science
The science of staying young, healthy, and in-shape.
Thyme for the Truth
Disclaimer: At Ask This Guy, we believe in making educated decisions when it comes to your health. We don’t deny that plants can help treat ailments, but we do not want people to chose natural cures over medical treatments. Listen to your doctor.
By Sandy Theriault8 years ago in Longevity
Is Georgia the 'Sickest State' in the Country This Flu Season?
If you are like most people in the US this flu season, you probably find yourself scrolling through your social media news feed regularly or watching your local news stations and coming across more than one seemingly reputable news article entitled “Georgia Named Sickest State in the Country.” Maybe you shared it. Perhaps you didn’t even read it, but the headline was enough to cause concern for the well-being of your family and friends—reasonably so. There is no doubt that this flu season has been a harsh one but with the media taking any anecdotal evidence and running with it, it’s difficult to tell what’s real and what’s “clickbait.”
By Sarah Fennell8 years ago in Longevity
The Soul Is a Song
Do you take the time to make musical playlists? Maybe there are songs you enjoy listening to when you’re exercising or full of high energy, whereas there are different songs that you would choose to play in the background at your cocktail party or for a romantic evening.
By Ashley Alexia8 years ago in Longevity
Beta-Alanine, Caffeine, and Creatine
According to Eudy et al. (2013), “A survey of 207 college athletes indicated that 89 percent were using... preworkout nutritional supplements...” (p. 577). Another study cites that most 11- to 18-year-olds who claimed to be taking preworkout supplements had no knowledge of the potential risks associated with these controversial workout enhancers (Eudy et al., 2013). The use of preworkout supplements originally seemed to be on a steep rise among today’s athletes and gym-goers; for years, infamous Blender Bottles could be found scattered around almost all fitness centers, filled with water and mixed to an array of vibrant hues matching the supplement’s artificial flavors. As preworkout supplements grew more prevalent in the general fitness society, the act of checking the nutrition facts and skeptically yet objectively researching whether a supplement’s ingredients were both safe and efficacious for the user became less common. The proposed benefits used to market preworkout supplements by large companies such as Cellucor and EVLution make it easy to see why these types of nutritional supplements rapidly gained popularity among athletes and fitness gurus, but not all publicity for these supplements has been positive. As general consumer knowledge surrounding these supplements dwindled, many of these then were often linked with unsafe and undesirable effects. As Kendall et al. (2014) have noted, “mainstream media reports have linked creatine and caffeine supplementation with potential renal and hepatic problems as well as dehydration” (p. 443). As various attitudes and beliefs surrounding the risks and results of preworkout supplements regularly change, the safety and efficacy of preworkout supplements on the human body is of larger interest than ever before to athletes, performance coaches, and fitness enthusiasts alike. The use of beta-alanine, caffeine, and creatine in these preworkout supplements is safe for users as well as being effective in enhancing the results of an athlete or fitness enthusiast’s workout.
By Connor Nelson8 years ago in Longevity
Digestion Meets Uncle Kidney
One day i knew a guy named Digestive System. He was born with two main functions. There names were digestive and absorption. Digestion told digestive that he needs to process the converting food into substances capable of being used by the cells for nourishment. Then absorption came along and does a process in which the digested nutrients are transferred from the intestines to the blood or lymph vessels so that they can be transported to the cells. Then there were two organs that he forgot he even had. These organs were the alimentary canal and the accessory digestive organs.Alimentary canal consists of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Accessory digestive consists of the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver, and gall bladder. Alimentary told digestive that he is a muscular tube that is five times as long as a person is tall and extends from the lips to the anus. Digestive always wondered why he had all these things going on in his system. He also is accompanied through physical and chemical means. The physical means involve the teeth, tongue, and involuntary muscles of the pharynx, esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. The teeth tear and grind the food into small pieces while the tongue mixes and moves the food that is called his buddy Chewing. His oral cavity prepares food for entrance into his stomach. in his mouth food is masticated(chewed) by the teeth and mixed by the tongue with secretions from his salivary glands. Saliva contains enzymes that begin to digest carbohydrates. his best friend "Bolus" is an action of the teeth, tongue, and saliva that prepare food into a soft ball that slides down the throat slide and is swallowed by voluntary and reflex muscles of the pharynx. After food travels down the esophagus it passes through the cardiac sphincter and enters the stomach where gastric juices is churned like butter and secreted from glands in the walls of the stomach that contain hydrochloric acid and protein-digesting enzymes. Chyme is like what we call a "smoothie" because it is a mixture of digesting juices, mucus, and food materials. Once we finish mixing our "smoothie" called chyme from the stomach it passes through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum of the small intestine. Pyloric sphincter is the number one rookie because he is first to play an important role in determining how long food is held in the stomach. His other best friend small intestine is the longest part of the alimentary canal and consists of three of his partners in crime the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Bile from his liver and gall bladder is carried through the common bile duct and is essential for breakdown of fats. Then we have what he calls pancreatic fluid that enters the partner of crime the duodenum by way of his pancreatic duct and contains enzymes that act to digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Then we have some small fingers that protect the covering of the intestinal walls called "Mr. Villi" the villain of his team. After Mr. digestive system has done all his digestion things, then comes the waste which is unusable materials and it moves through the ileocecal valve into a small pouch-like a kangaroo pouch which is part of the large intestine called the cecum. The large intestine or colon continues his process upward along the right side of the abdomen to form the ascending colon. Then it travels to the abdominal cavity and forms the transverse colon. It goes down on the left side of the abdomen to become the descending colon. As the colon reaches the left iliac region it forms a "Superman" shaped S band known as the "Superman" signoid colon. Mr. Rectum is temporary storage for waste. The distal part of the large intestine is the anal canal which ends with the anus where dookie or poop is expelled. Then comes along Mr. Digestive system's family member who is part of the urinary system that includes two kidneys, two ureters, one bladder, and one urethra. He has a bean shaped organ located at the back of the abdominal cavity between the tenth thoracic and third lumbar vertebrae and kept in place by fibrous connective and fatty tissues called Uncle Kidney. I always thought when people asked about the kidneys they were referring to the can of beans we eat called kidney beans. The functional unit of Uncle Kidney is his son "Nephron". Good ol' Nephron was born with two to three millions "nephrons". Each day he filters out forty to fifty gallons of plasma from the blood. That is way more gallons of water than an elephant can drink a day. Ninety percent of this fluid is reabsorbed into the blood stream. Uncle Kidney's ureters excrete the remaining water and wast products through these two items. As Uncle Kidney filters his blood, he removes a certain amount of water and nitrogenous waste products of metabolism. His ureters are tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder where his urine is stored. His bladder is a hollow organ constructed of walls of elastic fivers and involuntary muscles that act as a reservoir for the urine until its secreted from his body. When Kidney has to go to the doctor they perform a urinalysis, which is a chemical examination of his urine that is often part of the doctor's routine examination given by most doctors. When Uncle Kidney is healthy his urine would be a clear yellowish fluid. But if he is sick then it is reddish brownish and can indicate he has an infection. Uncle Kidney's function is to maintain his body's water balance and acid-base balance. Another function he does is the production of the hormone called Mr. Renin, which acts to regulate his blood pressure. When his blood pressure is low, he stimulates to release more of Mr. Renin into his bloodstream which causes his blood vessels to contract, therefore, raising his blood pressure.
By NaQuita McKnight8 years ago in Longevity
Stem Cell Research
Every human body has special cells that, when they divide, have the potential to become any specific cell with a certain function such as blood cells, brain cells, or muscle cells. However, a type of stem cell called adult stem cells are limited. There are specific stem cells that can only grow into certain organ tissue. For example, humans have liver stem cells that can only grow into liver cells and not into any other type of organ or tissue. Embryonic stem cells are not limited in this way. In a blastocyst, or a fertilized egg that has not yet attached to the uterine wall, there are millions of stem cells that have the potential to grow into any type of tissue. The eggs used for stem cell research are not extracted from a woman’s body, but rather from a fertilized egg in a petri dish. Many scientists want to use the flexibility and potential of stem cell research to better human life and ease suffering. However, there are those who oppose the use of these type of cells. One cause of the controversy of this issue is that in many cases, the blastocyst is destroyed in the process of extracting the stem cells. For almost 20 years, scientists have been debating back and forth about the ethics of stem cell research, specifically concerning embryonic stem cells.
By Ella MacQueen8 years ago in Longevity
The Life and Death of the Naturopathic Movement
Benedict Lust, ND, DO, MD (February 3, 1872 - September 5, 1945), born in Michelbach, Germany, was one of the founders of naturopathic medicine. When Lust worked as a waiter in Baden-Baden, Geneva, and then New York City, New York, he became ill. Lust thought that it could have been tuberculosis and thought that he did not have long to live, so he went back to Germany and was looking for anything that could act as a cure.
By Marquis Canaday8 years ago in Longevity
Nutritional Medicine and the Medical Monopoly
Many times people will say, they don’t ‘believe’ in so called ‘holistic medicines’ meaning that they don’t believe in the healing and medicinal values of plants, herbs, and vegetables. This just points to the fact that they don’t know much about medicines in general.
By Joe Snaith9 years ago in Longevity
Antibiotics and the Bacteria That Resist Them
Since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first natural antibiotic, in 1928 we have been killing or slowing the growth of many types of bacteria with development of new antibiotics that are more and more powerful. At the time of Fleming’s discovery, he predicted that we would see the current rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria. After the discovery of penicillin other antibiotics related to it were developed such as benzylpenicillin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin that are still being routinely used to fight various bacterial infections. These usually work best for urinary tract, chest and skin infections. More modern antibiotics have been developed to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections.
By Kathy Craig9 years ago in Longevity
New Treatment May Stop The Spread of Cancer Cells
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that removing the limbs of human cancer cells impairs their ability to metastasize, spread and migrate. Most cancer patients die from the spread of tumors to the liver, brain or other vital organs. This new treatment may halt the deadly spread and contain the diseased cells.
By Kathy Craig9 years ago in Longevity
