NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News The adverse effects of stress on the body has just gotten more scientific proof, if any was needed. Ben Gurion University researchers have shown that chronic stress increases the susceptibility to an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis, which is characterized by damage to the nervous system in the brain. When examining mice, researchers saw that elevated stress damages the immune system’s mechanism that battles inflammation. When the mice were …More

A type of mushroom found in the forests of Israel may hold promise as a treatment against one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Cyathus striatus, the scientific name for the wild mushroom, has proven effective in treating pancreatic cancer in early animal trials conducted at Haifa University. While medicinal mushrooms may seem a novelty in modern western medicine, mushrooms have become a standard line of defense against cancer in Japanese medicine as well as some natural and tradition medicine treatment …More

Over 100 years ago, Lillian Wald invented public health nursing. Wald was born in 1867, of German-Jewish parents in Cincinnatti, Ohio; her father was an optician. She completed her high school education at Miss Cruttenden's English-French Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies and applied to Vassar College, only to be rejected, since the school believed she was too young (she was 16 at the time). She became interested in nursing upon seeing her sick sister being taken care of by a private nurse, and chose to …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News Sometimes accidents lead to the greatest discoveries. In a recent study conducted at Israeli medical center Hadassah, researchers stumbled on a key mechanism in the heart’s regenerative capabilities. Researchers were examining the left atrial appendage, a part of the heart whose role is relatively unknown and is sometimes removed in heart-surgery, when they noticed something astonishing. When a different part of the heart was placed in the left atrial …More

The Israel Cancer Research Fund has some lofty goals, and the group is more than up to the challenge. Founded by a group of passionate individuals, ICRF is the only charitable group in the US committed to furthering cancer research in the Jewish state. “We were founded in 1975 by a group of American and Canadian doctors and lay people who wanted to combat cancer,” said Donna Ostrower, executive director of ICRF. “They were determined to harness Israel’s scientific and medical …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News A recent comprehensive study conducted by Israeli and Canadian researchers has shown just how much doctors can lead by example. The study showed that if doctors undergo a certain medical procedure, which they then also recommend to their patients, patients are more likely to go through with it themselves. Researchers isolated eight such procedures in the study. The empiric part of the study was done in Israeli Health Maintenance Organization “Clalit.” …More

Maya Yarowsky, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News Millions of people worldwide tune in to watch TED lectures on a variety of subjects. The conferences are normally held in the US. Now the first country to be given the prestigious honor of holding a TEDMED (a TED event on the subject of health and medicine) outside the US was Israel. The conference was held two weeks ago, occurring simultaneously with the annual conference in Washington DC. The TED, or Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences that are …More

Rachel Marder, JNS.org While Israel is fast becoming a leader in the biomedical and biotechnology fields, industry experts say the Israeli Health Ministry may be unduly hindering its growth. Famously called a “start-up nation,” a nickname coined by Dan Senor and Saul Singer in their 2009 book about the Jewish state’s economic miracle, today Israel proudly parades that title, proving to be a fertile ground for thousands of tech start-ups. But Steve Rhodes, CEO and chairman of the Trendlines …More

Maya Yarowsky, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News What’s in a pill container? Not sex appeal, most of us would argue. Assaf Wand, however, thinks differently. Wand’s startup Sabi creates pillboxes; pill dispensers and other “wellness” products--with an edge. Wand argues that while most of the products we encounter in our daily lives have become “stylized,” including electronics, basic healthcare products have remained unappealing, which can make people needing them feel …More

When Jewish researcher Jonas Salk first invented his vaccine for polio, he was heralded by the international community as a miracle worker. Salk’s rise to esteem was an unlikely one, however. Born to Jewish parents in New York City, Salk stood out among classmates not only for his astute mind, but for the nominal education his parents had received as children themselves. Upon completing his undergraduate studies at City College in New York when just a teenager, Salk enrolled in medical school at New York …More

Drinking alcohol, even in moderation, can have harmful effects on the liver. According to Dr. Rifaat Safadi, head of the Liver Unit at Hadassah Hospital, drinking is one of the primary causes of liver diseases in Israel and worldwide. “We call it liver disease when we don’t find the cause and most cases of this ‘cryptogenic liver disease’ are found in alcoholics,” he said, adding that patients often underreport alcohol consumption “for various reasons.” For many …More

Holocaust survivors living in Israel say the country isn't doing enough to help them, and some are resorting to skipping meals and medicine. In a poll released Wednesday ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, 92 percent of the 500 survivors surveyed said that Israel was not allocating enough money to assist them. The survey commissioned by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel also found that 20 percent of survivors had skipped at least one meal due to the inability to pay …More