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Newborns injected with vitamin K, is it necessary?
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Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin necessary mainly for the formation of blood clots. Without this vitamin, bleeding would not stop. Vitamin K is given as an injection to newborns to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding, since the level of blood clotting factors of newborn babies are roughly 30–60% that of adult values. The reason for this discrepancy is due to poor transfer of the vitamin across the placenta, and thus low fetal plasma vitamin K. Occurrence of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the first week of the infant's life is estimated at 0.25–1.7%, with a prevalence of 2–10 cases per 100,000 births. Since the vitamin is found in human milk and supplemented in infant formula, the concentration of vitamin K naturally rises within th ...
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4666 |
bio_man |
2 years ago |
Developing immunity to the common cold
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Summer is officially over, and fall has arrived. With this season comes runny noses and doctor visits. Save yourself the time and money, because it's either the common cold or the flu, both of which have no cure other than to rest and endure the discomfort. Luckily, you can be immunized for the flu, but not the cold. In fact, many people battle the cold several times a year, rather than developing a natural immunity towards it, why is that? The primary reason that immunity generally does not develop against the common cold is that there is not a single cause of the disease. Over 200 serotypes of viruses, including enteroviruses (previously called rhinoviruses), coronaviruses, and adenoviruses, can cause the symptoms of the common cold. Ther ...
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22551 |
bio_man |
4 years ago |
Medical science at its best
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This is what an eye looks like after keratoprosthesis: a surgical procedure where a diseased cornea is replaced with an artificial cornea.
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4592 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
This strange disease turns one's skin into bone
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Known an fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive, or FOB for short, this disease can suddenly turn a person’s tissues and muscles into bone, thereby permanently immobilizing parts of the bodies. Joints such as elbows or ankles may become frozen in place; jaw motion can be impeded and the rib cage fixed, making eating or even breathing difficult. Currently, no cure exists to combat this rare condition.
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7955 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Double hand transplant
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At only eights years-old, Zion Harvey is the youngest person with a double hand transplant ever. Four teams of surgeons worked over 11 hours to complete the complicated operation. Zion lost both of his hands and feet when he contracted sepsis at age two and experienced multiple organ failures. When he was four, he received a kidney transplant from his mother, and leg prosthetics have enabled him to engage in many activities.
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1937 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Pre-crastination
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Some of us may be guilty of procrastination, but we all are pre-crastinators at some level. Procrastination is a serious problem to many of us that like to put off work and cram the night before. Not only is procrastination a behavioral problem, but also one with a psychological implication. Procrastination is the "thief of time". On the other hand, precrastination, discovered to be the complete opposite, is the tendency to do things ahead of time - and really ahead of time- just for the sake of completion. Precrastination was found to be exhibited in pigeons as well. And the fact that we and pigeons have separated in phylogeny 300 million years ago suggests that precrastination is a behavior also found earlier in phylogeny. How has this be ...
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9127 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Can our brain run out of space?
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We've all struggled trying to shove magnanimous amounts of information for exams, be it vocabulary, geometry theorems, biology notes, chemistry reactions, physics equations or even just names of acquaintances we meet at weddings or the likes. You might question whether after many years of non-stop learning, be it in a classroom setting, or just basic interactions and do's and don'ts, may we run out of space to absorb all the memories, events and information we encounter. Our brain, unlike the brains of animals and lower ancestors, is not hardwired by instincts. In fact, we have very little in the field of instincts by comparison. Our brain is a learning brain. It is designed to absorb and interconnect information. Now, which of this inform ...
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5010 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
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2591 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Brain just can't catch a break
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The importance of adequate, non-distracted, deep sleep could not be emphasized enough. Recent research has put the brain yet again under the spotlight, this time only to shed some light on one more reason we should be getting our sleep and why. Make sure to watch the video above. It is hands down, one of the best TED talks I have listened to. As for now, I'mma go make my CSF flush my amyloid betas Nighty, night!
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16412 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
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12696 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Is cracking your knuckles bad for you?
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I've always told my students that cracking your joints leads to arthritis. Perhaps I've been wrong all these years, watch this video to find out more:
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32133 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Want to get rid of your double chin, now you can without surgery
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An injectable drug, called ATX-101, currently being tested melts away "submental fat", better known as the double chin. According to its makers, ATX-101 can be injected in a clinic and takes just five minutes. It consists of deoxycholic acid, a naturally-occurring molecule that helps us break down fat, which effectively destroys the membranes of fat cells, causing them to burst and then be metabolised by the body. ...
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27567 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Cancer, could it be just bad luck?
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In a paper this week in Science, two scientists at John Hopkins have united biology and mathematics to propose a mathematical formula to explain the genesis of cancer. Take the number of cells in an organ, identify what percentage of them are long-lived stem cells, and determine how many times the stem cells divide. With every division, there’s a risk of a cancer-causing mutation in a daughter cell. Thus, Tomasetti and Vogelstein reasoned, the tissues that host the greatest number of stem cell divisions are those most vulnerable to cancer. When Tomasetti crunched the numbers and compared them with actual cancer statistics, he concluded that this theory explained two-thirds of all cancers. “Using the mathematics of evolution, you can really ...
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12521 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
Insights into the Hippocampus
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When Henry Molaison (now widely known as H.M.) cracked his skull in an accident, he began blacking out and having seizures. In an attempt to cure him, daredevil surgeon, Dr. William Skoville, removed H.M.'s hippocampus. Luckily, the seizures did go away — but so did his long-term memory! Sam Kean walks us through this astonishing medical case, detailing everything H.M. taught us about the brain and memory.
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14214 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
A scam-artist or a medical doctor?
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I've been advocating this for years. Just because you're a doctor and you're on TV, doesn't make you a know-it-all. Researchers from the University of Alberta have found that half the advice on Dr. Oz is wrong or has no evidence to back it up. In fact, on average, the shows give their viewers around 12 different recommendations per episode. But only half of them are supported by research. Just comes to show that people will believe anything they see on TV. When there is money to be made and an agenda to be pushed, lies will follow. ...
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17556 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Band Aid of the Future
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Being a person that dislikes the smell or sight of blood, it makes me happy to read that a product that could prevent the leakage of blood has been created. The inventors call it "vetigel", but the "Band Aid of the Future" seems to be a better name. This product is a plant based adhesive that can heal wounds and clot blood within seconds. It has a great potential to revolutionize the Emergency Medicine field. "The gel activates blood’s natural clotting process and is made with biocompatible components that can be absorbed directly into the body. By reassembling onto a wound site, VETIGEL mimics the body’s extracellular matrix and accelerates the production of fibrin, which enables the body to clot rapidly." Make sure to watch these videos to ...
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6516 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
A battery-free pacemaker means less trips to the hospital
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Right now, people with pacemakers need to go into surgery every time the battery dies. But this new pacemaker is based on the mechanics of a self-winding wristwatch, drawing all its power from the patient's beating heart.
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4474 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Can this sea snail cure herpes?
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Australian scientists are creating a new herpes-blocking drug using a protein found in the blood of abalones. If successful, it could prevent the virus from entering human cells, thereby prevent future outbreaks of cold sores.
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4332 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Helping the paralysed walk again
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Great news! ReWalk, a motorised exoskeleton suit that helps people who are paralysed from the waist down to stand up and walk again, has been approved for personal use.
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7646 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Kidney stones suck, and here's why
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This is a scanning electron micrograph of a kidney stone. These stones are pesky formations of calcium that form in the human body and are considered the most common disorder of the urinary tract.
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9127 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Stress alters children's DNA
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Stress affects children too. Children who grow up in stressful situations have shorter telomeres, an early sign of genetic ageing that makes them vulnerable to diseases such as cancer. Telomeres shrink when cells divide, but when they get too short, the cell can’t divide and dies.
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2082 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
C-section on a turtle?
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Surgeons performed a C-section on this turtle and saved her life! A turtle named Dabao was a bit lethargic and zookeepers at China’s Chengu City Zoo thought she was sick and sent her for x-rays. The results were surprising: 14 eggs were stuck in the birth canal. To make sure Dabao survived, the surgeons opened the shell with a skull opener, carefully removed the 14 eggs (which were immediately buried in sand to await hatching) and resealed the shell with epoxy resin.
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2918 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The end of baldness
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In a world’s first researchers have converted adult cells into stem cells that regenerated into different cell types of human skin and hair follicles. The follicles produced hair shaft and could be used for hair regeneration. Is this the end of baldness?
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3193 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
No fingerprints?
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People born without fingerprints suffer from adermatoglyphia. People with this genetic condition have a mutation in a region of DNA that prevents a protein from forming correctly.
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4960 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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6266 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Who knew chili peppers were good for you
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Exposure to cold and eating chili peppers both appear to increase the activity of brown fat cells, which burn energy, rather than store it as typical "white" fat cells do, a study has found.
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6894 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The strangest medical story ever
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This 22-year-old man had a car accident last year and as a result his nose became infected and deformed. Doctors weren’t able to repair it, but decided to take cartilage from one of the young man’s ribs to grown a new nose. The nose, which is temporarily attached to his forehead, has been developing for 9 months and is ready to be transplanted.
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5044 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Who needs painkillers?
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People who suffer from congenital analgesia can’t feel pain, and often end up hurting themselves as they don’t know when something is too hot, or making them bleed. Researchers have discovered that mutations in the gene SCN11A are responsible for this disorder, which blocks the transmission of pain signals. ...
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2903 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The road to a cure for HIV
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A new vaccine has successfully killed the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that causes AIDS in monkeys. It's hoped that with further research, an HIV-form of the vaccine can soon be tested in humans.
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3098 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Infection, no more
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Patients with urinary tract infections can drink cranberry juice to make their urine more acidic. Bacteria that cause a urinary tract infection multiply rapidly in alkaline urine, but not in acidic urine. Some types of kidney stones form in alkaline urine, but not in acidic urine.
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3167 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Things that happen to spiders while on drugs
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During this experiment, spiders were exposed to a variety of drugs to help determine their effect on the brain. Spiders who had been given marijuana started out well enough, but were unable to maintain focus. Benzedrine (speed) produced spiders who spun enthusiastically, though no great thought or care was put into the web design. Caffeine, one of the most common stimulants taken by humans, produced an erratic web. Chloral hydrate, an ingredient in sleeping pills, made the spiders doze off after barely getting started on the web. Though this 1995 experiment sought to determine toxicity of drugs, it was a continuation of experimentation of spiders on drugs that had started in 1948 by P. N. Witt. ...
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3209 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Would you like to try a gluten-free diet or a helminth?
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Parasitologist espouses using parasitic worms for treatment of autoimmune diseases – Dr. Joel Weinstock, at Tufts Medical Center in a commentary piece published in the journal Nature, describes work that he and colleagues have been involved in that focuses on studying the possibility of introducing parasitic worms into the guts of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease. The thinking he says, is that modern hygienic lifestyles may be contributing to such diseases and that reintroducing parasitic worms and perhaps certain bacteria into the gut may restore a natural balance in the gut and relieve patients of such symptoms as chronic diarrhea, bleeding and infections. Source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-p ...
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3480 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How a stent works
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A stent is a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the body. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from your heart to other parts of your body. You may have a stent placed in an artery as part of a procedure called angioplasty. Angioplasty restores blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries. Stents help prevent the arteries from becoming narrowed or blocked again in the months or years after angioplasty.
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3087 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Do babies learn while they are still in the womb?
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The researchers gave pregnant women a recording of several spoken variations of the made-up word "tatata" to play daily during their last trimester. When tested using EEG sensors after birth, their infants' brains recognised the words and its variations, while the control group did not.
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3521 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Pellagra
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In the early 1900s, the disease pellagra was widespread in the United States, especially in southern states. Individuals with pellagra were weak, and they developed diarrhea, a skin rash, and mental confusion. Each year, thousands of Americans died from this dreaded illness. In 1914 the U.S. surgeon general assigned Joseph Goldberger, a physician who worked in a federal government laboratory, to study pellagra. Most medical experts thought pellagra was an infectious disease because it often occurred where people lived in close quarters, such as prisons, orphanages, and mental health institutions. Goldberger knew from his previous research that infectious diseases usually spread through a population by close physical contact. While investiga ...
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2808 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Baby blue eyes
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Waardenburg Syndrome is a rare autosomal genetic disorder that has possible bright blue eyes as one of its qualifying criteria, along with possible deafness (common). Actually, the cause of the blue eyes is a form of albinism that may include patches of non-pigmented skin or forehead hair, regardless of ethnicity. There are four types of Waardenburg Syndrome, with a mix of possible characteristics as the determinant. Medical challenges increase with type. The boy in the picture is displaying two major symptoms of type 1; bright blue eyes and dystopia canthorum, a condition where the inner corners of the eyes are set more widely apart, but with normally distanced eyes. ...
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3949 |
savio |
10 years ago |
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4960 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Abortion is a tough lemon to swallow
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Take a good look at this premature child. It's hard to deny that it isn't a fully formed human being, though in some parts of the world, abortions at the second and third trimester are perfectly legal Thoughts are welcome.
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3 |
6049 |
bio_man |
10 years ago |
Does excess mercury cause autism?
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This announcement is the result of over 30 years of extensive research. It was determined that prenatal exposure to low levels of mercury through fish in the mother’s diet or the environment does not contribute to disorders on the Autism spectrum.
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2166 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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4 |
1978 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Earliest form of dentistry
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The earliest evidence of ancient dentistry we have is an amazingly detailed dental work on a mummy from ancient Egypt that archaeologists have dated to 2000 BCE.
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9064 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Geneticists have eliminated schizophrenia-like symptoms in mice
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Schizophrenia has a variety of causes and a spectrum of severity of symptoms. Geneticists were able to cause schizophrenia-like symptoms by over-expressing Neuregulin-1 (NRG1). Scientists discovered that these mice not only had nearly the same symptoms as humans with schizophrenia, but they even develop the symptoms at the same stage in life. Geneticists have been able to modify the expression of NRG1 in adult mice, bringing it down to appropriate levels. This caused schizophrenia-like symptoms in these mice to disappear and behavior returned to normal. ...
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2651 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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5559 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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3190 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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2356 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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3837 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Potential treatment for Down's syndrome?
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Down syndrome is caused by a triple copy of chromosome 21, which leads to a number of cognitive and physical delays. Now researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have found a protein that restores the some of the cognitive and behavioral disorders found in the disease. Mice who were deficient in the SNX27 protein exhibited similar characteristics to mice with Down syndrome—namely, they had fewer glutamate receptors, which are important for learning and memory, the team reported in Nature Medicine on Sunday (March 24). The researchers also showed that in mice with Down syndrome, the protein is blocked by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21, and produced in excess in Down syndrome mice as a re ...
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5615 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
What causes the brown staining of some childrens teeth?
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The brownish staining of a child's tooth enamel is due to excessive ingestion of fluoride. Fluoride is a mineral compound that is useful in preventing dental caries. It is thought to work by strengthening the mineral composition of tooth enamel making it more resistant to acid attacks. It may also reduce the acid-producing ability of microorganisms in dental plaque. The water supply may naturally provide fluoride, or it may be added. Mild fluorosis causes white mottling of the teeth; severe cases show brown staining and usually occur in areas where the level of fluoride in the water is many times greater than the recommended level of 0.7 to 1.2 parts per million. ...
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3742 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
What are varicose veins?
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Varicose veins in a patient's lower leg. The veins, which carry blood back to the heart, are swollen, irregular and distorted. Varicose veins are most common in the legs, but may also be found in the oesophagus or testis. They occur when valves, which usually prevent the backflow of blood and support the pressure from the blood above, become leaky. The veins then stretch and bulge. Support stockings are usually used to treat the condition, although in some cases surgery is needed to remove the veins. Pregnancy, being overweight, and standing for long periods, all increase the risk of varicose veins. ...
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3274 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
What would happen if you didn't get stitches?
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I have a big scar on my leg from when I was a kid. I often wonder what would have happened if we let it heal on its own without using stitches. Here's what happens when you do get stitches: Here's what happens without stitches: And finally, this scenario often leads to contamination. In this case, you'd get this: ...
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2 |
6578 |
duddy |
11 years ago |