Can organs be built in a lab? This research isn’t something that might happen in the distant future. It’s being used today to grow human organs, open up new ways to study disease and the immune system, and reduce the need for organ transplants. Organ farming laboratories are popping up across the planet, and showing impressive results. Here we look at the state of the union of a rapidly advancing field called tissue engineering and what’s been accomplished so far, and what is right around the corner.
Does the 95-year-old woman who smokes two packets of cigarettes a day hold the clue? Do blueberries really delay signs of ageing or is it more a question of attitude? Does the real key to controlling how we age lie with a five-year-old boy with an extraordinary ageing disease or with a self-experimenting Harvard professor? For centuries scientists have been attempting to come up with an elixir of youth. Now remarkable discoveries are suggesting that ageing is something flexible that can ultimately be manipulated.
To their friends and family, they are distinct people with very different personalities, needs, tastes and desires. But to the outside world they are a medical mystery – particularly given the fact that they can do virtually all the same things as their friends, including playing the piano, riding a bike, swimming and playing softball. “Their personalities make them inspirational,” says their mother Patty.
The odyssey of traditional Tibetan medicine from it's roots in ancient Tibet, to a worldwide interest in it's traditional medical wisdom. We meet several leading physicians in India, as the program introduces us to the basic concepts of this ancient system of healing. We also trace the fate of the 77 thangkas that comprise the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine, the great mnemonic device that encodes the entire system of healing. From the snows of Siberia and the Himalayas to the vital culture of Tibet in exile, in Dharamsala, India, this is a stunning look at where Tibetan medicine has come from.
Over the better part of this century, athletes have sought to increase the natural performance of their bodies by using various means. And while most opted for the development of their muscle mass by using standard techniques, such as lifting weights, running, or other methods, some started taking to artificial substances. These substances, anabolic-androgenic steroids, most commonly known just as steroids, are actually a derivate of the testosterone male hormone. There can be severe side effects, including elevated blood pressure, changes in cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular disease, as well as coronary artery disease.
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