On the other hand
Israeli innovations continue to benefit humanity. Whether it is medical, scientific or technological expertise they all contribute to a better future…writes Michael Kuttner.
Some latest examples:
REPLENISHING LAKE KINNERET
With a continuing drought the level of the lake has dropped to dangerously low level which has resulted in salinity increasing and negatively impacting the quality of fresh water available for domestic and agricultural use.
Israel’s Water Authority is gearing up to pump desalinated water into the freshwater lake. The Water Authority is also overseeing projects to pump out salt water from the lake, in order to maintain its potability. The Authority says it is currently extracting about 17,000 tons of salt each year. The plan will take about two years to execute, and is expected to cost NIS 1 billion (approx US $290 million).
REGROWING BONES
Just imagine if it would be possible to regrow bones damaged in accidents or as a result of disease. Israel is leading the world in making this dream come true.
Groundbreaking surgery to regrow part of a human bone was carried out recently at HaEmek Hospital in the northern Israeli town of Afula. A resident of a nearby kibbutz who had part of his shinbone removed eight months ago after a car accident, was treated in the procedure, which was hailed by medical staff as “science fiction.” During the surgery, the first of its kind in the world, doctors took fat cells from the patient, grew them in a lab and injected them back into his body for them to generate the missing parts of the bone.
The new surgery can also help elderly people who suffer from osteoporosis and cancer patients who had amputations. In the future it could even be used to make people with dwarfism dozens of centimeters taller.
TARGETING ALZHEIMER’S
Oxygen therapy, already a form of treatment for a host of conditions, has been found to alleviate symptoms associated with the damage to brain tissue in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. A new study on mice conducted by neuroscientists at Tel Aviv University suggests that the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a well-known treatment for decompression sickness, serious infections, air bubbles in blood vessels and wounds associated with diabetes, can have positive physiological effects on Alzheimer-affected brain tissue.
The treatment involves having patients sit in a chamber where the air pressure is increased to twice that of normal air, enabling the lungs to gather more oxygen than would be possible at normal air pressure. In this situation, the blood can carry more oxygen throughout the body, helping to fight bacteria and stimulate the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.
Scientists have now shown for the first time that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can actually improve the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and correct behavioral deficits associated with the disease. This has been described as “revolutionary.”
BANISHING BUNIONS
Millions of people worldwide suffer from painful bunions. Conventional treatment which has not changed over many years involves surgery and great discomfort. Now an Israeli innovation holds out the promise of relief with a new technique.
Watch this short video and learn how it works.
