Cochlear Implants

Today's Medical Topic:  Cochlear Implants

What Are We Looking For:  I am taking a break from histology for a while to do some other stuff.  Today we are talking about cochlear implants.  How do the work and what do they do?

First we need to discuss the choclea and sprial organ in your internal ear.  Your cochlea/spiral organ recieves incoming sound waves as they are transferred from the external and middle.  As the sound passes into the fluid filled cochlea different areas of the cochlea vibrate at different resonances.

These resonances move fluid which move hair cells which release a neurotransmitter and sends the sound via electrical impulse to the brain via the auditory nerve.  The way these resonances are transmitted and what resonances get through along with some other structures of your ear process the sound before it gets to your brain.

Cochlear implants are sometimes called "bionic ears."  They take the place of your cochlea and process the sound for you, effectively bypassing the cochlea all together.

My Research:  Alrighty.  Let's take a look.

1) So you can see here that a microphone picks up sound thereby bypasssing all of your ear structure to begin with and sends it to a speech processor which is a computer chip that processes and filters sound.


2) The speech processor takes the place of the cochlea and decides what should and should not be transmitted and sends the information to the transmitter.

3) The transmitter sends the info to the reciever/stimulator which converts the info into electrical impulses then sends the info directly to your auditory nerves, bypassing the cochlea completely.

The external parts of the device also contain the battery.  All data and power is sent to the internal parts of the device through electromagnetic induction via the implanted magnet that also holds the external device in place on your head.

Because of how it works you do not hear sound the same way you would with a functioning cochlea.  Your ear has thousands of hair cells connected to the auditory nerve.  A compliment of 22 electrodes obviously cannot take its place.  So the signal is different and it takes time for your brain to understand the signals, but eventually they become distinct enough to discern speech and important enviromental noises.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Mammal Colon

Histology Continued.  Histology is the microscopic study of human tissue.  We are going to be looking at and discussing different tissue types and layers on a microscopic level.  Even if you don't understand it, I think you will at least find some of the pictures I have taken interesting.

Today's Medical Topic:  Histology of Mammal Colon

What Are We Looking For:  We are looking at some sort of section of mammal colon.  Is it a transverse section?  A frontal section?  A saggital section?  I have no idea.  In fact I have almost zero idea exactly what we are looking at but what the hell, I'll take a shot at it.

*NOTE*  Most of this will be based on assumptions of what is SUPPOSED to be there and my not actually be in this slide but I will do my best.

The Tissue Sample:  Alrighty.  Let's take a look.

So from looking at other slides by people who are much smarter than I, I am assuming that layer at the top are goblet cells that secrete the mucus that lines your colon.  If this is true then we can also assume that these goblet cells lay on a layer of sub mucosa.  Which it is appears they do.  As you know goblet cells are unicellular exocrine glands.

What is underneath the sub mucosa?  I have no idea.  Adipose?  Some sort of loose connective tissue? Your guess is as good as mine.

That darker pink blob there is one of two things.  It is either a piece of smooth muscle or a transverse section of a vein.  I think it is a vein based on shape and size.

Let's get a little closer and see if we can figure something else out.

So I outlined a goblet cell in red.  I am going with goblet cells on that part.  There is the sub mucosa I mentioned earlier underneath the goblet cells.  That other section.  I got no fuckin idea.  Maybe it didn't take up enough dye on this slide or it is old or something.

I am not willing to speculate any further about any other structures that are identifiable.  You can look around and see if you can identify anything else yourself though.  I hope you all enjoyed.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Hairy Mammal Skin Histology

Ok, I fucked this up.  I accidentally overwrote this post with Mammal Colon Histology.  So now I have to rewrite this fucker.

Today's Medical Topic:  Histology of Hairy Mammal Skin

What Are We Looking For:  Hairy mammal skin, go.

The Tissue Sample:  Alrighty.  Let's take a look.

25x magnification

You can see both main layers of the skin here.  The very thin layer on top is the epidermis.  All you can really see in this sample is a light pink line of stratum layers and some degraded and torn stratum corneum just above that.

Then you get into the dermis which has two main layers that are mostly indistinguishable on this slide.  We can assume that the thinner layer on the top, the papillary layer is only a small portion of the dermal layer.  The reticular layer takes up the bulk of the dermal layer.

Underneath that is the hypodermis which is not technically part of the skin.  You can tell we are getting into this layer because you can see pockets of adipose tissue (one of which is outlined in red) which should not intrude into the dermal layer.  The hair follicle does protrude into the hypodermis which is not unusual.

250x Magnification

Now we are looking at the hair follicle itself.  We can identify the root bulb and also the entire hair at this magnification.  The dark pink blob is most likely a sebaceous gland that secretes oils to hydrate and protect hair.

400x Magnification

If we move in closer we can see there is a hair matrix of rapidly dividing cells that produce the actual hair.  You can also see the follicle wall but I am unable to identify any of the follicle wall layers.  There is a nice close up of the sebaceous gland though

You can look around and see if you can identify anything else yourself.  I hope you all enjoyed.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Histology of Mammal Lung

Histology Continued.  Histology is the microscopic study of human tissue.  We are going to be looking at and discussing different tissue types and layers on a microscopic level.  Even if you don't understand it, I think you will at least find some of the pictures I have taken interesting.

Today's Medical Topic:  Histology of Mammal Lung

What Are We Looking For:  I feel like I shouldn't have to explain what a lung is.  But let's first discuss where exactly this piece of tissue is from in the lung.  My buest gess is that is is a transverse section that includes a small branch of trachea.

So obviously the slide cannot hold an entire transverse section of the lung but definitely part of it.

The Tissue Sample:  So this is mammal lung.  What can we expect to see?  For one we can expect some sort of a piece of trachea or a trachea branch and all the associated tissues with that.  We are going to see part of some alveoli air sacs.  And we are probably going to see some sort of connective tissue.

40x Magnification

The squiggly stuff is alveoli.  Alveoli is composed of simple squamous epithelium.  Ideal for fast filtering but only one cell layer thick.  It is extremely distinctive.  No other tissue type looks quite like it.

The next thing down labeled "This thing" looks like some sort of tracheal branch.  We are going to look at that close up and discuss it in detail.  The next part down I sincerely have no idea what that is supposed to be. I think it is just some degraded tissue because the slide is old.  At any rate we will ignore it for the sake of simplicity.

250x Magnification

So here is a close up of the tracheal branch called a bronchiole.  You can see it composed of more than one distinctive tissue types.  You can see some smooth muscle there.

The darker pink/purple "chunks" that you see are the inner lining of the bronchiole.  This should be either cuboidal or columnar epithelia depending on the size of the bronchiloe.  In this case it appears to be ciliated columnar epithelial tissue.  The ciliated part is for moving dust and debris particles out of the lung.  Lets get closer.

400x Magnification

Here you can clearly distinguish the cilia and also the darker pink line that is the basement membrane of the columnar epithelial layer.

The white space in the middle is just that.  Empty space.  That is the passageway in which air moves when you inhale and exhale.  There are some other tissues scattered about that are difficult to identify with whatever stain was used to dye this slide.

We can assume there is probably some sort of connective tissue in there and also some other passageways and structures which are beyond the scope of my knowledge.  But there is definitively those three distinct tissue types as mentioned above with all of their inherent structures.

Well, this post took way too long.  Next we will look at something simpler.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Epiglottis Histology

We are going to be doin histology for a while.  Histology is the microscopic study of human tissue.  We are going to be looking at and discussing different tissue types and layers on a microscopic level.  Even if you don't understand it, I think you will at least find some of the pictures I have taken interesting.

Today's Medical Topic:  Histology of the Epiglottis.

What Are We Looking For:  The epiglottis is a little flap of cartilage that folds over your trachea when you swallow so you don't inhale food and water.  The epiglottis is constructed of a specific type of cartilage called elastic cartilage.  This type of cartilage is unique and really only found in a few places in the body, namely your ears and the epiglottis.

So what are we looking for?  Well first off we want to find the section of elastic cartilag this section should be very distinctive.  We will then discuss the surrounding tissue and how to identify that tissue microscopically.  Are you ready?  Let's do this.

The Tissue Sample:  This is a slide of a section of a human epiglottis and it's surrounding tissue.  It is dyed specifically to show off the elastic cartilage.  So probably the thing that is the darkest, or has soaked up the most dye, is probably the epiglottis.

40x Magnification

So the purple stuff is probably elastic cartilage.  Which is correct.  That is what it is.  As you can see the epiglottis is not just  composed of elastic cartilage, it has other tissues as well.  Let's zoom in.

250x Magnification (Click to make bigger)

Here the elastic cartilage is becoming more distinctive.  Looking closer you can see a thin tissue layer that boarders the cartilage.  This is probably dense irregular connective tissue.  And the larger, lighter areas of wispy tissue adjacent to that is probably loose adipose connective tissue.  It is interspersed with sections of more dense irregular connective tissue.  Let's get closer to see how distinctive these layers are.

400x Magnification

Here we can see how very distinctive everything is.  The elastic cartilage is unmistakable.  Can you see how the fibers in the dense irregular tissue goes in all different directions and are very close together?  And how the adipose tissue shows big globules of fat that take up most of the cell volume?

These distinguishing features do not change between slides.  They might be different colors, but don't let that shake you.  You might even see multiple colors in slides to highlight different features but the shapes and arrangements will stay the same.

Keep it tuned here for more histology.  Tomorrow we look at mammal lung.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Saxitoxin

This is the final part of my three part series on neurotoxins.

Today's Medical Topic:  Saxitoxin.

Off the Top of My Head:   I honestly know nothing about this.

My Research Today:  Saxitoxin is associated with a condition known as Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. It is most commonly introduced to humans when they consume shellfish that is contaminated with the toxin.  The shellfish or mollusks must filter feed a specific kind of dinoflagellate algae to become contaminated and this algae is what produces this very potent neurotoxin.

Saxitoxin is thought to be one of the most toxic naturally occurring non-protein substances in the world.  A dose as small as 0.2mg can be fatal to humans.  To put that into perspective a standard dose of Tylenol is 650mg.  Luckily for us most times we do not consume that much toxin and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning is rarely fatal.

Saxitoxin, apparently.

Symptoms include tingling, numbness, weakness and paralysis which usually manifest within 12 hours if you have ingested the poison.  If all else fails you can place a patient on life support until they metabolize the poison.  Your body will breakdown damn near anything if you can keep it alive long enough.

So how does Saxitoxin work?  Once digested Saxitoxin finds itself into your blood stream diffusing throughout your body.  It selectively binds to voltage-gated sodium channels closing them and blocking passage of the nerve impulse.  If you can't move sodium ions, you can't change your membrane potential.

The difference between this toxin and curare is that this one doesn't compete with acytelcholine it just jams itself into the ion channel.  ACh can bind if it wants but it won't do dick because the channel is blocked with a big ass molecule of saxitoxin.

So there you go.  I hope you enjoyed this series.  Tomorrow we start on histology!

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Curare

We are continuing my 3 part series on neurotoxins.  Today we are discussing Curare.  Everyone needs to put on their big girl pants for this one because it gets technical.  All the way technical, which is the best kind of technical.

Today's Medical Topic:  Curare:  What is it, how does it work, and why is my tongue numb?

Off the Top of My Head:   An almost mythical poison the actuality of what curare is has become quite skewed throughout history.  In novels like Sherlock Holmes it is the mysterious poison created by witch doctors in jungle tribes and used with devastating accuracy in blow guns.  But how much of this is true and how much is myth?  Let's find out.

My Research Today:  "Curare" used by South American tribes is actually a strange syrupy concoction of plants, roots, toxins, and venoms assembled from various sources.  These items are crushed, cooked, and mixed to make a black sticky poison that tribal hunters use on the tips of their arrows.

They aren't wearing much but I feel
like 90% of it is still frivolous.

Regardless of what else is mixed into this concoction the active ingredient of curare is D-tubocurarine the product of a root of a vine called Chondroendron tomentosum.  D-tubocurarine is a non-depolarizing muscle relaxant drug (NDMRD).  Many NDMRD's have been developed from D-tubocurarine but let's look at how this class of drug works.

The name gives you a hint as to how it works, what with the non-depolarizing in the title, but if you look closer you will see it is more complicated than that.  NDRMD's diffuse through blood vessels into the synaptic cleft of motor neuromuscular junctions.  There NDMRD's compete with acetylcholine (ACh) molecules released into the synaptic cleft and then bind to the ACh receptors on the synaptic endplate.  This blocks the ACh from binding and therefore prevents the initiation of the depolarization process of muscle contraction.

NDMRD's also act on presynaptic receptors which interfere with the entry of calcium ions into the axon terminal which in turn doesn't allow as much ACh to be released magnifying the effect of the NDRMD.

It is importanant to note the NDMRD's must be injected into the bloodstream and cannot work if they are simply ingested by other means.  NDMRD's follow a simillar paralyzation pattern as Botulism does. Starting from top to bottom.  You need a fairly significant dose for NDMRD's to affect your chest wall muscles and diaphragm.

NDMRD's are a water-soluble, polar molecules which make them unable to break the blood-brain barrier.  For this reson NDMRD's do not effect your autonomous nervous system so your heart will continue to beat.  This makes NDMRD's ideal for sedated patients on ventilators.

That is all for now.  Tomorrow we work on Saxitoxin which is somewhat difficult to find data on..

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Botulism

I'm back at it.  Sorry for my absence.  I have been studying hard in school but now I am bringing school to you in a three part series on neurotoxins.  One of my favorite topics.  Gotta love poisons.

Today's Medical Topic:  First up an age old favorite:  Botulism.

Off the Top of My Head:   The scourge of people who improperly can food and kill their relatives; botulism is an anaerobic bacteria.  That means it can grow in an oxygen-free liquid environments like canned food or raw honey.

Most people these days know of botulism in it's derived form of Botox, the custom poison that people inject in their face to loosen wrinkles. Botox keeps all the paralytic fun of botulism without the massive infection that kills you.

My Research Today:  Botulism works by hijacking your motor axon terminals at the neuromuscular junction.  It tricks the axon terminal membrane to let it in through endocytosis and now the botulism bacteria is contained in it's own vesicle in the axon cell.

Once inside the botulism ejects part of it's self out of it's vesicle into the cytoplasm of the axon terminal.  This part directly interferes with vesicles of acetylcholine (ACh) that is bound for the synaptic cleft and traps it right before it can deliver it's payload.  No acetylcholine, no muscle contraction.

Here is a clumsy drawing of sort of how it works.

Botulism also dumps itself into the synaptic cleft where it continues to replicate and spread.

Neurologically botulism effects you from the top down.  It starts with your cranial nerves cause paralysis of the face and continuing down the body bilaterally.  Eventually it will paralyze your chest wall muscles and diaphragm making it impossible for you to breathe.  You can get other nice symptoms like nausea and vomiting prior to the paralysis.

Here is what makes botulism extra evil though:  It doesn't effect your sensory axons or your mental status.  So you are fully conscious and able to feel everything but unable to move, speak, or do anything about your impending doom.

Keep it tuned here for more information.  Tomorrow we do Curare.  Exciting.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Mitochondria

**NOTE**  Sorry I have not posted recently, most of my time has been taken up by school.  Over the Labor Day weekend I have a little extra time so I am going to be posting as much as possible.

Today's Medical Topic:  Mitochondria

Off the Top of My Head:   Often called :the power plant of the cell" mitochondria is an organelle within cells that somehow provide or generate energy.  How do they do that?  I am not entirely sure but I am going to try to find out.

Sorta looks like the lazy river in a water park.

My Research Today:  Mitochondria are organelles located in the cytoplasm of your cells.  Mitochondria are fairly large, respectively, and can be seen on a 10,000x microscope with an oil immersion lens.  There are multiple mitochondria per cell and they are responsible for manufacturing a special molecule that provides energy for your cells.

Primarily the function of mitochondria is cellular respiration and to produce adenosine triphosphate or ATP which is a high energy fuel source for every cellular reaction in your body.  Mitochondria also does some other stuff too but we are not going to talk about that today.

Damn carbon molecules are like
dog crap.  They get everywhere.

The process starts by cutting one glucose molecule into two smaller glucose molecules.  This process also yields 2 ATP molecules, some sort of acid, and 2 electron carrying molecules.  The two sugars are converted into a different compound, this in turn produces 2 more ATP molecules plus several more compounds that carry electrons.  This cycle is called the "Citric Acid Cycle" and it only occurs when oxygen is present in the hemoglobin, however, it does not use oxygen directly.

I have no idea.

This next step is where your mitochondria comes in.  The mitochondria channel the electron string into the oxygen and through some extremely complex chemical reactions this creates even more ATP.  The cycle repeats itself as needed as long as there is fuel and oxygen to burn.

I hope I did not screw that up too bad.  Maybe tomorrow I will get into what exactly adenosine triphosphate is.  And maybe I will stick with subjects I have a better understanding of.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Septic Shock

Today's Medical Topic:  The spleen.  What does it do?  Why do we have one?  Let's find out.

Off the Top of My Head:   Septic shock is a really terrible outcome of septicemia which is a diffuse infection in your blood stream. I know septic shock is something you rarely survive.  I know that it is a continuous positive feedback loop that creates a cascade event that kills you but I am unsure of the mechanics and chemical changes that occur to make this happen.

Even I understand this feedback loop.

My Research Today:  Sepsis is caused by a bacterial, fungal, or (rarely) viral infection that has gotten into your blood stream.  It is more common in elderly and very young people.  Septic shock is an acute inflammatory response to the infection in your blood stream which can cause all sorts of problems leading to death.

It can also be caused by Snookie

This inflammatory response from the invading pathogen is actually from the toxins the pathogen produces.  This in turn can cause a cascading multiple organ failure in which your body cannot maintain homeostasis due to the organ damage from the toxins.  This will lead to cardiogenic shock which is the inability of your heart to output an adequate amount of oxygenated blood.  This causes cell death throughout your body.

The inflammation can also cause pulmonary edema making your lungs fill with fluid and then you drown in your own juices.  I am not sure if this is preferable to the above option or not.

Pulmonary edema can also be caused by Snookie.

So in this case the inflammatory response is a positive feedback loop of your body overworking to try to fight the infection which ends up making things worse.  As it progresses it compounds the inflammation exponentially.

Most management is supportive care, like a mechanical ventilator, hemologic or support to keep your blood pressure up.  Your body either survives until antibiotics can take effect or dies due to massive organ damage.

Welp, I am done for the day.

Send questions or comments to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Wednesdays

I am taking 15 credits this semester which is apparently 3 more than you usually take and I need to average a 3.75 GPA in them.  So painful.  I will post when I can.

The Spleen

Today's Medical Topic:  The spleen.  What does it do?  Why do we have one?  Let's find out.

Off the Top of My Head:  I know it is part of your lymphatic system and your lymphatic system produces all kinds of hormones and proteins.  Your lymphatic system has a lot to do with fluid balancing.  I think the spleen has something to do with your immune system though I don't know what.

That guy.

My Research Today:  Jammed up under the left side of your ribs lies the spleen.  Your lymphatic system helps return lost fluids back into the blood stream, it also helps fight infection by filtering out microbes in lymph nodes.  Which is why lymph nodes can get swollen when you are sick.

The lymph nodes contain a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes that help fight infections.  The spleen houses a large store of lymphocytes as well as the most baller of all white blood cells.  The macrophage.

Macrophage reporting for duty sir!  What do
you want me to eat?

The macrophage is like the Borg in Star Trek.  You will be assimilated.  Resistance is futile.  Macrophages literally swallow bacteria whole and destroy them on a molecular level.  The United States  Navy wishes it had a boat as effective as a macrophage.

The USS Macrophage eating another boat.

Macrophages also eat anything else that isn't supposed to be there.  Random debris, dead tissue, whatever.  Anything in your blood stream that isn't yours or is dead gets eaten by macrophage cells in your spleen.

So now we know why it is so important to have your spleen.  It is possibly the most gangsta of organs.  Have a good night and remember:  All your organs are there for a reason.

Quest to 180:

Activity Today: Meh
Diet today:  Ok


The MAN:
Confidence Level:  Much better.
Social Engineering Tactics:  Young women...  Seem so self conscious these days...

Questions or comments can be submitted to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Mondays

I might not be able to blog on Mondays for a while.  I have over 8 hours of class and labs and 2 hours of driving on this day and I am pretty tired when I get home.  So for the moment no blogs on Mondays.  I will get back at it tomorrow.

Silicosis

Today's Medical Topic:  I think I forgot to post yesterday so I guess I will do two today.  So lets see what do we have two of?  Most people have two lungs.  Have we done silicosis?  Let's do that.

Off the Top of My Head:  Silicosis is particles accumulated in your lung like sand that leads to pneumonia and drowning in your own fluids.  I am not sure of the exact mechanics of it.  I know it is similar to black lung that coal miners used to get and I know it was very prevalent in the midwest during the dustbowl.

My Research Today:  Silica is a naturally occurring crystal in many rocks.  It is the main component of sand.  Silicosis is the buildup of fine silica particles inhaled into your lung tissue that create scar tissue and fluid accumulation.  How do you build up these particles?  Sand blasting without a respirator is a good way.  So is working in a glass factory without proper protection.

The hazy stuff is sand.  I think.

Silicosis comes in three flavors.  Simple Chronic Silicosis is the most common and results from over 20 years of silica exposure.  The sand gets jammed in your lungs and creates lymph swelling in the area  which causes chronic difficulty breathing.  I imagine it is similar to CHF or COPD.

Accelerated Silicosis comes from 5 to 15 years of heavier silica exposure.  The symptoms are the same to Simple Chronic Silicosis but occur faster.  Finally Acute Silicosis is can be caused over the course of a few days and results from massive unprotected exposure to silica dust.

I have actually seen Acute Silicosis first hand.  When I used to work in a machine shop we used something called CAB-O-SIL as a filler in fiberglass resins.  CAB-O-SIL is microscopic balloons of silica used to make resin lighter.  One of the guys I worked with ignored the warnings and dumped a bunch of it into resin and started mixing without protection.  Needless to say he inhaled a lot of it.

This stuff.

He ended up with a pretty bad dust pneumonia and permanent lung damage from the scarring.  It seemed pretty damn painful.  He started feeling the symptoms about an hour after mixing the stuff up and was in the hospital the next day.  Sucks to not follow directions I guess.

Anyways, that is good enough for tonight.  Remember, if you have a suggestion, drop me a line.

Quest to 180:

Activity Today: Meh
Diet today:  Not great.


The MAN:
Confidence Level:  Hmm
Social Engineering Tactics:  Feeling anxious.

Questions or comments can be submitted to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Why asparagus makes your pee smell bad.

Today's Medical Topic:  Why asparagus makes your pee smell bad.

Off the Top of My Head:  Asparagus has a tendency to make your pee smell bad within 2 hours of consuming it.  Why does that happen?

My Research Today:  Asparagus contains merceptan which is a sulfur compound.  Other things contain this compound including rotten eggs.  When your body metabolizes merceptan.  The result of the enzyme braking down the sulfur compound creates the smell.

Sulfur looks cooler than it is.

After it is broken down your kidneys dump the chemical into your bladder and bobs your uncle, your pee smells like asparagus.

Interestingly enough only a certain percentage of the population have the gene that metabolizes merceptan.  I have seen anywhere from 22 to 45% of people have this gene based on race.  Most estimates state that either half of the population has the enzyme or half of the population can discern the smell.

I guess sometimes the glass really is half full.

Needless to say it really isn't worth millions of dollars to study but somewhere along the line someone figured it out.  So the funky smell is some sort of sulfurous compound broken down by an enzyme in your body.

I hope you all are enlightened and enjoyed this venture into medical science.

Quest to 180:

Activity Today: Meh
Diet today:  Not great.


The MAN:
Confidence Level:  Hmm
Social Engineering Tactics:  Feeling anxious.

Questions or comments can be submitted to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Voluntary Rapid Eye Movement

Today's Medical Topic:  I promised you two today so we are doing something about eyes!  Voluntary Rapid Eye Movement.

Off the Top of My Head:  A lot of people know about the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep in which our eyes "twitch" involuntarily.  Did you know that some people can initiate this movement consciously on demand?  I didn't.

My Research Today:  The technical term for this kind of rapid eye movement is called a saccade.  A saccade is defined as the abrupt, rapid, short movements of both eyes simultaneously in changing of the point of fixation.  This is usually involuntary, however there are people that can rapidly twitch their eyes voluntarily.

Get it?  Rapid eye movement?
That's the joke.

The movement is further classified as a version gaze shifting eye movement.  A version eye movement is is an eye movement in which both eyes move in the same direction.  A gaze shifting movement is exactly what it sounds like.

This movement requires the part of your brain called the frontal eye fields which is in the prefrontal cortex.  Electrical stimulation to the frontal eye fields initiate saccadic eye movements.  Your eye has six extraocular muscles that control movement.

I know what you are thinking.  How do you do this?  And I have no idea.  I asked someone that could do it what they did to make it happen voluntarily and they told me they didn't know.  They said they just sort of concentrated on it and it happened.  It looks pretty freaky.  Check out this video:

Have a good night and I will type at you later.

Quest to 180:

Activity Today: Meh
Diet today:  Not great.


The MAN:
Confidence Level:  Hmm
Social Engineering Tactics:  Feeling anxious.

Questions or comments can be submitted to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.

Double Post Tomorrow

I am very tired and will double post tomorrow.  In the mean time feel free to read some archived articles.

Why Men Have Nipples

Today's Medical Topic:  Why do men have nipples?

Off the Top of My Head:  Often a common question, I am not sure why men have nipples.  What would we use them for?

My Research Today:  According to Scientific American nipples in male mammals "illustrate a constrained evolutionary result."  A child inherits one copy of every gene from each parent.  The difference between the genetic traits inherited between male and female differ based on optimal traits for reproduction.

At least we don't have these.

So genetic traits differ to maximize the potential for reproduction between males and females.  Nipples on women are obviously important for reproduction but are vestigial remnants of the genetic trait for men.  Men having nipples is a structural and physical by-product of women having nipples.

Simply put:  Men have nipples because women do.

Quest to 180:

Activity Today:A little over 10 miles biking.
Diet today:  Too many doughnuts.


The MAN:
Confidence Level:  Better.
Social Engineering Tactics:  Secret hair tactics.

Questions or comments can be submitted to dudaday@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I am not a health care provider, any information presented in this blog should not be considered advice it is mearly an outlet to slake my curiosity.  You should always consult your primary medical provider for any concerns or illness.  Unlike Tylenol, I am not approved by the FDA or American Medical Association to treat or provide relief for any ailment.