How ultrasound therapy could treat everything from ageing to cancer

IMAGINE a medical gadget that would deal with an infinite vary of our ills, each massive and small. A gadget that confirmed promise for destroying cancerous tumours or obliterating the physique fats related to weight problems. Or that was probably efficient towards the likes of again ache and glaucoma – and that was even versatile sufficient to be thought of as a device for tackling despair or nervousness. Surprisingly, such expertise exists. Much more surprisingly, it really works just by producing sound waves.

Whereas maybe most acquainted to us for its use in medical imaging, ultrasound has emerged in latest many years as an awfully versatile medical device. Utilizing the warmth that intense ultrasound waves generate, we will destroy tumours or different problematic tissue deep throughout the physique with out making any incisions. Dial down the depth, in the meantime, and we will achieve unprecedented entry to the mind, shaking cells to vary their behaviour in ways in which appear to enhance psychological well being. For good measure, ultrasound could even reverse indicators of bodily ageing and scale back the educational and reminiscence issues related to older age.

“Ultrasound is already a ubiquitous device in drugs,” says Nir Lipsman at Sunnybrook Analysis Institute in Toronto, Canada. “However there’s super give attention to it proper now due to the alternative ways we might use it to deal with totally different medical issues.”

The potential functions are coming so thick and quick that they’re outpacing our potential to grasp why it’s so efficient. The query now could be: can we determine how ultrasound impacts our cells, so the expertise can attain its full potential?

Medical imaging

Ultrasound – high-frequency sound above 20 kilohertz – …