Story by Asim Waqar

I am extremely fortunate. I have never had a cavity found in or on my teeth. This may or may not be related to the fact that I have only been to the dentist once in my life (and I ain’t ever going back!).

If I did go to the dentist, and I had a cavity that could not be normally seen (subsurface or just beginning) and the dentist had KaVo corporation’s new Diagnodent, well he’d be able to detect it and treat it anyway by measuring the laser fluroescence within the tooth structure, as opposed to just telling me that I have wonderful teeth and sending me on my merry way. In other words, the machine uses a laser to scan the surface of your tooth and find little, hard to reach cavities.

If you ask me, some things are better left unknown (just in my case – for everyone else I think this is a great idea!).

Visit the Diagnogent product page here. Story VIA ABC19 news.

By Asim Waqar

Much like military ‘dog tags’, the basic principle of a medical bracelet is identification. Claire Dunne, who hails from London, England has found a way to make that identification tool even more useful: it will help save lives (and malpractice lawsuits) by preventing medication errors.

The idea is simple yet, brilliant! The bracelet knows what you should be taking and when, and will only unlock your special pill bottles when it’s time. Other than not allowing the meds to be administered, it is unclear what else the device does- maybe it also electro-shocks the misbehaving patients…

Claire’s university project turned into a medical innovation and won her a prize in the Reliance Awards for Innovation and Enterprise when presented at the Brunel Design Show in 2005. A prototype has been tested successfully, and I am sure this is one innovation that will eventually make it to market.

No idea what the cost would be, but it would definitely be more than what it would cost not to make!

Story via The Telegraph.

By Asim Waqar

So, in man’s never ending quest for finding the perfect smoking cessation aide, a Swiss website ( www.nicstic.com ) has gone one step further: a cigarette that is itself a quit smoking tool.

As a smoker (who still tries to hide it from his parents) I find the idea brilliant: the Swiss creators of the NicStic claim they have invented a smokeless cigarette which does not create the toxic substances associated with smoking (tar, carcinogenic compounds such as hydrazine, chrysene, arsenic, cadmium, benzapyrene, formaldehyde, nitrosamines, etc.) all the while maintaining the nicotine levels (and flavours!) without which many smokers exhibit the symptoms of bi-polar disorder.

Other unobvious personal uses I have for this product:

1. My parents will not smell the smoke on me, so I can continue to live the life lie
2. My wife will stop bugging me about the effects of second hand smoke
3. If its all cracked out to be, I can smoke in my office

The above steps are a means to an ends. I have every intention of quitting. It is really not easy.

NicStic is in the test phase, with retail availability scheduled for this year!
So go read up to your healths’ content – www.nicstic.com

I am going outside – and downwind – for a smoke.

Story By Asim Waqar

What do you get when you give a team of mad scientists from Stanford University in California a laser, some vitamins and pimp out their laboratory so much so that they can manipulate matter at the molecular level? A possible solution for cancer which has no side effects!

The process involves physically inserting a nanotube (10,000 times thinner than a human hair) into a cancerous cell, and then shining a laser onto the nanotube, heating it up and destroying the cell. The resulting death of the cancer cell does not take with it any adjacent healthy cells (side effects of chemotherapy are a result of this ‘collateral damge’).

Personally I think these guys are paid to reverse the negative stereotype accompanying doctors who probe orifices with tubes. All jokes aside, this looks promising!

Story Via The Daily Mail

By – Chapman

In case digital scales are too accurate for you, the good folks at Gadget Universe are offering up this Nostalgia Scale.

“Hearken back to the days of yesteryear with an old-fashioned doctor’s scale.”

The Nostalgia Scale doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles but it gets the job done with style. It has a heavy steel base and includes a silver measuring rod. If dieting and pretending it is the 50′s is your thing then the Nostalgia Scale is for you. So now when you go to weigh yourself you can hearken back to the days before you developed your donut habit and didn’t need a scale.

The Nostalgia Scale is listed as coming soon for $99.95 at Gadget Universe.

Let me start by saying I hate all alphabet soup product names. That, however, is not the point.

This is a wonderful scale from Japanese company Omron Healthcare that, aside from telling you how fat you are, also tells you how much of that is skeletal muscle, body fat and visceral fat. On top of that, you get info about basal metabolism, BMI (body mass index), visceral fat rate, and body age.

That’s a whole lot of information gathered through the soles of your feet and I’m sure the science behind it is fascinating. It’ll be even more fascinating for someone that cares a little more than me. What matters, to little ignoramus me, is that it’s actually affordable, at about $90 if you don’t count the ticket to Japan and it comes out three days ago, on July 5th.

Check out the website here. Story VIA Medgadget.

Ok, so, yeah, some people really have their panties all up in a bunch about this medicinal marijuana stuff. Up here in Canada, it’s all peaches and cream, but it seems some of our southern neighbours are less than pleased with out European progressive ways. Oh well, I say. Nevertheless, Danish company Storz & Bickel is doing a good job of adding an iota of legitimacy to the whole business.

By heating cannabis to a point where vapors are formed but before the herb combusts, a vaporizer creates a clear substance that, advocates say, is practically free of many of the toxins found in marijuana smoke.

Becoming smoke-free, they hope, will make marijuana more palatable as a medicine to federal officials, scientists and regulators who are dubious about the health value of a smoked drug.

The way the device works is really neat. You fill the cone thing up with, uh, herbs. You then place this two foot long bag on top. It fills up with flavoring and active ingredients. You then place the bag on your lips, and have a nice and fuzzy chat with Jeevus.

It’s about 600$, and you can get it here. Check out the website again. Story VIA Medgadget.

Got them little skin ripples, eh? Wanna have silky smooth instead, huh? That’s fine then. Forego foolish exercise and pesky dieting altogether, and just start looking for places that will treat you with the new FDA approved VelaSmooth, from company Syneron.

Zap/melt away the fat, or as the website says, “re-contour” your thighs. Here’s how it works.

What makes the VelaSmooth so different from other devices on the market is the combination of IR and RF with mechanical manipulation – the combined heat energy that is delivered to the skin goes that much deeper so fat is mobilized and allows for deposition of new collagen, and therefore, a smoother skin surface is affected. The VelaSmooth, in addition to reducing thigh circumference and improving the skin surface irregularities, actually helps to re-contour the areas and gives an improved appearance to the cellulite in general. Patients don’t lose weight – but look like they have lost weight because the whole area has been re-contoured.

Hmm… Sounds exciting. The press release is here The story VIA Medgadget.

It used to be that being Diabetic was synonymous with pricking your finger for blood on a regular basis. Not being Diabetic myself, I can totally understand the relief and glee that a device such as the Glucoband from company Calisto Medical may generate in hordes of sufferers.

It’s a simple multi-purpose watchlike device that happens to be able to determine your blood-sugar level without drawing any blood, using a bio-electromagnetic resonance phenomenon.

It is, incidentally, also an actual watch. Price is nowhere to be seen on the website. Story VIA Medgadget.