Category Archives: Health

Dieta de Salut Planetària (Planetary Health Diet)

Una dieta per a la salut planetària

Alguna de la informació aportada està extreta del llibre de Marta Peirano “Contra el futuro. Resisténcia Ciudadana frente al feudalismo climático” (detalls aquí) que és la segona part del llibre que també recomano “El enemigo conoce el sistema” (detalls aquí)

Fets (extrets del llibre):

  • La industrialització de la cadena alimentaria és la causa principal de la obesitat i de les anomenades MNT o Malalties No Transmissibles (cardiovasculars i respiratòries, càncer, diabetis..) que són el responsable del 71% de les morts que es produeixen en el mon. La dieta mata a més gent que el sexe sense protecció, l’alcohol, les drogues i el tabac junts.
  • És un dels principals agents de degradació mediambiental al llarg de tota la seva cadena de subministrament, incloent la producció, el processament i la distribució.
  • La carn i els làctics proporcionen el 18% de les calories i el 37% de les proteïnes de la nostre dieta, però utilitzen el 83% del sol o es veuen el 90% de l’aigua
  • La comissió EAT-Lancet és un consorci de 37 científics de prestigi mundial, procedents d’institucions de diversos països i disciplines que es van proposar establir un consens científic.
  • La composició de la dieta va tenir 2 fases:
    • 1a Fase: Nutricionistes van revisar literatura científica actualitzada per dissenyar una dieta bàsica i completa, composada de productes integrals, no refinats
    • 2a Fase: Els científics del clima van apartar tot allò que causés emissions en excés o pèrdua de biodiversitat, o grans extraccions d’aigua potable, terra fèrtil
  • La Dieta Planetària consisteix bàsicament en fruites, verdures, nous, cereals en gra i llegums i proteïna vegetal amb un consum moderat de proteïna animal (un filet o hamburguesa de 100g per setmana o dues racions de pollastre o peix)
  • Destaca la importància de reduir el consum de carn per que la seva producció contribueix massa a la desigualtat econòmica i a la degradació de la salut pública i mediambiental, a més de consumir molts més recursos que els que retorna
  • Una investigació publicada en Nature va calcular que, només amb el que el 54% dels països més rics del mon seguissin la dieta planetària, el resultat seria equivalent a que tots els països complissin el 100% dels propòsits de la COP26
  • Implementar la dieta planetària comportaria estalviar-nos fer servir enormes quantitats de terreny que es podrien fer servir per capturar carboni de la atmosfera
  • Els humans som més intel·ligents, més sans i més feliços quan tenim accés a entorns naturals. El fenomen es coneix coma “biofilia”

La Dieta Planetària te el seu origen en un informe elaborat per la comissió EAT-Lancet com a part d’un informe publicat a la revista científica The Lancet el 16 de gener de 2019.

A part d’una millor dieta i millorar la nostre salut disminuint riscos de malalties com la diabetis o càncers, la dieta de salut planetària també te un gran impacte en el medi ambient i en assolir un sistema d’alimentació sostenible a nivell planetària que permetria alimentar a 10.000 milions de persones al 2050.

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Hackers Can Add, Remove Cancer From CT Scans: Researchers

By Eduard Kovacs on April 05, 2019

A team of researchers has demonstrated that hackers can modify 3D medical scans to add or remove evidence of a serious illness, such as cancer.

Experts from the Ben-Gurion University and the Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, in Israel have developed proof-of-concept (PoC) malware that uses a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network (GAN) to quickly alter 3D images generated during a Computer Tomography (CT) scan.

CT scanners are typically managed through a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) that receives scans from the scanner, stores them and then supplies them to radiologists. Data is transmitted and stored using a standard format named DICOM. PACS products are provided by companies such as GE Healthcare, Fujifilm, Philips and RamSoft.

One problem, according to researchers, is that PACS and DICOM servers are often left exposed to the internet. A scan conducted using the Shodan search engine identified nearly 2,700 servers that were connected to the internet. Another issue is that the medical imagery data is in many cases transmitted over the network without being encrypted, which exposes it to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks and manipulation.

Malicious actors could directly target PACS that are accessible from the Internet, or they could first gain access to the targeted organization’s network and launch the attack from there. Another attack vector, which the researchers tested during a penetration test conducted in a hospital’s radiology department, involves physically connecting a small MitM device between the CT scanner’s workstation and the PACS network. In these local attacks, the attacker can rely on insiders or they can pose as a technician, the researchers said.

Once the attacker can intercept traffic from the CT scanner, they can use an attack framework, which the researchers have dubbed CT-GAN, to manipulate the images via the GAN technique before they reach the radiologist who interprets the results.

CT-GAN attack

The experts have tested the efficiency of the attack by asking three radiologists to diagnose a mix of 30 authentic CT scans and 70 scans altered using CT-GAN. The malware was used to inject evidence of malign cancer into the scans of healthy patients and remove cancer from the scans of patients who actually had it.

When the radiologists were unaware that the results had been manipulated, they diagnosed 99% of the injected scans as cancer and 94% of the scans from which the cancer was removed as belonging to healthy patients. After they were informed of the attack, the radiologists still misdiagnosed the patients in 60% and 87% of cases, respectively. The researchers said the attack even fooled a state-of-the-art lung cancer screening model in each and every one of the tests.

So why would someone want to launch such an attack? The researchers have listed several possible motivations and goals. They believe that modifying someone’s scan and causing a misdiagnosis can be useful for stealing someone’s job, altering elections, sabotaging or falsifying research, earning money by holding data hostage, insurance fraud, and even murder or terrorism.

They pointed out that the method can be used to add or remove evidence of various illnesses, including aneurysms, heart disease, blood clots, infections, arthritis, cartilage problems, torn ligaments, and tumors in the brain, heart or spine.

For example, if an attacker adds evidence of cancer to a political candidate’s CT scan, they can get the targeted individual to withdraw from the race. The same technique could work for getting someone to give up a job or a leadership role. In the worst case scenario, hackers could remove evidence of a serious illness, which could lead to that person dying due to not receiving the proper treatment.

CT-GAN attack motives

The researchers have published a paper detailing their findings, along with a video showing how an attacker could plant a malicious device inside a healthcare organization.

This article originally appeared on SecurityWeek