Seek and You Shall Find
Ranking in at number 9 on the top ten medical breakthroughs is the development of learning a body`s true age by examining your saliva`s genetic material. Working with samples, researchers were able to see epigenetic changes to a person`s DNA and noting how these changes (which are influenced by environmental factors such as diet, stress, exposure to sunlight, carcinogens and toxins) do not alter the DNA itself--but are layered with genomes, affecting how our genes are turned on and off. Scientists have said that as these changes increase and decrease over time in a somewhat chronological fashion, it allows them to serve as a timeline enabling scientists to predict a person`s current age within 5 years.
Number 8 on our countdown of medical breakthroughs in 2011 is--dogs that can sniff out lung cancer! Yep that`s right! Fido`s not only good at fetch, but according to German researchers, man's best friend might also be a doctor's newest weapon in detecting cancer. Dogs are known to have a keen sense of smell--sharp enough, according to this study, to detect the presence of cancer on a person's breath. So exactly what did the dogs smell? Scientists believe that they are picking up on very subtle changes in certain organic compounds that exist in the breath which possibly change when cancer is present.