Ultrasound Restores Memory to Mice with Alzheimer’s
popsci.com
popsci.com
For example, 3D fetal ultrasounds bombard a baby but they are really only done out of pure vanity for parents. They don't tell doctor's anything they don't already know from the boring standard ultrasound.
Doesn't really seem that way. The FDA has issued a statement on fetal ultrasound imaging: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm095508.ht...
The crux of it is:
The long-term effects of tissue heating and cavitation are not known. Therefore, ultrasound scans should be done only when there is a medical need, based on a prescription, and performed by appropriately-trained operators.
And I too would have never have thought about fetal ultrasounds being unsafe, had it not been for your post.
I was having chronic muscle spasms in my right shoulder blade area, and the physical therapist used therapeutic ultrasound on me. It melted the spasms like butter. Several months of terrible pain gone in an instant. I was never so tempted to steal a machine in my life.
Good presentation: http://radiology.ucsd.edu/body_image/pdfs/visitors/bohazards...
There's a news article about the paper that Science wrote up, which goes into some of the history of the work and has a broad sampling of views on the relevance of this paper within the broader context. http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/03/ultrasound-therap...
That thesis is worth a read.
The paper mentioned in the article is behind a paywall, http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/7/278/278ra33
By analogy, broken bones are a symptom of osteoporosis (chronic brittle bones). No one is saying a broken bone doesn't hurt or shouldn't be fixed, but we've had more success historically by ALSO treating the underlying cause to prevent damage from coming back.
It's mainstream, but it is not proven, and there have been some studies that cast at least a little doubt on them.
So the OP isn't using an off-the-wall phrasing, it is very much a question of whether the plaques and tangles are the cause or the effect of some yet-to-be-established mechanism.
There is no better phrasing.
This makes it clear that the mechanism is still a matter of hypothesis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry_of_Alzheimer%27s_d...
Anyway, the apparent success of the ultrasound does indeed seem to be evidence that the plaque/tangle hypotheses are correct in assuming these things to be causal and not merely correlated symptoms.
If you're not involved, it makes sense to check every five years or so on any particular thread in early stage medical research.
From the article:
Parameters for the ultrasound delivery were 0.7-MPa peak rarefactional pressure, 10-Hz pulse repetition frequency, 10% duty cycle, 1 MHz center frequency, and 6-s sonication time per spot.