Short course

1 Scientists at University College of London craft a glass model of the patient8217;s trachea and two main bronchis out of 3D scans

2 Model is flown to Sweden and soaked in a solution of stem cell taken from the patients bone marrow.

3 After two days,a spongy polymer scaffoid seeded with the patients own tissue is formed.

4 The cancer affected windpipe is replaced with the tracheal scaffoid which the body accepts as it is layered with the patients cells

Green tea lowers cholesterol,but a little

Drinking green tea seems to cut bad cholesterol,according to a fresh look at the medical evidence. The new report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition pools the results of 14 previous trials. In each of those studies,researchers divided participants into two groups: one that drank green tea ranging from three weeks to three months,and one that got an inactive preparation. On average,those who got green tea ended up with total cholesterol levels that were 7.2 milligrams per deciliter mg/dL lower than in the comparison group. Their LDL,or bad, cholesterol dropped 2.2 mg/dL a decrease of slightly less than two percent. There was no difference in HDL,or good, cholesterol between the two groups.

Arsenic increases kidney cancer risk: Study

People with moderately elevated levels of arsenic in their urine may have an increased risk of kidney cancer particularly if they have high blood pressure and kidney disease,a new study suggests. The findings,reported in the Journal of Urology,do not prove that arsenic contributes to kidney cancer,however. One possibility,the researchers say,is that kidney cancer,by impairing the kidneys ability to filter waste from the body,leads to increased arsenic levels in the urine. Some studies but not all have linked even moderately elevated levels of arsenic in the body to high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. In the new study,researchers in Taiwan looked at the relationship between urinary arsenic levels and the risk of kidney cancer among people living in an area with low arsenic concentrations in the drinking water.

Massage may ease chronic back pain short-term

A study shows massage therapy may help in chronic back pain. Those who got weekly massage used less pain medicine although the effects disappeared after a year. If we look at patients who seemed to have some substantial improvement,that was about two-thirds in the massage group compared to one-third among those getting usual care, said Dr Richard A Deyo of Oregon Health and Science University,who worked on the study. In the study,published in the Annals of Internal Medicine ,401 people were given usual care or massage therapy: structural massage,or relaxation massage also called Swedish massage. After 10 weeks,the massage group had improved considerably compared to the others.