Herpes virus

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The Herpes Simplex Virus is the virus responsible for the disease Herpes. The Herpes Simplex Virus spreads through vaginal, anal and oral contact with someone infected or kissing. There is two types of Herpes not one which is a common misconception. Herpes1or H1 are cold sores and H2 is the most commonly STD Genital Herpes. Even though Herpes is so common there is no cure. The H2 disease affects majority of infected pregnant women because Herpes can spread to the next generation. The following blog post provides sources from and websites focused on Herpes that talk about what Herpes is and how it affects the immune system. They explain the harmful affects it has on pregnant women and what the options are for treatment.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

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Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, otherwise known as AIWS, is a mental condition that affects your vision, hearing, and sense of time. This syndrome gets its name from the children's book by Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because Alice and Lewis Carroll himself both went through common symptoms of AIWS. When an experiencing an episode, a patient will have disoriented vision and will confuse the size of their own body image or objects around them. An episode usually lasts for 15-20 minutes. This condition is related closely to migraines, epilepsy, and mononucleosis. AIWS occurs when there is an increased amount of electricity in the body which causes the signals from the brain and eyes to get messed up. This syndrome appears more commonly in children and young adults and usually goes away as the patients ages, although there have been some cases of AIWS in older people. 

Alzheimer's Disease effects on the brain

Image via- www.inifoundation.org

 Alzheimer's is a disease founded by Alois Alzheimer, after he discovered changes in brain tissue and certain symptoms such as; memory loss and language issues.  This disease can come in many different stages, slowly leading to death.  It begins with plaques and tangles that form in the brain to kill brain cells.  This leads to death by the plaques and tangles moving about the categories of the brain that affect; emotion, memories, language, etc.  This leads to death by the tissue of the brain slowly fading away, and lastly affecting the region where breathing is regulated.  Alzheimer's disease can affect anyone, mostly above the age of 60, however, if there is a family history of the disease there is a likelier risk for one to have it.  Approximately 1 in 10 people are affected by this disease, proving how relevant and popular it is in the world today.  

Do You See What I See? Human Tetrachromacy

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The eye sees color through the use of color recepting rods located in the eye this information is then sent to the brain which processes what you saw and what it means. Humans are typically trichromats meaning that we have three types of color receptors rods in eye these are red, blue, and green cones. These combination of rods allow you to see all other colors or shades. Color blind individuals have only two types of color receptors. The segments of DNA that control the rods in human eyes are located on the 23 X chromosome, this is why color blindness usually affects males. So color blindness is a deficiency in the types of cones but tetrachromacy is an abundance. What this means is that tetrachromats have an additional type of cone in there eyes, this is the orange cone. Because this mutation is caused by information from both 23 X chromosomes it can only occur in females. This sex linked trait allow the individual to potentially see up to 100,000,000 different colors. This is 100 times as many colors as a trichromat.

Affects of Frostbite on cells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GETzh1Rb52o

Frostbite relates to cell growth and death. We learned how cells use mitosis to create more cells. Frostbite kills the cells in exposed limbs and they may need to be amputated. This way they cannot use mitosis to heal. Although this is the worst case scenario, it is still very possible to happen. 

You should care about frostbite because it could happen to anyone. Especially since we live in a area that can have very harsh winters. If you do not take the necessary steps to prevent it, you are at serious risk of having permanent nerve damage to you legs or arms. Over the course of 48 hours, Regions hospital received eight patients for hypothermia and 14 for frostbite in 2014. 

There are not many perspectives of hypothermia. There are, however, people who do not see frostbite as a major problem. Most people that know about frostbite know that it is very serious and have lots of affects that are not pleasant and that could affect their lives in a major way. 

Consumption of Animal Products linked to disease

Animal Products via. small foot print family
Over the course of this project, I have furthered my knowledge on the effects of meat and dairy on the body and the ways that we as humans can change our eating habits to avoid diseases such as Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, mental health issues and more. Red meat has a compound called carnitine in it that when consumed it sits in your stomach and releases TMAO which is a compound that promotes Heart Disease. Along with carnitine, animal products have very high levels of cholesterol and saturated fats in them that can and will cause diseases that are ever so present in our society. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and 15 out of the 17 leading causes of death are directly linked to the consumption of animal products. If we want our society, families and ourselves to be healthy and avoid disease it is essential that we change the way we eat and convert to eating whole plant foods on a preferably vegan diet.  

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/lizard.jpg

Image via genetic literacy project

Pollution to Humans

     

                                                            Photo from David Sanger Photography                                                           

This relates to Biology because we have been over the human body and this relates to it. It affects different body parts and those can lead to diseases or just bad health in general.

You should care because this relates to all humans because everyone has to breathe air. Luckily, Minneapolis isn’t as polluted as other cities like China, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.

There aren’t too many sides to my topic because everyone thinks that pollution is a problem that needs to be fixed. Pollution isn’t doing anything to help us so there wouldn’t be another side to it.

Zika and Corgis

Julia Abraham smells bad. Love Miki

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The Appendix Actually Has A Function?!?

                                                     

                                                      Image Via Encyclopaedia Britannica

Within the last couple of decades, people have been eager to get their appendix removed with no reason other than avoiding the possibility of experiencing the excruciating pain of appendicitis, when your appendix ruptures, in the future. For nearly 170 years, people have been falsely informed of the appendix and its function in the body. Around 1840, Charles Darwin researched the appendix and concluded that it was a vestigial structure meaning that it had no function or use that helped the body. In 2010, a scientist at Duke University Medical Center finished his 10 year study of vestigial structures in the human body and proved that the appendix does in fact have a job and benefits the body. He discovered that the appendix is used as a “safe house” for the good gut bacteria in the body. When people catch a virus or other various types of infections, their immune system works to rid their body, especially their gut, of bacteria. After the infection is gone, the appendix kicks in to help the body regain strength and the bacteria that it needs by feeding the gut with the bacteria. The appendix has many other useful functions like digesting certain carbohydrates, producing vitamins, absorbing minerals, eliminating toxins, keeping bad bacteria under control, storing good gut bacteria, preventing allergies, and supporting your immune system. Although it is very possible to live without your appendix, maybe think twice before deciding to remove it with no reason because it is actually benefitting you in many ways.

Practice

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Exercise Induced Urticaria and Anaphylaxis

Have you ever experienced sever hives or rashes and you were unsure what the cause was? Well, many scientists have conducted experiments to this cause it is called Urticaria. Literally meaning hives or rashes. If the symptoms were to get severe you may be diagnosed with anaphylaxis which is just a more severe term of urticaria. If you already have urticaria you can overtime develop anaphylaxis. These diseases occur when histamine is released from the cells causing rashes or hives in that are. Other times hives will come around the face, neck, arms and all around the body. But others times when it is more severe air ways can be blocked and breathing will become difficult. Although this is not curable it can be treatable. Since histamine is being released which is causing the rashes and the hives you can guess, that you would be able to take an anti-histamine such as a Clartin-D, Allegra, or Zyrtec. You may be asking so how does this topic relate to what we have learned in Biology? Well, the cells in your body are apart of your immune system. When it fails you will get sick, right? We have learned about the evolution of cells what the purpose of cells are. When someone starts the symptoms of urticaria or anaphylaxis they need to be protected. The main way it to make sure that the patient carries around an epipen for safety. A patient is recored to have died without an epipen injected in less than 3-5 minutes. Utricaria and anaphylaxis should be well-known even if you don't have urticaria or anaphylaxis that doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware because in a few years the person next to you could be suffering.


                                                      Image via hubpages.com

FOOD

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Sloths.

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Genetic Modification of Humans

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The genetic modification of humans is quite largely feared by most people because they believe that the modification will result in beings like the pig human hybrid supposedly pictured above. The modification of genes has to do with biology, because of the fact that it has to do with the modification and alteration of genes. Despite this topics controversy this topic has two main groups of opinions, those that support it and realize the numerous potential advantages it has, the other people however only think of the possible disadvantages of genetic modification.



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