Reusable textiles for medical PPE; watching for sleep apnea; finding brain connections against Parkinson disease – Morning Medical Update

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Good medicine, good for the earth

Physicians know as well as anyone that personal protective equipment (PPE) is vital for keeping clinicians and patients safe during treatments. When contaminated, a lot of it gets thrown away. Instead of dumping literal tons in landfills, what if reusable health care textiles could be used for PPE, sanitized, then used again? It turns out the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has considered just that. Here is an online workshop and a report on the issue.

Smartwatch for better sleep

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Apple’s new sleep apnea detection feature for at least three Apple Watch models. It’s a potentially huge issue – an estimated 30 million people are affected by sleep apnea, but approximately 6 million are diagnosed. CNBC has this video and this article, including data from the American Medical Association.

On enzymes and energy in the brain

PGK1 is short for phosphoglycerate kinase, an enzyme that produces energy in the brain. New research indicates just a little more in the body might go a long way in maintaining neurons that produce dopamine essential for movement. That in turn could be a development in treating Parkinson disease, which affects an estimated 1 million Americans. Here is the study and an explainer from Monica Bertagnolli, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health.