Israel Active

Bar-Ilan University’s School of Medicine in the Galilee opened a “teddy bear hospital” in December designed to reduce anxiety about health care among young children. 150 preschoolers learnt not to fear hospitals and doctors by watching simulated treatment on their teddy bears and dolls.

The latest life expectancy figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics show that Israelis have among the highest life expectancies on the globe, with an overall life expectancy of 81.7 years – two years more than the OECD average. Israeli men normally reach 79.9 years, second only to the Swiss.

This personal story illustrates how important the new FitNeS epilepsy treatment from Israel’s BioControl Medical will be to those sufferers for whom medication has no effect on their seizures.

Scientists at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv have isolated the cancer stem cells that fuel the growth of Wilms’ tumors - responsible for kidney cancer in children. They then used antibody medication to target specific molecules in those cells and destroy the tumors without harming any other cells.

Israeli biotech Enlivex has developed a treatment called ApoCell that triggers a response from the immune system to reduce adverse reactions during bone marrow transplants. It prevents Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD), which affects around 70% of transplant patients.

(Thanks to Stuart Palmer and Israel21c.) Israel’s Alpha Omega’s products guide neurosurgeons to the required location in the brain. Alpha Omega is run by Imad and Reem Younis – two Christian Arabs from Nazareth, with their mostly Christian and Muslim staff of Israeli University graduates.

Israel’s BioControl Medical has reduced epileptic episodes by 50% in recent trials of its FitNeS™ implantable vagus nerve stimulation system. And no side effects.

I had to blink hard when I read this. The 3rd wife of the US President’s grandfather has just undergone emergency eye treatment at the “Shalom” La Paz Medical Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Israel’s Tel Hashomer hospital runs the state-of-the-art medical center and the local staff includes around 100 Israeli doctors. Just see some of the photos in the third link.

A study by Israeli neurologist Dr. Rivka Inzelberg has identified that patients taking dopamine-stimulating medication (to control symptoms of Parkinson’s disease) have contracted artistic or literary creative skills. Reducing the medication suppresses these new skills.

Hebrew University researchers have discovered that the protein Calphotin regulates the amount of Calcium contained in the body’s cells. Loss of Calphotin (e.g. due to aging) causes Calcium levels to rise and accelerates cell death. In the brain this leads to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.