Make your home a better place

At your home you expect to have a quality life, tasty and clean food, of course your life should be comfortable. in this century there are number of items out there in the market to fulfill your needs and make your life more comfortable. When you enter your home the first sight should be nice and pleasant. Then you expect the air to be fresh. After that you need to have a cup of coffee. to fulfill these needs you have to use air purifiers, blenders, juicers and all the other home appliances. 

Lets start with the air purifier. these remove dust and bacteria present in air and also removes light odors there by it increases your indoor air quality. Indoor air quality is very important when your health is concerned. Poor quality indoor air can cause conditions like asthma to worsen. Air purifier can help you to overcome this problem. But the air purifier you choose should be quiet and the air filter elements should be available to find without any problem. Being quite is important so you can keep it switched on when you are sleeping. Before you decide to buy one of these should consider going through air purifier reviews and from those you can get a proper idea about your needs. 

To prepare variety of food items you need a quality blender. without a blender you can not even think about juices, salads, soups and iced drinks. It should be powerful durable and able to fulfill most of your needs. This is specially important if you are planning to blend thick food items. If you want o get best out of your money you are spending for juicy fruits a quality juicer is all what you need. These can provide more nutritious and more volume of juice there buy giving more value to your money.

How antibiotics cause bacteria mediated damage to the intestine?

As you all know certain antibiotics when taken orally can cause gastro-intestinal tract disturbances and sometimes it can extend to serious side effects. All these symptoms and signs occur due to the disturbance of the normal flora of the gut. As you know there are susceptible and resistant bacterias to a antibiotic of choice. When that antibiotic is administered the susceptible bacterias die or the growth is retarded. But now the resistant bacterias do not die and those have a better chance of overgrowing since all the other bacterias in the gut are less in number.

Pseudomembranous colitis

One classical example for this is Pseudo membranous colitis. It is an acute inflammatory condition of the colon where a membranous exudate is produced. Sometimes this can be lethal.

Pathogenesis of Pseudomembranous colitis

When the antibiotic Clindamycin is given to a patient most of the bacterias in the colon die except Clostridium difficile which present in very small numbers in the normal flora of a healthy individuals. Now an overgrowth of Clostridium difficile occur in the gut. Certain strains of Clostridium difficile can produce toxins.(pathogenic strains produce two toxic polypeptides,designated A and B. Toxin A is an enterotoxin that causes excessive fluid secretion , but also stimulates an inflammatory response and has some cytopathic effects. Toxin B is a cytotoxin. These toxins can cause the death of gastrointestinal epithelial cells and finally a pseudomembrane is produced. Complications include gastro-intestinal tract bleeding, perforation of the gut and peritonitis.

Treatment

Treatments include avoiding the causative antibiotic and oral metronidazole (Vancomycin is also used.)This condition is also known as antibiotic associated colitis.

Laboratory identification of Clostridium difficile
Cultured from stools using routine anaerobic procedures. Toxin can be demonstrated in stool extracts.

References

Wikipedia - Pseudomembranous colitis

CPK enzyme

CPK enzyme ( also known as creatine phosphokinase and creatine kinase) is the enzyme which is responsible for the conversion of creatine to creatine phosphate. CPK enzyme plays a very important in skeletal muscle since it creatine phosphate system is important for the sudden energy requirements in the skeletal muscle. CPK enzyme is also abandontely found in brain and smooth muscle. During the conversion of 1 mol of creatine to creatine phosphate CPK enzyme converts 1mol of ATP to ADP. CPK Enzyme has several isoforms. Those isoforms are CPK-BB, CPK-MB, CPK-MM. The CPK-MM type is known as the skeletal muscle type of the CPK enzyme. CPK-BB type is known as the Brain type of the CPK enzyme.Only within the myocardial cells more than 5% of CPK-MB activity can be observed. Due to this fact CPK-MB isoform of the CPK Enzyme is used to diagnose myocardial cell damage and CPk enzyme palys a major role in the diagnosis of myocardial infarctions-heart attacks. This enzyme is also important in the diagnosis of various myopathies. Usually in muscle dystrophies plasma level of CPK enzyme is elevated. To differentiate the source of CPK enzyme isoform speific enzyme assays of other markers should be used.
Eg: CPK enzyme and Troponin I in myocardial infarctions.
CPK enzyme and myoglobin in muscle damage.
Fot more information about this read CPK Test and CPK Blood Test

Importance of plants in human life?

Importance of plants in human life?

In every way humans are dependent on plants. For food, medicines, air purification, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and etc. But in addition to these now this has a much higher importance. It is in global warming. When the humans started burning fossil fuels carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere started increasing.Importance of plants in human life Carbon dioxide is a green house gas and it keeps infrared rays within the earth atmosphere and help increasing the temperature. In the upcoming years this will become more and more important in human life.

Another importance in human life is for medicines. As you all know quinine, a very potent antimalarial drug discovered from the plant cinchona. (Actually it was first discovered by an African tribe) Not humans are facing more and more challenges from emerging and re-emerging diseases. For an example HIV the most dangerous and devastating disease in the word I may say up to now does not have an effective cure. But plants may have a good answer for with. People in the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka have used plant extracts as very effective remedies for many conditions.

Sugar consumption and diabetes

Sugar consumption and diabetes
Sugar consumption has been linked to chronic diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis for a long time. High sugar consumption is probably the most important risk factor of diabetes. Changing life styles and inclusion of items like soda to the daily diet may worsen the condition. Actually specifically talking about diabetes sugar consumption affects it in many ways. For an example high sugar intake may cause obesity. Recent researches have shown adipose tissue in the body area secrete a hormone which is responsible for insulin resistance. And the researches with the diabetics have shown high circulating levels of this hormone.
Unlike complex carbohydrates sugar is easily digested and absorbed. This causes a rapid absorption of glucose and fructose in the blood. As you already know rapid rise in blood glucose predispose the patient to diabetes. Not only that, fructose can entered the cells without controlled by insulin. Due to this high fructose entry to the cells changes the metabolic pathways within the cells and stimulates the cells to synthesis more fatty and cholesterol. This more fatty acid and cholesterol synthesized is transported to peripheral tissues by the means of LDL. This is why high sugar intake predisposes the patient to atherosclerosis.

CPK blood test

CPK blood test

CPK blood test is very widely used for the detection of myocardial infarctions. But despite the popularity of CPK blood test for the detection of myocardial infarction it can be very effectively used to investigate and diagnose many other conditions associated with skeletal muscles. CPK-MM isoform of the CPK enzyme is predominantly found in skeletal muscle. These diseases of the skeletal muscles range from simple traumatic muscle damage to more advance muscle dystrophies. More common conditions are myositis, post electromyography, recent surgery, and strenuous exercise.
When we talk about the isoform CPK-MB it is predominantely found in cardiac myosites. When there is damage to cardiac muscle cell this isoform of CPK enzyme is released. This is another very common situation in which CPK blood test is performed. When someone is admitted to the hospital with a chest pain a CPK blood test may be performed to diagnose whether he is having a heart attack.

Reperfusion injury

When there is an infarction to a particular tissue it is necessary to reestablish the perfusion to that tissue as soon as possible. When the perfusion is reestablished sometimes the tissue damage can be recovered and the tissue starts to function normally. But the reperfusion itself can cause tissue damage. This is against the general public idea held by many people that reperfusion does no cause any injury. When an artery is blocked by a thrombus various drugs (Streptokinase) are given to dissolve this clot and re establish the circulation. But when the circulation is reestablished free radicals can be formed in the ischemic tissue and can cause tissue damage. This may be due to the fact that functions of the organelles of the many ischemic cells are impaired and these organelles produce free radicals. For an example when streptokinase is given to a patient with a myocardial infarction sudden spike of CPK enzyme level can be seen in the CPK enzyme test.

Natural foods which can cause Vitamin A toxicity

Most of the people think that it is impossible to develop vitamin toxicity by consumption of the natural foods. But this is a myth. Even though vitamin toxicity develops very rarely with natural foods but it is usually due to the oral intake of lipid soluble vitamins. There are well documented cases of acute vitamin toxicity, which developed after the consumption of certain food items. As you all know liver of any animal is responsible for detoxification of toxins and the storage of vitamins. This mechanism is really important for the storage of vitamin A and due to this most of the animal livers contain high amount of Vitamin A. But this amount in many animals is not adequate to cause acute vitamin A toxicity. But, polar bear liver, whale liver, shark liver and the lowly tuna liver may contain very high amount of vitamin A . This amount of Vitamin A may be adequate to cause acute vitamin A toxicity. First case of Vitamin A toxicity has described in 1597 by Gerrit ge Veer in the arctic. He is a carpenter and the crew of the ship he worked developed serious symptoms after eating a polar bear liver. Symptoms of acute vitamin A toxicity are headache, dizziness, vomiting, stupor and blurred vision.
Next time when you eat a polar bear liver, even though it is a great delicacy, keep in mind to eat in moderation. If you develop above symptoms after that better to seek medical attention immediately.

Can you die from vitamin toxicity or Hypervitaminosis?

When we talk about the vitamin toxicity we can categorize all the vitamins into two broad categories based on the solubility.
Water soluble

Water soluble Vitamins are,
Vitamin B complex
Vitamin C

These vitamins are highly soluble in water and readily excreted in urine. Even a higher dosage is taken toxicity is rare. But with very high doses complications can occur. So Vitamin toxicity due to high doses of Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C are rare. In people whose renal functions are compromised these water soluble Vitamins are not properly excreted from the body. So In that case toxicity and death can occur.

Lipid soluble

Lipid soluble vitamins are,
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K

these vitamins are not water soluble and not highly excreted in urine. So even in a marginal increase over the amount which can be excreted may result in accumulation of lipid soluble vitamins and sometimes death can result if the toxicity is not treated properly.


Vitamin A Toxicity

Vitamin A toxicity is relatively common and can be categorized into acute toxicity and chronic toxicity. Acute toxicity of vitamin A occurs after an ingestion of a large amount of vitamin A. Symptoms of acute vitamin A toxicity include headache, dizziness, vomiting , stupor, and blurred vision. These symptoms may mimic a brain tumor.
Symptoms of chronic vitamin A toxicity includes weight loss, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, bone pain and joint pain. Both these toxicities can ultimately lead to the death.

Vitamin D toxicity
Vitamin D toxicity in small children may produce metastatic calcification. In adults it can cause bone pain and hypercalcaemia. As toxic potential of Vitamin D is high in sufficiently large doses it can cause death.

SOME INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT CANNABIS

Extracts of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa, the hemp plant contains an interesting compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Various parts of this plant are used with different names but all these compounds contain the same chemical, THC. These compounds are,
Marijuana- prepared using dried leaves and flowers used as a smoking mixture
Hashish – The extracted resin
A metabolite of THC, 11-hydroxy-THC is much more active that the original compound.
Cannabis is probably the most widely abused substance in the word although its use is illegal in almost all the countries. This widespread use is due to the fact that it can be grown fairly easily in tropics and only requires a small space. 15% of the adult population in Western Europe has taken Cannabis at least once in their life.

Action and pharmacological effects
Cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), acts centrally and peripherally.
With its central action it produces,
Feeling of relaxation and well-being
A feeling of sharpened sensory awareness

It also,
Impairs short term memory
Impairs motor coordination
Causes catalepsy
Has an antiemetic action
Causes increased appetite

Its main peripheral effects are,
Tachycardia- Increased heart rate
Vasodilatation- Causes blood shot
Bronchodilatation


Cannabis / Cannabinoid / tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) receptor

Cannabinoids are highly lipid soluble and earlier it was thought Cannabis / Cannabinoid / tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) act in the same way as the local anesthetics. But now it is clear that Cannabinoids have a specific receptor. The receptor is coupled to G-proteins and linked to adenylate cyclase, sodium channels and calcium channels.

Brain Cannabinoid / tetrahydrocannabinol/ THC receptor also known as CB1 subtype is abundant in hippocampus, cerebellum, substantia nigra and mesolimbic system. This receptor,
Impairs short term memory
Impairs motor coordination
Causes catalepsy
Has an antiemetic action
Causes increased appetite

The peripheral Cannabinoid / tetrahydrocannabinol/ THC receptor also known as CB2 is located mainely in the lymphoid system and responsible for the inhibitory effects on the immune function.

Tolerance and dependence to cannabis

Fortunately tolerance and dependence to cannabis occurs in a very small proportion of the abusers and only in heavy users. Abstinence symptoms are nausea, agitation, irritability, confusion, tachycardia, sweating etc.


Some interesting questions…..

Do people die due to cannabis overdose?
Actually this is a tricky question. Straight answer is no. But cannabis and all other abused substances, Marijuana, Hashish, are capable f producing drowsiness and confusion. These are due to the effects of Cannabinoid / tetrahydrocannabinol/ THC. It does not have any cardiovascular or respiratory effects which threaten the life.

Can cannabis cause cancers?

With the current knowledge this question is difficult to answer. But the epidemiological studies have not shown any association between cannabis usage and cancers. But cannabis does cause chromosomal breakdowns. S further research needed to be done in this area.

Can cannabis cause fetal malformations?

Epidemiological studies have not shown any significant association. But further studies needed to be done for a conclusion.

Can cannabis cause male / female infertility?

Cannabis is not known to cause infertility. But due to its effects on the endocrine system definitely it can cause sub fertility. Studies have shown 50% decrease in serum testosterone and sperm count in males.

Can cannabis cause long lasting psychological effects?

This is very difficult to test but there is a hypothesis that cannabis ca cause schizophrenia. This can gradually leads to a state of apathy and underachievement.

Medical uses of cannabis.
Under current regulations cannabis cannot be used to treat patients in western medicine. But in ayurveda cannabis is an essential component of many drugs and it is effective in treating patients.

In UK official drug trials are underway. Canada has legalized the use of cannabis for some conditions.