This story is so wonderful! Imagine:

A blind woman fitted with a “bionic eye” has spoken of her joy after she was able to tell the time for the first time in more than six years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital. Surgeons at the Oxford Eye hospital implanted a tiny electronic chip at the back of her right eye’s retina in an attempt to help her see.

The mother of two, from Cardiff, has suffered from retinitis pigmentosa – an inherited disorder – since she was five. The condition causes gradual deterioration of photoreceptors, the light-detecting cells in the retina, which can lead to blindness. One in 3-4,000 people in the UK have the disease, for which there is currently no cure.

Lewis is completely blind in her right eye and has virtually no vision in her left eye. The implant, made by a German firm, Retina Implant AG, was placed in Lewis’s eye in June in an operation that can last six to eight hours.

During follow-up tests, Lewis was asked to look at a large cardboard clock to see whether she could tell the time. She had not been able to tell the time with her right eye in 16 years or with her left eye for about six years.

She said “Oh my god” when she realised she had managed to recognise it was three o’clock. She added: “Honest to god, that felt like Christmas Day.”

It’s already been several years since coconut oil made the list for trendy new superfoods, joining forces with the likes of kale, quinoa, and avocado. Though coconut oil is high in fat, research has shown that it’s chock-full of health benefits, including lowered hypertension and cholesterol, as well as protection against Alzheimer’s and other forms of… Continue reading “Can coconut oil combat infection?” →

I am the poster child for this:

People think I’m kidding when I say that blogging kills people. I’m not.

We all know by now that a sedentary lifestyle — characterized by slouching at a desk or lying in front of your TV — can negatively impact both your mental and physical health. Some researchers have even gone so far to say that sitting can kill you. Now, new research adds to the evidence that sitting… Continue reading “Our jobs are killing us” →

New research on the use of psychedelic drugs as treatment for a range of mental disorders appears to be throwing open doors of perception long closed within the medical community, says a new analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. For several decades, the North American medical establishment has classified psychedelic drugs—including lysergic acid diethylamide, or… Continue reading “Psychedelic drugs may be ready for a medical comeback” →

But it doesn’t sound good:

(NEWSER) – For nearly his entire life, a 29-year-old man living in the United Kingdom has had the polio virus living in his gut—where the strain has mutated from the weakened form he received in a vaccine as an infant to a much more virulent strain, according to a study published in PLOS Pathogens. It’s a case that NPR sees as “a worrisome new development in the polio end-game.” Live Science and the Guardian report the man was given an oral form of the polio vaccine at 5, 7, and 12 months. Unlike the injectable version, the oral vaccine uses a live virus that’s typically excised from the child’s gut within two months. But the man had an immune disorder that killed his gut’s ability to kill the virus. And so it has lingered there, and in his stool: More than 100 samples taken over the past 20 years have returned significant levels of what had become a mutated virus.