Health
Paralyzed man with ALS is third to receive NeuraLink implant, can type with brain
Brad Smith, an Arizona husband and father with ALS, has become the third person to receive Neuralink, the brain implant made by Elon Musk’s company.
He is also the first ALS patient and the first non-verbal person to receive the implant, he shared in a post on X on Sunday.
“I am typing this with my brain. It is my primary communication,” Smith, who was diagnosed in 2020, wrote in the post, which was also shared by Musk. He went on to thank Musk.
Smith is completely paralyzed and relies on a ventilator to breathe. He created a video using the brain-computer interface (BCI) to control the mouse on his MacBook Pro, he stated.
“This is the first video edited with [Neuralink], and maybe the first edited with a BCI,” he said.
“Neuralink has given me freedom, hope and faster communication.”
The video was narrated by Smith’s “old voice,” he said, which was cloned by artificial intelligence from recordings before he lost the use of his voice.
“I want to explain how Neuralink has impacted my life and give you an overview of how it works,” he said.
An Arizona husband and father with ALS has become the third person to receive Neuralink, the brain implant made by Elon Musk’s company. (Getty Images)
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, according to The ALS Association.
Over time, the disease impairs muscle control until the patient becomes paralyzed. ALS is ultimately fatal, with an average life expectancy of three years, although 10% of patients can survive for 10 years and 5% live 20 years or longer.
HOW ELON MUSK’S NEURALINK BRAIN CHIP WORKS
It does not impact cognitive function.
Neuralink, which is about 1.75 inches thick, was implanted in Smith’s motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls body movement.
The implanted device captures neuron firings in the brain and sends a raw signal to the computer.
Neuralink is made by Elon Musk’s company of the same name. (Getty Images)
“AI processes this data on a connected MacBook Pro to decode my intended movements in real time to move the cursor on my screen,” Smith said.
“Neuralink has given me freedom, hope and faster communication,” he added. “It has improved my life so much. I am so happy to be involved in something big that will help many people.”
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Smith is also a man of faith, saying that he believes God has put him in this position to serve others.
“I have not always understood why God afflicted me with ALS, but with time, I am learning to trust His plan for me,” he said.
“God loves me and my family. He has answered our prayers in unexpected ways. He has blessed my kids and our family. So I’m learning to trust that God knows what he is doing.”
The wireless device was implanted in Smith’s motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls body movement. (iStock)
Smith also said he is grateful that he gets to work with the “brilliant people” at Neuralink and do “really interesting work.”
“Don’t get me wrong, ALS still really sucks, but I am talking about the big picture,” he said. “The big picture is, I am happy.”
Dr. Mary Ann Picone, medical director of the MS Center at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, applauded Neuralink’s capabilities.
“This is an amazing development that now the third person to use Neuralink has gained the ability with the use of AI to type with neural thoughts,” Picone, who was not involved in Smith’s care, told Fox News Digital.
“The now-realized potential of Neuralink is to allow patients with quadriplegia to control computers and mobile devices with their thoughts.”
“For every Brad Smith out there, there are hundreds of thousands of other disabled patients awaiting access to this technology,” a neurologist said. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
There are some risks involved with the implant, Picone noted. These include surgical infection, bleeding and damage to the underlying brain tissue.
“But the benefits are that patients who are paralyzed would have the potential to restore personal control over the limbs by using their thoughts,” she said.
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Dr. Peter Konrad, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the department of neurosurgery at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, called Neuralink a “remarkable demonstration of the power of AI-driven technology.”
“Mr. Smith is an incredible hero for those who are severely disabled from diseases such as ALS,” Konrad, who also was not involved in Smith’s care, told Fox News Digital.
“Mr. Smith is an incredible hero for those who are severely disabled from diseases such as ALS.”
Konrad also spoke of the advancements that have occurred since the past generations of BCI technology.
“It is encouraging to see faster progress being made with neural devices reaching clinical trials in the past five to 10 years,” he said. “However, we are still awaiting development of a BCI device that does not require a team of engineers and experts to customize each and every severely disabled patient with this technology.”
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“For every Brad Smith out there, there are hundreds of thousands of other disabled patients awaiting access to this technology,” he said.
“This video demonstrates the safety of these types of devices — now it’s time to provide larger access to these devices through a new generation of educated physicians, engineers and manufacturers able to deploy this technology.”
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
DOCTOR SHARES 3 SIMPLE CHANGES TO STAY HEALTHY AND INDEPENDENT AS YOU AGE
“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
COMMON VISION ISSUE COULD LEAD TO MISSED CANCER WARNING, STUDY FINDS
“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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