Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i National Geographic Magazine - UK

WHENEVER PHOTOGRAPHER Gabriele Galimberti meets people on his travels, he asks the same question: Can I see what’s in your medicine cabinet? Some are shy; others proud to do so. “The medicines reveal who the people are,” says Galimberti. “Their desires, their wants, their diseases. It’s very intimate.” What can our medicines say about us? For one, how affluent we are. Cabinets in developed countries tend to overflow with pharmaceuticals. People in less developed countries collect medications more slowly or not at all. A Haitian woman had not a single pill in the house: “If I get sick, I’ll buy a pill from the street vendor,” she said. The medicine cabinet series, “Home Pharma,” is part of a larger ongoing project, called “Happy Pills,” in which Galimberti and three colleagues…

I WOULD NEVER have met Harriett were it not for our mutual friend, Linda. I’m a physician in Northern California; Harriett’s a communications executive in New York City. Linda co-founded an online personal genomics company, to which Harriett and I each sent our genetic information for analysis. Linda introduced us after she saw that Harriett and I had something in common: a rare type of mitochondrial DNA, which meant we were distantly related. It turns out that we also share that genealogy with a prehistoric celebrity: Ötzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old frozen corpse was discovered in the Alps in 1991. For fun, I even started a Face-book group for people with the same DNA variant as Ötzi and Harriett and me. I tell this story to make a point. Harriett…

In most nations, premature births—at or before 37 weeks—have risen in the past 20 years. Leaving the nourishing confines of the womb too early can result in complications and often leads to a stay in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). At University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, music is folded into the care plan for some preemies. But unlike other NICU music programs, this novel project features three specific songs, which babies listen to through special headphones made for tiny, fragile heads. The songs are part of an ongoing study that aims to understand how music affects a preterm newborn’s brain and how well it can recognize melody, tempo, and pitch—skills likely related to language processing. Developed by neonatologist Petra Huppi, researcher Manuela Filippa, and composer Andreas Vollenweider, the…

On this chip shown actual size, researchers Clive Svendsen and Samuel Sances at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California, micro-engineered spinal cord tissue from a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Motor neurons (white) and a blood vessel (red), derived from the ALS patient’s stem cells, form functioning tissue, as revealed in this enlarged image (background). Using a microscope (above), the scientists can observe neurons firing in real time or take pictures to analyze later. Their aim is to create chips that will be able to predict how different drugs will work for an individual patient.…

Herbal prescriptions, many dating back millennia, are a big part of traditional Chinese medicine. Formulas may consist of a single herb or many and are customized based on a patient’s condition, age, gender, and body type. The recipe for mixing Yinqiao, a 10-herb treatment for the common cold, is shown here. ANCIENT THEORIES One belief is that the body consists of opposite but complementary qualities, or yin and yang, that maintain its healthy balance. Treatments following the four properties and five flavors are thought to promote balance. FOUR PROPERTIES Herbs are labeled hot or cold for their ability to treat ailments considered related to either cold (yin) or heat (yang). FIVE FLAVORS Different flavors are believed to have specific healing properties and the ability to target specific body areas and…

From ancient sites hailed as wonders of the world to scenes of deep space, the 2019 National Geographic Almanac takes readers on a 400-page voyage of discovery. Packed with trivia quizzes, infographics, maps, time lines, and images, it’s available where books are sold and at amazon.co.uk.…

The use of electricity as medicine has come far since the first cardiac pacemaker. Implanted electrodes, visible in this x-ray, deliver electric pulses known as deep brain stimulation (DBS). These “brain pacemakers” have effectively treated conditions including obsessive-compulsive disorder and Parkinson’s disease and are being tested in Alzheimer’s patients to improve focus, memory, and judgment. A Cleveland Clinic study of DBS to spur stroke recovery has shown promising results. A 2015 stroke robbed a patient of function on her left side—but after months of physical and occupational therapy and DBS, she plays catch with her grandkids and even threw the opening pitch at a Cleveland Indians game.…

High-grade prostate cancers can be lethal, low-grade cases may need only monitoring—and both may benefit from recent advances at the Cleveland Clinic. One research team found that patients with a testosterone-based genetic anomaly had different responses to certain drugs, which could open the way to personalized treatments. Other researchers developed a new blood test that predicts prostate cancer risk more accurately than existing tests; it could dramatically reduce the need for biopsies and the treatment of cases unlikely to be lethal.…

TWELVE YEARS AFTER Teresa McKeown beat stage 3 breast cancer with a brutal regimen of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, the disease returned, more aggressively than before. This time chemotherapy failed. Day after day, she sat in a chair in her living room, too sick to move. She kept four journals, one each for her husband and her three grown children, and mustered the strength to write her thoughts about a future she didn’t expect to share. She withered to 98 pounds because tumors in her bowel made it almost impossible to eat. McKeown is not one to rage or panic, but before surgery to remove the blockage, she made a rare admission of anguish. “I am so praying that if things are not going to end well for me…

After in vitro fertilization, Carolyn Bilson holds up her ultrasound marked “G.L.” for good luck by Ilan Tur-Kaspa (in blue), the medical director of the Institute for Human Reproduction in Chicago. Bilson and her partner, Tim O’Brien, conceived Westley (right) with personalized embryo transfer. Tur-Kaspa sampled 238 genes from Bilson’s uterus to determine when she would be most receptive to implantation. An interim study found a 24 percent rise in IVF pregnancy rates with this method. The ultrasound image of Bilson’s uterus (top left) shows her endometrial lining is 8.9 millimeters thick, usually enough for implantation. But the genetic testing found that the optimum window would be two days later, and she would need more hormonal treatments. Another ultrasound image (top right) shows Bilson’s son sucking his thumb 13 weeks…

There are times when flip-flops and sweatpants seem appropriate. At a Saturday afternoon picnic in the park. Or at the county fair. Or when you’re a couple preparing for the arrival of Baby Number Two. Comfort is key. But something made Kira Johnson, 39, change her mind on the evening of April 11, 2016. “Babe, I want to look really pretty for Langston,” she told her husband, Charles Johnson IV, as she sat before her bedroom mirror brushing her hair. The next afternoon they would head to Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for the birth of their second son. They were committed to raising “men that would leave a mark on the world and who have a sense of purpose and responsibility far beyond themselves,” Charles explains. Baby Number One,…

WHY AGE GRACEFULLY, WHEN YOU CAN AGE SUCCESSFULLY? Our bodies can be younger or older than our actual age depending upon diet, lifestyle choices and physical activity. This is called biological age, which could be different than the age on your driver’s license, which is called chronological age. A recent study of over 900 adults who were tracked for 12 years, from ages 26-38, showed that people who were aging faster, meaning that their biological age was higher than their chronological age, were not as healthy or physically fit. This group was also more likely to show cognitive decline and was at a greater risk for age-related health conditions. A growing body of research demonstrates that the keys to aging successfully are a combination of exercising regularly, keeping engaged with…

WHEN WE ASKED veteran journalist Fran Smith to write about new frontiers in medicine for this month’s issue, the first thing she did was volunteer to be, in her words, “a research guinea pig.” She got her genome sequenced. Smith didn’t hesitate. After all, she told me, she’s never understood some people’s skittishness about medical testing and learning what may—or may not—loom in their health future. “You’re not safer if you don’t know,” she says, sensibly enough. “And you can find out things that are very useful and that you can do something about.” Smith wanted her own experience of what’s come to be known as “precision medicine.” Unlike older medical models that tend to lump patients together and treat them for a category of illness, this approach uses gene…

MICHAEL ROIZEN, M.D., is chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic and a New York Times best-selling author. MICHAEL CRUPAIN, M.D., is chief medical officer for television’s The Dr. Oz Show. Both have long linked a better diet with better health. But their new book, What to Eat When, says emerging science confirms that “when you eat is as essential as what you eat for maintaining a good weight, preventing and curing some diseases, and living a long, energetic, and happy life.” Ahead of the book’s December release, the doctor-authors answered questions for National Geographic. Tell us about the science behind your approach to eating. We’re all familiar with our biological clocks—the circadian rhythm that sends out chemical signals at certain times to help us wake, sleep, and do other…

At the vanguard of human health, scientists tweak genes to create precision medicine, and a body donated to science becomes a holographic virtual cadaver. Meanwhile a new generation embraces ancient Chinese remedies—and the United States posts one of the developed world’s highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths. Where does all this lead? BIONIC PROSTHETIC A bionic eye sounds like science fiction, but a 3D printer created this prototype in an hour, bringing the promise of a seeing prosthetic that much closer to reality. —MORE ON PAGE 28…

Building a bionic eye has many challenges, but researchers may have just solved one of them: Using 3D technology, they printed an array of light receptors on a glass eye-shaped object. The silver particles they used as “ink” stayed put, despite the curved surface, and the photo-diodes converted light into electricity with 25 percent efficiency. Next step: More light receptors and a softer surface to make the implant more comfortable. —RACHEL HARTIGAN SHEA…

Correctly identifying the cancer cells in a lung tissue sample (below left) is key to successful treatment. It’s also an ideal diagnostic use of artificial intelligence. In one study, the same AI that Google uses to identify objects online was trained to recognize forms of cancer. It then found two forms in a tissue sample (below right) as accurately as a human could, in seconds.AI also has been used to model the precise dosage of a cancer drug to shrink tumors but cause minimal toxic side effects.…

Susan Potter demanded to visit ‘the meat locker’ before donating her body. She saw the room—and the machine that would grind her tissue away one paper-thin section at a time. For the last 15 years of her life, Potter carried a card with these words: “It is my wish to have my body used for purposes similar to those used in the Visible Human Project, namely that photographic images might be used on the Internet for medical education… In the event of my death… page Dr. Victor M. Spitzer, Ph.D. … There is a 4-hour window for the remains to be received.” Potter knew because she visited the room where her body would be taken, saw the machinery that would grind her tissue away one paper-thin section at a time…