As a secondary school educator, I often see students sharing their drinks with one another. This bugs me more than anything because it causes germs to be easily spread from one person to another. The problem is, students have this misconception that if they are not sick, then the person they are sharing their drink with won't get sick either. Sounds rational, but is it true? Definitely not. Each person's immune system is unique, and so is our microbiome (as described in the video below). What may be harmless to one person may not be so much to another. I believe this video does an excellent job demonstrating that not only are humans unique in a sense that we each have our own personalities, have different occupations, and come from differe ...

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 ...

Genes that help control inflammation leads to longer lifespans for humans and other species, and more of these genes a species has, the longer it can live.

Genes encoding some inflammation-dampening molecules are more numerous in longer-lived species, such as humans, than in short-lived animals such as mice. The genes produce proteins known as CD33-related Siglecs. Siglecs are proteins that recognize different versions of sialic acid – sugars that are found at all cell surfaces of vertebrates and some invertebrates.

By distinguishing between different versions of sialic acid, the proteins help the immune system decide which cells are normal residents of the body and which are intruders. In addition, the proteins soothe inflammation in the aft ...

If emotions can make you sick, if a belief that you will die can kill you (as in voodoo deaths), and if a sugar pill that you believe is a powerful drug can take away your pain, can a belief that you can bring about your own recovery help you to recover?

Even with acceptance of the role of emotional factors in both illness and recovery, the assumption has persisted that emotional factors work on an unconscious level, and because of this they are not subject to voluntary control. Most of us still see illness as something that happens to us.

Dr. Carl Simonton, chief of radiation at Travis Air Force Base, questioned this assumption. He was impressed by demonstrations that people could learn to control autonomic processes through biofeedback and ...