“It’s a good time to get healed,” 34-year-old Victoria Gray told NPR’s Rob Stein in a Nashville hospital last week. Gray had just become the first publicly identified patient with a genetic disorder to be treated with the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR.
Gray, who is married, a mom of four, and lives with her family in Mississippi, has sickle cell disease – a debilitating condition of malformed red blood cells that may affect as many as 100,000 people in the U.S., and millions around the world.
An inborn genetic mutation caused Gray’s bone marrow to make a faulty protein. Because of that glitch, the red blood cells produced by her marrow can become rigid and sticky, shifting from plump and round to crescent-shaped. The misshapen cells don’t carry oxygen well and can also get stuck in small blood vessels, leading to a host of symptoms, including excruciating pain.
"It's horrible," Gray says. "When you can't walk or lift up a spoon to feed yourself, it gets real hard."
Read on to learn more about the experimental technique doctors hope might restore Gray’s health – and help others.
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Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
If you or someone you love uses e-cigarettes, you might want to take notice. Researchers recently learned that there are chemicals formed in “vape juice” while it sits on the shelves that could make it irritating to your lungs.
These irritating chemicals, called acetals, are actually formed by a reaction between the various ingredients in the e-liquids. The researchers mostly tested the sweet and fruity flavors popular with teens, but say even plainer flavors could have the irritating compounds.
Read on for more detail about the long-term health consequences of vaping.
BONUS: One Long-Time User’s Struggle To Quit |
Patrick Donovan/Getty Images |
Research published this week suggests more than a million Americans may have an allergy to sesame seeds and other sesame products – that’s many more people than previously believed.
The nutritious seeds (rich in mostly unsaturated oil and protein, along with zinc and calcium, among other goodies) can show up in everything from bagels, sushi and granola to treats prepared with sesame oil or tahini.
Read on to learn more about why allergic reactions to sesame are often misdiagnosed.
BONUS: Pros And Cons Of A Tablet Alternative To Allergy Shots
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More of this week's health stories from NPR |
We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.
Your Shots editor,
Deborah Franklin |
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