Your unusual dish of everything.
Posts tagged anatomy
How to Have a Lucid Dream – Wake up in a Dream – Part I
Feb 20th
Lucid dreaming need not be elusive. Some simple techniques can make it possible for almost anyone.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming can be a very powerful experience for the dreamer. “You can be the absolute master of your dream world,” says MortalMist.com, a website and forum dedicated to lucid dreaming. “The very laws of nature can be bent and broken. No experience is beyond your reach, no feat too difficult or risky. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.”
Many people report wonderful experiences in the dream worlds they’ve created. For some, though, lucid dreaming remains elusive. But there is good news; becoming skilled at “waking up” in a dream may be easier than it seems. There are several techniques that can be used to enter the world of lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming requires three things:
- the ability to recall dreams,
- a technique, known as a reality check, to become aware of dreaming, and
- strategies to remain in the dream.
Tips for Recalling Dreams More >
NASA: Alertă de furtună geo-magnetică
Feb 18th
NASA a emis o alertă de furtună geo-magnetică provocată de o masă uriaşă de particule solare degajate de două explozii recente.
Potrivit datelor de pe satelitul STEREO, plasma ejectată se deplasează cu o viteză de 410 kilometri pe secundă
Una dintre explozii, cea mai mare, s-a produs luni 14 februarie şi a trimis spre Pământ o masă însemnată de particule şi radiaţii. Imensa furtună solară declanşată poate afecta câmpul magnetic al Terrei.
Norul imens de particule încărcate electric se deplasează cu viteză spre planeta noastră, timpul parcurgerii distanţei fiind de aproximativ 24 de ore.
Explozia solară, cea mai puternică înregistrată în ultimii patru ani, a fost catalogată de astronomi ca aparţinând clasei X – cel mai puternic tip de pe scara de măsură. Ea este prima de acest fel din noul ciclu de activitate solară, început în 2011 şi cu un maxim estimat a se produce în 2013.
Profesorul doctor George Iana, şeful secţiei Radiologie şi imagistică medicală în cadrul Spitalului Universitar de Urgenţă Bucureşti, spune că, pentru a vorbi despre consecinţele acestui fenomen trebuie să ştim spectrul electromagnetic al benzii de radiaţii.
Dacă sunt semnalaţi fotoni – ceea ce pot preciza fizicenii, atunci există un potenţial iradiant.
Consecinţele sunt indirecte. More >
Morgellons Disease
Jan 23rd
Morgellons disease is a mysterious skin disorder characterized by disfiguring sores and crawling sensations on and under the skin. Although Morgellons disease isn’t widely recognized as a medical diagnosis, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating reports of the condition, which they refer to as unexplained dermopathy.
Morgellons Disease
If you suspect that you have Morgellons disease, you may have many questions about the condition. Here’s what you need to know about Morgellons disease, including practical tips for managing your signs and symptoms.
What are the signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease?
People who have Morgellons disease report the following signs and symptoms:
- Skin rashes or sores that can cause intense itching
- Crawling sensations on and under the skin, often compared to insects moving, stinging or biting
- Fibers, threads or black stringy material in and on the skin
- Severe fatigue
- Inability to concentrate and short-term memory loss
- Behavioral changes
- Joint pain
- Vision changes
Morgellons disease shares characteristics with various recognized conditions, including Lyme disease, liver or kidney disease, schizophrenia, drug or alcohol abuse, and a mental illness involving false beliefs about infestation by parasites (delusional parasitosis).
How widespread is Morgellons disease? More >
Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In ‘Berlin Patient’
Dec 17th
On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.
Stem cell transplant
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient,” received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing “strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved.”
Brown’s case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.
Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.
While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.
Congenital Insensitivity To Pain – People Who Can’t Feel Pain – CIPA
Dec 14th
CIPA or congenital insensitivity to pain is one of the rarest diseases in the world. A very rare condition and it is also known as congenital analgia. People diagnosed with this condition have their pain sensors turned off and they can’t feel any pain. The condition is extremely dangerous as these people are prone to danger not knowing the level of pain inflicted.
Congenital Insensitivity To Pain – People Who Can’t Feel Pain
What caused the disorder? It is an unknown condition when the brain that recognizes the pain does not connect to the nerves that sense the pain. This unknown condition only happens to the pain sensors. People with CIPA have their other sensory areas completely checked and normal. Incredibly a rare disease, 35 people in the United States is diagnosed with CIPA. Sadly, people with CIPA has low survival rate and many doesn’t live that long to the age of 25 making the case a difficult case to study.
Pains are relatively a unique sense. It keeps us out of trouble, our body defense against harmful actions and not being able to feel pain is totally dangerous. Children especially will need to know how to sense this pain. We need to know what we should or shouldn’t do when we feel pain and we also know how not to cause pain to ourselves. Pain can help you to avoid danger and what causing this danger.
Anhidrosis, a condition of the body’s inability to sweat is found in people with CIPA. This condition can worsen the issue. With Anhidrosis, people with CIPA are not able to feel extreme temperature. Together with this and the body’s inability to sweat only means that their body is unable to regulate its temperature. More >
18 Health Tricks to Teach Your Body – Part I
Dec 11th
Cure a Tickling Throat
Doctor Checking the Blood Pressure of a Patient
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, especially if it serves as a health remedy. Take that tickle in your throat: It’s not worth gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: Scratch your ear. “When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”
Experience Supersonic Hearing
If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.
Overcome Your Most Primal Urge
Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about Jessica Simpson. Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won’t feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. For best results, try Simpson’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” video. More >
Trichotillomania
Dec 10th
Trichotillomania is hair loss from compulsive pulling or twisting of the hair until it breaks off.
Trichotillomania
Causes
Trichotillomania is a type of compulsive behavior. Its causes are not clearly understood.
It may affect as much as 4% of the population. Women are four times more likely to be affected than men.
Symptoms
Symptoms usually begin before age 17. The hair may come out in round patches or across the scalp. The effect is an uneven appearance. The person may pluck other hairy areas, such as the eyebrows, eyelashes, or body hair.
These symptoms are usually seen in children:
- An uneven appearance to the hair
- Bare patches or all around (diffuse) loss of hair
- Bowel blockage (obstruction) if people eat the hair they pull out
- Constant tugging, pulling, or twisting of hair
- Denying the hair pulling
- Hair regrowth that feels like stubble in the bare spots
- Increasing sense of tension before the hair pulling
- Other self-injury behaviors
- Sense of relief, pleasure, or gratification after the hair pulling More >
Möbius Syndrome
Dec 9th
Background
Möbius syndrome is due, in part, to loss of function of motor cranial nerves. Although von Graefe described a case of congenital facial diplegia in 1880 , the syndrome was reviewed and defined further by Paul Julius Möbius, a German neurologist, in 1888 and 1892. Because of these contributions, Möbius is now the eponym used to describe the syndrome. p
Möbius Syndrome
The definition and diagnostic criteria for Möbius syndrome vary among authors. Both von Graefe and Möbius accepted only cases with both congenital facial diplegia and bilateral abducens nerve palsies as constituting M ö bius syndrome. In 1939, Henderson broadened the definition and included cases with congenital unilateral facial palsy.
Other authors are more restrictive in attempts to eliminate conditions of a different pathogenesis being labeled as Möbius syndrome. These investigators require the presence of a congenital musculoskeletal anomaly in order to make the diagnosis. In most studies, Möbius syndrome is defined as congenital facial weakness combined with abnormal ocular abduction.
Pathophysiology
The complete pathophysiological description of Möbius syndrome remains elusive. Whether nerve, brainstem, or muscle aplasia is the primary event has not been established. Nerves that may be involved include cranial nerves (CNs) VI through XII, with general sparing of CN VIII. CN III and CN IV can be involved, but only rarely. The facial nerves (CN VII) are involved in all cases, the abducens nerves (CN VI) in a high percentage of cases (75%), and the hypoglossal nerves (CN XII) in only a minority of cases.
Numerous theories exist concerning the primary underlying pathogenesis. More >
100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body – Part VIII
Dec 9th
Disease and Injury
Most of us will get injured or sick at some point in our lives. Here are some facts on how the human body reacts to the stresses and dangers from the outside world.
unicorn injury
- Monday is the day of the week when the risk of heart attack is greatest. Yet another reason to loathe Mondays! A ten year study in Scotland found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week. Researchers theorize that it’s a combination of too much fun over the weekend with the stress of going back to work that causes the increase.
- Humans can make do longer without food than sleep. While you might feel better prepared to stay up all night partying than to give up eating, that feeling will be relatively short lived. Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was doing. More >
Scientists say dolphins should be treated as ‘non-human persons’
Oct 24th
Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Dolphins
Studies into dolphin behavior have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
Dolphins have long been recognized as among the most intelligent of animals but many researchers had placed them below chimps, which some studies have found can reach the intelligence levels of three-year-old children. Recently, however, a series of behavioral studies has suggested that dolphins, especially species such as the bottle-nose, could be the brighter of the two. The studies show how dolphins have distinct personalities, a strong sense of self and can think about the future. More >
