from the when-neosporin-isn't-good-enough dept.
Application of ultrasound has been shown to speed broken bone regeneration by one third, and even restore memory to mice with Alzheimer's. Now researchers have found that ultrasound can accelerate healing time of skin wounds too.
The elderly and those with diabetes can often develop chronic healing defects such as skin ulcers and bedsores. Chronic wounds like foot ulcers lead to major limb amputation if not healed properly. In a recent animal study published in the Journal of Investigative of Dermatology, researchers at the University of Bristol found that low-intensity ultrasound helped increase the healing time of wounds in diabetic and aged mice by 30 percent. This accelerated healing may not be as fast Wolverine's, but it could be the difference between keeping or losing a foot.
The equipment was not much different from what is used to monitor a foetus during pregnancy. However, the vibration of the sound waves activated a protein pathway that helped fibroblast cells, which are important to healing, migrate to the wound.
http://www.popsci.com/sound-waves-accelerate-healing
[Press Release]: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2015/july/skin-healing.html
Original Submission
Related Stories
A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at UCLA to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. The technique uses sonic stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, an egg-shaped structure that serves as the brain's central hub for processing information.
"It's almost as if we were jump-starting the neurons back into function," said Martin Monti, the study's lead author and a UCLA associate professor of psychology and neurosurgery. "Until now, the only way to achieve this was a risky surgical procedure known as deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted directly inside the thalamus," he said. "Our approach directly targets the thalamus but is noninvasive."
[...] The technique, called low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation, was pioneered by Alexander Bystritsky, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a co-author of the study. Bystritsky is also a founder of Brainsonix, a Sherman Oaks, California-based company that provided the device the researchers used in the study.
That device, about the size of a coffee cup saucer, creates a small sphere of acoustic energy that can be aimed at different regions of the brain to excite brain tissue. For the new study, researchers placed it by the side of the man's head and activated it 10 times for 30 seconds each, in a 10-minute period.
Monti said the device is safe because it emits only a small amount of energy — less than a conventional Doppler ultrasound.
Three days after the treatment the patient in the study regained full consciousness and language comprehension.
Non-Invasive Ultrasonic Thalamic Stimulation in Disorders of Consciousness after Severe Brain Injury: A First-in-Man Report (DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2016.07.008) (DX)
Related:
New Alzheimer's Treatment Fully Restores Memory Function in Mice
Sound Waves Could Help Speed Wound Healing
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @07:52AM
Wound-healing sound-waves for Murican Troops, wound-inflicting sound-waves for Everybody Else. Fuk U, world! Murica is deh bestest.
Murican not-Troops, don obey theBama, Fuc U too, traitors!! Murica #1 Forever.
(Score: 5, Funny) by q.kontinuum on Thursday July 16 2015, @08:29AM
If I wanted to increase the healing time, I'd have plenty of ideas to do so... Wrapping the wound in barbed wire should do the trick as well.
But wouldn't it be prudent to increase the healing speed instead, thus decreasing the healing time?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday July 16 2015, @08:43AM
I remember reading that a cats purr had the same effect. And just petting a cat (OK, yeah, any pet, even a frog) lowered a persons blood pressure.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday July 17 2015, @02:01AM
So, does rubbing a cat on a paraplegic person do the same thing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @11:37AM
What is the affect on a fetus? Sounds dangerous to me, perhaps it causes autism.
-->runs and hides
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:04PM
No... you're thinking of Country Music.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:46PM
A medicine story actually has a plausible explanation for their finding, instead of the all too typical bullshit of "we found a (possible) correlation - no clue why/how - give us more money for research".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:52PM
Ultrasound generates heat and heat results in vasodilation.
The increase in vascular permeability allows for faster migration of immune cells that participate in wound healing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:15PM
Why DO cats purr?
http://catstheboss.com/about-cats/cat-purring/ [catstheboss.com]
I suppose that I should publish a disclaimer. I'm not a cat lover. Cats are OK, I don't dislike them or anything, but I'm not a cat lover. If they insist on being petted, I'm as likely to rub the fur backward, as I am to stroke it forward. But, cats purr for a reason. Or, maybe more accurately, they purr at a specific frequency for a reason.