Mind Over Matter

The Mad Hatter

2008-12-02T22:24:00.004-05:00

"The saying "Mad as a hatter" refers to the psychological deterioration of British hatmakers whose brains, was later discovered, were slowly poisoned as they moistened the brims of mercury-laden felt hats with their lips"

Myers Psychology in Modules 8th Edition

The Sugar Love Triangle

2008-07-25T13:52:00.008-04:00

Food is a big deal. Everyone needs it and most everyone loves it. But food, namely sugar has a dark side. Thousands of people were enslaved, hundreds of thousands died, millions of people still suffer the consequences of the sugar high during the 1500s-1600s. Because our ancestors had a sweet tooth, today we deal with the fall out of slavery. Here's how the story goes...

Early in our history, sugar came from sugar cane. Sugar cane is kinda bamboo like and the process of extracting it is pretty complex. It was discovered in India, where the crusaders sampled the sugary goodness and brought it home.
The English (the Spanish too) fell in love with sugar and wanted to mass produce it. Tough luck for them, they didn't really have the warm tropical weather you need to grow sugar cane. India wasn't tropical enough and it produced to low a yield for the growing sugar market. On second thought, they had quite a bit of land in the New World. So they set out for the Caribbean and started sugar plantations.

Everything was going according to plan except that almost all their workers were dying of malaria and all those fun tropical diseases. Slaving away all day in the sun only to die of some exotic tropical disease was not exactly what the English (and Spanish too) signed up for. But the sweet tooth wouldn't go away. They needed cheap labor and tragically it was easy to find.

Tribal warfare in Africa resulted in the winning tribe selling off the loosing tribe (warriors, wives and children) to the highest bidder. The English had the perfect item to barter with: guns. Thus began the great sugar love triangle. Guns made in England were taken to Africa. The guns were loaded off and the slaves were loaded on. The slaves traveled across the ocean and dropped off in the "West Indies" where they worked on the sugar plantations. The boats picked up the sugar and sold it in England where they got gold and more guns.

The love triangle hit its breaking point when a brilliant German, Andreas Marggraf discovered how to extract sugar from sugar beats in 1747. Sugar beats are hardy, grow everywhere, and sugar is easily extracted from them. Sugar became easy to get, and coincidental with the sugar surplus, England abolished slavery in 1772. That's 25 short years for everyone keeping score at home.

The American War of Independence started three years later in 1775. When the great Constitution was adopted as law in 1787, it not once mentioned slavery. The logic is simple. The demand for slaves was being shot down by the sugar-beat extraction method. Very few new slaves were being brought from Africa, and people were generally pretty moral and set their slaves free. Our founding fathers created the greatest form of government, and made sure to address everything from religion to basic rights. It is no mistake they didn't address slavery. They assumed it would just die off, and they would have been right if it hadn't been for Eli Whitney.

1793, six years after the Constitution was approved, 21 years after England abolished slavery, and 46 years after the sugar beat method was invented Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Sadly, the slaves were already in the perfect cotton growing climate and the old sugar plantations just needed a tiny bit of remodeling.

So began the cotton plantation. Plantations, where slaves were treated as animals, led to the Civil War. Slaves were used as pawns to get the English and French on the side of the North. With slaves now bearing the guilt of the war, it lead to resentment of the Reconstruction, the KKK, and thousands of lynchings. Extreme racism occurred just one generation ago, and today we still hotly debate affirmative action.

Who knew that sugar would cause so much trouble.

Give me ideas!

2008-01-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

With my classes being either hard core science (immunology and molecular neurobiology) or science dumbed down (nutrition) and history of college sports (which doesn't really fit the mood), I'm running into less inspirational ideas to write about. Plus my Wall Street Journal subscription ran out so there goes my weekly health update over lunch.

Therefore, questions and comments are requested. Please.... pretend that I'm begging.

Food For Thought

2008-01-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

According to my Nutrition class, osteoporosis may actually have nothing to do with the amount of calcium you take in, but with malfunctioning of hormones that control calcium removal and replacement in the bones. Bones, unlike teeth, are not solid structures. Well that's not what I mean. They are pretty sturdy, but calcium is continually taken from them or removed from them in order to keep blood calcium steady.

Steady blood calcium is more important than strong bones. Shocker, right! But without blood calcium, the nerves couldn't transmit electrical nervous impulses and such and muscles couldn't contract properly. So having strong bones and not being able to coordinate them is pretty much useless.

Anyway, because blood calcium is always steady, its hard to measure whether you have enough in your bones. It's not like you're gonna volunteer to have a biopsy done on your bones just to see how they're holding up. That's why hormone problems not diet problems is hard to prove.

A fact leaning toward the messed-up-hormones theory is that high intakes of calcium from supplements have been linked to kidney stones. The kidney, being the blood filter, gets overwhelmed with this massive amount of calcium, but your body can't incorporate it into the bones without the hormone signaling it to.

Conclusion? You could be screwed no matter how much milk you drink.

Solution? Eat everything in moderation, eat a variety of foods, and move your lazy butt at least once a week. Doesn't it seem that people living like this often end up living the longest?

Loose up to 50 pounds in one day guaranteed!

2007-12-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

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Shallow Thoughts

2007-11-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't been posting because I'm still trying to balance school and life right now, but as I sat studying for my Medical Microbiology exam last night I felt incredibly pathetic.

My worst fear is getting herpes from sharing a friend's Starbucks or chapstick. Yes, I've said it before and I'll say it again. The thought of cold sores give me the chills. I think its the worst thing ever.

But people in Africa? Let me tell you about them. They're worst fear is Ebola; after getting infected you get a rash and bleeding out of your skin, as well as your nose and mouth.

Maybe I'm wrong and they fear polio. The last case in the US was in the 1970s, but in Africa you could end up with permanently damaged nerves and limbs that waste away over the years.

What if they fear Rift Vally Fever that leads to encephalitis (brain inflammation)? Do they know they're one mosquito bite away from malaria? Do they lie awake at night wondering if they could have HIV? Do they worry about passing it to their children, and leaving them orphaned as infants?

Honestly, I'm ashamed of my fear of herpes. How incredibly, amazingly blessed we are simply because we live on a wealthy continent. It's so easy to take it for granted when someone asks for a sip of my drink.

We Are Not Alone

2007-10-10T02:32:00.001-04:00

Bacteria outnumber the cells we have in our body 10 or 100 times to 1.

- Professor Chapman

Jurassic Park ain't happening anytime soon

2007-10-04T22:09:00.000-04:00

From my molecular biology book...pretty cool stuff:

Their strategy is to isolate dinosaur DNA, but not directly from dinosaur remains. Instead they find Jurassic-period blood-sucking insects that had feasted on blood and had then become mired in tree sap, which had turned to amber, entombing and preserving the insects.

So they figure out that since blood as white blood cells with DNA they could amplify the DNA using PCR (so since DNA is double stranded and the strands are the same facing opposite directions, you can copy it easily if you know the first couple of base pairs) and then you just stick the DNA into an egg, like how they made Dolly the sheep.

While the science technology exists for this to happen, it probably won't because...

1. PCR can only can copy one 1/100,000 at a time so piecing 100,000 genes together kinda sucks.
2. even if technology got better for PCR to do the whole genome...DNA is pretty unstable and breaks really easily so finding a whole unbroken chromosome is pretty much impossible.
3. PCR amplifies all DNA so contaminate DNA from the mosquito might be replicated too making this weird dinosaur-mosquito thingy which would just be weird.

so tough luck on dinosaurs...... for now

Last Leper Colony in Europe

2007-10-03T16:00:00.000-04:00

Romania, land of strange things....

Romania has changed beyond all recognition in the past decade, but there is one place where life goes on almost exactly as before - Europe's last leper colony at Tichilesti in the Danube delta.
Since 1991 residents have been free to leave the colony's shady grounds, but after spending most of their lives there, few of them have rushed to seize this opportunity.
At Tichilesti, set up more than a century ago, they get food, a place to sleep, clothes and medical attention, so it's hard to make the break.
Besides most of them are elderly and need special care.
Hidden among hills and lime trees, with fresh air and natural spring waters, Tichilesti seem more like a village than a hospital.
Although no longer infectious, the residents are scarred for life: hands with knots instead of fingers, no eyes - just two empty holes covered with black glasses - and no eyebrows or any other kind of facial hair.
But, unlike many old people, the lepers of Tichilesti don't complain about their lot. They are welcoming and cheerful, despite having lived through war, hunger, poverty and isolation.
The lepers at Tichilesti were always treated well by local villagers - it was often the staff who were the least comfortable with the patients.
Medical statistician Steluta Laric has worked there for over 20 years and she admits: "The first time I came here I didn't feel comfortable. The patients used to hold my hand to see my reaction."
She had a one-year-old baby and was afraid of passing the disease on to him.
Since the fall of Communism in 1989, the hospital's reputation and the patients' lives have improved.
What remains the same is the mutual support that the residents give each other. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1639335.stm

How to avoid being the lonely old crazy cat lady

2007-10-03T00:57:00.000-04:00

One thing I love learning is the scientific reasoning behind myths. Everyone believes them but no one knows why they're true. Everyone knows the urban legend about being alone and getting a bunch of cats and becoming a crazy old lady. Well here's why it could be true....

Toxoplasma gondii is a bacteria that is common in humans. But only 1% of those infected are ever diagnosed. That's because your average immune system can handle it and it just forms a cyst somewhere out of the way. It can be dangerous around pregnant ladies and immunocompromised people (like if you have AIDS or a transplant). Problems can also arise if cysts form in the brain.

Ironically, the bacteria only undergo replication in the cat digestive system. That's another reason its not so harmful in humans: it can't grow there successfully. After it grows and reproduces in the cat digestive system it gets excreted with the rest of the stuff in the digestive system.

So imagine this scenario: you are an old lady (old = less effective immune system) with 7 cats. Maybe you don't clean out the litter box every day, so maybe a piece of cat crap gets stuck on a cat's paw. The cat walks on a counter leaving T. gondii behind. You eat the bacteria by accident with the sand which you made on the counter. The bacteria makes a cyst in your brain.

The icing on the cake is that T. gondii in the brain has been linked to schizophrenia and has significant behavioral changes in rats exposed to the bacteria.

MRI of AIDS patient with cyst

So there you have it. If you are old, don't get a bunch of cats cause you just might end up crazy.

Info from: Schaechter's Mechanisms of Microbial Disease and Survival of the Sickest and 10-1-07 UM lecture in Medical Microbiology

Going Green

2007-09-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

I'm not a tree hugger, I promise. I like meat, take 15 min showers and debate what to eat for lunch with the refrigerator door open. But I really like recycling. I can't help it, it's just so convenient and satisfying. I know a lot of people don't have newspaper or bottle recycling bins, so here are some stats that might motivate you to recycle your water bottle.

$1.42 billion: dollars college students spend on bottled water each year

$70 million: water bottles Americans consume each year

27,000: barrels of oil required to package and transport that water

90: percent of bottles that end up in landfills rather than recycled or reused

1,000: years water bottles take to degrade in landfills

Invasion of the Space Germs

2007-09-26T22:30:00.000-04:00

Really, there are deadly germs from space..the catch is that we kinda put them there....

It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into orbit on a spaceship and come back stronger and deadlier than ever.
But it really happened.
The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit in food poisoning.
The trip: Space shuttle mission STS-115, September 2006.
The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride.
The result: Mice that were fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick, and died more quickly, than mice fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/09/25/germs.in.space.ap/index.html

The bacteria changed over 150 genes to adapt to their surroundings - space. It makes sense...plus there's nothing up there to protect them from UV and other high energy waves which have a big role in mutating genes.

How to Save A Life

2007-09-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

A lot of people don't like to get involved when someone around them is in trouble. Lets say someone around you collapses and stops breathing. Sure, I would be a little grossed out to give some stranger mouth to mouth too... If there's anything I am completely afraid of its getting herpes of the mouth, cold stores. Seriously the thought of THAT on my lips for the rest of my life would make me think twice about saving someone's life.

So you could call me completely shallow for possibly letting someone die to save my smooth lips, but it turns out you don't really need to give mouth to mouth. Chest compressions practically do the same thing.

Oxygenated blood is stuck in the chest around the heart. Chest compressions help push the blood to the brain, which is important to prevent brain damage. Studies found that chest compressions are almost as effective as mouth to mouth.

And the best part is you don't have to be CPR certified or be mouth to mouth to save someone. Just push their chest till the ambulance gets there...

Burn Treatment

2007-09-20T00:34:00.000-04:00

Just something I picked up from volunteering in the ER:

If you get a bad burn put toothpaste on it. I overheard the doctors discussing the topic, and they had a pretty lively debate on which kind works best, but they finally settled on non-whitening.

Being a naturally clumsy person, I've burned myself a few times and I can say that it really works. Once I was pouring tea out of the pot into a cup and I spilled some over the edge and on my hand. The steam and hot water even got between my fingers. Luckily I had a whole tube of toothpaste on hand and put a layer on over my burns.

I swear it saved me from blisters. So try it sometime, and let me know how it works out for you.

Your pick: Tramp stamp or Epidural

2007-09-18T17:54:00.000-04:00

Lately, a lot of girls have been getting the "tramp stamp," you know the tattoo on the lower lower-er back. But there may be a downside to getting one if you plan on getting painkillers during labor.

In 2002, a pair of Canadian anesthesiologists published a report that questioned whether administering an epidural through such a tattoo could be risky. The doctors speculated that complications like inflammation or nerve damage may arise if the needle pulled a bit of dyed skin along with it, and then deposited it into the nerve-rich region outside the spinal column.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119006970692630378.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_pj

Other doctors say its no big deal if the ink is dried and the wound healed....but the ink itself is not exactly FDA approved. So if you plan on getting one, just remember to deal with it during labor.

The Truth about Milk - Growth Hormone

2007-09-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

As a lot of people know, I believe there is a milk conspiracy. The war between organic and hormone grown rages on, if you just google about it there's several websites dedicated to it and the organic and not websites say really mean things about each other. Very entertaining, I promise. Anyway, to drink or not to drink, that is your decision. But there are some things you should know before you choose.

Growth Hormone is a Peptide Hormone!
This is really important to realize because it means Growth Hormone (GH) is just a protein. (Here's the 3D image of the amino acid sequence)

Think of it analogous to steak, a big nice protein. And when you drink the milk your stomach does the same thing it does when you eat steak....it digests the protein.

So it doesn't matter if your milk has growth hormone it it or not. It won't affect you if your stomach digests it. That's why people (and some notorious athletes) getting growth hormone therapy inject it, so it can go directly into the bloodstream and do its hormone stuff on the muscles.

Your body simply doesn't use growth hormone from milk whether its organic or not.

Fun Fact Fridays

2007-09-14T13:31:00.000-04:00

"Have you ever wondered why infants and toddlers are so uncoordinated? It is because the process of myelination [covering of nerves with fat so they work faster] continues after birth. So, if children seem slow to walk or to be toilet trained, don't blame them for being uncooperative; they just may not be fully myelinated yet."

The Kiss of Death

2007-09-13T20:02:00.001-04:00

From a newspaper article I saved:

Peanut butter 'did not kill girl'A 15-year-old Canadian girl with a peanut allergy did not die because of kissing her boyfriend who had eaten peanut butter, a coroner has ruled.

But Saguenay coroner Michel Miron did not reveal why Christina Desforges died last November because he has yet to make his final report. The coroner said he wanted to speak out so the case would not be used by the Canadian Association of Food Allergies. He said he believed the group wanted to use it in an education campaign.

"I had to tell them the cause of death was different than first believed," he said.

Miss Desforges died in hospital in Saguenay, about 155 miles (250km) north of Quebec City, last November, after she failed to respond to days of treatment.

Her 16-year-old boyfriend had kissed her some nine hours after he had eaten peanut butter on toast, the AFP news agency reported at the time. "She was extremely allergic to peanuts and her boyfriend didn't know," a reporter for Canadian broadcaster TVA said.

Allergists at the time called the case very rare and worrisome.

The coroner Mr Miron said that, contrary to media reports at the time, she did not get an adrenalin shot, a standard treatment for anaphylactic shock, immediately after the kiss.

He said she had not used her syringe to give herself a shot because she did not have an allergic reaction to peanut butter.

Peanut allergy symptoms can include hives, a drop in blood pressure and swelling of the face and throat that can hinder breathing.

Moral of the story? Feel free to kiss! In my case, eat all the mangoes you want, it won't be the reason I won't kiss you :)