Category Health & Medical

Which Chinese emperor drank mercury?

Today mercury is handled with much care and never seen much except inside thermometers and labs. But in the early times, the Greeks, the Persians and the Chinese valued it much. Mercury was actually thought to offer immortality. The biggest victim of this misconception was Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang who took some special mercury pills for immortality which instead had the opposite effect on him!

By the time he died at the age of 49, presumably through mercury poisoning, Qin Shi Huang had all but completed his colossal underground tomb. If he were unable to rule forever in waking life, then he would be emperor until the end of time in the afterlife.

The scale of the Chinese emperor’s mausoleum, the size of a great ancient city, remains breathtaking, its core a pyramid that once rose to 100m (328ft). Less than half this height today and long greened by vegetation the pyramid remains clearly visible. In terms of Chinese tradition, it forms the eye of a propitious landscape that can be read as a dragon.

 

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What is the benefit of Vin Marianni?

In the 19th century, a French chemist came up with a tonic called Vin Marianni made of Bordeaux wine stepped with coca leaves. It was supposed to restore a person’s health, strength, vitality, energy and what not. With a good dose of cocaine in it, it comes as no surprise that the tonic was a huge hit and many people carried a flask around the same way we carry Gatorade around! So popular was it that it was even awarded a gold medal!

The ethanol in the wine operated as a solvent, extracting cocaine from the coca leaf. When cocaine and alcohol are imbibed together, a third chemical compound, called cocaethylene, forms as the intoxicants are metabolized in the liver. This intense psychoactive is more euphoric, powerful, and toxic than cocaine or alcohol alone.

But all parties must come to an end. In 1906, the United States began enforcing labeling regulations through the Pure Food and Drug Act. Alcohol prohibition movements gained traction and the dangers of cocaine became public knowledge, all of which reduced the market for coca wine. A coca-less version of Vin Mariani was produced for sale in the United States, but it didn’t offer the same stimulant effect of a competing beverage that was also originally based on coca: Coca-Cola.

 

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Magnets fight back the moon

Magnets these days are used in advanced diagnostic devices, but in the past they served certain weird purposes. Back then, the moon was thought to be responsible for intermittent episodes of depression and hysteria. An Austrian physician knew the best way to beat the moon’s forces — magnets! Drape magnets all over the patient’s body and watch a medical miracle as body fluids get redistributed and mental equilibrium restored!

Some people use magnet therapy for treating pain, such as foot, back, or joint pain.

Research studies have been done on magnets, but there are not consistent results showing that magnets help with pain relief.

Young children and pregnant women should not use magnetic field therapy, because the safety of this therapy is not proved. People who have medical devices or implants with a magnetic field, such as a pacemaker, should not use magnet therapy, because it could interfere with the function of the implant.

Magnet therapy is not thought to have negative side effects or complications when it is combined with conventional medical treatment.

Talk with your doctor about any complementary health practice that you would like to try or are already using. Your doctor can help you manage your health better if he or she knows about all of your health practices.

 

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Covid-19 test in 30 seconds?

India and Israel are working together to develop a rapid testing kit for COVID-19 which can give the result within 30 seconds. Trials are conducted in Delhi on a large sampling of patients for four different technologies with the potential to rapidly detect COVID-19. The new testing process is said to make use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

Who are involved in the project?

Indian and Israeli defence scientists and experts are jointly working on the project to develop the rapid testing kit. The Israeli defence ministry research and development team is working with India’s chief scientist K. Vijay Raghavan and the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to determine the effectiveness of the rapid diagnostic technologies.

What are the diagnostic technologies being developed?

They are a breath analyzer, a thermal test, a polyamino acid test and a voice test. The breath analyser requires a person to blow into a sterile tube, after which a high frequency scan is used to analyse the presence of the virus in less than a minute. The thermal test requires a saliva swab and has the potential to be used at home. The polyamino acid test enables detection of coronavirus proteins in a saliva sample in 45 seconds. The voice or audio recording test which can be downloaded and used as a mobile phone app analyses the changes in a person’s voice to detect COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

Where are the trials held in India?

The trials which began on July 28 re conducted under the guidance of the Israeli delegation at six locations in Delhi – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the DRDO office in Rohini, Akash Hospital and Lady Hardinge Hospital. The data collected in Delhi, along with the samples collected in Israel, will assist in developing and validating the technologies used.

What is the way forward?

The new technologies on rapid tests, if found to be successful, will be manufactured in India and marketed by India and Israel to the world. It is said that they will be made available to the masses at low rates and help achieve higher accuracy rates than the current PCR test. It’s hoped that the joint efforts could bring “good news” to the world within a few months. Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu have had telephonic conversations in which they promised mutual assistance in dealing with the virus and committed to joint technological and scientific research between the two countries.

What is the existing method of testing?

Currently, the COVID-19 testing is done through a laboratory technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which a machine reproduces viral genetic material (DNA or RNA) by copying it over and over again so any trace of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be detected. It requires highly trained staff and takes at least a few hours to get the final results.

 

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How surgeons smooth away the wrinkles?

As the skin ages, some of the subcutaneous or underlying fat which supports and pads it dissolves away. And one of the skin-s main constituents, called collagen, loses its ability to retain moisture, making the skin less elastic and drier. The result is sagging skin and wrinkles.

Most people accept wrinkles as part of growing older. For others, particularly those in the public eye like entertainers and politicians, ageing skin can be a problem. The only answer is cosmetic surgery.

There is more to cosmetic surgery than a face-lift — which, as its names suggests, means pulling the skin up over the face. Its cosmetic effects are, for the most part, restricted mostly to the chin and neck. Wrinkles around the eyes the side of the, nose, and across the forehead have to be dealt with in separate operations, such as an eyebrow or forehead lift, or a nasal fold removal. In blepharoplasty, excess loose skin is removed from the upper and lower eyelids.

Minor nips and tucks arc clone under local anaesthetic, bat a face-lift is a major

operation, and is usually done under general anaesthetic. The surgeon first makes an incision into the skin around each ear. He starts the cut well within the hairline above the ear, and continues it around the bottom of the ear and then up behind it. The cut is then taken horizontally towards the back of the head. Most of the cut is within the area covered by hair, so that the scars will be hidden.

Once the cuts are made, the surgeon carefully separates the skin below the line of the cut from the underlying fatty layer. He then pulls the loose skin towards the back of the head. The thin layer of muscle tissue in the neck is lifted and tightened. The excess skin is cut off and the incision sewn up.

 It often takes two to three weeks to recover from the slight inflammation of the face caused by the operation. The scars, which can be camouflaged by make-up a week after the operation, fade in time.

No face-lift retards ageing permanently. The ageing process continues from the time of the operation at the normal rate. More face-lifts can be performed on the same person but there is always a limit, because each time the surgeon removes more skin. When the skin is stretched to its tightest limit without hindering normal functions, such as smiling, there is no excess available and further operations become impossible. Not all operations are a success and some people have been left with badly scarred faces.

 

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What happens in a heart transplant?

When a heart becomes available, a suitable recipient is quickly located and told to get to the hospital immediately. At the same time, a combination of police, ambulance and helicopters race the donated organ to the hospital. A heart may travel hundreds of kilometres from donor to recipient, sometimes across international boundaries. But to save time, the European computerized system, Euro transplant, tries to locate recipients who live as close to the donor as possible.

To prepare a patient for a heart transplant, the surgeon cuts into the chest and ties off the blood vessels leading to and from the recipient’s heart. The recipient’s blood supply is then redirected through the heart-lung machine, which replaces the function of the patient’s own heart and lungs. The faulty heart is taken out, and the new organ is placed in the space. The new heart is then connected to the major veins and arteries before the recipient’s blood is diverted through the new organ. The surgeon then sews up the chest and the operation is complete.

 

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