Day: November 27, 2025

Categories : IT in Healthcare Pain ManagementTags : Leave a comment

Virtual Reality Nature Walks and “Magic” Hands: A New Era in Pain Management

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Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash

What if arthritis sufferers could take an immersive walk through a forest filled with soothing birdsong and then, with some help from hypnosis, come to experience their pain as separate from their body – and expel it?

That’s the goal of research led by David Ogez, a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Université de Montréal and a clinical researcher at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre.

Together with postdoctoral researcher Valentyn Fournier, Ogez is testing an approach that combines medical hypnosis and virtual reality (VR) to help seniors manage chronic arthritis pain in the hands, a common and debilitating condition.

Their research was published online last month in BMJ Open.

“Chronic pain is a major public-health issue that affects about one in five people in Canada and as many as one in three over the age of 60,” said Ogez. “It significantly impacts quality of life, mobility and mental health.  But apart from pharmacological treatments, solutions are few.”

The problem lies in the limitations of drug treatments, including the risk of addiction to painkillers. This led Ogez and his team to explore complementary, non-invasive methods to help patients better manage their pain.

A powerful duo

Medical hypnosis is already recognized as an effective pain management tool, particularly in palliative care and post-operative settings. It relies on hypnotic suggestion—guided phrases that help patients alter their sensory and emotional perception of pain.

For example, patients may be asked to imagine submerging their sore hand in cold water, or be guided through controlled breathing techniques to synchronize their heartbeat and breathing to induce relaxation.

Ogez’s team wanted to take it one step further by combining the power of hypnosis with immersive virtual experiences.

Wearing a headset, the patient is transported to a Quebec landscape—a forest, mountains, a beach—accompanied by music and the sounds of nature. Developed in Quebec, this application was originally designed to give end-of-life patients the opportunity to “visit” places they never had the chance to see in real life.

Pairing hypnosis and VR makes it possible to visualize and manipulate pain, allowing patients to reclaim control of their bodies and their pain, research has shown.

One intervention being tested is the “magic hand.” In virtual reality, patients look at their hand and put little sparkles on the painful area to alleviate the pain. Another intervention involves guiding patients to “objectify” their pain: to make it visible on their hand and then remove it. 

“The pain is still there, but…”

The researchers are also interested in the physiological mechanisms responsible for the pain relief provided by these techniques, which may resemble those associated with mindfulness.

One hypothesis is that VR distracts the brain. By intensely engaging vision, hearing and concentration, VR redirects mental resources that would otherwise be mobilized by pain. Hypnosis then reinforces this diversion of attention by guiding the patient toward pleasant sensations and gradual relief.

Neuroscience research has shown that these techniques modulate the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex and primary somatosensory cortex, two brain regions involved in the emotional and perceptual processing of pain.

“The pain is still there, but its unpleasantness and intensity are reduced,” explained Ogez.

Exposure to nature also provides psychological benefits. “Nature refreshes attention, directing the mind away from negative stimuli and restoring our ability to focus on positive ones,” said Fournier.

Promising preliminary results

Beyond the immediate calming or distracting effects of a treatment session combining hypnosis and VR, the new research aims to help patients develop self-hypnosis skills they can use at home. 

The team is also working on developing a neurofeedback tool that patients can use to track and regulate their brain activity in real time in order to help them modulate their physiological responses during immersive VR experiences. 

While the study is presently in the randomized clinical trial phase, the preliminary feedback from participants is encouraging, said Ogez.

“We’re seeing good patient satisfaction, although we mustn’t confuse satisfaction with effectiveness,” he cautioned. “Still, we’re hopeful, since pain is partly a subjective experience.” 

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Complications After Stent Surgery Are More Common in Individuals with Diabetes

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Percutaneous coronary intervention.
Percutaneous coronary intervention. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of complications after stent implantation, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published in Diabetes Care. The study emphasises the importance of tailoring treatment strategies for this specific patient group.

Researchers have conducted a comprehensive study to investigate the risk of stent complications in patients with diabetes. The study consists of data from over 160 000 patients who received drug-eluting stents (small tubes placed in the coronary arteries of the heart that slowly release drugs to reduce the risk of the vessel becoming blocked again) between 2010 and 2020. The patients were divided into three groups: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and patients without diabetes.

Highest risk in type 1 diabetes

The results show that patients with type 1 diabetes have more than twice the risk of stent complications compared to patients without diabetes. For patients with type 2 diabetes, the risk is also elevated, but not as significantly. Complications include both narrowing of the artery in the stent and blood clots in the stent.

“Our results show that people with diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, have a much higher risk of stent complications. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider how we treat these patients,” says first author Irene Santos-Pardo, researcher at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet.

Tailored treatment strategies

The study also shows that the risk of stent complications is highest during the first few months after stent implantation. During the first month, the incidence of stent complications was 9.27 per 100 person-years for patients with type 1 diabetes, compared with 4.34 for patients without diabetes. After six months, the risk decreased but remained higher for patients with diabetes.

“We need to continue to investigate how we can improve treatment for patients with diabetes who undergo stent implantation. Our results indicate that there is a need to adapt treatment and follow-up for them,” says last author Thomas Nyström, professor at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, and senior physician at Södersjukhuset,

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Metabolic DisordersTags : Leave a comment

Microprotein Plays Vital Role in Fat Accumulation

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Findings could lead to new treatments to improve metabolic health and reduce risks of obesity, diabetes

This image shows the seipin-adipogenin complex that is a critical driver of lipid droplet formation in fat cells. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center

A microprotein called adipogenin appears to play a key role in helping fat cells store lipid droplets – a phenomenon that’s pivotal for metabolic health, a study co-led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows. The findings, published in Science, could lead to new strategies to improve healthy lipid storage, which in turn may reduce risks of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic conditions.

“This study builds upon our long-standing interest in how fat cells maintain their cellular health upon expansion. We show that a tiny microprotein punches far above its weight in sculpting fat biology,” said Philipp Scherer, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology and Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at UT Southwestern.

Dr Scherer led the study with co-first authors Chao Li, PhD, and Xue-Nan Sun, PhD, Instructors of Internal Medicine at UTSW, and co-senior author Elina Ikonen, MD, PhD, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Helsinki.

After every meal, Dr Scherer explained, any lipids that aren’t burned immediately for energy must be stored in the body. The most common and healthy place to store lipids is in fat cells, or adipocytes, which stockpile these nutrients as droplets, much like oil forms droplets in water. Lipids stored in other cell types can cause a condition called lipotoxicity, spurring cell damage and cell death.

Previous research at UTSW and elsewhere has shown that a protein called seipin is critical for healthy lipid storage in a diverse range of organisms, including plants, fungi, and mammals. But how seipin accomplishes this feat has been unclear. Some studies have suggested that adipogenin – a small protein made of only 80 amino acids as compared with the hundreds found in seipin – is also important for lipid storage, but its exact function was unknown.

To answer these questions, the researchers isolated adipogenin along with its interacting proteins from mice, which produce a form of this microprotein that’s nearly identical to the one in humans. The most common binding partner for adipogenin turned out to be seipin.

Using cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that can image molecules at the atomic level, researchers showed that adipogenin appeared to reinforce seipin’s structure, making it more rigid and stable. Working with mouse models that overproduced adipogenin, the scientists found that their fat cells held significantly larger lipid droplets. They also stored considerably more fat than unaltered mice. In contrast, mouse models that produced no adipogenin had much smaller lipid droplets in their fat cells and less fat overall.

“This study nudges us a little closer to the clinic by revealing a brand-new handle on how fat cells store lipids, which matters enormously for obesity, diabetes, lipodystrophy, and fatty liver disease,” Dr Scherer said. “Adipogenin becomes a druggable lever on seipin’s machinery, with the promise to either dampen harmful fat buildup or boost healthy adipose storage when needed.”

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Categories : Respiratory DiseasesTags : Leave a comment

Monthly Injection Helps Severe Asthma Patients Safely Stop or Reduce Daily Steroids

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Photo by Elen Sher on Unsplash

A monthly injection has helped 90% of severe asthma patients reduce daily steroid tablets, which are associated with long-term side effects. More than half of the participants who had received the injection were able to stop their daily steroid tablets entirely, without any impact on their symptoms.

The clinical trial led by a King’s College London academic followed patients who had been injected with tezepelumab every four weeks for a year. Tezepelumab is a type of antibody which targets parts of the immune system, reducing lung inflammation.

Treatment with tezepelumab was also shown to significantly improve asthma symptoms, lung function, and overall quality of life. During the study, two-thirds of patients stopped having any asthma attacks. These improvements were seen as early as two weeks into treatment and lasted for the duration of the study.

Scientists are trying to identify alternative treatments for managing severe asthma, as long-term daily steroid use can lead to serious health problems, including osteoporosis, diabetes, and increased vulnerability to infections.

The WAYFINDER study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, is among long-standing research into severe asthma at King’s College London. Last year, another team at King’s discovered that another antibody, benralizamab, could be injected during some asthma and COPD attacks to reduce the need for further treatment. The latest discovery could help people manage their asthma long term.

Participants in the trial had a diagnosis of severe asthma and were recruited from 68 clinical centres across 11 countries. They received tezepelumab every four weeks and completed questionnaires on their asthma symptoms and medication at 28 and 52 weeks.

Professor David Jackson, Respiratory Medicine expert at King’s College London, and Clinical Lead of the asthma services across Guy’s and Royal Brompton Hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The WAYFINDER study is an important step forward for patients with the most severe form of asthma who require daily oral steroids in order to achieve reasonable disease control.

“In this International, multicentre clinical trial of more than 300 patients, the NICE-approved asthma treatment tezepelumab, a biologic therapy that targets asthma-related inflammation but without all the side effects of steroids, was capable of allowing the vast majority of patients to wean their steroids down to a low dose with over half able to stop their steroids altogether.

“As tezepelumab also suppresses allergy related symptoms and improves chronic rhinosinusitis as well, the results are particularly exciting for patients with severe asthma who suffer with both upper and lower airway symptoms.”

Dr Samantha Walker, Director of Research & Innovation at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “This study is a promising sign that tezepelumab injections support certain people with severe asthma to reduce or stop taking steroid tablets, which can have serious unwanted health consequences. Tezepelumab, an injectable biologic, significantly improves asthma symptoms, lung function and overall quality of life for participants.

“This is an incredibly encouraging development for the future of asthma care that could transform the lives of people with severe asthma. It’s vital that research into new types of treatment continues but we know current funding for lung health research is on life-support, despite lung conditions remaining the third biggest cause of death in the UK. Studies like this show the positive impact that research can make on providing potentially life-changing treatment for people with asthma and other lung conditions.”

The findings of the WAYFINDER study will be presented at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2025 on Thursday 27th November 2025.

Read the study here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(25)00359-5/fulltext

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Diet and NutritionTags : Leave a comment

Polyphenol-rich Diets Linked to Better Long-term Heart Health

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Compounds found in tea, coffee, berries and nuts linked to better long-term heart health.

Photo by Annemarie Grudën on Unsplash

People who regularly consume polyphenol-rich foods and drinks, such as tea, coffee, berries, cocoa, nuts, whole grains and olive oil, may have better long-term heart health.

The research, led by King’s College London, found that those with higher adherence to polyphenol-rich dietary patterns had lower predicted cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plants that are linked to various health benefits, including improved heart, brain, and gut health.

The study, published in BMC Medicine, followed more than 3100 adults from the TwinsUK cohort for over a decade, found that diets rich in specific groups of polyphenols were linked to healthier blood pressure and cholesterol profiles, contributing to lower CVD risk scores.

For the first time, the researchers also analysed a large number of metabolites in the urine that are produced when the body breaks down polyphenols.

These biomarkers confirmed that individuals with higher levels of polyphenol metabolites—especially those derived from specific groups of polyphenols, flavonoids and phenolic acids – had lower cardiovascular risk scores. They also had increased HDL cholesterol, also know as ‘good’ cholesterol.

The study used a newly developed polyphenol dietary score (PPS) to capture intake of 20 key polyphenol-rich foods commonly consumed in the UK, ranging from tea and coffee to berries, olive oil, nuts, and whole grains.

This score showed stronger associations with cardiovascular health than estimates of total polyphenol intake, likely because it captures overall dietary patterns rather than individual compounds.

This finding suggests that considering the whole diet provides a more accurate picture of how polyphenol-rich foods work together to support long-term heart health.

Our findings show that long-term adherence to polyphenol-rich diets can substantially slow the rise in cardiovascular risk as people age. Even small, sustained shifts towards foods like berries, tea, coffee, nuts, and whole grains may help protect the heart over time.”

Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, Professor of Human Nutrition at King’s College London

Dr Yong Li, first author of the study, added: “This research provides strong evidence that regularly including polyphenol-rich foods in your diet is a simple and effective way to support heart health. These plant compounds are widely available in everyday foods, making this a practical strategy for most people.”

The researchers note that while cardiovascular risk naturally increases with age, higher polyphenol intake was associated with a slower progression of risk over the 11-year follow-up period. They also emphasise the need for future dietary intervention studies to further validate these associations.

Source: King’s College London