Health Tech

(Credit: Azumio)

Yesterday started like so many others, with me standing in the back of a noisy, sweltering bus that smelled of urine. But unlike previous mornings, this time I was able to use my phone to quantify my stress level as it mounted with each jarring pothole.

Armed with a new app called Stress Check on my iPhone, I could verify that the stress I was feeling was real--when I woke up my level was 1 percent, but on the bus it topped 100. And while a number of apps require an external attachment to take health measurements, Stress Check required just me and my phone.

Released a couple of weeks ago, Stress Check is one of several apps from Palo Alto, Calif. start-up Azumio, which recently received $2.5 million in series A funding. The company's first health-oriented app, Instant Heart Rate (also available for Android), has generated 8 million downloads since its release in January. The company has more apps in the pipeline.

If it's easy, and fun, to collect personal health data, more people will likely be inclined to do so--and take action, reasons Azumio co-founder Bojan Bostjancic, who stopped by CNET headquarters last week to demo the company's health apps.

After spending a relatively stressful weekend in St. Louis trying to find the perfect wedding dress, UCLA sociology Ph.D. candidate Kjerstin Gruys decided on the flight back to L.A.--which could arguably be dubbed the city of mirrors--that it was time for something drastic: a year without them.

This was back in March, and her "mirror, mirror...OFF the wall" project would include the six months leading up to (and the six months following) her October wedding.

(Credit: Photo courtesy of Kjerstin Gruys)

So far so good, according to Gruys' near-daily blog posts. But as someone with only a tiny bathroom mirror who rarely looks at my reflection other than to floss, I have to ask: Is this experiment--avoiding one's own image in any form--even possible today, with tagged photos on Facebook, profile pictures that suddenly pop up on sites you're visiting, and the like?

Gruys … Read full post & comments

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

As Monty Python reminds us, every sperm is sacred. So why are guys putting potentially hazardous objects so close to the family jewels?

I'm talking about cell phones. This week, we told you about a recent report in the Journal of Andrology that suggested cell phone radiation can reduce sperm count and damage sperm quality.

The report reviewed the existing medical literature about phone radiation on the male reproductive system, and found that men who use cell phones have decreased sperm concentration and motility.

"These abnormalities seem to be directly related with the length of mobile phone use," the authors from Italy's University of Catania noted.

The researchers also considered a study in which rats were put in special Plexiglas cages with cell phones just 0.2 inch underneath the cage bottom. The animals were exposed to to cell phone emissions for six hours per day for more than four months.

The researchers found a 25 percent drop in the rats' live sperm. The cells also tended to adhere to one another, which would reducing their chances of fertilizing an egg.

Mechanical engineer Michael Goldfarb walks with Craig Hutto, who has been testing the state-of-the-art prosthetic leg for Vanderbilt engineers.

(Credit: John Russell/Vanderbilt)

A passive prosthetic leg, says 23-year-old amputee Craig Hutto, is always a step behind. But a new leg built by researchers at Vanderbilt University "is only a split-second behind."

Hutto, who is 6 feet 4 inches, has been testing the bionic leg for a good chunk of the seven-year research project at the school's Center for Intelligent Mechatronics. (Check out his crazy story about how a shark nearly tore off his leg when he was fishing in Florida at age 16.)

What sets the Vanderbilt leg apart from its predecessors is its use of recent advances in computer, sensor, electric motor, and battery tech to enable the prosthetic to be the first ever that powers knee and ankle joints in unison.

"We have validated our hypothesis that the right technology was available to make a lower-limb prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints," says research head Michael Goldfarb, a professor of mechanical engineering, in a news release. "Our device illustrates the progress we are making in integrating man and machine."

The device weighs in at 9 pounds, which is actually less than most human lower legs. On one charge, it can operate at normal levels of activity for roughly three days. And it features an "anti-stumble" routine; if the leg senses that its user is starting to stumble, the leg lifts to avoid obstruction and plants on the floor to optimize balance.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Gentlemen, your cell phone could be your closest enemy. According to an Italian report published in the Journal of Andrology (PDF), researchers in the United States and around the world have found that the radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) emitted by cell phones may decrease sperm count and damage sperm quality.

Though still inconclusive, the research focuses on several studies on both human and animal sperm. For humans, some of the studies exposed sperm from healthy nonsmoker volunteers to RF-EMR in a laboratory setting, while others compared the sperm health of subjects who regularly carried their cell phone in their front pants pocket with those who did not.

On the whole, sperm that were exposed to RF-EMR showed decreased sperm concentration; motility (the ability of a sperm to move toward an egg); morphology (the size and shape of sperm); and viability. Similarly, subjects who carried their phone in their pockets had a lower sperm concentration.

In one animal study, researchers put rats in special Plexiglas cages with cell phones just 0.2 inch underneath the cage bottom. After the rats were exposed to cell phone emissions for 6 hours per day for more than four months, the researchers found a 25 percent drop in the rats' percentage of live sperm. Their sperm also had the tendency to stick together, reducing the chance of fertilizing an egg.

Dr. Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley, told CNET that this is a complex matter that needs to be further researched.

For example, it's currently unclear what type of cell phones or phone service, such as GSM or CDMA, would cause a more adverse impact. "If more research is done, and we have more solid results, consumers could be presented with a choice," he said. "There might be phones or cell services that have less impact on our reproductive organs than others."

At a TB hospital in Leon, Nicaragua, Jose Gomez-Marquez tests patient samples. Instead of using a pipette, he uses a drinking straw.

(Credit: Jose Gomez-Marquez)

Jose Gomez-Marquez is like the MacGyver of medical devices, hacking toys and turning them into gadgets that can be used to diagnose conditions such as diabetes and dengue fever. By taking everyday items like Legos and bike pumps and turning them into replacements for expensive medical devices, he's attempting to save lives on the cheap.

"Most of the devices that get donated to developing countries fail because they were not designed to be used in these environments," Gomez-Marquez said during a visit to CNET this week to show some of his creations. "We need to make the Land Rover version of medical devices for these countries. Right now we are sending the Ferrari versions and they fail."

Gomez-Marquez is program director for MIT's Innovations in International Health initiative, which aims to teach medical professionals in the developing world how to hack ordinary objects to make their own medical devices. With a degree in mechanical engineering and a love of design, Gomez-Marquez wants to level the playing field in health care.

"One of the ways to empower better designs is by empowering users who are everyday users of the devices," he said. "So we made these kits to do that."

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Full disclosure: I just finished a cup of black coffee, and it was damn fine. (And yes, I make Twin Peaks references wherever possible.)

So it is with vigorous jumping up-and-down motions, aided surely by the caffeine, that I write about a team's findings from the University of Washington and Rutgers University that caffeine can help lower one's chances of UV-associated skin cancer by inhibiting a DNA repair pathway, essentially helping cells die after exposure to sunlight.

Like sex on the beach? New research suggests trying coffee on the beach instead.

(Credit: James Gagen/Flickr)

The team reports on this "protective effect of caffeinated beverage intake" in the August 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Studies have already shown a reduced risk of skin cancer in those who drink caffeinated beverages. In 2007, for instance, almost 94,000 women participated in a study … Read full post & comments

Wearable, connected fitness monitors are a dime a dozen these days. But developers of NewYu, a monitor that will be available in September, claim they've got an edge on their competition.

(Credit: Wellcore)

The device, which is meant to clip to clothing on the torso or to a pocket, is purported to provide a more accurate view of calories burned by tracking, and differentiating between, all movements throughout the day.

In other words, NewYu knows if you've been running or walking, cooking or cleaning, shopping, or (presumably) mating...You get the idea. Actually, Van Krueger, CEO of parent company Wellcore, tells me they decided to steer clear of the "mating" category, but that it will register as low-, medium-, or high-impact aerobics, depending of course on the intensity of the, shall we say, heat of the moment.

Krueger says the fitness monitor is able to differentiate among activities by using advanced pattern recognition technology. This works much the way voice recognition does;… Read full post & comments

(Credit: Mercedes GP Petronas)

What do you do if you want to upgrade your pathetic meatsack of a body and become a cyborg? If you're Matthew James, a 14-year-old from Britain's Berkshire, you write a letter and end up with a bionic hand.

Born without a left hand, James became enamored of the i-Limb Pulse from Scotland's Touch Bionics, but his family couldn't afford the roughly $48,000 price tag.

After the head of Formula One racing team Mercedes GP Petronas visited his school, James got up the chutzpah to write a letter to the organization's Ross Brawn asking for help in getting an i-Limb Pulse. He suggested the team sponsor what would be a cybernetic part of his body.

Brawn agreed to help, but struck a technology-sharing deal with Touch Bionics in which most of the fee would be waived. Now James has a new hand.