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What do extreme athletes who can summit the peaks of Mt. Everest have in common with people with heart failure? The answer is: more than you might think. Researchers at Mayo Clinic say climbers or anyone exposed to extreme altitudes suffer some of the same physiological changes as heart failure patients. They're teaming up with National Geographic, The North Face, Montana State University and a group of extreme climbers to ascend the slopes of that mountain. One of their goals: to discover more about the body as it responds to high altitude in hopes of developing new ways to treat disease.
Resource: Cardiovascular Diseases in Minnesota
Organ transplantation has come a long way in recent years. For example, kidney transplants are very successful operations. But unless a patient gets an organ from an identical twin, he's stuck taking medication to suppress his immune system so the body doesn't reject it. Doctors at Mayo Clinic want to change that. They're researching ways to grow organs from a patient's own stem cells. It's called regenerative medicine, and it offers hope for a solution to organ rejection.
Resource: Kidney Transplant
Imagine this: Excruciating pain every time you brush your teeth, scratch your nose or crack a smile. That's reality for people who suffer from what's called trigeminal neuralgia. It's a condition that causes intense bouts of pain in your face, and for the woman you're about to meet, it was debilitating.
Resource: Trigeminal neuralgia
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