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Can  3-D  printing  technology  be  used  to  help  in  medicine?

Medical Applications of 3D Printing

3 D involves taking a digital blueprint or model of a subject that is printed in layers of appropriate material for creating another version of the subject.

It has many functions, and the medical field has become one of the main applications. It is essential in helping to speed up surgical procedures, human organ transplants and producing cheaper versions of vital surgical tools. 3D printing or additive manufacturing started in the 1980s.

This is how 3D printing technology helps in medicine.

1. Bioprinting tissues and organoids

In the medical device field, 3D printing applies in bioprinting. Bioprinters use a computer-guided pipette rather than printing using metal or plastic to layer living cells (bio-ink) atop each other to create an artificial living tissue in a lab. These tissue organoids or constructs are valuable for medical research because they mimic organs miniature scale. Trials are still on-going to use organoids as the cheaper alternatives to the human organ transplants.

Can  the  odors  of  our  bodily  fluids  give  us  clue  about  our  health

Can the odors of our bodily fluids give us clue about our health

Bad breath when waking up, smelly sweat or armpits are something usual that happens to everyone and not a cause of alarm. These odors will clear up after brushing the teeth, bathing and applying deodorant. Everyone knows their body odors and even others can smell if they are too strong. A stronger than usual smell can point out to some infections.

Odors of Body Fluids That Can Give Us a Clue about Our Health

1. Strong sweat odor after stress

All people can become sweaty during stressful moments, but excessive sweating is more common for people with anxiety disorder. Sweating can make a person with anxiety disorder to have a layer of extra pungent sweat. This sweat comes out of different glands from those that emit usual sweat with a stronger odor. Excess smelly sweat after stress should be a reason to visit a therapist for advice on how to calm nerves and manage stress. It is also essential to keep in mind other ways that can make thebody odor to trip this problem.

2. Bad breath after brushing the teeth

Oral hygiene should clear bad breath. A stench that lingers after brushing could be coming from the gut. The most likely cause could be hypochlorhydria or a lack of stomach acid that hinders proper digestion of food till it affects gut health.

Does  earwax  contain  clues  to  our  environment?

Does-Earwax-Contain-Clues-to-Our-Environment

Earwax also cerumenforms in the ears to lubricate and protect the ears from infection with its antibacterial properties. Earwax provides some clues to a person's environment, and these clues will help doctors to make a particular diagnosis especially for ear infections. Environmental and diagnosis clues found in the wax

1. Presence of toxins

Earwax is like other body secretions can show traces of some non-biodegradable toxins in the body like heavy metals. However, doctors find it an odd place to search for diagnostic clues because the reliability is the same as a blood test. A few rare metabolic disorders are affecting the earwax. Alkaptonuria is one of an example of the rare, and it causes homogentisic acid to build up and turn the earwax to black color. It also makes the urine to turn dark brown and it is usually the first sign before noticing that there is something wrong with ear wax.

Have  antibacterial  lotions,  soaps  and  cleaning  products  created  a  “superbug?”

antibacterial soap and antibiotic resistance

Superbug is a term that describes the strains bacteria that resist the majority of antibiotics in extensive use. Resistant bacteria can cause pneumonia, skin infections and tract infections are just some of the dangers that superbugs cause.

Antibiotic resistance is a phenomenon that occurs naturally that you slow but not stop. Bacteria over time adapt to drugs that should kill them and change to guarantee their survival. It makes the previous standard treatment for a bacterial infection to be less ineffective or useless. Specific actions might accelerate an emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as:

  • Poor prevention of infection and control practices
  • Use or misuse of antibiotics
  • Mishandling food
  • Living or working in unsanitary conditions
What  alternatives  to  antibiotics  are  being  developed?

What alternatives to antibiotics are being developed?

Antibiotics have for over 70 years been an efficient way to treat bacterial contamination, but it is unfortunate that extensive use of antibiotic substances for medication and agriculture has caused antibiotic resistance. World Health Organization has even warned that humanity is almost in the post-antibiotic era when antibiotics will not have an effect and even minute illnesses will be life-threatening.

The resistant microbes are usually called superbugs.

Antimicrobial resistance develops naturally over as micro-organisms gradually adapt and reproduce. Overuse or misuses of antibiotics vastly accelerate antibiotic resistance for instance when someone takes them frequently to treat a cold or promote growth in animals reared for food.

Antibiotic resistance problem occurs after evolution and transfer of the genes that grant resistance to antibiotics into human pathogens. It complicates disease treatment, healthcare costs, morbidity and mortality when pathogen acquires such resistant genes. It becomes more precious to administer the so called antibiotic of last resort as antibiotic resistance persists. Internationally, reducing or preventing dissemination of the antibiotic resistance genes to human pathogens is highly essential. The solution lies in finding alternatives to antibiotics to reduce overuse and another way of vaccination, treatment as well as supporting the growth of animals.

Alternatives To Antibiotics In Development

Bacteriophage therapy

Bacteriophage (phage) therapy is one of the antibiotic choices undergoing extensive research for disease treatment. Phage viruses infect bacteria and use of phages as a treatment for bacterial diseases has been under investigation for a long time and continued. Several phages but variable efficacy has been the reason for these therapeutic products not to penetrate other markets.

Advantages of phage therapy include efficacy on mucosal or topical infections and specificity for a target bacterial population. The disadvantages of bacteriophage therapy are that will just work when there is knowledge of target bacterium, its sufficiently high populations and the range of resistance. Therapeutic phage must be up-to-date for it to function.