Here is an interesting poster put together by EuroRSCG Amersterdam for Doctors of the World, Netherlands, which depicts the patient to doctor ratio in different countries around the world. 

I just took some Nyquil last night because I caught a nasty little cold and needed to sleep. Lately when I've had to take it, I've woken up feeling horrible! When I had taken it in the past, I'd wake up like the commercials, feeling so much better and well rested. Now I wake up feeling worse than when I went to bed. Has anyone else experienced this? Has Nyquil changed up their formula? Maybe I'd be better off just drinking straight red wine to help me sleep. hmmmmm.....

Stanford University scientists are hoping Play Station 3 gamers will donate their consoles to help find a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

With the next software update for the game console, PS3 owners will be given an option to click an icon for Stanford's "Folding@home" project and download software that the university has designed to help outsource the computing power of the game consoles (which are essentially computers) needed for some of its research.

The software will run "protein folding" simulations, which help researchers understand why proteins sometimes fold incorrectly and mutate into diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Each participating PS3 will periodically download and analyze a chunk of the school's research, and then upload the results. The software, which is due at the end of the month, will run when the PS3 system is not playing games or performing other multimedia tasks.

Downloading the program could be a great learning experience for kids (as well as adults) because they will be able to watch a visual representation of the work done on their game consoles and view a map of consoles participating in the project around the world.

Previously:
Minneapolis couple's laptop found while searching for alien life

Researchers are developing a tooth implant called the intellidrug device that will automatically release medicine.  This device could benefit those who constantly forget to take their medicine or those who need to take medicine during sleeping hours.

Once in place, saliva in the mouth enters the reservoir via a membrane and dissolves the solid drug, forming a solution.

When the system is triggered by the electrical timing mechanism, a valve opens and allows a controlled amount of the solution to flow into the mouth where it is absorbed into the body.

The device is fitted with two sensors. The first is a fill-level sensor that measures the concentration of the drug in the reservoir.

It alerts the patient when the concentration of the drug falls below a certain level. At the moment enough medication can be contained for up to two weeks.

The second sensor monitors how much drug solution has been administered and a remote control allows the doctor to increase the dose of medication if necessary.

Read the full article here.

U.S. scientists have created breath test that can detect lung cancer in patients even in the early stages of the disease.

By means of a simple colour test which shows up unique chemical changes in the breath of people with lung cancer, the disease was accurately detected in just under three out of four people with the disease.

By using a sensor just slightly bigger than a coin, which is relatively cheap and easy to use, unique chemical changes in the breath of people with lung cancer could be seen with a series of coloured dots.

After breathing into the device for 12 minutes the hues of a series of 36 dots provide a gas fingerprint for lung cancer.

Because the test can detect the disease at its earlier stages, patients can start receiving treatment when it's most effective.

ConsumerLab selected and tested 21 multivitamin products for adults and children.  With more than half of the products, problems were found -- high levels of lead and too much or too little of certain ingredients.

Here is a snippet from a Reuters article:

In a telephone interview with Reuters Health, Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, said one of the most serious problems was a women's multivitamin that contained 15.3 micrograms of lead per daily dose. This is more than 10 times the amount of lead allowed without a warning label in the state of California, the only state to regulate lead in supplements.

"There is lead in small amounts in many foods and drink," Cooperman said, "but the amount of lead in this multivitamin was more than you'd be exposed to from all the lead you are exposed to every day for about 5 days, and you'd be getting that every day from just the daily dose of this multivitamin."

Another "disturbing finding," Cooperman said, was a children's vitamin that contained 216 percent of its labeled amount of vitamin A -- an amount far in excess of the "upper tolerable intake level for kids under the age of 9," Cooperman said. "Young kids should definitely be avoiding that amount of vitamin A in the retinol form," he said.

You can view the ConsumerLab report here.

If you feel that you don't have a balanced diet and want to continue using multivitamins be sure to read labels and choose the product that is best for you.

You can now view all of the illustrations from Henry Gray's 1918 publication of Anatomy of the Human Body online.

A new study found that high doses of Red Wine extract when given to overweight mice has a nice counter effect on the mice's overall health. 

The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging shows that heavy doses of the red wine ingredient, resveratrol, lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice.

And astoundingly, the organs of the treated fat mice looked normal when they shouldn't have, said study lead author Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School.

"They're chubby but inside they look great," Sinclair said Wednesday afternoon. "You have to pinch yourself to make sure that this is all real, but the study involved 27 different researchers each of whom had a Eureka moment."

For the full article:  foxnews.com

This is a little too weird to not be a hoax. According to the story, scientists in Pittsburgh were able to successfully resusitate dogs that had been clinically dead for three hours, without any perceived brain damage.

The dogs' blood was removed and replaced with a saline solution before they were cooled to 7 degrees celcius. The technique is expected to be used someday to repair tissues in injured patients who have suffered from severe blood loss, such as victims of gunshot or stab wounds.

As is typical in all zombie werewolf reanimation, an electric shock is used to kickstart the dead body back to life.