant improvement over previously developed devices and does not require prior identification of tumor-specific target molecules.

Developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine and the Mass General Cancer Center, the device rapidly delivers a population of unlabeled tumor cells that can be analyzed with both standard clinical diagnostic cytopathology and advanced genetic and molecular technology. The Mass General team's report appears in Science Translational Medicine.

"This new technology allows us to follow how cancer cells change through the process of metastasis," said Mehmet Toner, Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, director of the BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Resource Center in the Mass General Center for Engineering in Medicine, and the paper's senior author. "Cancer loses many of its tissue characteristics during metastasis, a process we have not understood well. Now, for the first time, we have the ability to discover how cancer evolves through analysis of single metastatic cells, which is a big step in the war against cancer."

The Portland Water Bureau issued a city-wide boil notice on Friday morning after water staffers detected E. coli in three separate tests during the past three days.

The Oregon Health Authority required the city-wide notice, which also applies to Portland's whole-sale customers that also receive water from the Bull Run Watershed.

Routine inspections at two of the city's Mt. Tabor reservoirs produced the three positive E. coli tests. City employees performed the tests, according to Jaymee Cuti, bureau spokesperson.

State officials said the tests showed signs of fecal matter.

The boil notice applies to 670,000 customers, according to Cuti. Portland supplies drinking water to 935,000 customers in the metro region.

City officials hosted an emergency press conference at noon.

"While we believe at this time that the potential health risk is relatively small, we take any contamination seriously and are taking every precaution to protect public health," said Portland Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff in the release.

Still think of TB, typhoid and gonorrhoea as infections from the past? WHO's terrifying report will make you think again!

Diseases we thought were long gone, nothing to worry about, or easy to treat could come back with a vengeance, according to the recent World Health Organisation report on global antibiotic resistance. Concern at this serious threat to public health has been growing; complacency could result in a crisis with the potential to affect everyone, not just those in poor countries or without access to advanced healthcare. Already diseases that were treatable in the past, such as tuberculosis, are often fatal now, and others are moving in the same direction. And the really terrifying thing is that the problem is already with us: this is not science fiction, but contemporary reality. So what are some of the infections that could come back to haunt us?

Fluoride is found everywhere today, from antibiotics to drinking water, no stick pans to toothpaste, making exposure inevitable. All the more reason why new research proving this common spice can prevent fluoride damage is so promising!

Fluoride's neurotoxicity has been the subject of academic debate for decades, and now a matter of increasingly impassioned controversy among the general public, as well. From 'conspiracy theories' about it being first used in drinking water in Russian and Nazi concentration camps to chemically lobotomize captives, to its now well-known IQ lowering properties, to its ability to enhance the calcification of the pineal gland - the traditional 'seat of the soul' - many around the world, and increasingly in the heavily fluoridated regions of the United States, are starting to organize at the local and statewide level to oust this ubiquitous toxicant from municipal drinking water.

The cause of autism is still unknown, but we are definitely closer to figuring it out. A new study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, from researchers at the University of Chicago revealed that autism and intellectual disability (ID) rates are linked with exposure to harmful environmental factors during congenital development.

"Essentially what happens is during pregnancy... there are certain sensitive periods where the fetus is very vulnerable to a range of small molecules - from things like plasticisers, prescription drugs, environmental pesticides and other things. Some of these small molecules essentially alter normal development. Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital malformations of the genitals in males across the country, this gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong. The strongest predictors for autism were associated with the environment; congenital malformations on the reproductive system in males." (1) - Andrey Rzhetsky, professor of genetic medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago

The team analyzed data that covered more than one third of the U.S. population. Data from individual states and more than 2,100 counties were used. Fetuses, particularly males, are sensitive to multiple toxins such as environmental lead, medications and a wide variety of other synthetic molecules, like pesticides, mercury and more. Exposure to these toxins during critical stages of development is thought to explain a large portion of congenital reproductive malformations.

A teaching union in Northern Ireland is calling for urgent action over the impact of modern technology on children's ability to learn at school.

The Association of Teacher and Lecturers (ATL) is concerned at how long children spend on computers and digital gadgets outside school.

It said some pupils were unable to concentrate or socialise properly.

The impact of digital technology is the focus of the union's annual regional conference in Belfast on Thursday.

Mark Langhammer of the ATL said: "We're hearing reports of very young children who are arriving into school quite unable to concentrate or to socialise properly because they're spending so much time on digital games or social media.

"We'd like the Department of Education to issue guidance to all parents on the maximum amount of time which young children should spend on these devices, and on how kids can use digital technology safely and sensibly."

Blurred vision contributes to the risk of falling in older adults -- but getting new glasses with a big change in vision prescription may increase the risk rather than decreasing it, according to a special article, '2013 Fry Lecture: Blurred Vision, Spectacle Corr & Falls in Older Adults' in the June issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Optometrists can help to prevent falls by avoiding over-aggressive vision correction in older patients at risk, according to the review by David B. Elliott, PhD, 2013 recipient of the prestigious Glenn A. Fry Lecture Award. "Our 2013 Glenn A. Fry Award winner has been studying the effects of blurred vision and vision correction on falls among the elderly," comments Anthony Adams, OD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Optometry and Vision Science.

"In his Award-winning lecture, he provides some very special insights into how this may happen and how we as a profession may help to minimize falls related to vision loss."

Vision correction may actually increase risk of falling

Falls are the major cause of accidental death and nonfatal injuries in elderly US adults. At least one-third of healthy adults aged 65 or older fall at least once a year. For those aged 90 or older, the risk increases to about 60 percent.

But falls in older adults aren't accidents, according to Dr. Elliott. Most of the time, they're related to a wide range of risk factors including older age, disabilities, muscle weakness, and many different medical conditions. "The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to fall," Dr. Elliott writes.

Reduced vision is one important risk factor, suggesting that interventions to correct vision -- particularly glasses and cataract surgery -- would reduce the risk of falling. Surprisingly, however, most studies have shown little or no reduction in falls among older adults receiving a new vision correction.

Magnification from some new glasses provided in one study may contribute to the increase in risk, Dr. Elliott suggests. "Some of the subjects received large changes in spectacle prescription. Older frail people may have greater difficulty adapting to such changes and be at increased risk of falling during this adaptation period."

What's REALLY In A McDonald's Hamburger Have you ever wondered what you are really eating when you sit down to a McDonald's hamburger?

The following video illustrates that you are getting more than what McDonald's advertises when you eat one of their hamburgers.

Aside from the enormous amounts of grease contained in a McDonald's hamburger, the advertised ingredients are no better for you.


According to McDonald's own website, this is the list of ingredients for their popular McDouble, the sandwich that you see in the above video.

Science shows the low-fat diet to be BS, and yet the American Heart Association keeps touting it as the 'heart healthy' choice. Why? The quick answer: money, honey.

The dogma that saturated fat causes heart disease is crumbling.

A recent Cambridge University analysis of 76 studies involving more than 650,000 people concluded, "The current evidence does not clearly support guidelines that [recommend]... low consumption of total saturated fats."

Yet the American Heart Association (AHA), in its most recent dietary guidelines, held fast to the idea that we must all eat low-fat diets for optimal heart health. It's a stance that - at the very best - is controversial, and at worst is dead wrong. As a practicing cardiologist for more than three decades, I agree with the latter - it's dead wrong.

Most headaches in pregnancy and the postnatal period are benign, but healthcare professionals must be alert to the rarer and more severe causes of headaches, suggests a new review published today (23 May) in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG).

The review looks at common causes for headaches during pregnancy and the postnatal period, possible conditions that may be associated with headaches and how healthcare professionals should manage the care of the woman appropriately.

There are 85 different types of headache. Approximately 90% of headaches in pregnancy are migraine or tension-type headaches. However, pregnancy can lead to an increased risk of certain secondary headaches, a headache caused by an underlying health condition, states the review.

The review states that most headaches in pregnancy are benign but in some cases can be more serious. According to the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom 2006 -- 2008 report[i], neurological conditions were the third most common cause of death, considering both direct and indirect causes. The authors of the review therefore emphasize the need for all medical staff to be well trained to take a full history and examination, make a provisional differential diagnosis and know when to seek neurological expertise.

Migraine is a common form of headache; the condition is more common in women, with the highest prevalence rates during the childbearing years. The review states that pregnancy leads to a reduction in the frequency and severity of attacks of migraines without aura, also known as a common migraine. However, women who do experience migraines have a more than two-fold increased risk of pre-eclampsia than those who do not. Women therefore need to be aware to consult a healthcare professional if their headache is different from their usual migraine, highlights the review.