Doing drugs on a daily basis.

Hypertension sucks.

Diabetes really sucks!

Medical technology R&D

New material could offer hope to those with no voice

The team led by Langer and Zeitels has now developed a polymer gel that they hope to start testing in a small clinical trial next year. The gel, which mimics key traits of human vocal cords, could help millions of people with voice disorders—not just singers such as Andrews and Steven Tyler, another patient of Zeitels'.

About 6% of the U.S. population has some kind of voice disorder, and the majority of those cases involve scarring of the vocal cords, says Sandeep Karajanagi, a former MIT researcher who developed the gel while working as a postdoc in the Langer lab. Many of those are children whose cords are scarred from intubation during surgery, while others are victims of laryngeal cancer.

Other people who could benefit are those with voices strained from overuse, such as teachers. “This would be so valuable to society, because every time a person loses their voice, say, a teacher or a politician, all of their contributions get lost to society, because they can’t communicate their ideas,” Zeitels says.

Don't give up hope. Medical technology has come a long way and the best is yet to come. I've moved on from developing cardiac devices and am now on the forefront of implantables and devices for microsurgery and implantable biologics.

OMFG!!!

It is my birthday today.

The bad news is I really think I passed a &%#&@! kidney stone this morning. For a while there I didn't know if I could make it... pain enough to make ya sweat but not quite enough to make ya puke... though the thought did cross my mind... it started on the way to work and then subsided after I made the decision to leave work and try to make it home... so I went back to work.

Clinton, our 42nd President, hospitalized today.

Bill Clinton Treated For Blocked Artery

Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized Thursday after suffering chest discomfort. Doctors placed two stents in one of his coronary arteries.

Clinton, 63, was in "good spirits" after undergoing the procedure at New York Presbyterian Hospital, adviser Douglas Band said.

Here's good luck to Clinton, we all hope and pray for his health.

Pithy

Thank you, Jerry Holbert.

Be a Man!

Once you reach a certain age all guys should suck up their manly pride and get a prostate exam.  Even more fun, once you hit 50 you need a periodic colonoscopy.  I'm off to do that today, but I'll spare you the colorful details.  Do it for your heath and for your family. 

Besides, if Obamacare passes, you may never have the opportunity.