Scientific innovations harness noise and acoustics for healing

From the original stethoscope, invented more than 200 years ago, to the fleeting chirp of gravitational waves, sound has reverberated throughout the history of technological and scientific advances.

Today, the role of sound in science extends beyond the range of audible frequencies: Ultrasonic and other silent acoustic waves have made their way into researchers’ repertoire, helping them push the boundaries of conventional medicine and research. 

In examples from four Stanford labs, scientists are investigating the full spectrum, harnessing the nuances of noise and the power of acoustics to generate inventive, if not unexpected, technologies that show just how potent the combination of sound and science can be.

Read more at Standford Medicine

24 inspiring women (you might not know of) who are changing the world

Image by Jeyaratnam Caniceus from Pixabay

To mark International Women’s Day, we’re shining a light on 24 inspiring women who may have escaped your radar. From food to foreign policy, and from electronics to economics, they’re all changing the world by working on solutions

1. Clare Courtney and Karolina Koścień of Heart & Parcel

Manchester-based Heart & Parcel brings women together to cook and pick up English language skills in the process. With the support of more than 70 volunteers, the women prepare dishes that are then sold (in non-Covid times) at markets and supper clubs. Heart & Parcel was founded by Clare Courtney and Karolina Koścień: friends with a love of food and the connections and relationships that surround it. 

The team has adapted during lockdown, including to set up a YouTube channel full of English language resources and recipe videos from its recently published cookbook. It is also holding an online festival to mark International Women’s Day.

Read more at Positive.News

Immunity from Covid-19 lasts up to six months after infection – Hiqa

Immunity after Covid-19 infection can last up to six months, the State’s health watchdog has advised.

This is twice the 12-week period that currently applies as guidance in Ireland.

Post-infection guidance for close contacts should be extended to six months in line with the new evidence, according to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).

Hiqa’s recommendation will be considered by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), which had asked it to review the international evidence and expert opinion on the issue.

The studies Hiqa examined were conducted prior to last December. Since then, new variants of Sars-CoV-2 have been found and the vaccine rollout has begun.

Read More on the Irish Times Website

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland: COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Information and Guidance

We are currently balancing the needs of the emergency with our ongoing need to protect the public by upholding nursing and midwifery standards in Ireland. We have created this section to provide information on common questions that have been put to us as the regulator of nurses and midwives in the context of COVID-19.

See Guidance from NMBI 

Vitamin D: Can the sunshine vitamin help to put Covid in the shade?

 

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 

What would you do if you realised there was a cheap and widely available vitamin that might have the potential to protect us against becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 and help us to fight the virus?

This is a question that Dr Daniel McCartney, a lecturer in human nutrition and dietetics at the Technological University of Dublin, asked himself last year. His answer was to form the Covit-D Consortium with eight fellow medical professionals and academics from different specialist disciplines including respiratory medicine, immunology, geriatric medicine, endocrinology, biochemistry, molecular medicine, public health and nutrition and dietetics.

This group is now calling on the government to recommend a daily dose of 20 to 25 micrograms (mgs) of vitamin D for every Irish adult as a preventative treatment for Covid-19. They also want the government to provide vitamin D supplementation to vulnerable groups such as frontline healthcare workers, those with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure and older adults, especially those living in nursing homes.

Read more at the Irish Examiner

2 new electronic books now available through AIT library to support the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-5

 

Dear all

Please find below details and links (using your AIT single sign on credentials) for two new electronic books now available through AIT library to support the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-5. These books are also available through a catalogue search

 

 

DSM-5® Guidebook : The Essential Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
The Mental Health Diagnostic Desk Reference: Visual Guides and More for Learning to Use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR),

 

 

 

Please note: we have also acquired a second (short loan) print copy of Diagnosticand statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-5.

The effect of a loving-kindness and compassion meditation program on the empathy, emotion, and stress of nursing college students*

 

Conclusion

The results indicate that the loving-kindness and compassion meditation program was effective for empathy improvement and stress management of nursing college students.

Read full article 

NCCIH Mind and Body Approaches for Stress and Anxiety

Several mind and body approaches, including relaxation techniques, yoga, tai chi, and meditation may be useful for managing symptoms of stress in your patients. For some stress-related conditions, mind and body approaches are used as an adjunct to other forms of treatment. This issue of the digest provides a summary of current research on some of these approaches for stress and stress-related conditions.

Read more at National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health

10 ideas for a self-care day at home

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

The benefits of taking time to look after yourself have long been studied; researchers say that investing in self-care can help us to reduce stress, improve our emotional health and have an overall better quality of life.

Self-care is essentially any activity that we do purposefully in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health – it could range from something small, like catching up on missed sleep with a lie-in, to a larger activity, like going for an invigorating swim in the ocean.

With many of us taking ‘lockdown leave’ during the current pandemic, there’s never been a better time to nourish your mind and body, by booking in a self-care day.

Instead of telling yourself that you have to make a dent in writing your novel, run a half marathon or record a podcast episode, spend your next free day indulging in one or many of these self-soothing ideas.

Read more at RTE

WHO hails 'great news' from Covid-19 steroid treatment

The World Health Organization (WHO) hailed as "great news" initial clinical trial results that showed a cheap and widely used steroid called dexamethasone can help save the lives of critically ill Covid-19 patients. Researchers in Britain said Tuesday that dexamethasone, used to fight inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates of the most severely ill Covid-19 patients by around a third. 

"This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with Covid-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"This is great news and I congratulate the government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough.

Read More at France 24

Coronavirus: Adults should take vitamin D, researchers say

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 

The Government should immediately change recommendations for vitamin D supplements as a matter of urgency by urging all adults to take them during the coronavirus pandemic, according to scientists at Trinity College Dublin.

This follows evidence highlighting the association between vitamin D levels and mortality from Covid-19 produced by Dr Eamon Laird and Prof Rose Anne Kenny, who lead the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

They analysed European adult population studies completed since 1999 which measured vitamin D, and compared vitamin D and death rates from Covid-19.

Read more at the Irish Times

How Meditation Changes the Brain

We’ve all heard that meditation leads to greater mental clarity, lower levels of stress and reduced anxiety. But how does meditation benefit the brain? Studies have shown that mindfulness practice brings about positive physiological changes that make the connection between meditation and the brain even more profound.

In recent decades, meditation has become more conventional. People are spending time working with their minds, following their breath and learning to appreciate the power of the present moment. Meditation groups are popping up everywhere – in schools, communities, senior centers and beyond. It’s become so mainstream that even the business community has joined the movement – as described in a recent article from Business Insider entitled “Silicon Valley is obsessed with meditation, and there’s new evidence it changes the brain for the better.”

Read more at Mindworks