"The fault of  cooks are covered with sauces,  the fault of architects are covered  with flowers and the fault of doctors ... with soil"

Ha..HAHA

Looking for cervical nodes

When I checked my score and passed my exam

When premeds challenge me to biochemestry quiz ...It always ends like this:

When I finally get lunch after a long class day

When I let my classmates practice the abdominal exam on me

When I get home from anatomy lab

How I feel trying to exercise after two years of med school and two years of stress eating

Helicobacter Pylori

http://www.turner-white.com/pdf/hp_may02_helio.pdf

FACTS ABOUT YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

We eat about 500kg of food per year. 1.7 liters of saliva is produced each day.

An adults stomach can hold approximately 1.5 liters of material. 

STOMACH: secretes some enzymes and hydrochloric acid (HCL) to break down protein. Within 2-6 hours, all food is emptied into the small intestine. 

Digestive problems cost Americans $50 billion each year in both direct costs and absence from work. 

70-year-olds may produce as little as half the enzymes they produced when they were 20. 

Within the colon, a typical person harbors more than 400 distinct species of bacteria

The small intestine (pronounced in-test-in) is a long tube about 1 and a half to 2 inches around, and about 22 feet long.

Digestive System

Kidney Article

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/yourkidneys/yourkidneys_508.pdf

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

1. The kidneys have a higher blood flow than even the brain, liver or heart.
2. The kidneys reabsorb and redistribute 99% of the blood volume and only 0.1% of the blood filtered becomes urine.
3. Kidney stones are an accumulation of mineral salts and mostly combined with calcium which can lodge anywhere along the course of the urinary tract.
4. Refined carbohydrates and sugar help the body make kidney stones.
5. Sugar will stimulate the pancreas to release insulin. This causes extra calcium to be excreted in the urine. . . alas, kidney stones.
6. An excess of milk or antacids may cause kidney stones.
7. Each kidney is about 4 ½ inches long.
8. Each kidney weighs approximately 4 to 6 ounces.
9. The kidneys of a newborn baby are about 3X larger in proportion to body weight as in the adult.
10. The volume of urine excreted daily varies from 1000 to 2000 ml (averaging 1500 ml). 1000 ml (millileters) = 1 liter.

Urinary system - The nephron

Asthma in children

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1335768/?page=2

YOUR LUNGS....

1.  If you roll out a lung, flat, it would be the size of a tennis court.
2.  Most people are breathing through just one nostril right now (you’re checking, aren’t you?)
3.  The nostrils ”smell” differently and smells from the right nostril are more pleasant.
4.  The right lung holds more air than the left.
5.  It is almost impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (A defense mechanism, are you trying this one too?)
6.  A sneeze can be as fast as 100 mph.
7.  A flu shot only works about 70% of the time.
8.  A cigarette cuts 5 minutes off your life, about the time it takes to smoke one.
9.  The average person inhales 44 pounds of dust in a lifetime.
10.  Deep breathing practice gives benefits similar to performing aerobics

The British Lung Foundation (BLF) reports that each day the lungs breathe in about 8,000 to 9,000 liters (about 2,100 to 2,400 gallons) of air

Breathing is made possible by the flexing of a muscle called the diaphragm. National Geographic describes how the diaphragm, which is a sheet of muscles between the chest and the abdomen, contracts to breathe air into the lungs and relaxes to breathe air out of the lungs

 

The lung is a very unique organ. According to the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), the lungs are the only organ in the body that can float. Also, the BLF reports that the lungs are the largest organ in the body and the only organ inside the body that is exposed to the outside.

Lung Anatomy

Your liver...

The Liver in Mythology

• Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology who challenged Zeus's decision to destroy man and create a better race. Once their feud hit its climax, Zeus banished Prometheus to Mount Caucasus. On the mountain, an eagle ate pieces of Prometheus' liver daily, and each night the liver would grow back. In this way he suffered never-ending punishment until the Greek hero Herakles killed the eagle and saved Prometheus from the torture. Because of this myth it is thought by some that ancient Greek people must have had some idea of the regenerative qualities of the liver.

The liver is the largest organ of the body.

The liver affects nearly every physiological process of the body and performs over 500 different chemical functions

Every minute the human liver filters more than a liter of blood. All blood runs through the liver and it serves to filter out different toxins, including chemicals, alcohol and pesticides.

For women, consuming two to three drinks-including beer and wine-per day and for men, three to four drinks per day, can lead to liver damage and cirrhosis


Accidental cuts, or even intentional ones, would cause me to bleed to death without a liver to send ingredients to my blood to turn it to jelly, or clots.


A common sign of impaired liver function is jaundice, a yellowness of the eyes and skin arising from excessive bilirubin in the blood.


If your liver is not working good your stools can be white.. and your pee can turn black.

Liver Day!!

[Hepatitis A virus infection. A review].

Institut für Klinische Mikrobiologie und Immunologie St. Gallen.

Abstract

The virus responsible for hepatitis A--hepatitis A virus (HAV)--is a small, spherical, and exceptionally resistant RNA-virus. It is transmitted preferentially by the faecal-oral route and apparently replicates exclusively in the liver. The damage of the liver ensuing from HAV infection most likely does not stem directly from virus replication but is the result of an interaction of cell mediated virus-specific immunity with infected hepatocytes. Infection is usually self limiting, yet, in individual cases may also take a protracted and even relapsing course. True chronic infections, however, are not observed. HAV has a world-wide distribution. In countries where inadequate sanitary conditions prevail, the virus persists in the environment and almost 100% of the population acquires infection in childhood. At that age, infection causes no or only minimal clinical symptoms. Infected individuals nevertheless develop protective, long lasting immunity, probably persisting for entire life. In developed, industrialized countries HAV has ceased to circulate in the environment and the general population. Here, infections predominantly occur in adults travelling to endemic areas or exposed at home to thus infected individuals or members of high risk groups (e.g. children in day care centres, i.v. drug users). With increasing age infections become more and more clinically manifest and at and beyond of adolescence more than 80% of patients develop icteric, in some cases even fulminant and fatal hepatitis. Acute hepatitis A infection can be diagnosed by demonstrating the presence of anti-HAV-IgM antibodies. Immunity following either infection or successful vaccination is assessed by measuring anti-HAV-IgG. Preventive measures rely on strict personal and alimentary hygiene as well as on vaccination with inactivated (killed) hepatitis A vaccines. These vaccines are safe, highly immunogenetic and induce long lasting (> 20 years) protection against hepatitis A. Specific antiviral therapy is not yet available.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14579471

How the Body Works : The Architecture of the Liver

Body Cavities

Cardio Article

Lack of sleep linked to increased risk of high blood pressure

Wednesday 5th April, 2006

If you're middle age and sleep five hours or less a night, you may be increasing your risk of developing high blood pressure, according to research reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association

"Sleep allows the heart to slow down and blood pressure to drop for a significant part of the day," said James E. Gangwisch, Ph.D., lead author of the study and post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
"However, people who sleep for only short durations raise their average 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate. This may set up the cardiovascular system to operate at an elevated pressure."
Gangwisch said that 24 percent of people ages 32 to 59 who slept for five or fewer hours a night developed hypertension versus 12 percent of those who got seven or eight hours of sleep. Subjects who slept five or fewer hours per night continued to be significantly more likely to be diagnosed with hypertension after controlling for factors such as obesity, diabetes, physical activity, salt and alcohol consumption, smoking, depression, age, education, gender, and ethnicity.
The researchers conducted a longitudinal analysis of data from the Epidemiologic Follow-up Studies of the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES I). The analysis is based on NHANES I data from 4,810 people ages 32 to 86 who did not have high blood pressure at baseline. The 1982-84 follow-up survey asked participants how many hours they slept at night. During eight to 10 years of follow-up, 647 of the 4,810 participants were diagnosed with hypertension.
Compared to people who slept seven or eight hours a night, people who slept five or fewer hours a night also exercised less and were more likely to have a higher body mass index. (BMI is a measurement used to assess body fatness). They were also more likely to have diabetes and depression, and to report daytime sleepiness.
"We had hypothesized that both BMI and a history of diabetes would mediate the relationship between sleep and blood pressure, and the results were consistent with this," Gangwisch said.
Sleep deprivation has been shown previously to increase appetite and compromise insulin sensitivity.

Short sleep duration was linked to a new diagnosis of high blood pressure among middle-aged participants, but the association was not observed among people age 60 or older, he said. Gangwisch said the differences between the younger and older subjects might be explained by the fact that advanced age is associated with difficulties falling and staying asleep. Another factor could be that subjects suffering from hypertension, diabetes, and obesity would be less likely to survive into their later years.
Among study limitations, researchers found that high blood pressure often goes undetected. An analysis of NHANES III data showed that over 30 percent of people who had high blood pressure didn't know they had it.
Since the study is based on observational data, Gangwisch said more research is needed to confirm the association between short sleep duration and high blood pressure. "We need to investigate the biological mechanisms and, if confirmed, design interventions that will help people modify sleep behavior," he said.
Gangwisch said the study's main message is clear: "A good night's sleep is very important for good health."

Sources:
American Heart Association.

1.The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.

2.The fetal heart rate is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute. By the time a fetus is 12 weeks old, its heart pumps an amazing 60 pints of blood a day.

 3.The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing.

 4.Some heavy snorers may have a condition called obtrusive sleep apnea (OSA), which can negatively affect the heart.

5.Cocaine affects the heart’s electrical activity and causes spasm of the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke, even in healthy people.

6.French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope when he felt it was inappropriate to place his ear on his large-buxomed female patients' chests.

7.A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime.

 8.Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen.

9.During an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million gallons of blood—enough to fill 200 train tank cars.

10.Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.

Cardiac Cycle - Systole & Diastole