Category Health & Medical

What is the difference between acupuncture and acupressure?

Both involve healing by stimulation. When certain parts of the body are stimulated, endorphin hormones are produced. This lessens pain and boosts blood and oxygen circulation. Muscles relax, thereby commencing the healing process. The traditional Chinese medicine believed that life energy, qi or chi, flows through fourteen ‘meridians’ in our bodies. As blockages in these ‘meridians’ are cleared, the body’s innate healing capacity is triggered and energy flow gets rebalanced.

Acupressure originated in Tibet prior to acupuncture. Acupressure, referred to as needleless acupuncture, employs firm physical pressure to massage acupoints. In this method of treatment, fingers, elbows or toes are used to press key points on the surface of the skin. People go for acupressure to bring down stress levels and brace up the immune system. Acupressure is a combination of acupuncture and pressure. On the other hand, acupuncture brings about a change in the physical functions of the body as thin, long and sterile needles are inserted right through the skin. The needles are then manoeuvred either manually or by electrical stimulation. When done by an expert, acupuncture is not painful.

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Scientists create first ‘synthetic embryo’

In a research breakthrough, scientists have created world’s first synthetic embryo with a brain and a beating heart. The scientists used only stem cells to create synthetic mouse embryo models. Replete with a beating heart, and a brain, the embryo was created sans sperm, eggs and fertilisation.

The feat was achieved by researchers from the University of Cambridge. The team was led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz. The result was the creation of a beating heart and brain. The work is the result of decades-long research.

The new findings will aid in reaching a better understanding about how tissues are formed during the natural course of development, that is in the case of natural embryos.

The breakthrough is key because it opens new frontiers for learning how the stem cells form into organs in the embryo. In the future, this could help grow organs and tissues using synthetic embryo models. They are called synthetic embryos as they are made without fertilised eggs. This will be a game-changer for human organ transplantation as transplantable tissues can be created thus.

“Our mouse embryo model not only develops a brain but also a beating heart, all the components that go on to make up the body,” said Zemicka-Goetz, Professor in Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology in Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience in a release issued by the university.

“The stem cell embryo model is important because it gives us accessibility to the developing structure at a stage that is normally hidden from us due to the implantation of the tiny embryo into the mother’s womb. This accessibility allows us to manipulate genes to understand their developmental roles in a model experimental system.” Zernicka-Goetz added in the release.

For the development of the synthetic embryo, cultured stem cells representing the types of tissues were put together in a suitable environment that aided in their growth. One of the major achievements of the study is the growth of the entire brain, especially the anterior part of the brain.

The present research was being carried out in mouse models and the researchers plan to develop human models. This will aid in studying those aspects of the organs that would not be possible in real embryos.

The researchers are also developing an analogous model of the human embryo to further their studies. This is crucial as all these findings can help understand why some human pregnancies fail.  The understanding at the embryo level is crucial as the majority of human pregnancies fail at the developmental stage.

WHAT ARE STEM CELLS?

Our body is home to hundreds of types of cells. A majority of them begin as stem cells. They carry within them instructions to develop into specialised cells such as muscle, blood or brain cell. In short, stem cells are human cells that grow into different cell types ranging from brain cells to nerve cells. They can be used to treat damaged tissues. Stem cell-based therapies are being carried out for serious medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’ and other genetic disorders.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS IN STEM CELL RESEARCH

1981:  Embryonic stem cells identified in mice for the first time by Martin Evans of Cardiff University, UK.

1997:  The first artificial animal clone, Dolly the sheep, created. It was a turning point in stem cell research.

1998:  Human embryonic stem cells were isolated and grown in the lab. 2007 The Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2007, was given to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies “for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.”

2012:  Human embryonic stem cells used in two patients. It helped improve their vision.

2022:  The Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize was awarded to Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte for his work on cellular rejuvenation programming aimed at improving age-associated diseases.

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Strangest Cases for Doctors

On July 1, we celebrate International Doctors Day. We are ever thankful for their service, and this month, we will look at some of the most bizarre medical cases that doctors encountered and diagnosed or treated successfully. Apples, move aside… these people really need doctors!

Never a worm this long!

Tapeworm infections aren’t rare. However, a Chinese man had a tapeworm growing in his intestines for two years after he consumed uncooked meat. When he complained of stomach pain, doctors identified the culprit based on a fragment of the worm in his stools. It turned out that the worm had comfortably grown to a length of six metres (about the size of four humans)! It took an antibiotic to flush the monstrous worm out of his body.

Sudoku + Avalanche = Seizures

Love solving Sudoku puzzles? Good. Just don’t overdo it like this guy from Germany. He was once trapped in an avalanche, and after 15 minutes without oxygen, he experienced muscle twitches. Weeks later, when he tried to solve Sudoku puzzles, he developed seizures. The doctors he consulted also observed that his seizures stopped immediately after he stopped trying to solve the puzzles. Brain scans and tests revealed that the culprit was an overstimulated brain triggered by external stimuli (in this case Sudoku). Having stopped solving them, the patient was free of seizures!

Beware of dares

People do silly things when their friends dare them to, as it happened with a guy who swigged nearly a litre of soy sauce! A dash of soy sauce makes chow mein and fried rice taste yummy, but drinking a whole lot of it is a different matter altogether. A litre of soy sauce can contain 150 grams of sodium (or 25 teaspoons of salt). A team of doctors used around six litres of sugar water and spent five hours bringing his sodium levels back to normal.

Generous to a pathological fault

A woman detected a strange change in her husband’s personality. He started giving away money and bought candies to give to children on the street. Since he had never been that way before, and was about to give all his money away and become bankrupt, his wife wisely rushed him to the doctors. After analyzing his medical records, the doctors discovered something astounding – a stroke he had suffered recently had disturbed his brain activity and caused a condition of persistent and excessive generosity!

When food deceives you….

Sure, food has a way with us. Who doesn’t feel dizzy with joy seeing a plate of hot biryani or the cheesy goodness of a pizza? For a woman it took a twisted turn indeed. She suffered from delusions occasionally. Doctors discovered that she also experienced weight loss and other health issues that appeared to indicate Celiac disease that affects the intestines. It turned out that gluten food was the culprit! When she stopped eating gluten food, her delusions vanished.

The Red Sea emergency

Who would have thought that a swim in the Red Sea could turn out to be problematic? A tourist collided with a school of fish while swimming and thought nothing of it, until he developed a droopy eyelid soon afterwards. Doctors who operated on him removed tube-like structures from his eye and were mystified. On checking with a biologist, it turned out that they were the jawbones of a halfbeak fish (from the aforementioned school of fish that the man collided with in the sea).

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I FEEL WEAK WHEN I TRY TO GO ON A STRICT DIET

I am trying to lose weight. However, I feel weak when I try to go on a strict diet. I am not losing a lot of weight, but in turn feeling very lethargic and fatigued.

Whenever you try to lose weight the right way, it is essential that you consult a dietician. Only starving yourself will make you weak. Your body needs the right vitamins, minerals and proteins which self-dieting won’t give you. The fact that you are feeling lethargic and fatigued means that you are not dieting the right way. To stay healthy, it is also essential to have good sleep and regular exercise.

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I AM OVERWEIGHT AND I DON’T FEEL HAPPY ABOUT IT

I am overweight and I don’t feel happy about it. It has made me feel very conscious. I feel that people around me do not treat me well because of this.

If you are overweight, it would be right to lose the excess weight for your own physical well-being. How we look often influences the way we feel. Not being in the right shape can make you feel conscious sometimes. It is often good to practise self-love, which means that irrespective of your physical appearance you love and appreciate yourself for who you are. Each one of us is made differently, however, finding love in your own uniqueness is essential.

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WHAT IS A BILDUNGSROMAN?

A bildungsroman is a testament to how literature deals with the souls of individuals. It highlights how our lives are a multi-dimensional confluence of revenge, tragedy, comedy, and satire, seasoned with age and made amicable by experience.

A bildungsroman is a jargonic term used for a coming-of-age story. It is a literary genre that focusses on the protagonist’s spiritual journey from a point in his or her childhood to adulthood. Coined in 1819 by Karl Morgenstern a philologist, this term is a combination of two German words ‘Bildung’ meaning education, and Roman’ which means “novel.” The first book to ascribe to this genre was Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Published in 1796, this German classic records the titular character Wilhelm Meisters journey to self-discovery through the medium of theatre and art.

The Shift

Literary works of this genre are character-centric and lay special emphasis on the shifts in prespective that accompany life-altering experiences and help mould a more realistic worldview of the character.

A bildungsroman is a testament to how literature deals with the souls of individuals. It highlights how our lives are a multi-dimensional confluence of revenge, tragedy, comedy, and satire, seasoned with age and made amicable by experience. Some popular literary works of this genre include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, and The Lord of the Ring” series by J. R. R. Tolkien.

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