Recent Advancements in Medicine

There have been a lot of advancements in medicine, healthcare, and the way we understand our bodies recently. I thought it would be great to take a look at some of those recent breakthroughs.

Last April, a group of researchers found a potential answer for why women experience higher rates of autoimmune diseases – B cells. Well, not just any B cells, but those with transcription factor T-bet. It’s science-heavy, but there was a write-up in Science Daily last May that goes more in-depth. One of the things I find most interesting about this is that T-bet has been shown to be somewhat of a bridge between the innate and adaptive immune systems. That means that, potentially, this could even explain the prevalence of autoinflammatory diseases, too!

A recent study found that being hungry alters how the body perceives – and responds to – pain. This has only been shown in acute pain or what they call longer-term inflammatory pain. That explains how I tend to experience different pain levels based on how much I can eat. In all honesty, I just can’t eat three meals a day. My GI tract doesn’t process things that quickly and I end up in tremendous pain. For me, though, there is a point at which being hungry can trigger my pain levels to increase.

On top of that, chronic pain itself has been found to alter how our immune systems function. This could be giant news on the road to discovering how many chronic health issues can be triggered by a traumatic event. For instance, Morgan Freeman’s fibromyalgia beginning after an intense car accident.

Discrimination has been proven to affect your partners, according to a new study. This was true regardless of the type of discrimination proving what a lot of us already knew – oppression harms everyone touched by it, including partners and loved ones.

Many people dealing with depression and another chronic illness struggle to find effective depression treatment. A new study has found this to be incredibly common. Dr. Madhukar Trivedi suggests that we need to study more about living with comorbid illness and depression in order to figure out better, more effective treatments.

To their point, researchers have been studying how inflammation affects brain cells. Interferon-alpha, or IFN-α, was found to negatively impact the birth of new brain cells while increasing the rate of death of existing cells. Since IFN-α can be used as a treatment for cancer and other illnesses, this study highlights an important issue – and, hopefully, can lead to the development of medications to battle this phenomenon.

Another study recently found that itaconate which is derived from glucose can help shut off macrophages. Since macrophages control a lot of what happens wrongly in autoimmune and autoinflammatory conditions – including potentially being fatal on their own through MAS – this finding could help save lives. This could actually explain why many of us crave sugary things when we’re feeling unwell (and explains much of my life).

Heads up for discussion of child abuse in the below paragraphs

This write-up is, uh, problematic at best. Quotes like this one show why people need sensitivity training around mental health: “People with depression or other mood disorders tend to have trouble distancing themselves from their negative memories. If we can help them remember less or forget those negative memories, then maybe they can reallocate that attention to something more positive in their lives.” That said, I found the results of the study validating – suppressing emotions is linked to a reduction in memory of a traumatic or upsetting event. As someone that still hasn’t processed a lot of things I’ve been through, it was incredibly validating to see that… even if I want to punch the graduate student for giving the quote above. Ironically enough, a study around the same time also found that this covertly happens for survivors of child abuse. They also found that the abuse had a profound effect on the myelin coating nerves, reducing it. This may help explain part of why brains of people living with PTSD and those without show very distinct changes that can be seen by the naked eye.