Saturday 31 March 2007
My friends have got to have the most quirky and embarrassing sense of humour.
One day, we were gathered at a girl, celeste's, house, and we were bored, so we started to go through the pile of home work on her desk, and we found an anatomical drawing of a cow, complete in colour and labellings.
Trying to show off her "immense" knowledge of the cows' inner workings, she proceeded to say " Cows produce methane gas", which sparked off a long debate on, what else? cows.
( I, being the happy spectator, did not participate in this discussion.I simply watched and laughed. All the names mentioned are my friends, and yes, they ARE actual people)
Natalie:" Do cows produce methane because they have 4 stomachs, and the digestion takes so long that the gas is produced?
Celeste: "No. I'm not sure why the gas is produced actually, *ashamed grin* I think I have to study more"
Natalie: "so, why do cows have 4 stomachs??"
Timothy: "Because they have 4 legs."
Celeste : "But, the legs have nothing to do with the stomachs!!"
Nathan: "yeah, then why do they have 4 stomachs?? "
Celeste : " Thats irrelevant!!!!!! I refuse to answer anymore of your retarded questions!! moving on.......
Nathan :" ok, why do cows wear those.....those....... shiny ringy thingies???"
Natalie :" bells. Cow bells. Why do cows wear cow bells?"
Timothy :"I read its because the ringing sound simulates them to produce more milk or something........"
Celeste :" Where did you read that? Its not true!!! the bells are so that they will be able to find the cow!!"
Natalie :" besides, if that was true, can you imagine what the school bell would do to pregnant teachers?"
>_<
Sometimes, in public, I pretend I dont know them.
But apparently, excessive ,*ahem* Lactating can result in Chromium deficiency. This does not mean that I suggest you go out there and start eating chromium. It is HIGLY TOXIC IN LARGE AMOUNTS.
See!! Toxic!!!!!
so dont go around munching it.
But it IS essential for our bodies for the proper metabolism of sugar and also plays a key role in insulin activity, so, no chromium, no sugar high. Even so, the recommended daily intake of chromium is very low, only about 30- 35 µg for an adult male,and only about 2% is absorbed into the intestinal tract, so yeah, its very little.Most of this gets stored in the bones, spleen, and liver for later use. We get most of our chromium from egg yolks, whole grains,broccoli, green beans,some breakfast cereals, coffee, nuts, meat, and certain kinds of beer and wine. So, chromium deficiency is very easily treated and VERY few people suffer from it, because its literally impossible to suffer from chromium deficiency if you eat a balanced diet. So, if you suffer from chromium deficiency, it's very likely that you suffer from other problems arising from your diet, such as STARVATION. yeah. So getting a case of chromium deficiency is pretty extreme.
Well, at least that puts the rest of us at ease.
Peace out-------------
One day, we were gathered at a girl, celeste's, house, and we were bored, so we started to go through the pile of home work on her desk, and we found an anatomical drawing of a cow, complete in colour and labellings.
Trying to show off her "immense" knowledge of the cows' inner workings, she proceeded to say " Cows produce methane gas", which sparked off a long debate on, what else? cows.
( I, being the happy spectator, did not participate in this discussion.I simply watched and laughed. All the names mentioned are my friends, and yes, they ARE actual people)
Natalie:" Do cows produce methane because they have 4 stomachs, and the digestion takes so long that the gas is produced?
Celeste: "No. I'm not sure why the gas is produced actually, *ashamed grin* I think I have to study more"
Natalie: "so, why do cows have 4 stomachs??"
Timothy: "Because they have 4 legs."
Celeste : "But, the legs have nothing to do with the stomachs!!"
Nathan: "yeah, then why do they have 4 stomachs?? "
Celeste : " Thats irrelevant!!!!!! I refuse to answer anymore of your retarded questions!! moving on.......
Nathan :" ok, why do cows wear those.....those....... shiny ringy thingies???"
Natalie :" bells. Cow bells. Why do cows wear cow bells?"
Timothy :"I read its because the ringing sound simulates them to produce more milk or something........"
Celeste :" Where did you read that? Its not true!!! the bells are so that they will be able to find the cow!!"
Natalie :" besides, if that was true, can you imagine what the school bell would do to pregnant teachers?"
>_<
Sometimes, in public, I pretend I dont know them.
But apparently, excessive ,*ahem* Lactating can result in Chromium deficiency. This does not mean that I suggest you go out there and start eating chromium. It is HIGLY TOXIC IN LARGE AMOUNTS.
See!! Toxic!!!!!
so dont go around munching it.
But it IS essential for our bodies for the proper metabolism of sugar and also plays a key role in insulin activity, so, no chromium, no sugar high. Even so, the recommended daily intake of chromium is very low, only about 30- 35 µg for an adult male,and only about 2% is absorbed into the intestinal tract, so yeah, its very little.Most of this gets stored in the bones, spleen, and liver for later use. We get most of our chromium from egg yolks, whole grains,broccoli, green beans,some breakfast cereals, coffee, nuts, meat, and certain kinds of beer and wine. So, chromium deficiency is very easily treated and VERY few people suffer from it, because its literally impossible to suffer from chromium deficiency if you eat a balanced diet. So, if you suffer from chromium deficiency, it's very likely that you suffer from other problems arising from your diet, such as STARVATION. yeah. So getting a case of chromium deficiency is pretty extreme.
Well, at least that puts the rest of us at ease.
Peace out-------------
too beautiful ;
15:48;
15:48;
Oft I find myself immersed in many hilarious everyday situations at school which unselfishly guide me in my understanding of osteomalacia, the deficiency of Vitamin D.
The first was straight after I had encountered the word for the first time during a bio quiz, and long after most of the class had gone for recess, I was still moping miserably over the fact that I could not find it in my Oxford dictionary, which I thought was infallible. The next teacher who came in after recess was promptly inundated with questions on osteomalacia. Luckily it was Mr Lau, who handled the situation like an old pro, and after saying "I can't really remember.." and nearly inducing simultaneous panic attacks from Rachel and I, and tapping for around 5 seconds with his laptop, "Huitinggg, it's the deficiency of Vitamin D.", true to his second nature as a bio teacher, pronouncing my Chinese name with emphasized enthusiasm as usual.
The second encounter was slightly more frightening, with the whole class displaying symptoms of osteomalacia.
Most of us just collapsed on the track.. or at least I did, legs wobbly and weak - strained unduly by hauling themselves out of months of atrophy. With sharp pains refusing to leave our sides, we found it more difficult to get off the ground than usual, heaved to our feet by the prefects who then herded us back to class to attend the joys of amath. Oh, evil flights of stairs, and woe betide the fact our classroom is on the 3rd level! We hauled ourselves up step by step, relying on our arms rather than our legs. As the day passed, we began to feel a dull ache in our legs, relieved but slightly when we kicked our legs out, terrible for students spending 11 hours in school.
Of course, we had just run our 2km long 10 round race.
But hey check it out, symptoms of osteomalacia in humans start off as aches and pains in the lumbar region, (which is the lower back), and the thighs, spreading later to the arms and ribs.. Pains in arms, back and thighs? CHECK. Pain is non-radiating and symmetrical. Pain everywhere? CHECK. There is difficulty in climbing stairs and getting up from a squatting position due to weakness of proximal muscles. Did we die walking up the stairs? CHECK. The patient has a typical waddling gait. Did we walk weirdly because we didn't want to bend down to tie our shoelaces? CHECK.
However, my childhood king Wikipedia in its glory, doth say nutritional osteomalacia may be treated by taking in soy milk, which is one of the few foods fortified in Vitamin D. Also, exposure to the sun should be observed. Let me teach you how to avoid getting osteomalacia while enjoying yourself - drink a smoothie in a nice club.
First of all, select a nice country club. For maximum enjoyment, I would suggest Singapore Island Country Club, or Raffles Town Club. Since I am a member of neither, I will cite SIA Sports Club as my example.
Once you've got your club, do get a nice swimsuit, which would allow for maximum exposure to sun, yet appear decent enough for public approval. Also, don't forget your suntan lotion, or else you'd end up looking like a cross between a teen high on alcohol and a lobster.
The last step, in which you make your smoothie!
Prepare cut slices of the fruit you want your smoothie to be flavored with. Do try to freeze the fruits beforehand. You also need about 500ml of soy milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 300ml of fruit juice and a few icecubes.
Add the peach to half of the soy milk and blend until smooth. Try not to go mad with the blender, no matter how hard temptation knocks.
Add the remaining soy milk, ice cubes and sugar and blend again. While stirring, slowly add the juice in. Hohum, feels a bit like the Biuret test at school. Add the copper sulphate slowly drop by drop, shaking after every drop.
Serve the smoothie in glasses.
Drink away and enjoy yourself!
The clock thus doth tick away at my life;
Tis but the wee hours of the morning gloom
When thine doth lean wearied brow upon wrist
And say with relieved heart, spirit and mind,
"Thyself tis done at long last, and must bid
The evil prison warden of homework
Good night, good luck and good bye, good sire.
Methinks thy hath instruments of intent
For thy tools of education doth steal
The spark of life from thine eyes, and ergo
Doth drive thyself to ever-deep slumber
For not wolfsbane, neither mandragora
Induce such sleep as thou can accredit
To sleep thouest owe'st to yesterday."
I OWN SHAKESPEARE.
Iambic pentameter thrown in for free even. Shakespeare hates your emo poems, but I wrote that myself. :) Ok, that poem is really going to be self-prophecy and I'm going to sleep in school tomorrow if I don't get to sleep soon. It's 1am. SEE YOU SOON!
The first was straight after I had encountered the word for the first time during a bio quiz, and long after most of the class had gone for recess, I was still moping miserably over the fact that I could not find it in my Oxford dictionary, which I thought was infallible. The next teacher who came in after recess was promptly inundated with questions on osteomalacia. Luckily it was Mr Lau, who handled the situation like an old pro, and after saying "I can't really remember.." and nearly inducing simultaneous panic attacks from Rachel and I, and tapping for around 5 seconds with his laptop, "Huitinggg, it's the deficiency of Vitamin D.", true to his second nature as a bio teacher, pronouncing my Chinese name with emphasized enthusiasm as usual.
The second encounter was slightly more frightening, with the whole class displaying symptoms of osteomalacia.
Most of us just collapsed on the track.. or at least I did, legs wobbly and weak - strained unduly by hauling themselves out of months of atrophy. With sharp pains refusing to leave our sides, we found it more difficult to get off the ground than usual, heaved to our feet by the prefects who then herded us back to class to attend the joys of amath. Oh, evil flights of stairs, and woe betide the fact our classroom is on the 3rd level! We hauled ourselves up step by step, relying on our arms rather than our legs. As the day passed, we began to feel a dull ache in our legs, relieved but slightly when we kicked our legs out, terrible for students spending 11 hours in school.
Of course, we had just run our 2km long 10 round race.
But hey check it out, symptoms of osteomalacia in humans start off as aches and pains in the lumbar region, (which is the lower back), and the thighs, spreading later to the arms and ribs.. Pains in arms, back and thighs? CHECK. Pain is non-radiating and symmetrical. Pain everywhere? CHECK. There is difficulty in climbing stairs and getting up from a squatting position due to weakness of proximal muscles. Did we die walking up the stairs? CHECK. The patient has a typical waddling gait. Did we walk weirdly because we didn't want to bend down to tie our shoelaces? CHECK.
However, my childhood king Wikipedia in its glory, doth say nutritional osteomalacia may be treated by taking in soy milk, which is one of the few foods fortified in Vitamin D. Also, exposure to the sun should be observed. Let me teach you how to avoid getting osteomalacia while enjoying yourself - drink a smoothie in a nice club.
First of all, select a nice country club. For maximum enjoyment, I would suggest Singapore Island Country Club, or Raffles Town Club. Since I am a member of neither, I will cite SIA Sports Club as my example.
Once you've got your club, do get a nice swimsuit, which would allow for maximum exposure to sun, yet appear decent enough for public approval. Also, don't forget your suntan lotion, or else you'd end up looking like a cross between a teen high on alcohol and a lobster.
The last step, in which you make your smoothie!
Prepare cut slices of the fruit you want your smoothie to be flavored with. Do try to freeze the fruits beforehand. You also need about 500ml of soy milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 300ml of fruit juice and a few icecubes.
Add the peach to half of the soy milk and blend until smooth. Try not to go mad with the blender, no matter how hard temptation knocks.
Add the remaining soy milk, ice cubes and sugar and blend again. While stirring, slowly add the juice in. Hohum, feels a bit like the Biuret test at school. Add the copper sulphate slowly drop by drop, shaking after every drop.
Serve the smoothie in glasses.
Drink away and enjoy yourself!
The clock thus doth tick away at my life;
Tis but the wee hours of the morning gloom
When thine doth lean wearied brow upon wrist
And say with relieved heart, spirit and mind,
"Thyself tis done at long last, and must bid
The evil prison warden of homework
Good night, good luck and good bye, good sire.
Methinks thy hath instruments of intent
For thy tools of education doth steal
The spark of life from thine eyes, and ergo
Doth drive thyself to ever-deep slumber
For not wolfsbane, neither mandragora
Induce such sleep as thou can accredit
To sleep thouest owe'st to yesterday."
I OWN SHAKESPEARE.
Iambic pentameter thrown in for free even. Shakespeare hates your emo poems, but I wrote that myself. :) Ok, that poem is really going to be self-prophecy and I'm going to sleep in school tomorrow if I don't get to sleep soon. It's 1am. SEE YOU SOON!
too beautiful ;
13:25;
13:25;
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Zinc Deficiency
When I saw ‘Zinc’, my first reaction was, "But Zinc is a metal!" Then, I remembered the possibility of an Iodine Deficiency
(Can you imagine those brown liquid that you see in the labs turning blue-black whenever they come into contact with starch in your body? Haha! serene:hi rachel, the human body doesn't store starch right! i thought we only did glucose/glycogen), and I decided that having Zinc in the human body is not THAT impossible after all…
Zinc is one of the most important elements that the human body needs for survival. It is needed to:
Stimulate about 100 enzymes in the human body
Support the immune system
Heal wounds
Maintain sense of taste and smell
Synthesise DNA
Support normal growth and development during pregnancy, childbirth and adolescence
With so many functions, an inadequate intake or a poor absorption of zinc could cause tons of problems. This would include slow fetal growth, a decrease in appetite which could worsen to anorexia nervosa, just to name a few.
Signs and symptoms of Zinc deficiency include hair loss, skin lesions, diarrhea, wasting of body tissues, and ultimately, death. à The horrifying word! Ah!
A small piece of information about Zinc:
When combined with antioxidants, it may delay age-progression of macular degeneration. Sounds nice at first, but hear this, "The effect is extremely small and not likely to be clinically important." What a world, what a world!
Now back to business. Zinc deficiency is experienced in any parts of the world. But I guess it’s more prominent in the urban areas than the rural areas. The !Kung Bushmen do hunt animals to eat right? I do not think they have vegetarians and what-nots like we do in the urban world.
"For those who cannot afford a balanced and varied diet, Zinc deficiency during pregnancy and childhood could occur."
A solution to this problem could be coming up with an affordable way of rearing oysters (Good source of Zinc) to sell to the masses. This would decrease its cost and hopefully, decrease the cases of Zinc Deficiency in pregnant women and children.
Well, I may say that that is not the only cause of Zinc deficiency. I guess many people during their pregnancy and childhood do not consider the need for such a nutrient. Their knowledge for ‘zinc’ stays at that it is an element of the Periodic Table and that it is a metal. (I am one such example.) Hence, there should be an improvement of public awareness for such a need. Maybe hand out pamphlets, or post advertisements on the papers.
Low zinc status has been observed in many alcoholics, due to the fact that alcohol decreases the absorption of zinc and increases the loss of zinc in urine. I am not saying that the alcohol is the whole problem; another factor that contributes to this is that the alcoholics may not have had a varied diet to maintain the amount of zinc in their bodies. What say do I have to this? Well, it goes back to the clichéd, "Don’t be an alcoholic!" Alcoholism does not cost one’s family but also one’s life as well.
As mentioned, Zinc deficiency could lower one’s appetite, leading to malnutrition.
It has been proven that it improves weight gain in anorexia. So… eat more ZINC!
Now we know the effects of a lack of ZINC! We shall have a moment of silence as we dedicate the day of today to an element close to my dear heart. It’s importance and our dependence on it. Oh yes, to ZINC!
……..
Done? All right then. HAPPY ZINC DAY!
P.S. PRAISE THE OYSTERS! (OKAY, I know that it may be scientifically overwhelming but my love for science cannot be explained. But it does increase your appreciation to the metal, isolated and unknown to the outside world! Doesn’t it?)
When I saw ‘Zinc’, my first reaction was, "But Zinc is a metal!" Then, I remembered the possibility of an Iodine Deficiency
(Can you imagine those brown liquid that you see in the labs turning blue-black whenever they come into contact with starch in your body? Haha! serene:hi rachel, the human body doesn't store starch right! i thought we only did glucose/glycogen), and I decided that having Zinc in the human body is not THAT impossible after all…
Zinc is one of the most important elements that the human body needs for survival. It is needed to:
Stimulate about 100 enzymes in the human body
Support the immune system
Heal wounds
Maintain sense of taste and smell
Synthesise DNA
Support normal growth and development during pregnancy, childbirth and adolescence
With so many functions, an inadequate intake or a poor absorption of zinc could cause tons of problems. This would include slow fetal growth, a decrease in appetite which could worsen to anorexia nervosa, just to name a few.
Signs and symptoms of Zinc deficiency include hair loss, skin lesions, diarrhea, wasting of body tissues, and ultimately, death. à The horrifying word! Ah!
A small piece of information about Zinc:
When combined with antioxidants, it may delay age-progression of macular degeneration. Sounds nice at first, but hear this, "The effect is extremely small and not likely to be clinically important." What a world, what a world!
Now back to business. Zinc deficiency is experienced in any parts of the world. But I guess it’s more prominent in the urban areas than the rural areas. The !Kung Bushmen do hunt animals to eat right? I do not think they have vegetarians and what-nots like we do in the urban world.
"For those who cannot afford a balanced and varied diet, Zinc deficiency during pregnancy and childhood could occur."
A solution to this problem could be coming up with an affordable way of rearing oysters (Good source of Zinc) to sell to the masses. This would decrease its cost and hopefully, decrease the cases of Zinc Deficiency in pregnant women and children.
Well, I may say that that is not the only cause of Zinc deficiency. I guess many people during their pregnancy and childhood do not consider the need for such a nutrient. Their knowledge for ‘zinc’ stays at that it is an element of the Periodic Table and that it is a metal. (I am one such example.) Hence, there should be an improvement of public awareness for such a need. Maybe hand out pamphlets, or post advertisements on the papers.
Low zinc status has been observed in many alcoholics, due to the fact that alcohol decreases the absorption of zinc and increases the loss of zinc in urine. I am not saying that the alcohol is the whole problem; another factor that contributes to this is that the alcoholics may not have had a varied diet to maintain the amount of zinc in their bodies. What say do I have to this? Well, it goes back to the clichéd, "Don’t be an alcoholic!" Alcoholism does not cost one’s family but also one’s life as well.
As mentioned, Zinc deficiency could lower one’s appetite, leading to malnutrition.
It has been proven that it improves weight gain in anorexia. So… eat more ZINC!
Now we know the effects of a lack of ZINC! We shall have a moment of silence as we dedicate the day of today to an element close to my dear heart. It’s importance and our dependence on it. Oh yes, to ZINC!
……..
Done? All right then. HAPPY ZINC DAY!
P.S. PRAISE THE OYSTERS! (OKAY, I know that it may be scientifically overwhelming but my love for science cannot be explained. But it does increase your appreciation to the metal, isolated and unknown to the outside world! Doesn’t it?)
too beautiful ;
00:13;
00:13;
Sunday 25 March 2007
(even scientific discoveries deserve a little fun sometimes)
SERINE SCHMERINE. Now, the deficiency of SERENE is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. It's awful.
Harmful side effects include withdrawal symptoms such as talking to oneself in an attempt to emulate Serene, strange obsessions over white watches, a wanton ignorance of iPODs, signs of high stress levels (ie high amounts of adrenaline, high blood pressure etc.) owing to the fact that Serene is not there to take away the stress, a sudden urge for music of any kind, a once-non existent passion for sour mangoes, an acute lack of laughter, insomnia and the inability to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, your reasoning being, Serene, were she out there somewhere, would not be sleeping either.
Serenity is also what many people desire and crave for, especially those working in jobs with high stress levels. Unfortunately, serenity and Serene do not come hand in hand, but they often act as excellent substitutes for each other as both are supremely capable of relieving stress.
Serene is also a famous abbreviation for a haunt of many teenagers, Serene Centre, where copious amounts of human traffic flock to Island Creamery.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease, and there is no possible way to limit the harmful withdrawal symptoms. TOO BAD.
SERINE SCHMERINE. Now, the deficiency of SERENE is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. It's awful.
Harmful side effects include withdrawal symptoms such as talking to oneself in an attempt to emulate Serene, strange obsessions over white watches, a wanton ignorance of iPODs, signs of high stress levels (ie high amounts of adrenaline, high blood pressure etc.) owing to the fact that Serene is not there to take away the stress, a sudden urge for music of any kind, a once-non existent passion for sour mangoes, an acute lack of laughter, insomnia and the inability to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, your reasoning being, Serene, were she out there somewhere, would not be sleeping either.
Serenity is also what many people desire and crave for, especially those working in jobs with high stress levels. Unfortunately, serenity and Serene do not come hand in hand, but they often act as excellent substitutes for each other as both are supremely capable of relieving stress.
Serene is also a famous abbreviation for a haunt of many teenagers, Serene Centre, where copious amounts of human traffic flock to Island Creamery.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease, and there is no possible way to limit the harmful withdrawal symptoms. TOO BAD.
too beautiful ;
00:55;
00:55;
Thursday 22 March 2007
Hello world, and especially our bio teacher! Serene here. Thank you, Huimei, for the mention in the last post. I kind of like serine the amino acid too. I think it has a lovely name. The way it sounds is perfect! :)
And surprise, surprise, for this post, I'm going to do the deficiency of serine! The scientific explanation of the deficiency of serine is really dry and complicated, so being the brilliant person I am; I shall attempt to translate it for the non-doctors.
Firstly, serine is an amino acid. We get amino acids either when our bodies make them, or we get them from our diet. Serine is a non-essential amino acid. This means it can be produced by the body, and thus does not need to be obtained from our diet.
Deficiency of serine is actually caused by the defects in the bio-synthesis of the amino acid L-Serine. Bio-synthesis is, according to Wikipedia, the phenomenon where chemical compounds are produced from simple reagents. Think something like chem test - ionic bonding. Except that unlike chemical synthesis, bio-synthesis often takes place in living organisms and is generally catalysed by enzymes.
Ok, basically the good news is, serine-deficiencies are potentially treatable. The cure is really quite obvious. The serine-deficient victim is given oral doses of serine, or if serine-deficiency is discovered early, when the child is still in the mother's womb, giving the mother doses of serine.
Children with serine-deficiency suffer from neurometabolic symptoms like encephalopathy, mental retardation, spasticity, celebral palsy and many others.
I guess the age-old adage of 'Prevention is better than cure' shouldn't really apply here, since there is, as yet, no effective way of preventing serine-deficiency altogether. We can only try to limit the extent of the symptoms by procuring serine for the victim's body through artificial means.
I suppose there could be a way of fighting serine-deficiency altogether from the whole human race, but it would potentially clash with our stand on bioethics. The way I would choose to be the most efficient to wipe out serine-deficiencies would be eugenics, or if you would agree, the branch of eugenics involving selective breeding.
Serine-deficiency is an inherited disease, and it involves recessive genes, in effect meaning that two set of parent genes are needed for a child to be diagnosed with serine-deficiency. Thus, if we were to want to combat serine-deficiency, a minimum of one parent would have to be serine-deficient free should they want to conceive a child.
In all Mark Haddon and his Curious Incident glory, I have calculated that if two normal parents with one normal gene and one recessive gene were to have a 25% chance of conceiving a child with serine deficiency - then if one parent was free of serine deficiency, none of the children would be diagnosed with serine deficiency.
I realise it would be hard pressed for anyone to be as brilliant at math as Christopher Boone in Curious Incident, but I have constructed a little visual aid to help. Let us imagine Wentworth Miller married Jennifer Love Hewitt. Apart from having the most gorgeous babies ever, should they have 4 children, one would be afflicted with serine-deficiency. This is based on the fact both parents have one normal gene and one recessive gene.
However, let us see what would happen if Wentworth Miller was completely serine-deficiency free.
Their children would be serine-deficiency free! However, it is not a foolproof plan. The third generation of little Millers would still have traces of being serine-deficient. So, ideally if we really wanted to wipe out serine-deficiencies from this planet, both parents would have to have no copies whatsoever of the recessive gene. ie;
However, this would mean in effect, people with any trace of serine-deficiency at all would not be allowed to conceive children. Should they feel their biological clock ticking, they would merely have to turn to adoption, or in-vitro fertilisation. Surely that isn't right either. Children are born as a consequence of the love between a man and a woman. This gives rise to the argument that humans are the product of love between other humans. Though this is not tangible, we could say that much of the inherent love in the hearts of humans is an outcome of this love. Are we to deny the bearers of the serine-deficient gene this love?
We must strike carefully this balance between moral concerns and a hope for a better science. We must not overstep or cross any line, stirring up a hornet's nest between the religious world and the scientific world.
I believe we cannot take over this responsibility from nature. We can immediately assume that upon our takeover, the responsibility would be abused. Should we allow this, one of the first implications would be that we would allow selective breeding for other purposes too. Each society would then use this to its own advantage, and the world would perhaps be overrun with members of a certain race, mental abilities or simply upset the balance of the sexes.
Undesirable, indisputedly.
I think for now, until technology has given us a better tool, we should just live with people with serine-deficiencies and just remember to give them their medicine on time. ^^!
And surprise, surprise, for this post, I'm going to do the deficiency of serine! The scientific explanation of the deficiency of serine is really dry and complicated, so being the brilliant person I am; I shall attempt to translate it for the non-doctors.
Firstly, serine is an amino acid. We get amino acids either when our bodies make them, or we get them from our diet. Serine is a non-essential amino acid. This means it can be produced by the body, and thus does not need to be obtained from our diet.
Deficiency of serine is actually caused by the defects in the bio-synthesis of the amino acid L-Serine. Bio-synthesis is, according to Wikipedia, the phenomenon where chemical compounds are produced from simple reagents. Think something like chem test - ionic bonding. Except that unlike chemical synthesis, bio-synthesis often takes place in living organisms and is generally catalysed by enzymes.
Ok, basically the good news is, serine-deficiencies are potentially treatable. The cure is really quite obvious. The serine-deficient victim is given oral doses of serine, or if serine-deficiency is discovered early, when the child is still in the mother's womb, giving the mother doses of serine.
Children with serine-deficiency suffer from neurometabolic symptoms like encephalopathy, mental retardation, spasticity, celebral palsy and many others.
I guess the age-old adage of 'Prevention is better than cure' shouldn't really apply here, since there is, as yet, no effective way of preventing serine-deficiency altogether. We can only try to limit the extent of the symptoms by procuring serine for the victim's body through artificial means.
I suppose there could be a way of fighting serine-deficiency altogether from the whole human race, but it would potentially clash with our stand on bioethics. The way I would choose to be the most efficient to wipe out serine-deficiencies would be eugenics, or if you would agree, the branch of eugenics involving selective breeding.
Serine-deficiency is an inherited disease, and it involves recessive genes, in effect meaning that two set of parent genes are needed for a child to be diagnosed with serine-deficiency. Thus, if we were to want to combat serine-deficiency, a minimum of one parent would have to be serine-deficient free should they want to conceive a child.
In all Mark Haddon and his Curious Incident glory, I have calculated that if two normal parents with one normal gene and one recessive gene were to have a 25% chance of conceiving a child with serine deficiency - then if one parent was free of serine deficiency, none of the children would be diagnosed with serine deficiency.
I realise it would be hard pressed for anyone to be as brilliant at math as Christopher Boone in Curious Incident, but I have constructed a little visual aid to help. Let us imagine Wentworth Miller married Jennifer Love Hewitt. Apart from having the most gorgeous babies ever, should they have 4 children, one would be afflicted with serine-deficiency. This is based on the fact both parents have one normal gene and one recessive gene.
However, let us see what would happen if Wentworth Miller was completely serine-deficiency free.
Their children would be serine-deficiency free! However, it is not a foolproof plan. The third generation of little Millers would still have traces of being serine-deficient. So, ideally if we really wanted to wipe out serine-deficiencies from this planet, both parents would have to have no copies whatsoever of the recessive gene. ie;
However, this would mean in effect, people with any trace of serine-deficiency at all would not be allowed to conceive children. Should they feel their biological clock ticking, they would merely have to turn to adoption, or in-vitro fertilisation. Surely that isn't right either. Children are born as a consequence of the love between a man and a woman. This gives rise to the argument that humans are the product of love between other humans. Though this is not tangible, we could say that much of the inherent love in the hearts of humans is an outcome of this love. Are we to deny the bearers of the serine-deficient gene this love?
We must strike carefully this balance between moral concerns and a hope for a better science. We must not overstep or cross any line, stirring up a hornet's nest between the religious world and the scientific world.
I believe we cannot take over this responsibility from nature. We can immediately assume that upon our takeover, the responsibility would be abused. Should we allow this, one of the first implications would be that we would allow selective breeding for other purposes too. Each society would then use this to its own advantage, and the world would perhaps be overrun with members of a certain race, mental abilities or simply upset the balance of the sexes.
Undesirable, indisputedly.
I think for now, until technology has given us a better tool, we should just live with people with serine-deficiencies and just remember to give them their medicine on time. ^^!
too beautiful ;
22:17;
22:17;
Tuesday 20 March 2007
Hi, Huimei here. I shall continue from the video above, posted by Serene. Did you know that there's an amino acid called serine?? I realised it while looking at the spelling list we had from bio class. Anyway, I digress, back to the subject............
Just how cool is that ? Apparently he was also featured on the Ellen Degeneres show, and the video of that episode got posted on youtube to boot. Go here to watch it.
But the sad truth is, his case is one in a million. Not all blind people have amazing abilities to make up for their lack of vision. Except maybe Stevie Wonder, and the busker who plays the keyboard and harmonica simultaneously at the Orchard Road underground, but once again, I digress. Back to the subject.
Up to 500 thousand children are blinded each year by a condition called Xerophthalmia (zee-rof-thal-mia),
an abnormal dryness of the eyeball, caused by a deficiency of tears and which is mainly attributed to the deficiency of Vitamin A.Vitamin A can generally be found as retinol esters in dairy products such as milk and eggs, and pro-Vitamin A carotenoids in plants such as spinach and carrots.
Xerophthalmia can also be associated with other diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, and hypothyroidism, which all stem from a lack of vitamin A. The use of certain medications such as antihistamines, nasal decongestants, tranquilizers, and anti-depressant drugs can also contribute to it.
Coke is actually a mild antihistamine!:D
Xerophthalmia can actually be treated with over-the-counter eyedrops, by installing humidifiers in the house,wearing wrap around goggles and avoiding dry and windy weather AT ALL COSTS . As long as it is detected in the early stages, it can be treated .As Xerophthalmia starts as night blindness before progressing to 24 hour blindness, treatment must be sought before total blindness sets in. If left for too long, the condition becomes irreversible.
I remember when I was little, my parents would force me to eat carrots until I was certain my nose would turn orange, because " Eating carrots gives you good eyesight!! "
I guess they werent so wrong after all.
too beautiful ;
19:43;
19:43;
Saturday 10 March 2007
Jeez. My post got deleted by some error. But somehow I saved it in my MSN message history folder. Don't even ask me why it's there, but it is. And I'm thankful. I almost cried when I thought I had to reconstruct the whole post by memory. Ok, er go watch this. It's a video I made on marasmus.
"I am not afraid to keep on living;
I am not afraid to walk this world alone"
-Famous Last Words, by My Chemical Romance.
How many children suffering from marasmus can echo these words? Precious few.
Simplistically, marasmus is basically the severe lack of protein in the diet, mainly affecting children under 1. Children over 18 months are generally affected by another form of this called kwashiorkor.
Marasmus usually affects children in less developed countries, where the main source of nutrition after being weaned off mother's milk, is starchy vegetables. A child suffering from marasmus may lose up to 80% of the normal weight for that height. The effects are horrifying to look at, often with rather shocking nightmarish images of muscle wastage and emaciation, the effects mostspectacularly observed around the buttocks and the thighs, where the loss of adipose tissue in these normal areas of fat deposits is rather severe. I covered a few of these images quite briefly in the video I made; so do watch the video please.
I suppose the first step in solving this problem, would be first to raise awareness. I mean, how many people actually know what marasmus is? I certainly didn't, until I was tasked to research on deficiency diseases extensively. AHA - And that is where we come in, the four of us, to promote awareness of the various types of deficiency diseases that we seldom hear or come across in our lives, and we want to create an intellectual and interesting awareness of these diseases through blogging so that others can be informed of such calamity that happens around the globe. (wahaha thank you Mr Jo!)
I believe after seeing images of these children, or reading about the effects; the question present in most minds would be how to rectify the problem. As I've mentioned above, this problem is caused when babies are weaned off their mother's milk, and fed starchy vegetables instead. Thus they suddenly lack the amino acids present in breast milk. I suppose then, logically, to rectify this problem, it would suffice to provide proteins for these children, where the method would have to be feasibly possible, bearing in mind the number of children present in the third-world countries, and cost effective.
I wonder if providing insulin doses for these children would be possible. The basic research I did on Wikipedia seems to point towards this. Insulin has effects on fat metabolism and it changes the liver's activity in storing or releasing glucose and in processing blood lipids, and in other tissues such as fat and muscle. Insulin is also quite a small protein molecule, in fact, it could be classified as a peptide. So I suppose theoretically this would aid in the speed of which it could diffuse into the body system, warranting a shorter recovery period.
Since insulin is used medically to treat diabetes, it might be possible side effects could occur. However, banking on the same fact, since it is already used medically to treat diabetes, and at least 171 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes (according to figures by the World Health Organization), it should be commercially produced, thus available in large numbers. A problem with this solution, however, would that it would be quite cost ineffective.
I wonder then, if it's possible to have banana plantations in these third world countries. Proteins make up about 1% of a banana's nutritional values. Bananas are also non-seasonal crops, and are available all year round in tropical areas. Additionally, since the third-world countries are found mainly in the central-African area, according to a map I found on Wikipedia, I suppose it would be quite possible to induce the cultivation of bananas. (The green areas show high human development, the yellow medium human development and the red, low human development.)
I guess. Because aha.
Bearing in mind my weak grasp of geography, I have found another map on Wikipedia to be a visual aid to show you where exactly the tropics would be. Linking the two maps, we can see the developing nations in Africa would fall in the red-tinted zone of the tropics, and more importantly, be ideal for cultivating bananas.
Am I brilliant, or am I brilliant?
Plant bananas to cure marasmus victims. I do suppose it sounds a little silly at the moment, perhaps it'll only work as a short-term cure. But maybe someday, someone somewhere will think of the same idea as me, propose it to the world, and win a Nobel Prize like that guy Muhammed Yunus who helped Bangladesh with their Grameen Banking system.
Cultivating banana plantations does sound a whole lot more feasible thanissuing insulin doses out to the young though.
I don't think we see cases of marasmus often in our more developed part of the world , with all the splendour of prepared milk powder formulae. However, Catherine Lim's literature does provide a valuable insight into the olden third-world days of Singapore, where if one had not enough money, babies would be fed sugar water instead of milk.
Well then, I guess there was an inevitable moderate to high mortality rate, but we have to consider the sizeable amount of babies which did make it to adulthood, despite the severe lack of nutrients. We must see how these babies managed to survive, and put them into the hypothetical theory of helping these marasmus victims.
"I am not afraid to keep on living;
I am not afraid to walk this world alone"
-Famous Last Words, by My Chemical Romance.
How many children suffering from marasmus can echo these words? Precious few.
Simplistically, marasmus is basically the severe lack of protein in the diet, mainly affecting children under 1. Children over 18 months are generally affected by another form of this called kwashiorkor.
Marasmus usually affects children in less developed countries, where the main source of nutrition after being weaned off mother's milk, is starchy vegetables. A child suffering from marasmus may lose up to 80% of the normal weight for that height. The effects are horrifying to look at, often with rather shocking nightmarish images of muscle wastage and emaciation, the effects mostspectacularly observed around the buttocks and the thighs, where the loss of adipose tissue in these normal areas of fat deposits is rather severe. I covered a few of these images quite briefly in the video I made; so do watch the video please.
I suppose the first step in solving this problem, would be first to raise awareness. I mean, how many people actually know what marasmus is? I certainly didn't, until I was tasked to research on deficiency diseases extensively. AHA - And that is where we come in, the four of us, to promote awareness of the various types of deficiency diseases that we seldom hear or come across in our lives, and we want to create an intellectual and interesting awareness of these diseases through blogging so that others can be informed of such calamity that happens around the globe. (wahaha thank you Mr Jo!)
I believe after seeing images of these children, or reading about the effects; the question present in most minds would be how to rectify the problem. As I've mentioned above, this problem is caused when babies are weaned off their mother's milk, and fed starchy vegetables instead. Thus they suddenly lack the amino acids present in breast milk. I suppose then, logically, to rectify this problem, it would suffice to provide proteins for these children, where the method would have to be feasibly possible, bearing in mind the number of children present in the third-world countries, and cost effective.
I wonder if providing insulin doses for these children would be possible. The basic research I did on Wikipedia seems to point towards this. Insulin has effects on fat metabolism and it changes the liver's activity in storing or releasing glucose and in processing blood lipids, and in other tissues such as fat and muscle. Insulin is also quite a small protein molecule, in fact, it could be classified as a peptide. So I suppose theoretically this would aid in the speed of which it could diffuse into the body system, warranting a shorter recovery period.
Since insulin is used medically to treat diabetes, it might be possible side effects could occur. However, banking on the same fact, since it is already used medically to treat diabetes, and at least 171 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes (according to figures by the World Health Organization), it should be commercially produced, thus available in large numbers. A problem with this solution, however, would that it would be quite cost ineffective.
I wonder then, if it's possible to have banana plantations in these third world countries. Proteins make up about 1% of a banana's nutritional values. Bananas are also non-seasonal crops, and are available all year round in tropical areas. Additionally, since the third-world countries are found mainly in the central-African area, according to a map I found on Wikipedia, I suppose it would be quite possible to induce the cultivation of bananas. (The green areas show high human development, the yellow medium human development and the red, low human development.)
I guess. Because aha.
Bearing in mind my weak grasp of geography, I have found another map on Wikipedia to be a visual aid to show you where exactly the tropics would be. Linking the two maps, we can see the developing nations in Africa would fall in the red-tinted zone of the tropics, and more importantly, be ideal for cultivating bananas.
Am I brilliant, or am I brilliant?
Plant bananas to cure marasmus victims. I do suppose it sounds a little silly at the moment, perhaps it'll only work as a short-term cure. But maybe someday, someone somewhere will think of the same idea as me, propose it to the world, and win a Nobel Prize like that guy Muhammed Yunus who helped Bangladesh with their Grameen Banking system.
Cultivating banana plantations does sound a whole lot more feasible thanissuing insulin doses out to the young though.
I don't think we see cases of marasmus often in our more developed part of the world , with all the splendour of prepared milk powder formulae. However, Catherine Lim's literature does provide a valuable insight into the olden third-world days of Singapore, where if one had not enough money, babies would be fed sugar water instead of milk.
Well then, I guess there was an inevitable moderate to high mortality rate, but we have to consider the sizeable amount of babies which did make it to adulthood, despite the severe lack of nutrients. We must see how these babies managed to survive, and put them into the hypothetical theory of helping these marasmus victims.
too beautiful ;
12:45;
12:45;