Breakthroughs Today

There's a "balloon" in us that may exist without us knowing it does. And the outcome can be deadly. ACTRESS Kim Chiu’s mother was laid to rest on June 29 at age 50. Her death though brought to the public’s attention the deadly handiwork of aneurysm.  Aneurism is a localized, blood-filled bulge (balloon-like) in the wall of a blood vessel that usually carries oxygenated blood, called an artery.  What makes it deadly is its location. It commonly occurs in arteries at... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 10 July 2013.

SOMETIMES I cannot believe what medical science and technology have reached today. But surprises are many, perhaps too many to count, or to seek in order to appreciate the exact number. One of these medical surprises is aspirin. Yes, aspirin, or what we know chemically as acetylsalicylic acid. It is originally used as a pain-reliever, a fever-reducer, and an anti-inflammatory. But many decades ago, it came to be used in certain cardiovascular conditions, such as heart attacks, strokes, and blood clotting disorders, because of its anti-platelet effect. It produces a substance called thromboxane, which under normal conditions binds platelet molecules together, making it unavailable to create blood clots that can cause recurrence of heart attack, for instance. Just recently, in its July 23 issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), published a study involving three researchers—Andrew Chan, Shuji Ogino, and Charles Fuchs. Chan is a gastroenterologist at the Massachuse