17-year-old student recognized for medical research
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Leave it up to Westview High School senior Raghav Tripathi, 17, to advance the future of medicine.
His research on a promising “painless painkiller” that may reduce unintended side-effects and addiction associated with modern prescription pain medicine won him a $3,000 scholarship and a trip to Washington D.C. next month for a national competition.
Tripathi is one of only six national finalists in the Siemens Competition with a chance at $100,000 in scholarship money.
“The Siemens competition has pushed me toward exploring my limits even more and thinking that it’s not about your background as much as where you’re going in the future,” Tripathi said.
Tripathi’s research earned a scholarship last summer to work in a New York lab. While there, he spent countless hours working, including many sleepless nights.
“I felt pushed and I felt I couldn’t do it sometimes because a lot of the experiments weren’t working out,” Tripathi said. “Then I kept working on it and when I actually found the compound, it just felt like magic.”
No matter what happens in the national competition next month, he is proud of his accomplishments and will keep researching his project for years to come.
“The end product will hopefully be some sort of pill, vaccine, maybe a spray or something that can be used by people who are suffering from pain,” Tripathi said.
Tripathi hopes to be a doctor someday with a strong focus in medical research.
Raghav, I am very proud of your accomplishments and wish you all the best as you strive for more in Washington DC. You have done more in your 17 years of youth than many do in a life time. I am honored to have known you in our boy scout troop and to see you grow to the man you are becoming. Your mom and dad must be very proud. Good luck to you in your future endeavors.
VERY smart man. I was watching this last night and going holy sh*$, this kid knows all that stuff!
Good luck! This gives a lot of us hope for future generations! It's nice to see someone so young doing amazing things. You show younger generations that anything is possible once you put your mind to it and dedicate yourself.
This young man has done so much at the age of 17. Â Yesterday we read about two 17 year old idiots that hit the highlight of their lives by throwing rocks at cars. Â What a stark difference. Â
Congratulations on an amazing achievement! I hope you win the contest and the scholarship!
Nice job!
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Impressive!!
I hope that more young adults research radical life extension and investigate The SENS Foundation, which is trying to totally eliminate human aging so that humans can live indefinitely.Â
 @ObviousZebra ~  Oh fine... since we can't seem to take good care of the population we already have on this planet, now you want to keep the ones we have alive indefinitely, PLUS add new ones all the time?   Or do we just sterilize all the humans who are going to live forever...?  Â
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Terrible thought... can you imagine having politicians live forever??? Â ...shudder...
@ObviousZebra Oh, yeah. Just what I want, to live forever stuck in a wheelchair (or worse). Do you realise that even if you stopped the old age thing your body would still break down? Your knees would still deteriorate, hips, other joints. Not to mention your organs; it is not just old age that is destroying them, chemicals in food, water and air. You are born to die; let it happen! Death is just the next great adventure!
 @ObviousZebra Oh joy.
Apparently students of some cultural groups take pride in edication and personal advancement!
 @jpk and some of other cultural groups spell it "edication"
Proofreading copy is a virtue, I guess. Just ask the KATU staff! LOL
 @jpk Just say it... Kids from India are born doctors. They thrive in medicine. I think it's great what this kid has accomplished.
 @Lips  @jpk First, I doubt this kid is from India, I'm sure he's American. His parents could be from India, though, but that goes to jpk's point. Indian families tend to take pride in education and personal advancement, and it shows in the achievements of their kids. They would never be satisfied to sit on the welfare rolls and let their kids be uneduated thugs.
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It's all about parents and values, people, not about what the government is supposed to do for you.
Hmmm... not sure how a non-addictive painkiller will go over with Big Pharma... they make an awful lot of money from people being dependent on their scrip pain-killers...Â
 @margay1 They'll buy the research from him (unless he has his own company, he can't afford start up manufacturing costs) and rob the consumer blind that way. Or they'll hire him on and pay him so much money ethics won't be an issue. That's how they do it in that field.
 @margay1 Yep they do and the doctors are the pushes...I suffered for years from eczema and dandruff and the dermatologist was great at prescribing extremely expensive prescription ointments and creams to use on my scalp.
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One day while researching on the Internet to read an article about using good old-fashioned vinegar as a pre-shower rince.
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So I went down to the refrigerator got out the good old apple cider vinegar and started using it daily.
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Within two weeks my dandruff was gone, my scalp no longer itched, in my adult acne was mostly gone as well.
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I got tired of being asked by the family why I always smelled like a salad bowl so I switched to using the white vinegar which is not as bad as the apple cider.
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So for about a $1.95 at winco I get a four months supply of dandruff medicine. Much better than none $200 prescriptions the doctor was giving me which were not very effective and expensive.
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Now days using it 1-2 times a week keeps my scalp and my skin perfectly clear.
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When I brought it up with the doctor when there for something else one time he treated me like I was crazy and said I didn't know what I was talking about and the diagnosis of my condition must've been wrong. After pointing out to him it was his diagnosis from years ago he did not seem very friendly and it was the last time I went to him...
 @FreedomRocks  @margay1 It's really too bad western doctors don't embrace homeopathic remedies...but they get those nice catered lunches from their pharmaceutical reps weekly, plus pads, pens, clocks, etc that are all hanging around, encouraging drug prescribing. If the government wants to save the average health care consumer money? Banish the "free lunch" program, and you'll see unnecessary prescriptions start to decline, when backs are no longer getting scratched. I mean, you can't tell me that when our pharma rep would come to the office, stocked with Lovenox (an anticoagulant, billed at 350.00+ per shot, dependent on dose) syringes we could give out as samples to uninsured patients or weeks' supply--that it was costing them that much to produce. Makes me so angry. There is NO reason for companies to rip off consumers for critical medical supplies.
 @FreedomRocks  @margay1 Now that you have those problems solved, what are you going to do about your bad breath, BO, green toe nails and foot fungi? A zip tie can help if you have the drip!
 @FreedomRocks  @margay1 Ha ha ha! Thanks for letting me pick on you, you are good sport!Â
 @swimbad  @margay1 I was going to let you pay for fixing those via Obama care! Thanks for covering my bill er ah I mean BO. Oh wait that also could be your leader I mean under arm smell...
Amazing what a little research will do! And you're right, the purpose of Big Pharma is keeping people strung out on chemicals that don't cure, but simply enable users to live fairly normal lives all while reaping the profits.
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Another good use for Apple Cider Vinegar is one teaspoon is a glass of water before bed for acid reflux.
 @Mikey Never tried that but it is great on cucumbers:) Does it trick the body into producing less acid since it it 5% acid already or does the water flush things out?
I will take some now! Go kid Go....I don't even mind if you expect to make a boatload of money from it...
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If I only new my medical needs over 50 I would have gone into my second choice of a medical field over engineering.
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Sadly though if he had it today it would be 10 years before the US would have it if we were lucky...
 @FreedomRocks Isn't Westview HS local? I think he is already a US citizen. (That melting pot / immigration thing). With any luck, he will attend OHSU because of their strong interest in research.
Somehow I feel like a bigger failure now than I already felt I was before reading this.
 @paulelijah Ya same here but we can't always know our passion by age 10 like some lucky ones...