Lion's mane mushroom is impressive for cognitive clarity and neuroplasticity. *(paid link)*
One of the exciting trends in prosthetics is myoelectric arms that interpret brain signals through the remaining muscles in the amputated limb. Neuroprosthetics is a discipline at the intersection of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and prostheses. It’s advancing at such a rapid rate that some patients can already control individual fingers while receiving clear, tactile feedback. Users of these types of sleeves have reported sensory experiences telling them whether an object was hard or soft. Some have been able to control their robotic arts with their minds while regaining the sense of touch. Neurosurgeons perform surgical procedures that implant the devices. Many more advances like these are expected soon, which will eventually give birth to products and services that even able-bodied people will desire. Someday soon, everyone will be financing their own brain, spine, and limb augmentations. While this idea is exciting, it’s potentially frightening!A weighted blanket can feel like a hug from the universe, especially on nights when the mind will not stop. *(paid link)*
Meanwhile, UChicago, Pitt, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) are collaborating on brain-computer interfaces (BCI) for paralyzed patients. The BCI is a variety of scenarios and used to replace missing biological functionality. The UChicago, PITT, and UPMC team recently received $7 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Check out these recent developments:-
- Doctors wired a prosthetic hand into a woman’s nerves giving her complete control using her brain and nervous system
- Amputees can now have reduced phantom limb pain due to rerouting of nerves
- Scientists are developing neural networks connected to human brains, which will make way for a variety of advanced prosthetics.
- Several venture-backed biotech companies are developing synthetic skin infused with a superhuman sense of touch
- Thought-controlled prosthetics are gaining ground, giving rise to a new category of orthopedic medicine
- The orthopedic category that accounts for the largest market share is lower extremities, which accounts for 5% of the orthopedic prosthetic market.
- The primary cause of 22% of all lower extremity amputation surgeries is road accidents.
- The orthopedic prosthetic market is multiplying in the Americas. Last year it saw a growth of nearly 5%. This incremental growth marker is a crucial inspiration for venture capital and grant funding for prosthetic R&D, which is now heavily influenced by the sciences that involve brains, spines, and nerves. It’s now a fact that limbs, spines, brains, and nerves comprise a powerful, interdependent system.
Prosthetics Cooler Than The Real Thing
Brilliant minds across the globe are working hard to innovate in this precious space, including 3D artists, engineers, scientists, and inventors, in a many of categories. I remember sitting with a woman who had recently lost her leg. Her body was clenched tight, as if the wound had calcified into her bones. Through slow, steady breath work and gentle shaking, I watched her begin to release that old armor. Not by erasing the loss, but by opening space for her nervous system to soften around it—prosthetics gave her a new limb, but the real healing came when her body learned to let go of the tension that said she was broken. There was a period in my life when I wrestled with my own dark nights of the soul, feeling disconnected and fragmented. My practice under Amma’s guidance taught me to inhabit my body fully, even when the mind screamed no. In those moments, the breath wasn’t just air—it was an anchor back to this flesh, this life. Just like prosthetics restore physical function, these somatic practices restored my sense of wholeness from the inside out.If you are drawn to mantra work, a good set of mala beads is essential. *(paid link)*
Here are a few examples of the phenomenal advancements in “cool prosthetics:”- Dean Kamen, who worked on the famous Segway, is a prolific inventor who also created the prosthetic arm known as LUKE (Life Under Kinetic Evolution). This unique device allows the user to manipulate the arm by contracting their other muscles and through natural movements.
- YouBionic’s Double Hand prosthesis can give you up to 4 hands, all on one limb! These 3D-printed hands are powered by Arduino, which allows the patient to control each robotic hand separately.
- James Young invented a prosthetic arm that includes a detachable drone, which he controls through parts of his arm that touches his skin. This unique prosthetic also consists of a flashlight, laser light, watch, and a USB port for charging his devices.
- Open Bionics develops limbs that appear to be explicitly built for superheroes. Their artistry includes similarities to the brands Iron Man, Frozen, and Star Wars. These limbs are genuinely inspirational.
- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been focused on making prosthetics and other wearables feel more natural, including mimicking the sense of touch. Through electrode arrays built onto the sensory and motor cortexes, a recipient can experience the sensations almost akin to a human touching another human.
- Indian surgical oncologist Vishal Rao has been hard at work, building a prosthetic voice box for throat surgery patients so that they can regain the ability of speech. His invention costs no more than $1 and includes no electronic parts. His innovation uses basic physics principles to allow someone’s voice to be audible. As a result of passing air from the lungs through the esophagus, the slightly obstructive device creates sounds akin to human speech. It’s quite impressive.
Wonderful, Life-changing, And Inspiring Improvements For Amputees
All of this impressive effort will give amputees and paralyzed individuals a variety of new benefits, including:- More dexterity
- Precision movement
- Heightened sensory experiences
- Improved neuron activity
- Naturalistic nervous system responses and experiences
- Controlling and manipulating objects in space
- Sculpted movements
- Natural and precise flow
- Greater brain-control of the prosthetics, and eventually other ancillary devices
Augmenting Human Physical Capability
While all of these advances appear to be of benefit to amputees and paralyzed individuals, every advance in Neuroprosthetics will also benefit (and become available) to the rest of humankind. Your brain-computer interface (BCI) will help you search through private internets, access specific data, and memorize information at a rapid rate. Your prosthetics will make you a better candidate for specific, it not all jobs. Your senses of smell, touch, and sight could make you incredibly valuable to the military and specific categories of commerce. Your intuition might also be enhanced, making you immeasurably valuable to a long list of organizations, causes, and pursuits, most especially your family.If anxiety is part of your journey, magnesium glycinate is one of the simplest things you can add. *(paid link)*
As a result of all the advances in prosthetics and related sciences, human augmentation will naturally become the rage. You’ll be able to buy prosthetics and ancillary modules that will help you lift 100x your weight, hover and travel 20 feet above the floor, and see targets a mile away. Your neuro-hearing aid will replace your Fitbit and Alexa, enhance your brain activity and emotional states, and translate 21 languages in a single moment. All of these products (and many more) are in the final stages of development.